My day started out perfectly fine. And then I had a “little village” of a case, as my interpreter called it – a very large family. For each individual we have to write up a family tree and each time a spouse or parent is married multiple times, they must have a separate tree for each spouse and family. The original family had 14 siblings with one mother; the father was married three times and had children with each wife! It took me forever to complete this! And then just as I finish, my computer decides to act up and is moving slower than a tortoise. Then the printer acts up and decides to print the wrong pages back to back and had to be fixed several times.
Ok. So the morning wasn’t so bad. I pick what looks like an easy case of two people for the afternoon. In walks a family of five! It was a father and daughter on the case; the wife and two younger girls had just arrived in Malaysia and need to be added-on. Then I find out half way through the interview that their two sons are still in Burma and they don’t have the money to bring them here. They decide to fly without them and hope to file for the sons once they reach America. I start the family tree and the father tells me that his father was born in 1800. Now, obviously this was incorrect! But it took a good 10 minutes for the interpreter to understand the incorrectness of this statement and to change it. (Ah the joy of working with amateur interpreters all day long! :-)) The date of birth is changed to 1900; with the date of death at 1970. I look at the case and realize the man in front of me has a birthday of 1970. I ask again – thinking he must be wrong – but no, he insists that his father was 70 years old when he was conceived. I didn’t know that was even physically possible! I fill out the five family trees with the multiple spouses for this case. On to the persecution story! I won’t even try to explain that now. :-) So I finish everything on the case, make all the necessary notes to add on the family members and try to reunite the sons…and the mother speaks up and says they have a problem. I can’t even imagine at this point what the problem could be – I really thought we covered everything possible in a case interview today! (it took over four hours!) Turns out the 17 year old daughter was recently raped in her home by a man who was living there. (many of these urban refugees are sharing one or two bedroom apartments with 20+ people. Or they are living in construction sites or in the jungle). As the interpreter stated “the girl was not lucky this time – she is pregnant as result of the rape”. This information is difficult enough to hear; the family was afraid to tell me as they feared it may change the case or she would not be able to travel. They are also afraid that the man will come back and rape her again. This case has now turned into a Protection Case. The father sitting in front of me was about to lose it. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next – nor did the interpreter. He tried to convey his concern that his young daughter is pregnant and unmarried, his wife and two children recently joined him after three years of separation, they are all still living in very harsh conditions with five other men, and his young sons are still in Burma but he has no money to bring them to Malaysia and therefore has made the decision to travel to the US without them because he can’t provide for his family here and get the money to bring the sons over. But he understands that by going to the US, there is a chance that he may never see his sons again. I ask what he is asking for me to do – I really don’t know how I can help. He didn’t have a request. I make a case note and flag the file that this case is now in need of protection for the minor who is pregnant and to try and speed up the entire process for the health of the family. And then I’m at a loss of words.
Thankfully this was my last case of the day. Oh and did I mention that in the middle of all this, it started to rain really really hard? I love the rain, but we are in tin roofed trailers and can’t hear anything when the rain starts! The trailers are also only partially partitioned, so we are often trying to talk above each other. Yesterday I had a torture case to my left and a rape case where the woman ran out of the room weeping to my right. The man in front of me was suffering from post traumatic stress and/or torture – he was quite dazed. Today, along with the heavy rain, one of the little girls kept passing gas for the last four hours that made the rest of us have to plug our noses and try not to faint. Babies are also screaming outside. I had to step out for a minute as I could feel myself about to laugh at the craziness of the day and didn’t want to offend the family – I return to find oranges rolling around my floor! I have no idea where they came from! :-)
And that was my day.
:-)
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