Sudanese Archives - FINDING AMERICAN

Sudan

Amal remembers Sudan as sunny, wild, and breathtakingly beautiful, and the Sudanese people, as very giving.

Amal’s grandmother, Souad Kalafala, whose name means “happiness”, took care of Amal when she was growing up.

“She taught me how to cook, clean, and organize everything. She also taught me how to trust myself and how to plan for my future.”

Amal realized as a child that she had a real talent for painting. She started using the ink of henna, something popular in Sudan, to do her drawings. Amal especially loves doing henna for brides and grooms, a tradition at Sudanese weddings.

Amal met her husband Aamir at the hospital in Khartoum when she was tending to her sick father, and in 2002 she and Aamir married. She had a good job working at the Bank of Khartoum, and Aamir was a taxi driver.

Danger

In 2008 the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) invaded Khartoum. Both parties, the JEM rebels, and the Sudanese government’s army wore similar military outfits, which made it very difficult for anyone to distinguish between the two. While the conflict was ongoing, a group of men entered Aamir’s taxi, and he drove them to their destination. The next thing he knew, Aamir had been captured and jailed by the Sudanese National Intelligence. They accused Aamir of being a member of the JEM rebels, but he was only a taxi driver doing his job.

“I was imprisoned and tortured for a very long time.”

Fleeing to Egypt

Later that year, Aamir escaped from prison, and together the family fled to Egypt with their four-year-old son Ahmed Amir in tow. The five years they spent in Egypt were extremely difficult on Amal and Aamir. When they arrived in Egypt, Aamir was “completely broken” from the torture he had endured – so bad that at one point, he had to be hospitalized. Amal reflects on how long it took for Aamir to get healthy and start communicating again. Despite the terrible memories they have from Egypt, Amal says she met many kind Egyptians.

Their son Ahmed Amir who lived there from age four to age nine, remembers it differently than his parents.

“It was really fun in Egypt! My favorite memory was in a place called Alexandria. I remember how my father taught me how to swim and tried to teach me how to float.”

In Egypt, Amal’s family applied to the United Nations as asylum seekers. After applying, they noticed an improvement in their medical care, and Ahmed Amir was finally able to go to school. For five years, they lived in Egypt, waiting and hoping they would be able to restart their lives somewhere else soon.

Connecticut

Before leaving Egypt, they found out that their new home would be the United States. Amal and her family landed in Connecticut in November 2013. Staff from IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services), a refugee resettlement agency that helped bring their family to the US, were at the airport waiting. They brought Amal, Aamir, and Ahmed Aamir to their new apartment. That first morning in America was the first time any of them had seen or touched snow.

“I woke up, and I thought Americans were crazy! I had never seen snow in my life so I thought I saw flour, and it was some cultural tradition that they threw flour on the ground and everything, but then my mom explained it was snow. Then I went outside and I wasn’t wearing anything heavy. I froze in no time! It was really cold outside, and inside it was really warm. It was a really good day.” (audio below)

IRIS

IRIS has had a lasting positive impact on Amal and her family. According to Amal, since picking her family up at the airport, IRIS has been with them “step by step.”

“IRIS was like a big mom for us.” (audio below)

The morning after they arrived in New Haven, they were driven to the IRIS building where they met the staff. Amal will never forget how they were all smiling. Sometimes weekly and often daily, Amal and her family would go to IRIS if they had any problems.

According to director Chris George, IRIS is not a typical resettlement agency. It doesn’t want to only be “an assembly line of services during the initial months of a refugees’ arrival”. IRIS’s team realizes that refugees need more sustained help. so they provide programming that other agencies might consider extras, like health care, employment services, and an English language program with an early learning program. (audio below)

“We have these resources because the community knows about us and supports us.”

From Chris George’s experience, Connecticut, and specifically New Haven, is a welcoming place to newcomers. The local community sees the benefits of having a diverse population. (audio below)

Adjusting

Adjusting to life in Connecticut was challenging. Amal went from survival mode in Egypt – where the only thing she was thinking about was the safety of her husband and son – to the United States, and finally being able to imagine a future. Amal found herself always anxious that she was going to lose this newfound safety. (audio below)

Despite being in a much safer environment, it has been challenging for Aamir and Amal to find work and communicate in English. The English Amal had learned in Egypt was British, and people didn’t seem to understand what she was saying at first. Aside from studying English, Amal works part-time in the Whole Foods produce section and loves her supervisor, and coworkers. Her husband, Aamir, works full time at a local restaurant as a dishwasher. He is often on the night shift and usually works 50 or 60 hours a week. He wants to go to school to improve his English, but he doesn’t have any time right now.

