This week in Rome, we focused a lot on resilience and healing in refugee communities as well as a little bit in our own lives. In Honors 381, a woman named Martine Pierre-Louis came in to talk to us about migration and resilience. We learned what resilience is, that being: giving/receiving understanding and compassion, acknowledgement, relief from isolation, validation, taking good care of oneself, embracing the mindset of growth/positivity, and finding meaning. I will say I was slightly confused when discussing these topics, where I don’t understand if all of these are requirements to being resilient. Can a person not have resilience without some or all of these traits or positionality? Something else I found quite meaningful was the discussion on finding meaning which made me think about how I want to go about searching for my own “purpose”. Martine told us she finds meaning in her life by appreciating her own life and what she has. I too want this to be/already is something that contributes to my meaning, but I wouldn’t say it is the only contributor. Life is so inconsistent, for me I feel it is necessary to be able to find meaning in more than just one thing. My “life’s purpose” cannot be solely dependent on one particular aspect of my life, so that when one thing changes, I don’t end up having a massive identity crisis. We also had a small meditating session with Martine. No complaints! Was super peaceful and amazing, might just have to take up meditating on my own.
During class later in the week, we went further into generational trauma and healing. We talked about some of the issues of refugee adaptation and assimilation, then we were introduced to acculturation. This led to a very interesting discussion on dual language schooling, which is not always properly executed but I have a particularly biased opinion on it. I went to a Spanish and English-speaking preschool offered/owned by members and friends in my own community. It is something that I believe kept me so much closer to my culture during such imperative years of my development, when soon after I would enter elementary and really never speak real Spanish throughout my schooling again. It is something I am incredibly grateful for. One other thing that came up was a story told by Carey about a woman who to this day confuses some idioms and slang in English as a result of learning English while her parents did not speak a word of it and could not correct her as she spoke. I felt a small connection to this as I too mix up idioms and common sayings frequently. I’m not completely sure if it is due to the same reasoning, as I was born in the United States and have had overwhelming access and exposure to the English language (and I obviously speak it as well), but it did make me think that there could be some correlation to my parents not knowing English slang.
In service learning, we were finally able to try out our method of receiving some responses from the refugees themselves on their thoughts on Sant ‘Egidio! Unfortunately, the language barrier was still a significant issue even though the questions were written in a language a majority of the visitors understood. It was trying to explain the instructions of what exactly we were doing that was the issue. We brought cookies as incentive to answer our questions, but at the very beginning people completely ignored the entire table full of interview questions, went straight to the cookies, and left. It was very frustrating since I couldn’t get the translation out quick enough before they left. After some trial and error, I asked Francesco to make a proper announcement in Italian about what we had going on by the cookies. After this, there were still some people not willing to respond, but we did actually end up getting around 14 responses. Some very short, but I believe we got at least 3 long, well-thought-out responses. I’m excited to begin translating these back to English and discover what the people had to say.
The girls in my house and I, also known as the Slytherin residence, had our meeting with Carey and Diem this week as well. It was really great to have some time to chat and catch up. I found this time to be really relaxing and refreshing! Throughout the meeting and over the last couple of days, I have been coming to the realization that I am going to really miss the experience of being here. I really miss home, my friends, and family, but I have really been loving the independence of abroad. The walks I take, and the ability to feel safe while doing so at all times of the day, accessibility to public transport and training, my apartment, being the equivalent of 21, and of course all the people I have become friends with along the way. Just in general, I have sort of built a little life here and I’m sad to have to say bye to it so soon.
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