Today was my first day at the ARC, Athens Refugee Centre. Because we're working with Muslims, we have to make sure that we're covered up, which I have to say in this heat is rather disagreeable. Yes, it's hot here. Gutted to be in England. But c'est la vie.
My Farsi is very rusty/ was never that good, so I’ll have my work cut out for me here. But after being in Rwanda having to try and speak Kinyarwanda much of the time, I feel confident that after a while I’ll pick it up again.
I spent a lot of the day in the kitchen with Emiliano the Albanian chef, who speaks 6languages fluently and is currently working on a seventh. Show off.
We had about 300 refugees at the ARC today, and our main ministry of the day was serving tea. I would say that we averaged 2000 cups of tea in the course of the day. That's quite a lot.
I must admit that I found the day culturally challenging. Working with homeless people in the UK, mostly men, I’m used to giving people a lot of attention. You keep eye contact, you listen to their stories, you exaggerate facial expressions to overcome any language barrier. This is how you show you care, and more importantly that God cares. Making people feel valuable and loved. But here, because of the culture, as a woman I’m not supposed to interact with the men at all. If one of the refugee men comes and speaks to me, I have to walk away without responding. No eye contact and no dialogue!
I’m sure I’ll get used to it but it feels really strange to me. Fortunately there are lots of guys on the team to minister to the refugee men, and there are plenty of refugee women and children for me and the other female team members to minister to.
The Afghan kids are really cute. There are so many different people groups represented in their faces because the country is so diverse. And apparently they're hard-working too. This little boy took it upon himself to sweep up after the craft activity.
My Farsi is very rusty/ was never that good, so I’ll have my work cut out for me here. But after being in Rwanda having to try and speak Kinyarwanda much of the time, I feel confident that after a while I’ll pick it up again.
I spent a lot of the day in the kitchen with Emiliano the Albanian chef, who speaks 6languages fluently and is currently working on a seventh. Show off.
We had about 300 refugees at the ARC today, and our main ministry of the day was serving tea. I would say that we averaged 2000 cups of tea in the course of the day. That's quite a lot.
I must admit that I found the day culturally challenging. Working with homeless people in the UK, mostly men, I’m used to giving people a lot of attention. You keep eye contact, you listen to their stories, you exaggerate facial expressions to overcome any language barrier. This is how you show you care, and more importantly that God cares. Making people feel valuable and loved. But here, because of the culture, as a woman I’m not supposed to interact with the men at all. If one of the refugee men comes and speaks to me, I have to walk away without responding. No eye contact and no dialogue!
I’m sure I’ll get used to it but it feels really strange to me. Fortunately there are lots of guys on the team to minister to the refugee men, and there are plenty of refugee women and children for me and the other female team members to minister to.
The Afghan kids are really cute. There are so many different people groups represented in their faces because the country is so diverse. And apparently they're hard-working too. This little boy took it upon himself to sweep up after the craft activity.
No comments:
Post a Comment