Presentation on Refugees in the DFW Metroplex

I gave a lecture on refugees and resettlement last week at UT Arlington that was sponsored by the Students for International Social Work student organization.  I've uploaded the slides, which are full of active hyperlinks to various national and local resources for refugee services, onto SlideShare.  If you're interested, you can access the slides here.

Pitching in

This is a precious Karen family we've known since they arrived here six years ago. Pi Pi (grandmother) has had a good bit of trouble learning English due to some cognitive declines, and we're in the process to attempting to apply for an exemption from the civics test and language assessment on the US citizenship exam. Pi Pi's daughter (right) and granddaughter (left) are wonderfully strong Karen women who are an excellent example of successful resettlement. 

Here's Pah Day Day grinning for the camera (and tolerating me and my never ending questions). 

We put the kids to work this week putting caps on empty medicine bottles. As you can see, they all got in on the action and had surprisingly good attitudes about the process. We start 'em young!

Crazy Sunday!

 

This Sunday at clinic was full of craziness.  It started before clinic even opened and then just got crazier as the day went on.  We got a text message while we were at church from one of our refugee friends inviting us to come to a birthday party for a 3 year old Karen refugee boy after church.  So we drove to Garland, only to find out that the party wasn't supposed to start until 4 pm.  This happens A LOT in our interactions with the Karen community, mostly because we have different cultural understandings of time and its relative importance.  :)

So, we headed to clinic, where we were met with a family whose 6 year old boy had spilled a bowl of boiling water on his chest the day before, resulting in the worst burn I've ever seen in person.  His skin had turned black.  Aaron took one look at him and sent him straight to the Children's Hospital Emergency Department.  He was treated and released and is doing great now, as he's now in the "system" and will receive follow-up care from Children's (and we'll deal with the financial blow-back at a future date).

Most of the other patients on Sunday had pretty minor complaints--colds and rashes--until a 20 year old female came in complaining of severe stomach pain.  She was in so much pain that we immediately took her to Parkland Emergency Department, which is a pretty scary place in and of itself.  

Many thanks to Jaycl, who brought a giant box of coats and jackets to clinic.  They were much appreciated and were all claimed in a matter of moments!  :)

To end on a happy note, the picture above is spoiled rotten Ruby modeling new dress from her PiPi (Grandmother) Ka Pau Say at clinic on Sunday.  She's a lucky girl, and we are a blessed family.