Rain in a dry land

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Have anyone watched the interesting documentary by PBS of some Soomaali ['Bantu'] refugees original ordeal and how they adjusted when they got to Mareykanka?

 

From the refugee camps in Kenya to the shock of seeing the first snow [and cutely wondering the 'smoke' from their mouths, without smoking] at their arrival in a New Jersey airport on their way to Massachusetts.

 

It was re-broadcasted tonight, which I think was a week after its original broadcast. Very, very interesting characters. I especially was touched by a brief scene at the end of the documentary, when Arbaay's daughter, Khadiijo, marries. On the wedding reception, it was very traditional, very Soomaali-like, the complete hidaha iyo dhaqanka. They are still proud of their Soomaalinimo, in spite of every hardship soo mareen, oo loo geystay.

 

Aaden Iidoow and Madiina Cali Yuunye family. And Arbaay Barre Cabdi family. And their struggles in America. When the heating at Aaden and Madiina's home is cut-off. Their food stamps cut off as well. And finally moving from their expensive rental apartment to a public housing. Their oldest child dropping from high school after a year because the courses were too hard on him.

 

I think the documentary should be available online by now.

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After more than a decade in a refugee camp in Kenya, to which they had fled to escape the civil wars tearing apart the Horn of Africa, two Somali Bantu families are stunned to learn in early 2004 that they will finally be allowed to immigrate to America. The resettlement plan began under Clinton in 1999, was interrupted by September 11th, and began again late in 2003. The families are, in a Somali Bantu expression, grateful recipients of bish-bish, which translates literally as "splash-splash," indicating the first rains after a long drought ("rain in a dry land") and, by extension, resettlement in America. In a world teeming with desperate refugees, where barren camps like the U.N.-supported Kakuma in Kenya become permanent rather than temporary fixtures on troubled borders, a ticket to the United States may be the ultimate bish-bish.

 

"Rain in a Dry Land" chronicles, in their own poetic words, the first 18 months of the American lives of Arbai Barre Abdi and her children and Aden Edow and Madina Ali Yunye and their children. Beginning with "cultural orientation" classes in Kenya, where they are introduced to such novelties as electric appliances and the prospect of living in high-rise apartment buildings, the film follows the Muslim families on divergent yet parallel paths as they learn that the streets in America are definitely not paved with gold, especially for poor immigrants. The families' sponsors — Jewish Family Services in Springfield, Massachusetts, and World Relief in Atlanta, have pledged six months of support, which gives the families a daunting learning curve to take themselves from the 19th century to the 21st.

 

The film measures the distance from an African refugee camp to an American city and asks what it means to be a refugee in today's "global village," providing answers in the stories of two families whose response to 21st-century culture shock presents an uncommon portrait of human persistence in the face of social disorder and change.

 

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[Haneefah]

I was actually hoping to see it, but was only able to catch the last bit of it.

 

I'm sure masakiinta are confronted with many unforeseen obstacles and difficulties during their resettlement period - Perhaps more so than other refugee groups. I highly doubt that mainstream Somali communities reach out to them and give them the much needed support; quite unfortunate and shameful really.

 

Ilaahey ha u gargaaro.