crossthreaded

We have a 50 pound rat also referred to by some as a dog. He was only supposed to be twenty-five to thirty pounds, tops. He’s got a beard like a terrier and the markings of a Dobermann. Go figure. He’s about the bounciest thing I’ve ever seen.

One thing (among many) I don’t get about him is his eating habits. He will leave his food in the morning, and he will not eat it all day long. I guess it’s because we’re not in the house during the day. I came home tonight, and the food was just where we’d left it: in his bowl. His food is now upstairs. I am home. He will not eat. He lays here. I give him two pieces of dried spaghetti, and he near ’bouts swallowed them whole. I don’t get it.

I still can’t swallow the idea that a dog really likes me enough to not eat and be somewhat, vaguely traumatized because I’m not home.

Asher, that’s the lovable rat’s name, will also not eat his food usually unless someone pours water on it. I can’t figure him out. He’s spoiled rotten. He very rarely gets table scraps, so he’s not too bad of a moocher. I don’t know. I wonder how many other dogs do stuff like this.

So, one of my many past times is going around and picking up stuff that people have in their houses that they don’t want anymore. If it’s on the list of the things that refugee resettlement agencies have to provide for new arrivals in their apartments, I load up my car and go to Lutheran Family Refugee Services with it.

Freecycle has been fantastic for doing this. This Yahoo! group is in most communities around the country. I only recently discovered it when I moved to a new state and I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to get rid of. The gist of Freecycle is that someone states what they have to offer or what they need, and the community responds by either picking up an unwanted item, or by giving a needed item. I’ve seen everything from cat food to a bag of rice being Freecycled.

My next goal is to try to figure out how to get two local Lutheran churches involved. I’ve gotten agreements to participate in my little venture from both churches. I’m hoping for central drop off points and a larger audience than Freecycle. That would save some time and gas money on my part. I haven’t heard back from these churches in nearly a month, though. Time to follow up, I guess.

So, if you have things like towels, blankets, shower curtains, cups, plates, can openers, etc., and you want to get them out of your house, get a tax donation credit for them, and do the world some good, try to find your nearest refugee resettlement agency and contact them. Some are the International Rescue Committee, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Family Refugee Services, and there are 7 more that resettle in cities all across the United States.

Freecycle: http://www.freecycle.org/

Some other refugee assistance agencies: http://www.refugees.org/article.aspx?id=1113

Links to some resettlement agencies-NOT complete: http://www.refugeeworks.org/about/links_refugee_agencies_local.html#t

http://www.dhs.state.ia.us/refugee/bureau/usrefugee.asp

Best list of resettlement agecies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOLAG

Some other countries besides the United States that accept refugees are Australia, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

I wonder what it’s like, say, coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and stepping off of a plane in Norway-in January. Can you imagine? I don’t even want to. The cold, the dark, the snow. . .New language, new culture, completely different landscape. . .It all has to be completely overwhelming.

I lived in Scotland for a year, and the issue of refugees was very touchy there. Pretty much everyone seemed to at least know what a refugee is in general. That didn’t necessarily mean that pretty much everyone accepted them and helped them learn about their new world. I remember having a rather heated discussion with a lady that came to clean our flat once about the topic of refugees. She was pretty much disgusted by them. The general view is that they mooch off the government. The truth is, depending on their immigration status (As I understand it, there is a very long and complicated process to becoming an official refugee in the U.K.), they are not allowed to work.

I was a mentor for a young refugee in Scotland, and we spent some time together weekly going to museums, practicing English, etc. She said she received about thirty pounds every so often (I can’t remember if it was weekly or monthly.) for pocket money, and her flat was paid for. Thirty pounds was about $60 at the time. She was trying to get accepted to school, but that was a whole other issue, what with not having proof of schooling she’d already completed.

