I’m back in California!!
As my time in Berlin came to a close, it felt as if each week kept getting better and better. The last 2 weeks especially I felt God’s hand in everything we did! It’s crazy being home and looking back on how everything came together so wonderfully and so out of my control (however hard I tried 🙂 ).
Like I mentioned in my last post, we have loved the breadth of opportunities opened to us, but started to narrow and focus in on refugee camps, church, english teaching, and an organization that works with refugee teens without families. It was cool to see how life in Berlin started with filling our schedule with tons of organizations and events and then became more natural as we built relationships and developed roots. Our last two weeks have been full of invitations to friends’ homes, quality time with refugee teens, lots of fun & joy, and incredible conversations. My heart is so full here!

Some highlights of these past two weeks:

• Ramadan dinner – My sweet English-learning friend Najla invited me to her family’s 10pm feast, where they break their daily fast. I enjoyed many plates full of interesting Syrian food until 3am, even though we struggled through an Arabic-German-English language barrier!
• Ping Pong evenings in the park – Ethan and I loved getting together with refugees and doing fun things, trying to help them feel more at home in Berlin and assimilate (huge problem is a general sense of loneliness and isolation).
• Döners (my favorite Turkish street food) with Lilianna, one of the teens I mentor and help work on English!
• Rooftop BBQing – Ubaid, one of our refugee camp coworkers from Afghanistan, is so kind and has easily become one of our best friends here, always inviting us over for the best food and late night talks about culture, faith, and anything that gets a laugh! 🙂
• Berlin Culture Festival – The city’s 4-day giant parade and fair provided us such a fun platform to get our friends together throughout our last weekend, including Ubaid, Lilianna, Paula (my visiting friend from Munich), 3 of our English students (also some of our closest friends here), a Pakistani friend and his wife, and our friend Abdulwahhab!
• Last week at all our refugee camps – SO hard saying goodbye to the endless joy and hugs from the kids, kindess from our coworkers, and even hard saying goodbye to the always-over-excited-to-see-us security guards! These places of refuge and inclusiveness will forever hold a place in my heart ❤
  

  Last day of one of our refugee shelters

  

  Our main shelter’s craft day!

  

  Another shelter’s heartwarming goodbye

  

  Water fight, games, and singing!

  

  

  

  Day 2 of the Culture Festival!

  

  Day 1 of the Culture Festival!

  

  100’s of parade floats and tents representing tons of countries

  

  Not letting it “rain on our parade” (hahaha)
  

  Syrian-Turkish dinner with Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Berlin friends!

  

  Ramadan dinner with Najla’s family

  

  Rooftop BBQs at Ubaid’s
  

  After eating döners, Lilianna & I had way too much fun with my camera!

  

  Bonding over photography!