MarieHelen is our Dutch language teacher. She is not only our dutch language mentor but also, she is my therapist too. When I first heard her name I was a little bit confused because of her pronunciation and how she said both Marie and Helen words together. I mean Marie and Helen both names are used separately but she uses them together which is very uncommon. I find her name pretty unique and this is not only her name. Her name is pretty complicated and I think to pronounce her family name, I will need at least 6 months.

MarieHelen is a job holder, she works in a company and she is not an actual language teacher. She knows a total of seven languages - French, Spanish, German, English, Hebrew, Chinese and Dutch. Our story started one month ago, in a very unusual situation and it's interesting how I met her. I told you before that I used to go to the dog park with my dog Gigi. It is where I met her for the first time. She used to come to the park with her dog too. At first, we didn't talk to each other but one day Gigi started playing with Nera (her dog) and then we started to talk and that's how we started our conversation. My dog was the one who introduced me to MarieHelen.

Our first conversation was about Ukraine and Dutch culture. She asked me about myself and how I have made the entire journey from Ukraine to the Netherland. She helped me by giving me a lot of local information and then when I said, I want to learn Dutch, she instantly decided to be my teacher. I remember she told me, if you want, I can be your mentor in Dutch Language and I will teach you slowly from the beginning. Then later, we, the 3 people started learning Dutch from her. She has taken this entire situation as a project and she seemed very happy about it.

She manages time for us from her busy schedule. This always makes me wonder how a stranger decided to help me and gradually became a close friend of mine. My therapy session has started last week, she somehow figures out that I need help so she decided to help me out. At first, I was silent, I haven't said much about myself to her but slowly when started talking to her, I began to open up in front of her. It's not easy to ease my pain all at once but I must say she is a good listener. Her way of speaking and soft tone often calm my mind. I know I should have taken professional help but due to some issue, it didn't happen. It's not like I didn't try to connect with the Therapist to erase my PTSD but for some reason, it didn't happen.

MarieHelen doesn't have any kids or family, she lives alone here in Almere with her dog. At one point during my therapy session, she told me that she is introverted too and she is a strong person. She has seen so much in life and her life experiences made her strong. Her friends call her a tough cookie.

A day before yesterday, she came here to meet her students, I mean her dutch class's students (we) and she brought an orchid for me. I told her before that how much I love orchids and how I feel leaving my orchids in Kharkiv and that's why she brought an orchid plant for me. I literally cried when I saw the orchid. She took us for dinner and taught us how to order food in Dutch. I already forgot what she taught us, I am really a bad student :D. She introduced us to Dutch food and ordered some delicious food and drinks for us.

I never thought I will meet such a person in life. She was a stranger but not anymore. I feel amazed at how she treats us always and how much she is trying to help us. I met @brittandjosie before but I knew her at least, she is a sweetheart and still doing a lot for us. We were not stranger to each other. But MarieHelen was a complete outsider and stranger.

The world is filled with good people indeed...

Thanks for reading my post...Have a great day everyone...

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Love

Priyan...