One of the great things about living in DC and working for a refugee agency is all of the cool people you come into contact with on a regular basis. Yesterday, I got to take one of the loveliest clients in the world, Leyla, to the DSS to figure out how to get her food stamps. While the PG DSS is one of the LEAST lovely and most frustrating places on the planet, Leyla is always smiling, always positive, and incredibly patient. For the two hours we waited in the waiting room, I studied for the GRE and she read a children's English book. Never once did she complain or look frustrated. After we got her food stamps reinstated, she told me "Thank you" with a smile full of gratitude. This is a woman who has had family members die, who had to flee from the Congolese war, one of the hotbeds for gender-based violence, a woman who is living in poverty, yet she still manages to smile and be grateful for every little thing she has.
THEN, in a second dose of African awesomeness, I saw the movie "Pushing the Elephant" last night at a new, independent theater in DC called West End Cinema. The movie followed the story of Rose Mapendo, a Congolese woman who was seven months pregnant when the war broke out in 1998. Her husband, her seven kids, and herself were all put into a death camp. Her husband was killed immediately, and she gave birth to her twin boys on the concrete floor of the prison. She and her family lived in the death camp for fourteen months, and then escaped to a refugee camp, where they then went on to be resettled in the US. The movie is about her reunion with her 17 year old daughter, Nangabire, who she hadn't seen in 13 years. The movie also follows Roses' work with her organization, Mapendo International, and her work helping foster peaceful dialogue between women in conflict regions. You can read more about the organization here:
www.mapendointernational.org
More info about the movie, which is playing on PBS in March, and is coming out to DVD in April, is here.
http://www.artsengine.net/pushing_the_elephant/
Her courage, her incredible strength and love, and her ability to forgive and triumph, is incredible. I left the small theater filled with hope that people like her exist.
Today has been pretty good. I'm about to go over to the girls house. They are starting to get a little snarky. One taped the other's mouth shut during homework time yesterday when I was folding laundry. I gotta step up my A-game and have eyes on the back of my head. They are constantly making me laugh. My favorite quote of theirs from yesterday is:
"Old people are so cute. They look like teddy bears."
Tonight is my second GRE class, and then I'll go to IHOP to get a Make A Face pancake with one of my favorite people from Birthright. THen, this weekend will be filled with delicious New Orleans food with friends, the pups, and, possibly some yoga and dancing. I haven't shaken my tailfeather in quite a long time, and frankly, it needs to happen.
LOve and happy Thursday,
Andrea
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