By DAVE MYERS, Southwest Kansas Catholic
Alnour Dahab, tall with a grey, neatly trimmed beard, sat on a mattress on the floor of the Dodge City home he shares with his wife, Arfa, and their five children—three girls and two boys.
Arfa, adorned in the traditional Muslim dress of their native Sudan, sat next to her husband on the mattress, holding their three-year-old daughter.
The couch was reserved for their guests (myself and my wife, Charlene). They have one more chair in their sparse living room. Their other four children darted happily around the house, occasionally peeking shyly from around a doorway at the two guests. (At the conclusion of the interview, their children were told to come in and greet their guests. Each child shyly shook our hands, and in soft voices, introduced themselves.)
The family has been in the United States for only two months, having come directly from Egypt where they lived for five years—three of those years in a tent-camp set up by the Red Cross.
Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas, which for some 55 years has opened its doors to anyone in need regardless of religion or country of origin, was quick to help the young family get settled into their new life.
For the first time in many years, the family can breathe free. No more nationalized racism, no more bombs falling from the sky!
“Life in the camp was very bad,” Alnour said through his friend and interpreter Amhaj Mangel. “We had to sleep on the ground. It was very windy and cold. When it rained, no one could sleep.”
Acquiring food, much less medical care, were challenges with which the mother and father of five small children had to contend each day. It was during this time that Arfa became pregnant with the little girl she now held on her lap.
And it was also during this time that they struggled with severe racial bigotry.
“The Egyptian people didn’t treat them good,” Mangel said of his friends. “They used to get beat up because of their skin color. In the government offices, the people are all Egyptian. If an Egyptian does something wrong, and he does it to a Sudanese, the Egyptian would not get into trouble.
“If you are Sudanese in Egypt, you have no rights.”
So, why did the family choose to leave their homeland of Sudan, where Alnour came from a family of farmers—raising peanuts, okra, onions, corn, cotton and garlic—only to place themselves in such difficult circumstances?
This is when Mangel takes out his phone and shows the effects of years of warfare between North and South Sudan. Photos on Mangel’s phone depict fires burning from bombing raids. Another shows what appears to be dozens of people laying prone across the desert floor in one of the camps.
At first they looked like they were sleeping, as if, like those in Mediterranean and South American countries, they were taking part in an afternoon nap to escape the heat of the day.
“All dead,” was Mangel’s response.
Alnour, Arfa, and their children had to make the sad but necessary decision to flee their homeland.
Mangel, the interpreter and friend of the family, came to the States four years ago. When he escaped Sudan two decades ago, he first went to Libya where, for 10 years, he found a stable life.
This all changed in 2011.
From the perspective of many Americans, the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 in Libya meant an end to a dictator. In Libya, he was praised by many for making changes that improved the Libyan’s people quality of life. The answer is not black and white, and probably lies somewhere in the middle.
For Mangel, the killing of Gaddafi led to the sudden flood of racial hatred toward foreigners.
He found himself on the run. He and his wife and children escaped to Egypt, and after six years there, to the United States.
At this point in the interview, Mangel had to leave for work. (When asked if he liked his job at Cargill, he replied, “In Africa, I worked for 12 hours a day for $10” a day. Enough said.)
Just prior to heading to work, his 19-year-old daughter, Mona, arrived and continued to act as interpreter for the newly arrived family. Mona said that once she and her family arrived in the United States four years ago, they first went to the state of Georgia, but found the cost of living too high, so they relocated to Kansas.
“It was like a whole different world,” said Mona of her life in the United States.
After four years here, the teen, who is studying to become a nurse, speaks nearly perfect English.
Mangel, his daughter Mona, and the rest of their family live close to Alnour and Arfa, and have been of invaluable support to the newly arrived refugees.
Alnour and Arfa have very little as far as possessions, but they have something of far greater value: For the first time in a long, long time, the family feels safe. They are housed peacefully in the heartland of America with friends close by. They have a roof over their heads and a floor under their feet.
As we drive off after the interview, three of the adult family members stood on the front porch, the colorful dresses waving in the wind, smiling as their new friends drove away.
Credits:
Created with an image by Kyle Glenn - "Globe"