Theory versus Reality...and St. Theresa

What an interesting day! We started this morning by going to the Refugee Center located in what seemed like the damp basement of a church where we volunteered for about three hours. It was an incredibly eye-opening experience, and after talking with some of the guys there, I feel like the things I worry about are so trivial compared to their struggles.

Our goal was simple: spend the morning talking with some of the guys and get to know their stories.

Walking down the spiral steps from the church courtyard, I could hear the sound of guys' voices and the hollow bounce of a ping pong ball echoing through the hall. The room was fairly empty around 9 AM, but i filled up as the morning passed.

As we started playing foosball and ping pong with them, the questions started coming from them to us and vice versa. I ended up sitting down with a quiet Afghan young man, who was filing his identification papers away when I approached him. He had a very serious look on his face, so I asked him what those papers were.

"My application for seeking asylum in Italy," he replied.

Turns out, the application process takes several months. He was hopeful he'd get it soon. Over some cups of warm, sugar-laced tea, we talked more, and I got to know him better. His name was Aliahmad, a young member of the Communist Party in Afghanistan who looked much older than his 22 years. He had fled Afghanistan because it was getting too dangerous; people were trying to kill him because of his political views.

He told me he was a student studying foreign policy in Afghanistan, and he really wanted to know what the American people think of Afghanistan and the Afghan people. He told me about his family--all the siblings he had to leave behind as well as his parents. While he spoke English, he didn't speak Italian. Having been in Italy for four months now, he is on his second go-round with the visa application. Yet, he remains optimistic that things will work out. I was very inspired to hear his story and was really impressed by his goals.

Aliahmad's story, though, seemed to be part of the consistent theme of stories at the Refugee Center. The majority of the young men there (strangely, there were no women) came from Afghanistan, and as Hamid, another young man from Afghanistan, told me they all found the resources they needed through the power of their social networks. Meet one Afghan guy, and you can access the rest, he said. Here's a picture we took together.

Interestingly enough, Hamid actually comes from a wealthy family in Afghanistan whereas Aliahmad comes from a very poor family. Aliahmad lamented the fact that, according to a recent UN report, over 5 million people in Afghanistan have no food, no jobs, and no security for the upcoming harsh winter. He mentioned that the "democratic government" in Afghanistan is not quite so representative at all when only the few politicians and their closest allies had money and social support. For the rest of the population, such harsh conditions force them to extreme measures for survival.

For Hamid though, he says it is extremely dangerous to be rich in Afghanistan. People come to your house to demand money and threaten you with their weapons. Hamid has had a more privileged life style though in going to London at age 17 and living there for 6 years before returning to Afghanistan. It was extremely fascinating to talk with him. Here are some other pictures from our visit...

After our visit at the Refugee Center, we had a bit of a break before heading to Trastevere to meet with Dottor Ongini, former director for the Department of Intercultural Education in Italy. He talked about the trends of immigration in Italy and how that has affected education. His presentation itself was short, but our questions brought on some very interesting answers.

When asked what sorts of programs exist in schools to help immigrant children adjust comfortably to the new environment, he answered that these programs differ from school to school and are left up to the schools to decide if they want them. I wonder how public financing plays a role in this?

Other issues included:

• Statistics have shown a lower percentage of immigrant children making it to the university level. Why is this?
• Is there overt discrimination based on racial appearance despite equal backgrounds and work experiences?
• How are teachers prepared to work with students from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds?

The answers we heard were pretty astounding and left me with a billion other questions in mind. Their answer to the first is two-fold: one, many immigrant students choose work and financial stability/responsibility over work at the moment, and two, students do not know of many well-paying jobs once you've obtained your degree. Mr. Ongini further explained that Italy's north/south economic split sees a majority of the well-paying industry jobs in Milan and around northern Italy. As such, students who work there do not see a need to continue on with school when there are well-paying jobs that offer financial security.