Of the 1% or less of refugees that are eligible for resettlement in a third country, even fewer are eligible to be resettled in the United States. After fleeing their home and being defined by the UNHCR as a refugee, being part of a group that is of “special humanitarian concern,” or being one of a few types of family members that can apply for family reunification in the United States, refugees have only begun the long and difficult process that is resettlement in America. (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/88040.pdf)

Interviews with immigration officials, security screenings, health screenings, and a host of other obstacles await refugees during the very beginning of the resettlement process. The interviews with immigration officials are particularly daunting to many refugees, as their futures often seem to rest in the hands of the person to whom they are relating their story.

The president presents a report to Congress each year that represents conversations between Senate and House Judiciary committees and cabinet-level presidential representatives. This report sets a ceiling on the number of refugees that can be admitted to the United States each year, as well as geographic priorities for refugee admissions. (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/88047.pdf). This whole process takes into consideration current emergencies worldwide and there is some wiggle room for numbers.

The U.S. is not the only country that accepts refugees, and I want to explore that some in the next posts. Another resource: http://www.state.gov/m/a/dir/regs/fam/c22773.htm

Ever wonder what a refugee actually is and what happens to them after they leave home?

The UN has stated an accepted definition of a refugee:

“Refugee: Someone who has fled his or her country because he/she fears persecution based on race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion. The definition is sometimes expanded to include people fleeing war or other armed conflict.” (http://refugees.org/article.aspx?id=1089)

When refugees flee their homes, the first choice is to send them back to where they came from: voluntary repatriation. A refugee doesn’t always flee the country. Those that don’t are internally displaced. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) have had to go to a separate area of their country for safety.

If it’s not safe to return home, sometimes refugees go to another country for help (i.e., the refugee camps in eastern Chad has become the home of many from Darfur in Sudan). Sometimes refugees can be integrated into these countries of first asylum. It often happens, however, that they are unable to work, go to school, and are not accepted by the local community. They can be “warehoused” in camps, not able to go more than a few miles from them for years on end.

The last option for refugees is resettlement in a third country. Yesterday, I mentioned how few refugees are actually resettled in another country.

The hat was finished a few days ago, and it was put to the test tonight. A friend and I went walking in the 15 degree-or-so weather tonight, and she needed a hat to cover her ears. The hat held together and served its warming purpose. My first hat was a hit.

So, the numbers. Here is what George Rupp, leader of the IRC had to say about the numbers of refugees in the world:

There are over 40 million uprooted people in the world.  Yet under presidentially-set ceilings only 80,000 of them will gain admission to the United States this year, which means that only two out of every thousand refugees has any prospect of resettling in the United States. (http://blog.theirc.org/)

When I try to stop and think about that many people, it blows my mind. Forty million people. That’s almost two populations of the state of Texas-23,507,783 people was the 2006 estimate-(http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/48000.html)  forced to leave their homes.

Of those forty million people, two might resettle here. Might. That is 0.00000005% of a chance they might move here.

Those two people probably don’t want to leave home. They don’t want to go away from everything they’ve ever known, their families. Have you ever seen an old married couple over the age of 60 try to resettle in a country where they have no family, no English language skills, and only one of them is literate? I have. Now those are courageous heroes.

Until the end of the year, donations to the IRC are doubled by a matching gift. Ninety cents of every dollar goes directly to help refugees. My favorite sub-office is in Abilene, Texas. (http://www.theirc.org/where/united_states_dallas_tx/office-united_states_dallas_tx.html) Abilene’s at the bottom of the page. I am not sure that that gift gets doubled since it’s local, but the ones made here will: http://www.theirc.org/donate/overview.html

What I’m passionate about is refugees. Refugees that are resettld in the U.S., in particular. After working for a year as a resettlment case manager, I have become hooked. I could talk about it for hours.

The job was too much for me to handle. I quit after a little over a year. I wasn’t doing much but being a nervous wreck at home and at work because I was so worried every minute I’d make another mistake. Still, I was able to take a small glimpse into a world that has captured me. It all sounds like a 20-something idealist talking, and it is. But the truth is is that resettling refugees is hard.

 I moved to a new state and a new job, but my heart is still with the people I worked with. I tell you, if you haven’t met a refugee yet, you’re missing out on an amazing experience.

