losing touch
December 17th, 2011 by Jenna MorganThis semester with my refugee family has been great. Our first visit was wonderful. They were so welcoming to random people who just came to their apartment. Most Americans would have a completely different reaction. It was a very nice surprised because me and my partner were both very nervous
We lucked out with our family of a mom, dad and four year old daughter. The father, Prasad, was an english teacher in the refugees camps so he spoke fluent english. His wife, Tulasi, didn’t speak english as well as he but she can still communicate. Through out the semester we worked with her to improve her english. She’s is much better now but is still very nervous to speak english in front of us. Their daughter, Apshana, is the cutest little thing. She was my favorite part of our visits. She always showed me and Erica all her toys and she did our hair. We brought child books for her, so she can start learning english. All she could say was “My name is Apshana”. She always made me laugh. One time during dinner, she walked in wearing my boots that covered up her whole legs. It was very funny. We tried teaching her english but she had a short attention span and it isn’t working out so well. We just play instead. She isn’t in school right now because she is afraid to go.
Sadly on her first day a little black boy made fun of her and beat her up. She never wanted to go back. The whole family is very afraid of their neighborhood. They live by Howard and Sheridan. Tulasi doesn’t even want to go outside without Prashad because she is afraid. Also their rent is very expensive and they want to move to a new apartment. I don’t think they understand how a lease works, but somehow they were able to move out of their apartment to a cheaper one. We haven’t had a chance to go visit them yet, but hopefully soon. I feel like they don’t really need our help and are becoming more and more assimilated every day. I would love to keep in touch with them for as long as possible.
Although we are losing touch, we still try to teach them things about America. Recently we brought them a pizza because they have never tried it. I think they enjoyed the pizza, but they also made dinner after we ate it. I don’t think they got the concept of us bringing them dinner because they made us dinner so much. I am going to miss spending time with them.