I tried to make several phone calls on Friday. I found a long list of 8 pages online about German courses offered in Vienna. Alomst none of the courses stated the price, so I had to call each of them, one by one. You will find a complete list under "Pages" of this blog. I wanted to find a suitable course for Shamse and Helz. I figured it would be lovely to send them to the same course if possible so that they could also enjoy some mother-daughter time. As it was Friday in Vienna, most institutions didn´t even pick up the phone. Those who did, asked me to call back on Monday.
I also called the Federal Ministry of Internal Affais to double check on the asylum status of the father and the three children. This was a phone call that was on my to do list every week. Yet no matter when I called and no matter to whom I spoke, the employees would always tell me that they were swamped with work and that I needed to be patient. The ministery urgently needed more employees.
I met the Rasoul´s at 09am on Saturday and decided to take them to Carla which is a thrift store of Caritas. Refugees but also Austrian´s who live of a minimum income, are able to get free clothes up to four times a year. One needs to bring a valid ID as well as the residence registration form. Unfortunately the Rasoul´s didn´t find much. I decided to take them to Mariahilferstrasse, the main shopping street in Vienna. On our way they explained to me that what they really needed was one pair of shoes for their oldest son Mohamad. I took them to a shop at Gerngross which offers low priced sneakers amongst other sports goods. Mohamad found a pair of skater shoes. I tried to explain that he needed some gym shoes for school too as he was starting school on Monday. We were talking with hand and feet as I was unable to reach one of my translators. I understood very well when Mohamad tried to tell me that he would wear his skater shoes at the school gym. I shook my head and grabbed a pair of proper gym shoes and I showed him the soles and the difference between one shoe and the other. I also made drastic hand gestures to show that he would probably slip during gym class when wearing the skater shoes. The rest of the family was standing next to us, watching us trying to have a conversation. It felt like a little theater play.
At some point, Mohamad showed me the sneakers he was wearing. I looked down. Yes, those were proper gym shoes but I looked at him and made sure that he understood that he had to clean them inside out. It felt good to know that we were able to understand each other without words. Shamse purchased the pair of skater shoes and we left.
Even though I tried to persuade them to go to other shops and take a look at sweaters - the Rasoul´s wanted to go home. It was a cold Saturday morning after all and I knew that they were tired. Being able to stay with Eva and Stephan lifted a huge pressure off their shoulders. They slowly but surely started to have time to digest the past years of fear and uncertainty. A very long journey seemed to have come to an end. And it was just the beginning.
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