Ahmed Amir started fourth grade after arriving. He remembers being in ESL (English as a Second Language) class with Mr. Zach, someone whose patience and kindness helped him adjust. Ahmed Amir couldn’t believe how many different countries his classmates were from.

“Everybody treated each other equally like nothing was different no matter what race you were or color. Everybody was treated the same.”

Ahmed Amir has developed a real love for basketball since moving to the US, something he would never have played in Sudan. His favorite subjects are geography and history and he is especially excited to be learning Spanish this year, so he can communicate with some of his new Spanish-speaking friends in their language. (audio below)

Uncle Adam

They have one other person living in their house, and they refer to him as Uncle Adam. From the Darfur region of Sudan, Uncle Adam had been living in Libya and working as a tailor. When civil war broke out in 2011, he sought refuge at Salum Camp, on the border between Egypt and Libya. Like Amal’s family, he was resettled to New Haven in 2013 but was immediately admitted to hospital for two major surgeries. Today Uncle Adam is blind in one eye, has diabetes, a tumor in his head, and kidney problems.

After arriving in New Haven, Uncle Adam lived for three years in a home with other single men who didn’t have a family. Most of these men in the house were young and busy working, so they didn’t have time to help him. Uncle Adam and Aamir are not from the same family or tribe, but Aamir saw that Uncle Adam was lonely and started visiting him regularly. Aamir would cook for him, do his laundry, shave his beard, and cut his nails. Aamir could see Uncle Adam wasn’t happy there, so he started bringing Uncle Adam to the house for Amal’s Sudanese cooking. (audio below)

Amal and Aamir realized they could take care of Uncle Adam on a full-time basis. With the help of IRIS, they did all the paperwork to become legally responsible for the care of Uncle Adam. When they first were resettled to New Haven, they lived in a one-bedroom house, but the judge said they needed to change homes for Uncle Adam to have his own room. This change meant an increase in rent, but they are managing.

Faith

Prayer and religion continue to be a big part of their family’s life in America and it’s something that they share with Uncle Adam.

Audio: The family and Uncle Adam praying at home

“We take Uncle Adam to pray at the mosque so that he can see other Sudanese people. Now he is one of the community, and he is doing better.”

Amal says the saddest part of Uncle Adam’s story is that he was trying everything to get his wife to the USA. With the help of a lawyer from IRIS, they started doing all the documents and coordinating with the US embassy in Khartoum. She got her visa, and one week before leaving for the US, she passed away. Uncle Adam was never able to see her again. All four of his children are still in Sudan, and they don’t have the financial means to visit him.

Ambitions

While in Egypt, Aamir learned how to weld. Someday he would love to work as an engineer or pipeline inspector in the future instead of being a dishwasher. Amal wants to improve her language skills, so she can know more about the people she meets, and they can know her. On top of working at Whole Foods, Amal is studying English, as well as culinary arts, with the hopes that it will land her a good job in the field.

“We need to improve ourselves, our language, and be one of them [Americans]. We came to this country, have our own culture and traditions, but we need to know about these people. At first, we felt like guests, but I think after five years, we are a part of this community.” (audio below)

Future

Amal’s dream for the future is for her son Ahmed Amir to be happy, and seize the opportunities that she knows he has in the United States.

“I think he is very lucky because of the education he gets here. There are more opportunities here if you want to improve yourself with knowledge. Everything is available here, unless you don’t want it.” (audio below)

Ahmed Amir dreams of one day traveling to Sudan to see his grandmothers and uncles again.

“I see them over the phone, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen them in person.”

*Update: Since the interview, Amal moved her family to Vermont for an incredible educational opportunity – private high school education for Ahmed Amir. Uncle Adam stayed in Connecticut, at the recommendation of his doctors.

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© Photos and text by Colin Boyd Shafer | Edited by Kate Kamo McHugh. Quotes are edited for clarity and brevity.

