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Location: Munich, Germany

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Navigation Challenges

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Never having been to Germany I found myself confused and often times lost, even though I had my phone with navigation. Even equip with directions, navigating through the cities and towns of Germany was a challenge for myself and others in the program. Now imagine people coming into Germany, without previous counsel and without reliable phone service. Some people may even come without a device to provide such directions. Getting to and from different locations in Germany is hard as it is, but can prove to be much more challenging for migrants coming into the country.  To get from my hotel to the migrant facility just outside of Fürstenfeldbruck I had to find the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), ride the train about 45 minutes out of central Munich, get off and immediately look for the bus station to ride for another 15 or so minutes. All the while, making sure to not miss the correct train or bus stop. After staying for two weeks the navigation system began to feel much more manag...
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Dachau

A given for those traveling, especially abroad, is taking a mountain of pictures. I was a bad traveler, because I took very little . I took an entire DSLR camera to Germany with the intent to bring back an album, but I felt very different when I got there. I respect  those who did because there is a small part of me that regrets not being as on-the-ball about it, but by the first day with the  Fürstenfeldbruck  Caritas crew I felt that  I needed to remove myself from technology as much as I could.  The culmination of my own personal life prior to arriving in Germany only intensified this feeling, and in the end, I am glad that I was able to  fully  entrench myself in l iving like a different person for a while.    This  cemented when we visited the concentration camp in Dachau.  The  morning of this same day we were given a tour  of Munich but through the lens of WWII and the Socialist  P arty of Germany, their rise, ...
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“No One Chooses to be a Refugee” ~ Umar Barrie

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How does one make the decision to leave behind all they have, all they have ever known, and all they hold dear to begin again in a country that is not their own, in a culture that is unfamiliar, and integrate into a society that in many cases does not want them?   In my efforts to study and understand migration patterns and refugee efforts, I have sought most to determine the reasons it becomes necessary for one to make such an unbelievably difficult decision. Throughout the course of history, people have left their homes to seek a better life elsewhere in cases of war, famine, natural disaster, violence, or persecution. For those of us who have not experienced such a crisis, the thought of leaving behind all we know to face uncertainty is unimaginable. During this study abroad, some of us have had a limited experience of arriving alone in a country where we do not read, write or speak the language and navigate cities that at times do not feel the most welcoming.  We have had ...
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