New friends

My friend, Nancy, and I are both on mat. leave. Our babies are 6 weeks apart. While still pregnant, we'd talked about wanting use our time to do something we couldn't normally do while working. We came up with the idea of starting a Mom's group for immigrant women. With the help of the Open Door Society, we have finally met our ladies.
They are a group who are Nepalese living in Bhutan. About 20 years ago, the Bhutanese government did an "ethnic cleanse" of all people of Nepalese origin and sent these people back to Nepal. The Nepalese government did not want them. Therefore, all of these refugees have been placed in camps along the Nepal/Bhutan border (the above picture is of a Bhutanese refugee camp). Finally, after living close to 20 years in these refugee camps, our new friends were able to immigrate to Canada. Now, they are here and trying to make sense of our Canadian culture.
Nancy and I want to meet with these ladies (and their very curious and enthusiastic husbands) once a week to talk about shopping in Canada, cooking, women's health issues, child-rearing customs, etc. More then that, we are looking to make new friends and help these very brave ladies feel at home in their new country.
Today, was our first meeting. They LOVED Simon and Nancy's girls. Our host made us fabulous (real) chai tea. They politely ate our brownies. We were told stories about being forced to leave home late at night with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
I know that we are going to be their "teachers" but, I have so much to learn.
Needless to say, I'm VERY excited about my new friends! :)