Women’s Breakfast with Women’s Stories II
(Frauenfrüchstück mit Frauengeschichen)
December 8th was the last Women’s Breakfast with Women’s Stories in 2018. This event, held four times a year, brings women together, from all over the world, who reside in and around Basel, to tell their immigrant stories, talk about the difficult roads they traveled and share the secrets of how they got to where they are today. It is a quarterly event that I find personally empowering.
Women attending last Saturday's (8.12.18) breakfast were from Kosovo, Switzerland, Turkey, Hungary, Morocco, Mexico, Spain, Japan, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Croatia, Peru, Denmark, Scotland, Germany, Poland, Kenya, Korea, and the US Virgin Islands. They live in Basel, and nearby Cantons, Basel-land and Solothurn and bordering countries, Germany and France.
Saturday's guests' speakers were Bouchra Fischer from Morocco and Marta Casulleras, a Swiss with German and Spanish heritage. Bouchra Fischer, who fell in love with her Swiss husband, “at first sight” was a biology student at University in Morocco when she met him. On her move to Switzerland, her in-laws were not very welcoming. She had two miscarriages but had a successful pregnancy the third time around. Her daughter is now eleven years old. She worked many jobs to support her family when the company, which employed her husband, shut down.
Despite her university education, Bouchra has had to work as a cleaner, and as a caretaker for the elderly. But baking is the job she loves most. And although she suffers on and off from neurological problems in her arms and hands, Bouchra has not given up on baking her Moroccan styles cakes.
Her message is “behind every cloud, there is a silver lining."
Martha Casulleras is a second generation Swiss. Her mother is from Hamburg, Germany and her father from Barcelona, Spain. Like her parents, she is a musician. Finding work as a musician is often difficult. As a result, she teaches the piano to support herself. She has had to learn a new profession to support her family and now has a diploma in Teaching German as a Foreign Language to immigrants. Martha has been doing that for five years. She has started a program for young girls within the K5 organization. However, she has not given up piano playing and teaches piano lessons in her community. She has a three-and-a-half-year-old son.
I shared my own story along with a Swiss-Hungarian last June 2018. It was my first twenty-minute talk in German. Fortunately, the audience mostly consisted of non-native German speakers. At this event, I defined my personal meaning of home. “Home for me is a flower the petals of which have been scattered down many paths.”
I have had the privilege to listen to speakers from Hungary, Peru, Mongolia, Japan, Turkey, Switzerland and more. These stories about overcoming obstacles to survive and share the experience are very motivating.
Here is my poem that was inspired by this event.
Breakfast
(See German translation below)
At the quarterly breakfast for women,
the faithful greet each other at the door,
embrace and kiss acquaintances,
spot new faces, shake hands.
Guests come from other cities,
countries as near as Germany,
as far as Egypt, Peru and Japan.
They are here to listen to selected speakers
talk about jagged roads traveled
to overcome adversity—
a woman from Turkey,
descendant of Genghis Khan,
is judged a foreigner
in her own land
by her Asian appearance;
and another, a “native foreigner,”
a Swiss from another Canton*
who could not speak nor understand
the unfamiliar dialect and language
in her new, neighboring home.
Each shares the struggle to find her place.
Each had survived feelings of alienation
to lead others beyond
the “outsider” wilderness.
Each word at breakfast, a morsel,
the mortar rebuilding the broken,
each word, vitamin, giving courage,
each sentence strengthening backbones,
each experience giving iron to the will.
© Althea Romeo-Mark 06.04.18
*Native foreigner- someone from a different state/canton where a different language is spoken. In Switzerland, German, French, Italian, and Romansh are spoken in different parts of the country.
