Serve Burlington partners by providing volunteers to help schlep donated furniture out of storage and into the apartments before the new residents arrive. We rarely get to meet the new residents... Tuesday last week was an exception! We were moving some furniture into a unit when people from an apartment we previously furnished came down to help... it turns out that they are related to the incoming family and invited us upstairs for tea. Have you ever had Nepali tea? Yum!... black tea, milk, sugar, and black pepper are an incredible combination. When we left, they invited us to stop back anytime... which Caryn, Hudson, and I did yesterday.
We brought by some donated clothes, as well as some things Hudson picked out from his toybox for their 2 year old boy, and then they proceeded to get very busy cooking rice, goat, chicken, and a traditional bean dish. What a meal! The VT Bazemores thoroughly enjoyed themselves and our new friends. Proof that relationships matter was made clear when our host said that we were the first people to stop by and talk with them since they moved here a few months ago...you could see the longing in her face for relationship. One of the women speaks very good English because she was an English teacher in Nepal... she will be a bridge to many in the Nepali community as the refugees seek to assimilate. Please pray for them, and the other refugees, as they begin new lives in a strange place.
One cultural quirk that really stands out to our new friend is the fact that people in Vermont do not say "Hello" when passing each other on the sidewalk... sad... I fail to do that sometimes too.
Two pics:
