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[azdak]

After several months of persistent slogging, the plan to get the boys into the local volunteer fire brigade has finally born fruit - now they can (a) make friends in the community without us as mediators, (b) earn a gold star for their asylum application processes, and (c) (last but by no means least) give Austria something back for all the help it

Comments

[sartorias]

Good to see an update on the boys!

[azdak]

They're doing really well at the moment, which is happy-making.

[heliopausa]

Oh, absolutely brilliant, on all counts!! i.e. everything to do with the volunteer fire brigade, though the cooking and eating parts are also highly admirable. :)

Seriously - great news!

[azdak]

It really was great. They've been told they can go every Tuesday from now on, which, as we were originally told their training sessions would be every other Tuesday, suggests they've passed some sort of unofficial test and are now fully welcome.

[timetiger]

Thanks for sharing the excellent and most interesting news.

[azdak]

Thank you! I was so happy I needed to let it out somewhere!

[nineveh_uk]

That sounds like a fantastic opportunity for them on all fronts. May they make friends, rescue many cats from trees and have a few safely manageable fires.

Have a great time in Sweden, and hopefully better weather than last year.

[azdak]

The weather forecast is sunshine and cloud, which is better than last year's sunshine and rain. Right now, though, all I want to do is sleep for the whole two weeks so I'm not too fussed about a few clouds.

Most fire brigade work in Bisamberg is pumping water out of flooded cellars, so I don't suppose they'll actually get much of a chance to use those big hoses they're waving around :-)

[elmey]

What kid that age wouldn't love to be a fireman! The volunteer fire corp here is a big deal too, what a great way to integrate into the community.

Sound like you picked one of those recipes that I would read and then pass on :D I'm sure you're supposed to mix your own garam masala (and grind the spices at home too). Good thing the boys are so polite!

So jealous of the sailing vacation. Will you be doing entries in the blog again? Is Wolfgang spending the summer on the boat? I'd love to read about the ongoing adventures at sea.

[azdak]

You could hold a gun to the boys' head and they still wouldn't say anything rude about my cooking. Bexy's Flo wins in the culinary politeness stakes, though - he was all set to eat a second helping of something he disliked so as not to hurt my feelings until he found out I'd bought it from a store rather making it myself ;-)

I will see if I can squeeze in a few sailing blog entries in between enormous sleeps. Wolfgang has loads of work to do this time, so I don't think we'll cover a whole lot of distance.

I have really high hopes of the fire brigade, not just because it will really help the boys to integrate but also because for a lot of the firemen they're the first refugees they've ever spoken to, and the discovery that they're really nice kids who speak good German will help them to disbelieve the ghastly lies from the right-wing media.