A Story Picnic with Asylum Seekers
A Bit Crack invited members of the Newcastle Conversation Class for a picnic with stories at Burnlaw on Saturday 2nd July.
The conversation class is a place where asylum seekers and refugees can meet to socialise and improve their English. A place where Pat regularly helps out and made the invitation.
In the event 10 people from the class (including people from Syria, Iran, Eritrea, Sudan, China and Poland) joined together with 4 storytellers and another 4 residents from Burnlaw to form a big, beautiful international gathering.
We walked, we told stories, we sang, we ate, we chatted and we laughed a lot. The weather was kind to us and rain only fell when we were looking at it through a window.
We walked through the land, we sang in the temple in the woods, we circled the grandmother ash and wished her well. We made our way through flocks of recently-released pheasants and climbed high into the treehouse, from which those with lither bodies descended via a fireman’s pole.
We had stories of a woman becoming a leopard, a girl dancing with a tree, a boy who became a girl and bees literally buzzing. Two of the Burnlaw girls sang while we were entranced by the voice of the flute.
We finished tying ourselves in knots of friendship and laughing some more.
Thanks to everyone, the community and the beautiful land for a wonderful, heart-warming day.
May we meet again. 