I am finding though, for a lady like Brenda, there are some serious challenges to everyday life in America. I've been keeping a running list as I observe these things and will try to share some of them so she will be able to recall these experiences later. At this point she is not able to read or write with proficiency, so this blog will serve as a journal for her to recall life in her first months in Boise.
So far, these are my observations:
- Going to a pet and garden store is amazing even in the dead of winter. But why would ANYONE keep a rat as a pet? "In Uganda, we keep away from rats because they are dirty!"
- Snow. Ice. Cold. Very different than Africa!
- Coins- what are the values? Try explaining why they have different pictures on coins of the same value, and why the small dime is worth twice that of the nickel and ten times the penny. American money is weird.
- Automatic car washes are incredible. "America is amazing! America is amazing!", says Brenda, the whole time we were in the carwash.
- The Drive Thru - Wendy's
Brenda: "You talk in there?" pointing to the sign and speakers in the drive thru.
Me: "Yes, we tell them what we want here and pay at that window up there, and pick up our food at the second window."
Brenda: "Wow."
I hand her a cheeseburger and a frosty.
Brenda: "What's this called?"
Me: "Junior Bacon Cheeseburger"
Brenda: "It's my first one. I like."
- I read to Brenda and Becky everytime I see them. We look through Becky's kindergarten books and Brenda learns too. One night I was reading them the story "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr Seuss. Upon reading the page with darkness and a monster infested river Brenda stopped me and shared that there is a river between Uganda and DR Congo that looks like that. There was a monster in the water of the book and I can only imagine the monsters that she has seen. This is a mild and only one example of the matter of fact memories that are shared at any given moment. Brenda is an amazing survivor.
- Valentine's Day! A holiday of ridiculous proportion all about love! Brenda and Becky attended the Foothills School Valentine's Activity enjoying making cards with glitter, stick on hearts and cut paper doilies. We ate sweets (which Brenda can hardly tollerate) and decorated cookies to donate to local fire stations. Brenda laughed and said, "I am like a little kid!" as she decorated the cards. "But I never got to do this when I was a kid." Here is a picture of Becky making her valentines.
- What is a raffle? I bought Brenda some raffle tickets at the Valentine Party for a dessert prize. She was very confused how the whole process worked, but in the end she figured it out. SHE WON THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE EVER!
- Sugar is a treat, but Brenda can't stand it. I see her want to enjoy all the abundance of junk food that now surrounds her, but every time she takes a bite of something sweet she cringes. It's like she just bit into a lemon.
- White people don't stop their cars even when they see you. On a particularly cold/freezing evening Brenda and Becky were waiting for a taxi or bus to take them home from downtown. At this point Brenda is in drivers training, and plans to also learn to ride a bike this Spring. However, until she becomes independently mobile Boise does not have the most stellar public transportaion system. No busses or taxies came. They were walking, hands stinging they were so cold. Becky was crying. "All the white people smile at us from their cars and some wave, but none stopped." I tried to explain that in our culture we do not get into cars of people we don't know. Therefore, we do not expect people to get into our cars if we are strangers. Once I explained this, I know Brenda understood the logic, but it made me think twice about the next time I see refugees walking along the sidewalk in the cold.
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