This week I have noticed that my anxiety has been running a bit high, much higher than usual. I have been trying to identify aspects of my life that are possibly contributing to this, but I’m still not completely sure. I think it has to do with a mixture of events occurring within my personal life as well as the natural acceleration of school around this time of the quarter. To work on my mental health, I have been practicing some activities I already know to help me center myself. For example, listening to music that reminds me of home and my childhood, cooking, which helps me feel a bit more self-reliant, as well as taking long walks on my own.
Service learning is also usually a stabilizing factor in my life in Rome, and while still true for this week, I was quite exhausted by the time I arrived, and I was feeling very anxious and melancholy right before hand which I think took away from the experience a little bit. So, while I did not let this affect my attitude towards the refugees, some of my interactions were a little “fake it till you make it”, but no matter what they deserve nothing less than a friendly face and a kind approach. This week, one thing stuck out to me. For the first time since I have started, an entirely only English speaker came into Sant ‘Egidio. I was asked to communicate with him and noticed he had, what I am pretty certain was, an American accent. I really wanted to know more about him since this was the first opportunity I’ve had where I could have an entire conversation as well as because it was an unusual presence. I refrained from asking questions though as the possibility of making him uncomfortable made me nervous. As I continued grabbing a pair of shoes and a belt for him, one of the regular volunteers, Susanna, recognized him from that Tuesday’s shift. At first, she refused him the products since visitors are only allowed to come in once a week, but he pleaded that the day before, everything happened in such a rush and he wasn’t able to grab some necessities. This was also his first week coming to Sant ‘Egidio. She continued to resist his requests but finally agreed after some time. I helped translate with the transaction though I found myself in a tough position. I felt a lot of empathy for this man and still can’t imagine how scary or dehumanizing it might have been to almost beg for necessities. So, I was quite frustrated with Susanna, not completely understanding her rational for being difficult with him. At the end of the day, I have not been at Sant ‘Egidio for nearly as long nor will I continue to be there for as long as her, and even if I don’t understand it, I am sure there are reasons behind the management that I just don’t comprehend yet.
In 381 this week, a concept I found super interesting during class was this idea of a “stress test” that a refugee passes by making the decision and carrying out the transition from their origin to country to their host country. Essentially what I understood is that refugees are incredibly resilient and tend to be able to withstand significant stress. As a result, they are more likely to take leaps which may or may not be linked to higher rates of entrepreneurship in refugee populations than in native born individuals. I thought that piece of information was actually really cool when I first heard it, definitely a point worth bringing up in conversations related to refugees, especially involving economics.
As we toured the Roman Port in 284, I was very captivated by the idea that an entire community had lived in this city. Especially when we learned that people would at times throw urine into the streets. Definitely difficult to imagine the smell. In addition, it started to spark some ideas for the final project in this class. As my topic is agriculture, it was great to have this first look into some of the prior methods in the making of food and cooking. There was even a restaurant, showing some of the social aspects that develop as a result of agriculture!
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