This means it is harder for asylum seekers and local residents to meet up. Because the MELLIE Project really wants to help us connect and learn from one another, it provides a weekly bus for our gatherings. Also, to give us some structure, we were paired up at the first gathering - one asylum seeker and one university person. Every week we all gather in our pairs for a few hours and discuss various topics.
I was paired with a young woman from the Middle East who is currently living in a DP center called Mosney. To respect her privacy, I will not use her real name or the exact country she is from in the Middle East. So, "Jasmine" (Can you tell I like Disney?) and I began telling each other our stories. The coordinator of the project first asked us to do this by filling in a tree to describe ourselves. This was not a "family tree", but a "self tree". You will see mine in a photo. The roots were things we attributed to our foundation. The leaves were filled with things such as our personality traits, likes and dreams. The Tree was a great way to get us talking and to start learning about one another. It also made me stop and really think about myself and what's truly important to me.
Unlike me, Jasmine had not really traveled before her family had to leave their home country. She was interested to hear about all the places I had lived, including everything from the environment to the food. I was very interested in her home country, too, since I have never been there.
While her first language is Arabic, Jamsine knows quite a bit of English and can carry on a conversation. I've noticed some of the other pairs have a lot less English and they often look like they are playing a game of charades!
