Random reminder

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 22

Random reminder

HOT AND COLD RUNNING

She went to the meeting feeling apprehensive. What did she know about refugees, especially from such an odd part of the world? Wanting to help was all very well, but would her help be any real use? The organiser was reassuring. “They're just ordinary people like us,” he said. “Imagine they’ve moved from another town, if you like. They need to be shown where the shops are, and told what day the rubbish is collected.” She went home with a typed list about language classes, and was almost feeling confident when she was assigned to help one new family. She arrived, knocked at the door, smiled at the oddly-dressed woman who answered it, and said, enunciating carefully, “I’m Brenda. Peter sent me. Can I help you with shopping?” The woman smiled back. “It’s all right, thanks, I went to the supermarket yesterday. Come in and have a cup of tea.” .. . “They’re just ordinary people. Like us." she complained to her husband later. “Too ordinary, perhaps. She made me drink three cups of tea.” She sipped her coffee thoughtfully. “They look different, of course ..i the clothes .ill and they have an accent .lii“

“But you were hoping they do funny things like ask you what the clothes pegs were for, or take siestas on the verandah,” her husband prompted. She laughed ruefully. Time went by, and the new family did sometimes ask her advice or for explanations, but she wondered if they were doing it to be polite rather than because they didn’t know. She knew she was a real help, all the same, taking her station wagon to collect gifts of spare furniture from people, arranging for the old television to be repaired for them, and generally helping out. But it wasn’t what she’d expected. In a way it was too easy. And there were the interminable cups of hot tea to be drunk at each visit. But one day she arrived to find her friends looking worried. “We ‘were given this," they said, pointing. She looked. A small deep freeze. “Very nice,” she prompted. They exchanged glances. “It’s for keeping food, isn’t it?” he asked, lifting the lid. She looked in, she strangled a gasp. She lifted out a bottle of cider vinegar and a jar of jam. She beamed at them. “You’ve never had a deep freeze before, have you? .Hi I’d be happy to explain it to you.” Then she had a revelation. "And I’m going to get you a jar of coffee.”