lost boys of sudan

we went to see a screening of the documentry "lost boys of sudan" last nite. it was really good. it's actually an american doco but sudanese refugees here face the same challanges in resettling. i've been to a workshop on refugees before and i've dealt with refugee families in childcare and kindergarden and even a few people i've worked with have come to australia as refugees but there's always more stuff to learn about what refugees go through to resettle in another country. its all the little things that they have to deal with as well as the big obious ones. learning a new language is tough but i never really thought about all the little parts of the language that someone coming to a new place needs to know. before the documentary a woman from the tomorrow foundation talked a bit about their programs and gave a few anecdotes. one guy said he drank some red wine and then felt really sick after. the australians there said "well that's what red wine can do to you." they looked at the bottle and discoverd he'd drank most of a bottle of red wine vinegar! even having enough understanding of the language to read "red wine" wasn't enough for this guy. in the start of the documentary an american was taking a few refugees through the supermarket to explain things. they had a pretty good grasp of the english language for conversations but the woman had to explain things like that "ea." on a price meant each which is one. it would be all those little things that would add up to cause for a lot of confusion and a lot of new things to learn.
even when i came to australia from another english speaking country i still had trouble with the little things (like learning how to order coffees-- i'd never heard the term "flat white" or had a coffee with nice WARM, frothy milk in it. finding my favourite foods was another problem-- i've had to find new favourites). i still have to ask zac what the "australian" word for things are sometimes but fortunately most australians understand "north american english" cuz of tv and movies. its just talking to kids at work that i sometimes can't remember what word to use so they will understand me-- and i'm speaking mainly the same language and have similar traditions and ways of doing things. i can't imagine how hard it would be moving to somewhere where i didn't speak the language or know how to do things (like using public transport or buying things in a shop).