I temporarily renamed my blog to more accurately reflect my location. I am, in fact, in Atlanta taking a short break from simple living in order to interview for medical school at Emory. The trip has, so far, been absolutely fabulous. I was worried that my nerves would spoil everything but so far I have been having a blast. Last night I arrived at the courtyard marriot where I was given a room with two double beds so I naturally ate cookies and crackers in one of them while watching TV and surfing the internet and then slept in the other one after showering in a large, clean shower that had a massage setting on the shower head. It was SO nice to just revel in the little modern luxuries. But I didn't totally take a break from my jesuit volunteer-ness-- I still let yellow mellow in the bathroom until I left in the morning to save water :)
The trip has also been wonderful because I met the COOLEST shuttle driver ever last night. While the plane was pulling up the gate I got a phone call from an unknown number-- on the other end was a heavily-accented man named Sayeed asking for me. I assumed it was one of the refugees who needed something (oops....to be fair I get those calls a lot) but it was actually my shuttle driver letting me know where he would pick me up. When I got in the car I naturally asked him where he was from and it turns out that he was Somali! That launched a conversation about the Somali people I knew and then he started to tell me about his family. Turns out that this guy's dad was the somali ambassador to Germany from the 60s through the 80s! He was also invited to the United States as a part of the new African delegation to begin integrating African political leaders into world politics (while in the US he told the US ambassador that his country needed to work on civil rights). And, in the 70s, he negotiated the rescue of hostages from a hijacked plane from Monaco that was being held in somalia and he was subsequently honored at the German parliament--only the second foreigner to be so honored (first was JFK, third was Nelson Mandela)! How awesome is that! I told this Sayeed guy that he should write a book about his dad and that he has a really awesome family. Sayeed went on to tell me about the political history of Somalia and gave his opinion about international intervention efforts. At the end of the shuttle ride he refused to accept a tip and wished me luck on my interview.
In another instance of strange yet fruitful meetings, the woman next to me on the plane was extremely chatty and told me her whole life story. She then asked about what I was doing and when I mentioned the refugees she said "Oh my gosh! If you ever need clothes or blankets you need to contact this person from the American Sewing Guild (which (a) exists apparently and (b) she is a member of) and they will make you anything that you need!" She also gave me the name and contact info for another woman who does traditional hand embroidery who could help out the sudanese mother I may have mentioned before (7 children, limited english, does elaborate emroidery). I feel like Grandma Dupont would have been proud of the entire evening-- networking with strangers chance encounters, the Dupont way.
My interview is tomorrow and I am feeling great about it. I feel like this trip has been very auspicious so far. I have a few more stories from my week in the refugee world that I will have to tell you about later (my time on the lobby computer is about to be up) but quick preview: CPS, negotiating with a teenager to get her to help her dad pay rent, parent-teacher night with the congolese, public health department meeting about infectious disease in the refugee community (NOT a fantasy--actually happened!!!) and another CPS encounter. until then, stay well, insh'allah!
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