*Canton- state
"Breakfast" poem published in DoveTales, Empathy in Art: Embracing the Other, An International Journal of the Arts, published by Writing for Peace, USA, McNaughton & Gunn
Women’s Breakfast with Stories (Frauenfrühstück mit Frauengeschichen) is sponsored K-5, a course center in Basel for people from all continents. The organization sponsors programs with the intention of integrating immigrants into Switzerland. One of its biggest and most successful programs is teaching German to immigrants. It also has mentoring programs for qualified female immigrants to make it easier for them to get into the job market (www.worldwomen.ch)
At Women’s Breakfast, attendees get a chance to advertise their own projects or area of expertise, whether it be yoga, dance, baking, international dishes, mentoring programs for children as well as adults, mental and physical therapy.
“I Becoming Swiss” is a poem about my own integration process.
I Becoming Swiss
Dear Aunty, thanks for your last letter.
Yes, I feeling much better.
The Lindenblüten-tea did the trick for me.
Aunty, you know what I notice, I becoming Swiss.
I find myself eating raclette and fondue
no more red beans and rice and beef stew.
I used to get upset when codfish was hard to get
but now I eating salmon and ham
with a slice or two of melon.
I drinking wine instead of rum,
eating zopf instead of raisin bun.
I buying lamb in the shop by gram.
Imagine that. And I watching me weight.
Don’t want to get too fat.
I have to watch how I eat chocolate and BaslerLäckerli
cause too much ain’t good for me.
Aunty, I buying peaches,
not papayas, apples, not guavas
But everybody loves ripe bananas.
Aunty, I walking the street not smiling
with people I meet, and if strangers
come up to me and want to chat friendly
I think they batty, especially if they want
to talk ‘bout family. It’s too personal, you see.
I getting irritated when people not on time.
Before I never used to mind.
I don’t call out to me friends in the street
‘cause it’s not discreet.
I stop the children from playing calypso too loud
‘cause the neighbor below
going pound broomstick on me floor
and spit sharp words in me face
when she knock me door.
Aunty, when I making recreation
I packing on clothes, not taking them off
rushing up mountains instead of down to the sea.
I snow-boarding and skiing
not wind-surfing and snorkeling
dusting snow off me clothes, not sand.
I can still get black or tan but it don’t last long.
Two weeks after I looking like a white woman.
Aunty, I can even understand a little Swiss German
not bad for a woman coming from
a tiny island in the Caribbean.
So aunty, I telling you,
I becoming Swiss, for true.
© Althea Romeo-Mark
German translation, “Breakfast”
Frühstück
Beim vierteljährlichen Frühstück für Frauen,
die Gläubigen begrüßen sich an der Tür,
Bekannte umarmen und küssen,
neue Gesichter entdecken, Hände schütteln.
Gäste kommen aus anderen Städten,
Länder so nah wie Deutschland,
bis nach Ägypten, Peru und Japan.
Sie sind hier, um ausgewählte Sprecher zu hören
reden über gezackte Straßen gereist
Widrigkeiten überwinden
eine Frau aus der Türkei,
Nachkomme von Dschingis Khan,
wird als Ausländer beurteilt
in ihrem eigenen Land
durch ihr asiatisches Aussehen;
und ein anderer, ein "eingeborener Ausländer"
ein Schweizer aus einem anderen Kanton
wer konnte nicht sprechen oder verstehen
der unbekannte Dialekt und die Sprache
in ihrem neuen, benachbarten Haus.
Jeder teilt den Kampf, um ihren Platz zu finden.
Jeder hatte das Gefühl der Entfremdung überlebt
um andere zu führen
die "Außenseiter" -Wildnis.
Jedes Wort beim Frühstück, ein Bissen,
der Mörtel, der das Gebrochene wieder aufbaut,
jedes Wort, Vitamin, gibt Mut,
jeder Satz Stärkung Backbones,
Jede Erfahrung gibt dem Willen Eisen.
© Althea Romeo-Mark 2018
* Einheimischer Ausländer - jemand aus einem anderen Bundesstaat / Kanton, in dem eine andere Sprache gesprochen wird. In der Schweiz werden in verschiedenen Teilen des Landes Deutsch, Französisch, Italienisch und Rätoromanisch gesprochen.
