We left the apartment of the family of our Nepali neighbors. They live across the parking lot from our identical building; both resting atop a hill in southern Nashville where lush trees flourish on the roadsides and temperatures easily peek 100 degrees Fahrenheit on a given day. The apartment complex in which we live is home to many refugees and immigrants to the area. Not five minutes after returning to our little abode a knock sounded at the door. Upon answering, we saw the smiling face of the same Nepali woman and daughter whose home we had just left. They held out a gift bag with two plump mangos wrapped in paper towel resting at the bottom. We welcomed them inside and began the pantomime regime we have discovered necessary to communicate across the linguistic barriers that seek to separate us. Since arriving a little over a week ago I have learned some Nepali words: dhanybhad= thank you, kasto cha?= how are you?, meru nam Jenna ho= my name is Jenna. Smiles spread across their faces as we attempt to imitate the sounds they make.
Living here amongst these people one feels as though she were in another country all together. Emerging from my apartment I see men and women squatting and lounging in front of their homes; many with little caps resting atop their heads chattering away in a tongue completely foreign to my ear. Many of those who live around us are families who have arrived to Nashville person by person- sometimes over the course of many years. Yesterday, I met a woman from Myanmar/Burma who finally arrived last week to join her husband after three years of living an ocean apart. She laughingly explained her surprise to find her husband quite round and plump after living here for an extended amount of time. Many of our neighbors and friends wait in anticipation as aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters prepare to join them after finally being approved for the long journey and process to becoming members of a new country.
There are three of us World Relief Nashville interns who are going to be doing the same immersion program this summer: Elizabeth, Lissete and myself (Jenna). We will be living in an apartment complex where many of the refugees live, as I mentioned earlier, and working to establish relationships with them so we can learn from each other. We have many objectives for the summer but they are basically broken down into three categories: community, development and ministry...Refugee resettlement is such a multi-faceted process that I am excited to more fully understand all the details of how an individual makes the transition of living in one country to another, one culture to another, in situations such as those facing the people we work with. --Jenna
