What's going on in Germany - our local immigrants, and VW says something

A few weeks ago about 100 immigrants/refugees arrived in our village. Our little tiny town accepted this many because we have a sports hall (in English, a gym) that could house them, and every city in Germany must do its part.

I was curious how soon I'd start to see colored people walking around my white neighborhood. (I'm actually regularly shocked when I go to events and see 100% white people in the audience, despite the massive numbers of Turks living here. WTH.)

I was at Aldi in the checkout line when suddenly 3 not-white people approached me and started speaking *English* to me - asking about sim cards for their cell phones. I was astounded that they chose me, until I realize I don't look like the typical German. I smile at people. My sister calls my friendliness my rebellious streak in a cold, cold land.

I turned to the checker and very eloquently, in English, asked about a sim card for these folks. Then grimaced and said it in German. I always do that, forget who speaks what.

She seemed disgusted with the entire situation - perhaps it had happened before. I noticed the immigrants all had wrist bands on as if they were at a concert. Heh, concert. They are all given fresh clothing when they arrive, food, and spending money.

Finally she communicated to me that if they are Vodafone customers, they need to buy their time cards at other locations.

The funny/annoying thing was the reaction of the rest of the people in line. They were very anxious to help me, so they said things like this:

"These are immigrants. They've only been in Germany two days!"

"These are the people staying in our sports hall!"

Neither helps, but shows the German willingness to give help if needed, if not directly.

I didn't know how to help them, and I told them sorry, and I pondered why the immigrants are left to their own devices - don't they have someone who can help them at the "gym"?

Frustrated, I drove to my second grocery store, because in Germany, there is no such thing as one-stop-shopping, and got my other ingredients for our dinner. My favorite checker was working, and I told her I wanted to help some of the immigrants, but didn't know where they could buy minutes for their Vodafone accounts. She pointed to a rack of cards and said, "Here." I said, "Great. Um....I'll get back in my car and go looking for them, it shouldn't be hard, they're probably back on the only through-street."

Sure enough, I found the cleanly but colorfully dressed fellows and pulled over with a chirp of my yet-unused  horn. "Hey," I said in English, "I can help you now. You need to go to Edeka, not Aldi, to get phone minutes. I'll write it.." So I wrote on my grocery list the name EDEKA so they would be sure to find the store, which is almost impossible not to find, our village is so small. They were smoking cigarettes (nice, Germany) and the smoke was blowing into my car, but they thanked me profuseley in English, and then one of them said "Danke Schoen" as well.  Hm!

Irritated, I drove directly to the sports hall, to see if they needed any help with German-English translations.

The lady at the desk said thank you very much but we only need Arabic, French, and Italian. I noticed everyone was wearing face masks, hm. (Indeed, later that week Tuberculosis was brought to town.)

I wanted to help, but was not needed. But then again, why is Italian needed? Where is Italian spoken? Yes, I know exactly which countries speak Italian. Merkel had said anyone from the Balkans would not be allowed to stay - not sure what they speak there.

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The media shows children and mothers escaping civil war into Germany and the UK.

The reality is 72% are young men. I cannot explain that.  I went to the sports hall, I saw only young men in new clothing and enough cigarettes in case they were addicted.

I wanted to help them. Now my friend S tells me they chased her on her horse, and since they didn't want to create any anti-Muslim-female attitudes, they rode away as quickly as possible, though they continued to shout and run at the horses. This was on my street, supposedly.

She says they  beat up a kid and took his cell phone. I don't know if that's true, but the newspaper we read every day is not talking about it.

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Oh, but the supposed "Murder at the Riding Stable" story was solved - the lady was just drunk and fell down fatally against the hitch of a horse trailer. Horrible. But not crime.

How much crime is here, I ask my husband. The statistics are not easy to find.

I always felt safe, but S wants me to lock my door at night.

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Immigrants vs. Refugees.

There is a European law that an asylum seeker must register in the country of arrival. That way, they can be registered and given permits to stay, because they are now free of danger.

There is a crisis, and hundreds of thousands are taking advantage of the chance to appear a war refugee. They are, mostly, not. Why else would they continue through several nations toward Germany and the UK? They admit themselves they are economic immigrants. Not war refugees. They have been found with 2,000 fake Syrian passports, because being Syrian, will get them permission to stay. They admit to the media, "We want jobs, better jobs than Italy has."

I would love it if I could have helped refugees, but I am very much against illegal immigration, and these people are defying law and refusing to admit they'd been accepted into Italy and Greece, for the chance of a better economic outcome. Or Turkey, where their religion is already the majority.  It hits me personally when I think that I had to immigrate here legally, and how complicated it was, and how I had to prove my marriage was not faked for the privilege of living here. Also,  if my man wanted to live in America, he would have to do so through correct channels of bureaucracy, made more difficult for him based on his lack of proximity to America.

 The Salafisten have come to local sports halls to recruit any who are fundamental Muslim. I'd heard that many immigrants were trying to escape Sharian law, and I thought that was a good reason to come so far.

As I visited Mara last week, we passed by the middle school that the little girl attends. There were immigrants lining the streets hanging out, and she said they try to hide their armbands, and that one of them brought tuberculosis to the school. I asked, "So, can you not play sports, while they're here?" Dumb question.

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The other day I heard laughing and talking way above German volume.

A bunch of the sport hall immigrants were across the street from my next-door neighbor, picking walnuts up from under their tree. They were so loud about it, they must not have known it was owned by them, and afterwards, they sat on the grass and laughed some more as they tried to crack them open.

I wondered if  they'd come into my front lawn next and start scavenging under our walnut tree, but they did not. They seem like such happy, innocent people, and as a foreigner myself, I have a tendency to be nice to other foreigners.

S told me to lock my door at night for the first time in the years we've been here, and to shut our windows, which we also rarely do.

My government sends me emails regularly warning me how to avoid terrorists.

I don't know what to think really, I simply don't have enough information.

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Anyway, here are some photos I took from my kitchen window, cuz that's the kind of blogger I am: )



























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A rain cloud from our yard. Walnut on the left, apples on the right.

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 In other news....


VW's full page ad in our paper this week. It says,

On the 25th anniversary of Germany's reunification, we'd have liked to have placed a notice of congratulations.

Actually we would have liked to have thanked our customers for their years of support.

Actually we would have liked to have thanked our employees for their hard work.

That all would have been right...

Instead, we have only one sentence to say: We will do everything to gain back your trust.

I am not a VW person at all, but I found this touching. And how many other Lance Armstrongs are out there waiting for exposure?

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A few pics from my garden this morning:




I'd always wanted one of these.



Hybrid red/yellow apple tree. Providing so much I had to bring two buckets to the ostrich farm yesterday.



J's mom said you can eat these.



I have to tell you about how I ate a cranefly in a gardening/cooking incident this week. I'm still unable to sleep at night.




We have had nothing but wetness for two years straight. I am so sick of mud boots.

Next time, a walk around the watershed with fairy sprinkles, or maybe a bay horse? Wish I knew.