* Kanton (Bundesstaat)
Übersetzung: Irene KasaermannGedicht "Frühstück", veröffentlicht in DoveTales, Empathie in der Kunst: Umarmung des Anderen, Ein internationales Journal der Künste, herausgegeben von Writing for Peace, USA, McNaughton & Gunn
Ich werde zur Schweizerin…
Liebes Tantchen,
danke für Deinen letzten Brief.
Ja, ich fühl' mich viel besser.
Der Lindenblütentee erfüllte seinen Zweck.
Tantchen, weißt Du, was ich merke? Ich werde zur Schweizerin.
Ich stelle fest, dass ich Raclette und Fondue esse,
keine roten Bohnen mehr und Reis und Rindseintopf.
Früher war ich gereizt, wenn Kabeljau schwer zu kriegen war.
Jetzt esse ich Lachs und Schinken
mit einem oder zwei Melonenschnitzen.
Ich trinke Wein statt Rum,
esse Zopf statt Rosinenbrötchen.
Ich kaufe Lamm im Laden per Gramm,
stell Dir vor. Und ich achte aufs Gewicht.
Will nicht zu mollig werden.
Ich muss mich hüten, vor zuviel Schokolade und Basler Läckerli,
weil zuviel nicht gut ist für mich.
Tantchen, ich kaufe Pfirsiche,
nicht Papayas, Aepfel, keine Guaven,
aber jedermann liebt reife Bananen.
Tantchen, ich gehe durch die Strassen,
ohne den Leuten, die mir begegnen, zuzulächeln.
Und wenn sich mir Fremde nähern,
die auf einen Schwatz aus sind, halte ich sie für gestört,
ganz besonders, wenn sie über die Familie reden wollen.
Zu persönlich, weißt Du.
Ich ärgere mich, wenn Leute zu spät kommen.
Früher war's mir egal.
Ich rufe Freunden nicht zu auf der Strasse,
weil's indiskret ist.
Ich halte die Kinder ab, wenn sie Calypso zu laut abspielen,
weil die Nachbarin unter mir
mit dem Besenstiel an die Diele poltert
und scharfe Worte an den Kopf wirft,
wenn sie an meine Türe klopft.
Tantchen, für meine Freizeitgestaltung
ziehe ich mir Kleider über, statt sie auszuziehen.
Hals über Kopf fahre ich los in die Berge statt an die See.
Ich fahre Snowboard und Ski,
gehe nicht windsurfen oder schnorkeln,
ich klopfe Schnee von den Kleidern, nicht Sand.
Und mein Teint wird immer noch 'schwarz' oder braun, aber es hält nicht an.
Zwei Wochen später seh' ich aus wie eine Weisse.
Tantchen, ich versteh' sogar ein wenig Schweizerdeutsch,
nicht schlecht für eine Frau,
die von einer klitzekleinen, karibischen Insel kommt.
So, Tantchen, ich sag Dir's ganz ehrlich,
ich werde langsam aber sicher zur Schweizerin.
Übersetzung: Irene Kaesermann
My heart is big enough to accept that I have many homes: Switzerland, where I have lived since 1991, Liberia where I lived from 1976-1990, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, where I grew up, attended elementary, high school, and university, and Antigua and Barbuda, where I was born.
Wir haben (Mein Mann und ich) die Schweiz akzeptiert als neue Heimat und sind Schweizer Bürger geworden. Ich habe akzeptiert, dass mein Mann und ich hier alt werden. Mein Herz ist gross genug, um anzunehmen, dass ich viele Heimaten habe.
If you are interested in attending “Women’s Breakfast with stories” here is their contact:
frauenfruehstueck@k5kurszentrum.ch.
It will be an unforgettable experience.
Dates for 2019 are:
Spring, 2 March 2019
Summer, 15 June 2019
Fall/Autumn, 7 September 2019
Winter, 14 December 2019
Wishing you a joyous Christmas and a healthy 2019.
Be sure to bring a friend along if you wish to join us for breakfast and women's stories in 2019
Althea Romeo-Mark
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