Parents

Moon’s father had been a soldier in Sudan since the age of 12 and ended up in Ethiopia after escaping the Second Sudanese Civil War. He met Moon’s mother, Fetelwork, in 1984, while she worked at the camps as a translator for the UN. Fetelwork knew nothing about Sudanese people and felt scared when she found out that he liked her. He was persistent, bringing her tea and cookies and always asking her for help with his homework. Then he invited her over to his house. The first night she stayed there, she hid under the bed out of fear that he may eat her. In 1990 they married.

Life in Ethiopia was never easy for Fetelwork and her husband.

“In Ethiopia you have to struggle for your life.”

Moon

Moon was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Growing up, her father called her “Cow Eyes,” saying that her eyes were way too big for her head.

“I remember herding sheep in the hills. I remember hearing hyenas laughing outside at night.”

Moon is the middle child in the family. According to her mother, Moon was more independent and mischievous than her other seven children. To have quiet when visiting Grandma, they would tie Moon by bedsheet to a table leg. Only then, Fetelwork recalls, could they drink coffee peacefully.

Moon’s parents’ common language is English, so Moon picked up a little bit before coming to the United States. According to Moon’s mother, the fact that Moon’s father is a Sudanese refugee helped their case for being formally resettled to the United States.

Maine

Moon, at four years of age, didn’t understand why her family was leaving the refugee camp. She had just planted this little watermelon plant, and they were ripping her away from it. She was excited to watch it grow, and now she couldn’t. (audio below)

In 1995 when her family arrived in Maine, Moon remembers how it may have been cold outside but the local community made her feel warm. It was a time when there was a massive influx of immigrants and refugees moving to the state. Maine’s population is 98% white, and in general, the white Mainers approached these newcomers with curiosity, not stigma. Still, it didn’t take long for Moon to experience racism.

“I remember when they called me ‘nigger’. I didn’t know what that word meant.” (audio below)

Family

Understanding her family’s history has always been of great importance to Moon. Growing up, her father would always quiz her about their family tree, making sure she never forgot where her people came from. (audio below)

Moon still feels most comfortable in her mom’s kitchen. The smell of incense and familiar foods, bring her peace.

“If my mom is making coffee, it means everything is okay.”

In the Portland neighborhood, where Moon’s mother lives, she is famous for her popcorn. All the kids in the area come by regularly to taste this simple secret recipe she takes pride in. (audio below)

Survivor

Moon works in youth advocacy and is passionate about empowering peoples’ voices that aren’t being heard. As a survivor of abuse herself, she wants to protect others from losing their innocence.

“I feel like all of humanity is sick.” (audio below)

Powerful

Moon found the stigma she faced in her own community, as a survivor of abuse, to be debilitating. This is why she became obsessed with getting strong physically and joined the national guard for four years – trying to show that women can be strong. Her father encouraged Moon to have a voice – always bringing her with him to important meetings with elders in their community.

“I think that women will be the ones that bring back healing. My father always told me to be better than the boys. A woman can stand in a man’s presence and be as strong as she wants to be and even surpass a man.” (audio below)

Moon and her colleague Patricia (above) are trying to put together a new social enterprise organization focused on “kindness projects” to empower women. She hopes it will eventually lead her to help specifically with women in South Sudan.

Spoken Word

Moon likes to express herself in spoken word. When she was going through a period of depression, she found it lifted after she wrote her poem, Have you seen my Son? (audio below)

Moon feels like immigrants, in general, are misunderstood and vilified. She thinks it’s important to put faces and stories to who they are and for Americans to learn about what happened in these peoples’ homelands that caused them to move.

“I want to empower others like me to rise above all stigma placed against us. I want to show them that an African girl can speak on prestigious platforms and that conformity isn’t a transition plan we are willing to accept in this country. America was built on the foundation of being a new land of dreams and opportunity, and I should not feel ashamed for asking for the freedom and opportunity offered to everyone else. I love to tell my story, because past being an immigrant, I’m just a passionate human.” (audio below)

Home

Moon feels like the warmth she felt upon arriving in Maine is thinning with the current administration.

“I often find it strange that the place I know most as ‘home’ isn’t a place that necessarily sees my presence as a positive addition.”

Still, Moon’s commitment to her community is unstoppable.

Goals

Moon’s family lost their whole suitcase when moving from Ethiopia to the United States.

“We literally landed here and had nothing.”

She knows what it is like to lose everything, and that’s why her goals and how she will measure her success is more focused on relationships than tangible things.

“I always say I would be happy living in a hut. I constantly make sure that my end goal is nothing materialistic.” (audio below)