Knitting at Refugee Center in Liberec

Saturday was a full day traveling to and from Liberec (north of Prague) where a group of us from the Prague Stitch 'n Bitch got together with women at the refugee center to knit. We were accompanied by people from a local church who played with the children to give their mothers time to knit.

Joanna, who leads our Stitch 'n Bitch and hosts us at her apartment, was the one who organized this trip. I was in her car so we organized gift bags for all the kids from the donations people put together, and then we organized bags of yarn and needles. Two of us in the back had to keep taking little breaks because we kept getting carsick (it was worse than reading, I swear), but the job got done. Once there, the yarn bags went quickly despite having 30 bags of the stuff.

There was an Iraqi woman who had been at the refugee center for almost two years who was really an expert knitter. She taught me a different way to cast on and showed me a neat way to knit a baby blanket. She started a sample blanket to show me how the stitch was done and watched as I tried to do what she did. She indicated that it was nice and thick like the Hoover Blanket I was working on but took a lot less time. I'll definitely try it next time. Joanna, in a letter to us, said of this woman: "A woman from Iraq saw Danielle teaching Heather how to knit, grabbed the needles from Danielle's hand, sat next to Heather and spent the next hour teaching Heather how to knit. It was great because it took away any pretense we had about 'condescending to serve' and reminded us all that we were there to sit and knit together."

It was fun to meet the women and despite some language barriers, we seemed to be able to communicate. I don't know how long most of the people have been there, but one said she had been there five years with her family, another three years. From what I understand, the Czech Republic allows people to come to these refugee centers as asylum seekers. A new law now requires that schools allow the children to enroll in schools, but my understanding is that these families are often waiting in these centers until another country agrees to give them citizenship. I certainly could be wrong on this, but this is the information as I understand it.

I really enjoyed my time, but I do have to say, I always leave these visits (whether an orphanage, a nursing home, a refugee center) wondering what the people we are visiting feel.
I guess the cynic in me wonders if they can't wait until we leave, but the better part of me hopes that they feel like it was a fun time with people who want to meet interesting people and provide needed resources. Any comments?