To which Jamie, one of our classmates, asked, then what is the point of getting a university degree and why would anyone want one? The answer: more job opportunities and options, although the pay not be as great in certain fields. In hearing all this, I tried to understand it from a 30,000 foot view, which takes into consideration trends and changes that may occur over the next decade and how it might affect the policies in place today. Here's what I came up with:

If the outcome of pursuing a university degree is greater job opportunities, wouldn't you want to encourage more students to pursue higher education? In another ten or twenty years, Italy will be even more of a full-fledged immigration country and those jobs in northern Italy will become even more competitive if they haven't been shipped overseas already. Not to mention, the 21st century promises to bring more jobs around Europe that require people who have the ability to speak other languages and possess skills acquired mainly through a university education and not through industrial labor.

The barrier I see here is the two approaches toward life success. Some choose to define it simply by how much money they make. As such, they argue that you don't need a university education. Just look at the young people making 3,000 Euros a month in Milan, they say. But I wonder how much room for growth and advancement there is for those who go straight from basic schooling to work. The second approach is the university, where even though you may not make quite as much money now, the opportunities that come with a university degree are endless.

Given these conditions that exist now and what may end up happening in another 10 to 20 years, it's difficult to see why there isn't a stronger emphasis on attending university. Why aren't there more programs that focus on supporting students as they try to get to university? Why isn't there a greater emphasis on helping students who can't afford school to maximize the resources available to them instead of merely excusing them from pursing a university degree because they can't afford to pay?

The discussion with Dottor Ongini was interesting and provided some useful info, but it left me with more questions and an unsatisfied feeling for understanding "why not" for immigrant and low-income students when it comes to a university education, particular given where Italy is headed in regards to immigration when it has one of the lowest native population birth rates in the European Union. It felt like all the talk with Mr. Ongini today was more theoretical than anything and was a stark contrast to the Refugee Center we visited this morning, where most, if not all, of the young men have been sleeping on the streets or in the parks because they're unable to work and unable to live the lives they want without having a place to stay.

I think it would be extremely interesting to have Mr. Ongini and perhaps a few folks who are struggling through the system now (or even someone who has successfully navigated the system) to talk on a panel discussion about the issues we asked about. That way we'd be able to match what theoretically should work with what actually is happening. I'm sure it'd be eye-opening for more than just the audience too. Anyway, we're heading back to the Refugee Center tomorrow morning, so I'm looking forward to talking more with Hamid and Aliahmad, as well as some of the others I met, tomorrow.

After our meeting with Mr. Ongini, I finished my day by doing a little Rome sight-seeing with Brukab and Manmeet by visiting the church of Santa Maria della Vittorio, which is home to Bernini's St. Theresa in Ecstasy. I really wanted to see it because it's another one of those amazing sculptures that I studied in AP Art History. My goal is to see one Rome attraction per day until I fly out--I think that's the only way I can see everything I want to see still.

Bernini was such a master at sculpting raw emotions, and St. Theresa in Ecstasy is no different. The church itself is rather small, and I didn't realize that the sculpture is not all that large. I had imagined it to be massive.

We took plenty of pictures inside the church, and I wanted to get a picture of us all sitting and staring studiously ahead...but Manmeet missed the memo on that one. =P

We were giving her a hard time about all the pictures we took where we kept doing the opposite of everything we told her to do. It turned out to be pretty funny. So much so, that I had to excuse myself from the church because I couldn't stop laughing in the end. The worse part is, as I was struggling to suppress my laughter by walking outside, I ran right into a priest at the door. He must've thought I was so rude when I accidentally let out a few laughs and snorts before walking through the other exit.

All Brukab's fault...

We ended our day by heading back to our apartment to cook...more pasta!

Manmeet stayed over too and got to taste some of our delicious tomato sauce-covered pasta with mushrooms, dried basil, and freshly grated cheese. Plus our leftover wheat baguette from yesterday. Yum!

Alright, this post took longer than I thought, and I'm completely exhausted now. So it's time for bed. More tomorrow!