A new perspective

Our job can be very mundane. If you just walk through and serve the passengers. It is when you actually stop to hear or get to know someone's story that your job can be very interesting and inspire new perspective on life.

I was working a trip from Chicago to Atlanta. An Asian family with four children came on. Shortly after that two African twin boys came on. They were all very cute. I didn't give it a second thought until the gate agent called to tell me that the family of four kids weren't sitting together. She gave me two seats that were available together so that it might help get the family together. I went down to where the family was sitting. It took some convincing but finally people move around where at the family was a least all sitting with another family member. The eldest daughter originally was sitting in a middle seat by herself. As I was moving people around I could tell the Asian family didn't speak English. The young girl sitting by herself, when put by her father and given a window seat broke into a big smile. Happy to be with her father and by a window.

After take off I walked by the aisle where the father and eldest daughter were sitting and a passenger in the aisle seat stopped me and asked me to help the family out. He handed me papers they gave him and he said the family didn't speak English nor did they know where they were going. I took the papers and started reading one that stated the American government lent the family four thousand and six hundred plus dollars for their move from the Thai refugee camp they were living. It stated that they agreed to pay it back in 42 months at a rate of $128.00 a month until paid off. That's a lot of money for a refugee who doesn't speak the language and so can't get a job. I am sure they signed the papers with no concept on how much money they were borrowing. You can however, petition to extend the payment if there is a financial hardship.

I called the cockpit to send a request for assistance for the family once we landed. I went back to the family and could see how exhausted the family was. The kids were all pretty much passed out asleep in the seats. The parents were awake, but especially the father, the head of the household, looked confused and a little scared. I thought of how scary this must be to head to a foreign country with your family. Not know a word of the language or have ever seen the country your are about to move and become your new home. I tried to show them how to put their seats back. It was a challenge but they were able to figure it out. I showed the father where the reading light was, an although there wasn't food being served on the flight, I went up to first class and got extra breakfast cookies, pretzels and a bag of potato chips someone had left, and brought it to the family. I am sure all the food was very foreign to them. They did eat it all. We played it safe and gave them water and orange juice to drink. I handed the mother a pillow wrapped in plastic. She took it and toss it in the plastic on one of her sons. I then took the blanket and unwrapped the plastic off it to unfold the blanket so she could drape it on the baby and her son that was sleeping. Understanding that this was all new and foreign to them. I am sure this journey was their first time on an airplane and also the first time they were exposed to many stuff we take for granted.

Once we landed there wasn't any kind of assistance for the people at the gate. I called the number on a tag that was hanging on the mother's neck and spoke to their sponsor. We walked the family to baggage claim where their sponsor and someone who spoke their language was there to greet them ( I found out they were Burmese). The parents looked very relieved when they met the Burmese person to help them. They walked toward baggage claim with worried but not as confused or scared looks on their faces. The children oblivious to the fear of the unknown that they were about to live seem carefree and happy.

When we came off the airplane there was also another man that was a refugee that needed assistance. He was on our flight but there was never any attention brought to us that this man was a refugee. We brought him with us assuming that his sponsor would be there also to greet him. He spoke a little English. He traveled from Jordan to Frankfurt to Chicago to Atlanta and was exhausted. He had no family in the United States and was just by himself. When we got to the place where the Asian family's sponsor was, they had no idea where the man from Jordan was suppose to go, but they said they would help him out and figure it out.

My heart goes out to these people. It must be so confusing and scary to move to a foreign country where you barely speak or don't speak the language or know the culture. I know what it feels like to travel half way around the world and be exhausted and have to figure your way around a foreign country. My assumption is, since they are refugees, their home country must have been so bad that the United States gave them refugee status to come live here. I wanted to give the children hugs and welcome all of them to their new home, but they didn't understand English. I only hope that they only run into kind and caring people to help them out and adjust to their new home and life.

This family and this man are starting out new in a foreign country. Hopefully to better conditions from where they came, and hopefully to a happy and full filling lives.