New lives, new lessons

Oct. 2006, The Herald

By Krista Kapralos

EVERETT – In Africa, Bantu families squat in a circle on a dirt floor and reach into a communal pot of chicken and rice with their hands at mealtime.

When everyone is finished, the scraps that have fallen on the floor are swept away, often out the door toward the fields where the families work each day.

It’s how the tribes have eaten for as long as anyone can remember.

Now, everything must change.

Most Somali Bantu refugees have been in the United States for two years or more, but they’re still learning the basics of how to run a household here.

Asha Mohamud, a refugee who came to the United States in 2004, said the children don’t know that they can’t spill milk on the floor anymore.

“In Africa, it’s just dirt,” she said. Read more

Learning life in a new land

May 2006, The Herald

By Krista Kapralos

EVERETT – It was the winter weather that drove the Hamadi family away from central New York.

Bitter cold snapped through their clothes. Snow seeped through the seams of their cheap boots.

Venturing out of their apartment became unbearable in a city where temperatures are known to hover well below zero for days.

“The children were coughing,” Hamadi Hamadi said. ”They couldn’t go to school. They just stayed home to keep warm.” Read more