From Zamzam to Samsam: My Journey to America

Samsam Mohamed was born in 1991 in the country of Ethiopia.  Her family is originally from Somalia, but was forced to move to Ethiopia and then eventually to Kenya due to the Civil Wars in those countries.  Samsam lived in Kenya until she was about twelve years old, when her family decided to come to the United States of America to be with her older sister that was already here, but also to escape poverty and for a chance at a better education.  Her and her family ended up in Minnesota and have lived here for the past ten years.  

(1)

The Beginning of 2004

My family decided that it was time to leave Kenya.  My sister had already left Kenya for the United States, and we all decided that it was probably best if we did that too.  The process of getting into America was not an easy one.  We had three long years of interviews from back and forth back and forth stupid questions like what kind of bus did you take to get here and was it called the GB, basically the interview area and basically going off from family history to the war and everything; I mean I was a little kid, so I didn’t really know much about it, but I kind of understood of this what was going on.  It felt like more of an interrogation instead of an interview which is kind of scary but it was okay, I mean its just a risk.  From then on once we get our visa in the beginning of 2004, we were given I would say probably about a month to come here and I was in Kenya at that moment, which is or was, we lived in the capital Nairobi, and from there on it was a matter of three weeks of getting shopping to going to a kind of like a refugee camp kind of thing.  You stay in for like the whole day until the night and they take you guys to a big bus and then the airport and your kind of like I would say imprisoned, you really don’t have much freedom, you can’t do much until you actually board, I mean it kind of makes sense they just want to make sure everyone’s safe and that you get into your destination properly.

(2)

 {Before we came to the US} we landed first in London {and} we stayed there for about a couple of hours and from there to New York. {In New York} it was a hassle because we ended up having the same family, well me actually, the same girl with first name, last name, and middle name. It was a huge problem just trying to clarify that, and we had to change our names from a Z to an S, so one of us had to take the other and that's just how, it took us at least five hours to clarify which family we belonged to. We went from New York to Chicago and then Chicago to here {Minnesota}. {Scary reason of coming to the US} I wasn't used to having so many different cultures within the same state. We lived in Cedar Riverside {near} the West Bank and my neighbors were Hmong, Mexicans, Ethiopians, Muslims, and every kind.(3)

The Dream Begins

Middle school I went to Anne Sullivan, its just right by Lake street and 28th, 29th, and high school I went to Edison High School for three years, and one year I went to Roseville Area High in Roseville.  I started here in eighth grade when I came here embarrassingly I knew nothing, whether it was the word simple as Hi to ABC, I knew nothing, I mean absolutely nothing.  I felt like an idiot thats like twelve years old, I’m in eighth grade and I’m just sitting right there don’t know nothing and then I was taking social history classes, basically regular eighth grade classes and then one of my two classes were taken away from me, actually two classes were taken away from me English and History, and put me into an ESOL and one of my teachers, his name was Abd Aziz, and I still can’t find him but he was my ESOL teacher.  He made my life easier {within} a matter of time I mean four months, five months, I mean I went from not knowing nothing basically to transforming to a sixth grade level, reading and stuff like that, which I still have no idea how that happened, but it’s all thanks to him I would say.  Of course I had my family and friends and everyone, but I mean thats the one person I can always pinpoint and say if it wasn’t for him I don’t think I would have learned as much as I did right now, I don’t think I would have enjoyed some of the things I did.  It would have been a living hell if it wasn’t for that man. I am currently a junior majoring in Family Social Sciences at the University of Minnesota.  Ultimately I’m gonna go to law school for human rights international, and I wanted something that’s a little bit different just in case I happen to not like it or it doesn’t work out, but at the same time something that connects to it as well, and I figured that if I wanted to go for law school Family Social Sciences is the one thing I have to understand, families and the diversity and just having a background of knowing how families from different worlds work outside of the world, outside of the US.  Everyone have some sort of dream. I have a dream I want to go to Yale law school sometime if it works out it is, so it was either here, St. Thomas, or Hamline and I couldn’t decide on my law so but I really wanted to pursue going to Yale and um for that I need a name. And I wasn’t on planning to leave this state until I either go to Yale or some other good school, so I was like if I’m gonna do my undergrads here I need a name.

Freedom of Speech

I am 22 {years old}.  I am the oldest, and we have, 5 year old being the youngest right now. I am a parent myself, so I got married back in 2011, and I have almost 2 year old son who's gonna turn 2 in January. I married within the religion and the culture. One really didn’t have anything to do with the family. It was more of the religion aspect of it. I mean I just wanted someone who practiced Islamic religion and then I’ve got to know him over high school, and I was in high school and he was a couple years older than me, so we seem to understand that it was a lot easier than still with other stuff so. It was I say a lot easier than when it comes {to staying within the religion}. I was always open-minded to marrying anybody. Honestly, as long as they practice Islamic religion, but as I got to know him, it was just the matter of fact that we shared the same culture, and  it was like he understood more. He understood me and I understood him so that’s just a lot easier than dealing with learning a whole new culture and adapting to it.  {My favorite part about the United States} I would say the freedom of speaking; the freedom of speech actually is the proper word.  I have a big mouth realistically; it gets me into a lot of troubles and that is one thing I am grateful for that I did not stay up there. I mean I did not stay in Africa at the moment because I know by now that if I stayed there I would have gotten into a lot of troubles. So even though here still there’s the big brother watching us, but I mean still theres still a little bit more freedom when it comes to saying what's in your heart and just speaking up I’d say.  {My views of the United States have changes from the time I got here because} felt like I was sleeping when I came here, and I did not know many of the things going on around me, and now I have theres a lot a lot a lot going on here, and not a lot of people that have much idea or know exactly what is going on until you start actually doing your own research and figuring out and um, just the one thing that always have me is cultures.  How we have so much cultures here but at the same time no one really takes the advantage of getting to know anybody.  I feel like everyone is secluded; I mean only to their own groups, and I’m not saying everyone is but most of the people are and that’s the thing that kind of scares me because I’m always use to the US is very what word am I looking for, what was the term again?  Melting pot, so I feel like that melting pot has not really melted.  Its more of like its own groups kind of connected or segregated themselves and I feel like if people start getting to know people, then we can actually be a whole country, I don’t know, just a little dream.

Footnotes

(1) https://plus.google.com/104987494789590412561/posts

(2) https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIt6Q8tQFfGUNkMf8o8L00x2DHduFDSCyEQ6X5prIfbUwednAsKxZ-INVxS1XctICmTUx4Vxu5mWVlY5uRpYEkG-QdyQiHr_P7-M_N8qYnoOB7s1C39AoUARW53tg_HO3YldOhOAv1a9s/s1600/ethiopia-kenya-somalia-map.png
(3) West Bank refers to the West portion of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Campus

Facilitators

Karson Herfurth, Megan Yang, and Donovahn Jones