PEOPLE ON THE MOVE -
FOR THE TIME BEING LIVING TUTZING
The Missionary Benedictine Sisters Serving Refugees in Germany
By Sr. Fabiana Wessiepe, OSB
In her report Sr. Fabiana Wessiepe both shares
her experience of the encounters with asylum
seekers in Tutzing and writes about her giving
German language lessons. She is not the only
one teaching, but also Sr. Magda Eberhard, Sr.
Georgia Otto and Sr. Walburga Volkhausen (who
is living in ‘House Benedict’, getting down to the
Motherhouse for the classes held at the parlor
there)
Mission Opportunities at our doorstep:
The large wave of refugees in Germany reached Tutzing in autumn 2015. Whereas in
former times there were just smaller groups of
people seeking refuge and asylum, it was necessary
in September to pitch tents in the southern
park of Tutzing. In addition to a so called family
tent (which hosts 48 persons in total – men,
women and children), there is as well an allmale
tent with 80 residents.
Together with the
arrival of so many refugees in Tutzing the circle
of supporters grew simultaneously and constantly.
It is very kind and helpful that the municipality
is working closely together with the
two major churches. As a matter of course Rev.
Peter Brummer from the catholic parish provides
the premises and facilities of the parish
center “Roncalli House” for meetings and
events. Also language courses take place there
as far as possible, but the capacity is far from
sufficient.
Thus since October 2015 our convent has
been looking for a possibility to get involved to a
larger extent. For quite some time we had already
put available the house Birgitta for underage
unaccompanied refugee girls and we have
also spoken up for them together with their supervising
tutors: The girls are professionally supervised
by the staff of the association "Help
from person to person". Sr. Corona Betz and Sr.
Magdalena Geigle are the contact persons from
our part.
Now a small group of elderly sisters spoke up for
giving German language classes for the newcomers.
Where do the refugees come from?
Currently there are mainly
young men from Afghanistan
and Pakistan and some African countries,
which come to us. This choice is based on
the fact that
we teach beginners who are either
illiterate or do not know the Latin alphabet. For
those who already master one of the European
languages things are much easier and they may
go to advanced German language courses.
Women and children are housed in the family
tent, where they are taught together there because
the children are either in a day care center
or at school.
All refugees who have come to us so far are
Muslims, but they are tolerant to the Christian
faith. They accept us, our beliefs and the Christian
symbols, feasts and celebrations.
Again and again we experience in the classroom
that details of their experience come up such as
incidents with the Shariah, terrorist threats or
killings of family members.
They also express
their great concerns about their countries, because
they recognize themselves that the youth
6
is quitting home and only the elderly remain.
What can we offer to them?
Provide attention - a place where
they can come and openly share their concerns
somewhat.
Then of course it is about the acquisition of the
German language and this is a very difficult undertaking.
For a start we may not assume anything
and we have to start by learning the ABC
as in the first grade (class 1), seeing the young
men arduously painting their characters. Those
who have already visited school in their home
country are familiar with the Persian font that
rather resembles the Arabic. There you start
books and notebooks on the last page and write
from right to left. So there is a need of relearning
also in this regard.
For us teachers, it means
that also we on our part do not understand neither
their language nor their font and we have
to explain every word by means of images and
signs.
Particularly difficult are the much-prevalent German
umlauts (mutated vowels) or words that
are similar to a letter but have very different
meanings such as Uhr / Ohr (clock/ear); Hase /
Hose (rabbit/pants) and so on. This has led already
to curious confusion.
Occasionally they have picked up some English
at home or on their way out. This facilitates
communication a little. Particularly the refugees
from African countries have a slight advantage
due to this fact.
During the language classes we get to convey
time and again some of our values such as when
talking about Christmas and New Year wishes.
Cultural Differences: For the men it is not a matter of course that
women self-confidently give lessons, greet them
with a handshake and look at them in the meantime.
Difficulties that show up:
- Poor Class Attendance:
- The refugees
complain much that it is quite noisy in the
big lodging in the evening and that they only
sleep poorly in a room with so many people. Also
the different mentality still might be important:
They still have to get used to German
thoroughness and punctuality.
- Composition of the
group:
- A homogeneous group with
participants from the same cultural background
and with similar educational background is desirable. This is not the case
- Participants come at different times during the course of study
- And the participants
themselves have to learn to live and
study together with other nationalities.
- German calendar is
not a simple task.
- Solar Calendar
- New Year
- Participant Age calculation (When birthday is known)
- Muslim feasts
and special times such as Ramadan are concerned,
they follow the lunar calendar, which
again has a very different count.
Despite all these difficulties, we are pleased that
that we can have a small share in the international
understanding and we appreciate the confidence
and friendliness which our students are
granting us.
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