it's a small world (after all)

So I'm sitting in a hotel conference room in Texas, waiting for a refugee job developers' conference to start. Imagine my surprise when I glance up and see a familiar face (in case you don't know, this is really a surprising thing. I am the only refugee job developer in Oklahoma, and I have never met another one up until this point). Imagine the familiar face's surprise when this random girl from Oklahoma goes up to her and says "I think I know you. Are you from Germany? Are you Frau Drehsel's daughter?" It turns out that she is, indeed, the daughter of one of our administrators/professors from our time studying in Heidelberg. She's left behind life in schön Heidelberg and is now working as a refugee job developer in Abilene. And we meet up in a hotel conference room in Dallas.

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I'm sitting in a doctor's office waiting room with some clients. I'm halfway reading an old issue of Family Circle; they're working their way through an old issue of Highlights (great English practice for English language learners, by the way). I glance up at the TV, which is tuned to CNN-- some exposé about abuse in the Thai shrimp industry. As a lover of shrimp and of Thailand, I glance up. The reporter mentions the victimization of Burmese refugees who cross the border into Thailand only to be caught up in this shrimping racket. I yell out (in hindsight, WAY too loudly) "hey! It's about Burmese refugees! Living in Thailand!" My excitement (in hindsight, not the most appropriate response given the subject matter) comes from the fact that I have three refugees from Burma, who crossed the border into Thailand, sitting next to me. I wasn't excited to hear that some of their people are in this terrible situation, but I did take satisfaction in remembering that my clients were at this doctor's office as part of a pre-employment drug screening. Which means that they will all become gainfully employed far, far away from the shrimp sweat shops of Bangkok.

Those little animatronic Disney people are right...it's a small, small world.

FREE MOVIE!

We have some really talented friends. If I were to describe to you all of the gifted dancers, singers, lawyers (and lawyers-to-be), teachers, business people, writers, filmmakers, counselors, PhDs, voice-over actors, foreign-language speakers, missionaries and do-gooders who have been part of our lives, you might think we were making it up. Trust me, we're not, but we'll spare you the bragging. I do, however, want to use this space to promote our friend Daniel Nayeri's latest project. He wrote a film, "The Cult of Sincerity," which made its debut on Youtube today. I just watched it and found it fantastic. You can access this movie right here. Or you can read more about it here.

And if you're our friend and you want us to promote YOUR next project, just say the word ; )

*A disclaimer: In Daniel's words, "For all those with vested interest in content (as pertaining to minors), the film would probably be a PG-13 if not for two F-words"