I've been laying foundations to get involved in social justice-y stuff while I'm here. On the 12th I went to my first English conversation group refugees. Swedes refer to them as new arrivals, which I guess is maybe less re-traumatizing. I don't understand the whole situation yet, and I'll write more about that when I do get it. So what I went to was this conversation group in a church run by an organization that helps new arrivals. There was another American and a Swede running the group. Six young men, ages 17 to 19 I think, participated. Four were from Afghanistan and two were from Somalia. They'd all been here for a few years, and spoke fairly good Swedish. Now they need to learn English, so that's what the group is for. I've never participated in an ELL group, so there's lots to learn. I mostly just chatted gently with them in English and commiserated over the complexity of the language. It was great, and I'm excited to do more work with that organization. When we finished, we hustled up to the church to watch some high school students do a Lucia performance. Kind of like a Christmas choir. They were really talented.
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| We've been walking in the mornings. This morning we went through a garden that has this lovely espalied apple tree. |
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| Lucia singers |
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| After the conversation group, the American invited me to his book binding club. SO NOW I'M BINDING A BOOK! It's just once a week, and we aren't getting back together till January, but I made some solid progress on turning giant sheets of paper into pages for a book. "Always say yes" usually works out pretty well. |
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| A drum group was performing at the square on my way home. It was kind of a magical evening. |
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