Tuesday, it was my first time volunteering at the Refugee
and Immigration Services office (RIS). I
will do an assortment of jobs. For my
first day, I worked at trying to remember names, I did some research on the
four major countries where our refugees come from (Eritrea, Somalia, Republic
of Congo, and Arab states), I sat at the reception desk, and I drove a Somali client
and her son to a doctor appointment in one of the agency vehicles. It looks like I will help with a photo/writing
task to highlight some our clients in a refugee awareness effort – similar to
the Humans of New York project.
Saturday was Steve’s and my first day as workers in the
St. Louis Temple. We will work 1st
and 3rd Saturdays from 11- 8.
As can be imagined, we were really tired afterwards but it is going to
be great.
It was my first piano lesson with Noah. Every time we come to the temple, I will give
Noah a lesson. We might try Face-Time
lessons on the alternate weeks. I am so
excited to be doing this.
Friday was NOT my first time to play music at Candlelight
Lodge. This time it was the Mother’s Day
Tea. It WAS my first time to play
Broadway and Movie hits with Suzanne and Tamara Kitchen. We had a fun time with this music. It will likely be my LAST time playing with Tamara as she gets married in a month and will not be in Columbia much after that. I guess unless her husband finds a job here. That would be nice.
On our bike ride to the pharmacy one foggy morning last
week, look at what we saw in this evergreen shrub – highlighted by the moisture
in the air…. (bugs, BEWARE!!!)
I got this pitcher and glasses from my cousin, Jan Winfield. She inherited them from our Grandma Fraedrich (notice the etched initials in the pitcher - MHF: Mabel Harris Fraedrich. The glasses are also etched). She no longer wanted them and her son didn't either so she asked if I wanted them. SURE THING! I helped her with the shipping costs (I have NEVER seen so much packing peanuts and bubble wrap!) and they arrive on Thursday. What a treasure
Remember the amaryllis in the dark closet story? Well, here is one of them today. It is just stunning!
This beautiful plant was a gift.
A week ago, I snapped this photo of the lone hybred yellow iris among the more common purple iris. There is a life lesson here....
The purple iris lining my walk way are all gone now but the daisies have just outdone themselves this year...
Finally, Happy Mother's Day! Steve didn't have any traveling assignments today so he made me waffles and bacon and fried eggs for breakfast. When we saw Emily yesterday, she gave me this azalea
And Steve's gift to me is this little water fountain that I wanted for the lovely sound of running water and to provide water for the birds I feed on my back deck.
So tell me more about this Refugee and Immigration Services office (RIS) gig? I can imagine where the impetus came from, but what is it, how did you get the gig, what else will you be doing, how did you find it... those kind of details, please :)
ReplyDeleteRIS is part of Catholic Charities. The home office for our area is in Jefferson City but they focus primarily on immigration issues there. Our office deals with refugees. I found out about it by simply Google searching "refugees Columbia Missouri". As for duties, pretty much driving clients, desk, and hopefully that photo project. I might help with the English class sometimes. We spoke with John and Sherrie Downs on Friday and they told us that, aside from Columbia, there are very few refugees in the mid-Missouri area. People in our stake would need to drive to the office here in Columbia to do any kind of volunteering. Of course, members of the church in large cities in the U.S. and over in Europe would have LOTS of volunteering opportunities.
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