February 21, 2019
Second week in the camps was a lot of laundry and keeping up on baby care renovations.
I love doing that work, but the days when I get to have dance parties with the boys in Moria are my FAVORITE. They’re impressed that I dance just like they do to Persian music to the point that they insist I’m not from America. Nothing makes me laugh harder!
I love doing that work, but the days when I get to have dance parties with the boys in Moria are my FAVORITE. They’re impressed that I dance just like they do to Persian music to the point that they insist I’m not from America. Nothing makes me laugh harder!
Sunday we were doing some trash pickup in “the jungle”, the Olive Grove settlements in Moria. I managed to step down onto a nail in a board. It was about two inches deep and the board went flat against the boot I was wearing. Luckily the camp doctors are great and there pretty often. They cleaned the wound and numbed it for a few hours and my limp is almost gone now!
Tuesday I was on call to babysit three siblings from Mosul, Iraq. This is one of the most affected areas ISIS gathered a stronghold in. They didn’t speak English so we communicated creatively. When it was just the four of us they played like normal siblings, with the older two trying to keep the youngest from ruining their block towers. It was honestly refreshing to see something so universal and timeless.
When other kids would taunt them though, there was a violence in their eyes that I’ve never seen in someone so young. I imagine it’s a similar look held by children that grow up in all sorts of bad neighborhoods and bad situations, but it only breaks my heart more to admit that innocence is ripped from children everywhere far too early.
I wish I was articulate enough to paint the picture of what it looks like and feels like to be here. This is such an insane opportunity to look at the global community we live in today.