Somali landy at University

Journeys home: After difficult wait, family entered U.S. By Jane Laskey • jlaskey@stcloudstate.com • May 15, 2008 Read Comments(10)Recommend (9)Print this page E-mail this article Share this article: Del.icio.us Facebook Digg Reddit Newsvine What’s this? ST. JOSEPH — Bibi Abdalla was 2 years old when her family fled Somalia in 1991. Though she has few memories of her homeland, her family has told her the story of their escape. “We left Somalia because of the war. It was horrible, just like any other civil war,” Abdalla said. “I was young when we left, but my family said there were gunshots every day. You could not even leave the house to buy groceries, because if you left the house there was a chance of being killed.” The Abdalla family headed for neighboring Kenya, sneaking across the border into its northern desert. “They traveled by foot, by car, by donkey — any way they could,” Abdalla said. At one point they had to ford a river, carrying their children over their heads where the water ran deep. The family had to be constantly on the lookout for militias that preyed on refugees. Once they reached the border, they had to get past Kenyan border patrols that were attempting to stop the flood of refugees into their country. Eventually the family made its way to a refugee camp in Kenya. It would be six years before another country would open its doors to them. Finally, in 1997, the Abdalla family was allowed to go to the United States. Refugee camp life Human Rights Watch estimates more than 300,000 Somalis fled into Kenya from 1991-93, 80 percent of them women and children. They filled Kenyan refugee camps to overflowing, creating crowded cities in the middle of nowhere. Abdalla spent her formative years, from ages 2 to 8, in a Kenyan camp. Her family was issued a small piece of land and they built a small mud hut. “There were no proper bathrooms, no proper schools, no proper teachers,” Abdalla said. “People who had been to school before had to volunteer to teach us.” Donations of food and water kept the refugees alive, but shortages were frequent. “The food was distributed every few months and if you ran out, you had to figure out a way to get more,” Abdalla said. “Shortages of water sometimes created tensions, but people were kind to one another. It was pretty peaceful.” Some of the refugees attempted to make their way to nearby cities. But if they were caught by Kenyan police, their situation went from bad to worse. “At times the police were lenient. At other times they would harass you or make you pay bribes,” Abdalla said. “There was no real system, no protection. They could put you in jail without having to go to court.” For camp children there were no toys and no playgrounds. “We’d take corn cobs and make dolls. We would cut our hair and attach it to the top of the cob to make it look more human,” Abdalla said. “We played house with the dolls and made up our own little plays. Boys would take wires and make little cars.” Abdalla’s favorite time was night. As the sun set and the heat of the day passed, the refugees gathered together. “The elders would come and tell stories. That was our television. That was the best time,” Abdalla said. They kept their hopes alive through the years with stories of the life that awaited them once they left the camp. “I thought that everything in America was made out of diamonds,” Abdulla said. “We used to say in the camps, if you were going to America, you were going to heaven.” Groups around the world were working to find a place for them. In 1997, a Catholic church sponsored their entry to America. Making a new life Abdalla was 8 years old when she came to the United States. She stayed for one month in Louisiana, then moved to the Minneapolis area. Abdalla’s first task was to learn English. “My math skills and everything were good but my English, I was starting from zero,” Abdalla said. “I got myself into trouble because I’d sit in front of the TV and memorize everything I heard. I would end up saying some language that I didn’t understand. I counted on people to correct me. Some laughed, but some helped and eventually that’s how I learned.” It wasn’t easy fitting in at first. “In general people have been very, very nice. But as a child growing up, there was a lot of hostility because of being African and being black. There was the sense that kids didn’t want to hang out with Africans,” Abdalla said. In 2002, when she was 13 years old, Bibi Abdalla became a U.S. citizen. But Abdalla believes that being an American involves much more than holding the right documents. “Having a piece of paper doesn’t make you feel proud. What makes you feel proud is knowing you are a part of the culture, you are a part of society. And I found that here,” Abdalla said. Abdalla has seen a real change in how the Somali community is accepted. “(Somalis) have been living in Minneapolis for a decade so people are used to us being here now. But at first it was kind of a culture shock,” Abdalla said. “But now we know each other and it’s better. We feel right at home now. I think most Somalis, we love this state. We love Minnesota.” Abdalla’s difficult past paved the way for her success in her adopted land. “Knowing where I came from, it helped me to push harder. For us to go to school was a huge privilege. If you went to school, you were lucky,” Abdalla said. “I was surprised how students talked to their teachers here. (Teachers) were like your parents and you would never talk back to them. It was kind of sad to see how people took for granted what they had here.” Abdalla graduated from Central High School in St. Paul in 2005, the first member of her family to finish high school. “Oh man, it felt really good to have achieved something that no one in my family had done before,” she said. Focused on future That fall, Abdalla headed to college. While she was tempted to go some place warmer, she knew it was important to stay close to her family and her new community. So Abdalla chose the College of St. Benedict. She will graduate in 2009 with a political science major and an economics minor. She has also been a participant in the Intercultural Leadership, Education and Development program at the college. Next on her list is law school, followed by a career in foreign policy. “I want to spend a few years here in Minnesota working with the Somali community and other immigrant communities,” Abdalla said. “My long-term goal is to work in international development. This is the country, is the place, to be if you want to better the world.” “Being American — we are the world in one country,” Abdalla said. “We have roots all over the world. You can find Europeans, Africans, Asians. I think we have the best opportunity to create a peaceful world — both for us here as Americans and for the rest of the world.”