DEPARTED FROM
Mogadishu, Somalia
ARRIVED IN
Seattle, Washington
YEAR
2000
AGE
10
NOW LIVES IN
Seattle, Washington
TRANSCRIPT
The first was… my mom was supposed to come and then leave the kids with her side of the family. But, she chose me to come to the United States instead of herself and stayed with my four siblings back at home. But, I remember giving her a hug, you know, and telling her that I love her and she loves me and that my dad would take good care of me. I remember her saying that… and that’s the last time I saw her and my siblings.
I was relieved when I came, you know, I mean, I didn’t have to worry about like being kidnapped by the warlords. I didn’t have to worry about like starving, you know, like all that, and I was just excited and happy to start this life… this journey.
It was nice to wake up without hearing gunshots or people screaming around you. It was nice to just wake up peaceful, everybody. There was breakfast ready and we all had our day planned to adventure out to Seattle and look at the space needle. We just... we had an adventure and we had goals and plans. So me walking downtown Seattle… I was amazed by all the people. I’ve never seen people of color other than my own race. You know what I mean, so it was just shocking when I see this, Asians, Whites, whatever… I was stunned. You know what I mean? I never saw them in real life. I saw them through the TV, but never in real life, so it was a culture shock to me.
We were just all having fun taking pictures and having a great time going out to eat, you know what I mean, just having a family time. Our uncle was just showing us everywhere, what’s what and this and yeah it was great.
I was happy, you know what I mean, I was grateful for the opportunity because not a lot of people are able to have that and get away from it. There’s still people out there that probably will never be able to see America. I’m just fortunate enough to make it here… alive.