I can still be involved in the lives of refugees. If I were closer to a big city, it would be even easier. I talked with a local resettlement agency, and they’ve let me go around picking up household donations I’ve collected through the Yahoo! group Freecycle in my area and then take them down to the city when my Cavalier is packed to the roof with sheets, towels, pots, pans, lamps, and other household stuff people don’t want.

That stuff is used to furnish refugees’ apartments upon arrival. Resettlement agencies get $425 per person to pay for rent and deposit, utilities, personal and household supplies, furniture, medicine, and more for the first 30 days after arrival. Any stuff that doesn’t have to be bought frees money up to be given to the family-that is, if there is any left after the first 30 days.

So that is my way to be involved.

This is my favorite organization in the world: www.theirc.org

Here is a link to some of their videos: http://www.theirc.org/resources/video.html

They have podcasts and blogs, and so much more there, too.

I’m going to a party involving wine, cheese, and chocolate. I am excited about this. At the same time, I’m wondering why I’m excited about it. It feels so, so. . .suburban. If I had three kids and a house, it would definitely be suburban.

 I guess to get out of the house at all and bond with other humans is a worthy pursuit of time and energy. I am blessed to have people around me that actually want to have me bond with them. I think I’ve been more socially active in the last few months of living here in Colorado than I have in the last couple of years since I returned from grad school.

I don’t like wine, though. I do like cheese. I am going for the food. Socializing is usually not my forte in large, group situations such as this. I think I’m just going to eat crackers and cheese.

When I think about this and I think about the 19 year-old in church who asked us to pray for the family and friends of a 27 year-old homeless friend of his who was found frozen to death this week, I do wonder about wine, cheese, and chocolate parties.

Life goes on. It has to. But how do you balance life in one world and life in another? Do you just live in one and ignore the other? Some of us are blessed enough to live in a world where we can actually make a choice to balance one with the other, and we’re not stuck in one with no hope of ever experiencing a life of choice and plenty. Some of us suburbanites totally live in the other, by choice.

John Cleese is apparently an expert on how to annoy people. He had an entire hour and a few minutes film about it. The first step in being irritating is to be a British comedian and actor. There are some parts of British humor that are understandable and there are other parts that are just downright aggravating and unintelligible. I suppose different cultures are just that: different.

My favorite part of “How to Irritate People” is the skit where airline pilots mess with the minds of the passengers and have them go a bit spastic by telling them not to take their seat belts off, but that they were to observe emergency procedures that were explained using nonsense words and voice-induced static. Now, that was funny.

Apparently the keys to annoying people are to make them think that you are simply being polite by asking them fifteen times how they are and what they are feeling. The idea is to push them as far as they can go without making them blow up in anger. The minute they blow up, the gig is up. The goal is to make them keep the irritation inside so as to eventually produce some kind of reaction like, say, a nervous breakdown.

You know when you get about three lines of a song stuck in your head, and they won’t go away? It’s about the most annoying and entertaining thing to happen all day. You can amuse yourself over and over again, but, at the same time, you wish you could sing a different song, but none seem to come to mind besides the one on repeat in your head.

For the last few days, I’ve had “Me and Julio down by the schoolyard” and Paul Simon blaring away in my head. I’ve heard the lines a couple of times on the radio lately. It got to the point this evening after singing that line outloud for the upteenth time that I finally went and read the lyrics online and read some of the speculation surrounding the meaning of the words. They range from drug use to who only knows what else.

A quick rundown, though mostly unverified, I would imagine is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_and_Julio_Down_by_the_Schoolyard

An even worse video is here (It’s the song you hear on the radio. Pay no attention to the man with the midlife crisis.)

Maybe now there can be some closure, and I can move on to something new. I did learn more about Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel than I ever knew, like this was Simon’s second single after S&G’s split.  So, I guess, it can’t be a complete waste of time to have songs stuck in your head. When you’re curious what you’re actually singing, make the best of it, and learn something.

What’s the worst song you’ve had stuck looping in your brain lately?