In episode 16 of Mn Huna: Finding Refuge in Friendship, it’s pool party time! Houda, Melanie, and a bunch of other Syrian and American and Mexican women and girls got together for a pool party, and while we were there we did some interviews, which we will share over the next three episodes.
In the first pool party episode, Houda, Melanie, and Michelle (wife of Rusty, Mn Huna’s producer) talk with Emane, Houda’s mother, at the poolside while Sara (Houda’s younger sister) and her friends splash in the pool. Together we talked about friendship, swimming, motherhood, losing everything, and receiving the help of strangers.
Melanie would like to add that the only reason she didn’t cry her eyes out while listening to this episode for the first time was that she was thumb wrestling with Sara while she listened to it on headphones in Houda’s living room.
We’re sending an extra-special thank you to Rusty, who wasn’t there for the recording, but did a beautiful job of editing our long rambling conversation into something beautiful and coherent. The loss that Rusty and Michelle’s family experienced—and the kindness they received from neighbors and strangers—stands as a reminder that all of us need each other. All of us lose. All of us can offer love. Can offer the refuge of friendship.
