I’m dreaming of a softer land today, I am in touch with several young people the media calls “Dreamers,” and I have not mentioned the refugees and immigrants lately. My friend Ali Muhammed is still away, visiting the Sudan and Egypt where his family is. RISSE is quiet, waiting for the new school year to get going.
Devota and Valentine are doing well, putting their new lives together. Devota says to give thanks to the many people w ho helped her with her loan, i am going to see her in a week or so.
It was a powerful thing to see her with Valentine, who was three months old when Devota carried her on her back across Central Africa to escape the Rwandan genocide. The very dangerous journey took her nearly a year.
Devota dreamed about going to America, she aid, but she never thought she would survive that trip. I have thought more than once that both of these remarkable women would probably be dead if not for the United States.
Mawulidi the carver is working on his wood carvings, and will soon be offering them for sale on my blog. I am scheduled to meet other immigrants and refugees over the next months and the RISSE soccer team is waiting on their spanking new uniforms. They are practicing every week, waiting for Ali to return.
I’m giving myself and the Army Of Good and their pocketbooks a rest, and next week is Assisted Care Week, I am spending a lot of time at the Mansion. But I think of the refugees every day, and am eager to get back to seeing them and talking with them and writing about them, and when possible, helping them.
It is disheartening to see how divided we have become as a country.
Some people say they are fighting for the law, others say our government has become unaccountable cruel and uncaring. Maria S came to the United States when she was three from El Salvador, speaks only English, has been to American schools and is now in an American college.
She is applying to medical school, she wants to work in family practice, hopefully in Appalachia, where she feels the need is great, or in rural Texas. She is very frightened these days. If her temporary work status is canceled, she will have to leave school, and could not find work, and it is not clear if she will even be permitted to stay in the country. The prospect of being deported to El Salvador, where she has never been, is terrifying to her.
“It is so hard to live this way,” she said, “we are in constant fear and uncertainty. I was three when we came here, I have committed no crimes, I am an American, it is a dream for me.”
We are a divided people, we see the world in different ways.
As always, I want to stand in the shoes of the others, to try to see the world in the way they see it, rather than simply assume I am superior and correct.
I dream of a country with a big heart.
In the meantime, I will also stand with Devota and Maliwudi and the soccer kids and Ali and Maria S., as their American dreams threaten to become a nightmare.
They are on my mind today.