Refugee Family Daycare

December 8, 2011

E2 and I volunteered today at a refugee daycare for kids learning English. They were pretty much adorable and we had a great time playing around. Having a daughter from the DRC, I could see some real fear and trauma in their faces and could feel the isolation as some of them look at the toys as foreign objects, unsure and unable to socialize with their peers and engage in play. E2, was pretty much a non participant. I had talked it up ahead of time as him being my helper, but once in the room, he made a bee line for the matchbox cars and never looked back. He did help clean the tables after snack time, so that technically qualified as "helper", but beyond that, he was pretty checked out and I think he was thinking and wondering when I might bolt for the door leaving him in the room full of kids that spoke little English. We are on the schedule again for next week but perhaps in a different class room, we will see. They will be doing a Christmas concert the following day which I imagine will be interesting with a class of trauma and fearful children trying to sing in English. A pray is going to be needed before that one. The strangest part of the day happened when we were coming back from the gym and a little girl passed us in the hall, she is like the identical twin of K, same age same built, same face, same hair, it was unnerving, she had a good 10 lbs on K, but still, a bit freaky. Unfortunately, as we left, a killer migraine was coming on and with no excedrin in hand, the 40 min. drive home was a nightmare as the migraine was raging by the time we got home, causing me to collapse on the couch and beg E2 to come cuddle with me which he would for 30 seconds until he decided he forgot something and would get up elbowing me in the stomach.....relaxing time to rest my head....ehh, not so much. Managed to hit the dollar store and stock up for our care packages for our World Vision sponsor kiddos which should be a fun activity for the weekend along with the toy drive.