Yesterday we went to the refugees again. When we got there, only Soher was home. The rest of her family was at a soccer game in which Samira and Mohammad were playing, I think. Soher doesn't speak much English, so communication was pretty much nil the whole time. Soher was watching a Spanish soap opera. Since there wasn't much to say, we just watched too. Can't make any sense out of the story from just watching. At one point I said to Soher, "No understand!" At which she laughed and agreed, "No understand. Just watch." I kind of wanted to turn to So You Think You Can Dance (!!!), but we aren't quite sure yet how the refugees would respond to some of the dances on there. They are often very intimate dances. I think Soher would kind of enjoy it. The family isn't super conservative.

At one point Soher did try and talk to us, and she explained through her broken English and hand gestures that she and her siblings that are older than 18 have no medical or dental insurance here. She talked about how one of her teeth is broken and how it would cost $1300 to fix it. :S "Big--big money!" she said. "Thirteen one hundreds. In Syria, $100, $200...Here, no. Big money." That really bothered me. Having had thousands of dollars of dental work done on my own teeth, I understand how important it is to have insurance. I told her in the best way I could that I would see if there was some way we could get her dental insurance.

At 9:00 the rest of her family came home along with a few of their friends ("cousins"--I still don't think they're real cousins; I just feel like every time they encounter their own people in our country, those people are automatically "cousins" :) ). Stephen and I usually leave at 9:00, but I really didn't want to go now that everybody was home. Plus I had to tell Mohammad that I had found a job for him on CareerBuilder.com. He had been talking about becoming an interpreter for the army, and lo and behold, a job for an Arabic interpreter for the army popped up in my search. So I told him about it--and he reacted how I should have expected. He's young and doesn't really know what he wants to do with his life. He said he didn't know if he'd be in the army or not. :/ That kinda made me sad. But at least I've brought it to his attention and he knows it's there. Maybe he'll really consider it.

We hung around for another hour. Their friends that they had brought home were fun to talk to. They'd been in America for about 4 years and spoke and understood English just fine. Soher explained in Arabic to one of them what I had said about trying to find her some dental insurance. He turned to me and translated in English. "She says you're going to find her dental insurance?"

Oh great.

I explained very slowly and thoughtfully that I would sure try. I didn't know if I'd be able to find it or not, but I would sure see what I could do.

Soher told her mother too and her mother ran over to me and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. "Tank you! Tank you!" Oh boy.

Never promise refugees anything you can't follow up on. LOL. I sure hope I can do something. :(

The best part of the night was at the end, when Samira stopped us in the door with a troubled look. "Next week? Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - no more school." She looked really bothered, which I thought was sweet. Then she suddenly resolved it in her own mind. "You come visit," she said with a big smile. Yay! They want us to keep coming! We just grinned back at her and said, "We'll come visit." Stephen added that he'll bring games; I mentioned that I would bring make-up for Soher and Sara. (Samira is NOT a girly girl by any stretch of the imagination, LOL.)

I am kind of glad that Soher was the only one there tonight for that whole first hour. It forced her to try and communicate with us, and she met with a lot of frustration at not being able to communicate properly. I think it will push her to learn English, which will do her a world of good.

I can tell she's comfortable with us now. The rest of the family has been comfortable with us for ever, except Salah maybe, and I'm glad Soher is joining them.

Salah is kind of a loner, I figured out today. Odd, since he's the youngest. But so many of his siblings are past school now, I can imagine he'd start to feel kind of out of place. He pursues his own interests though. He is raising chickens and parakeets currently, and he also planted flowers in the yard. He'd be a good farmer, I do hope he becomes comfortable with us too eventually.

-Stephanie

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