Visiting Limburg Refugee Center

Some of our member are volunteering at the recreation center at the Limburg Refugee center.  I wanted to go and see if we could donate something that they need as well as to assess their desire for more volunteers.  We have about 20 women who have signed up and want to go volunteer somewhere.

So I put on my jeans and tennies and an LDS charities shirt and caught a ride with MDB and TL.

It was raining outside (it has been raining or snowing or just terribly cold every day that we have been here except last Saturday, our p-day) so we hurried inside the big warehouse of a building.

The huge room was divided into five (funf) areas:
1. the kindergarten



2. fussball tables

Teenage boy and teams of men enjoyed the 5 fussball tables.  We just bought 5 tables for another refugee center near here.

3. Language classes



MDB taught half of the language class students German.  She seemed to be having a great time.

4. casual talking or arts and crafts


5. food service : since this week is fasching (German Carnival or Mardi Gras), they were serving Berliners (jelly-filled donuts : technically, when JFK said "Ich bin ein Berliner" it did not mean "I am a Berliner," it meant "I am a jelly-filled donut")




TL had brought a bag of yarn, a stack of photocopies of line drawings to color, and lots of crayons, markers and coloring pencils.  Men, women and children swarmed around and began to color.

One couple drew this picture showing their journey from Syria to Germany. A tender moment.

Then we pulled out yarn and set up some macrame bracelets.  One sweet man made a necklace for his wife.  She and their children are in a different camp about 50 km away: efforts to reunite them are underway.  Meanwhile, TL is going to deliver the necklace with a note from him to his wife.  



We had yarn, but only 1 crochet hook and no knitting needles.  I had brought my own knitting (I am making a black and red sweater for Jonas) and within minutes, my smaller set of needles and my only crochet hook were gone.  The needles I left with a lovely woman whom I taught to knit.  She had finished about 10 rows by the time I left. 



I have no idea who took my orange crochet hook. 20 of them were taken home last week.  A few went home and got their crochet hooks.  



 We had to limit each person to 2 skeins each.  "Only two, only two," I would say, holding up 2 fingers.  One woman - who really knew how to crochet - ended up with about 5 skeins and every time I turned my back she would take the whole bag and stuff it under her chair.  I would go drag it out to offer skeins to someone else and she was not happy.  



One man seemed really interested in knitting.  I tried to think of what to do.  There was one skein left of very chunky brown tweedy yarn.  So I got two colored pencils,wrapped the ends in masking tape so the stitches wouldn't just slide off, and cast on about 20 stitches.  He was a quick learner and soon had knitted four rows on his own.  USING PENCILS.  



We had a wonderful time.  I spoke with the director and she said she could use volunteers every week day.  The women back in the Area Offices were thrilled and by the end of the day, registration forms had been emailed out and a schedule was started.

Our new secretary, Constanza - who is adorable and lives just around the corner from us here in Friedrichsdorf - told me that they have knitting needles at the "EURO" shop here in town: that is the German version of the Dollar Store.  Guess where we are going tomorrow?

Our other option is to get a Chinese restaurant to donate smooth, rounded chopsticks and then sharpen and sand the ends to the right shape.  The EURO store sounds easier.

(Note on the photos.  For their own security, we don't take photos of the refugees.  The mother of the baby gave me permission and seemed very pleased.  Everyone loved that I took photos of their hands and their work.)