very good. Yeah flour and sugar.
Was it the last camp you were at before you came to us. Um I was had and
then you know I stayed there with the camp from 1993 and then 1994
and then now we have a baby a that came there and interview people. So
they joined volunteer agency. Uh they came over there and they're looking
for people and then they interview us you know at first I I didn't make it
for the first interview in the first portion they came they came in 1994
and then I remained there and then later the person who took the guru the
camp we leave the camp from our side peter Yoko he came and then another
person his name is Jordan man pain, he become a camp leader too and then
he left. So after they left then I'll become the camp leader and then you
get to come and then you got the car, I became the camp leader and then I
was the camp leader for like I think five months and then later I came in
1995. Were you scared to come? Where did you know you wanted to? I really
wanted to come because I heard from the people who came here first you
know they sent out money you know um at that time we do not have like a
Western union and send the money to. So what we what we have with the
american express. You know they put their can I print that you see the
angle you know on the envelope. You know you have the money there you know
so they send the american empress and they send out the money there and
they say you guys are very good have education you want, you can leave
this the way that the way online you want. We were like hopeless in the
room. You can because when we lived there we do not have a hope for
education. We do not have a hope for where we what are we gonna be after
that. And then in 1995
didn't work out then I was able to come here. I always ate that day. I
will never forget. It was almost 8 1995 when I landed here in a small town
of Washington Minnesota of Washington minutes, washing wasn't Washington
wasn't Yeah, it wasn't Worthington wasn't it wasn't it was it was august
so it wasn't cold at all at that time it was barely a little heart going
down. No, it was august 1995 when I came, how did you feel about the
airplane ride? Where is that nerve At what did you think? The first thing.
It was, it was very funny because it was my first time to come through
the airplane and on my way first we were we were taking from from a smart
tom in Nairobi by a transportation by texas and then we went to the we
went to the airport and when we went to the airport you know this is the
first time I ever go to the airplane because I never I never sit in the
airplane you know so what I did was I was just looking trying to figure
out what this is all about it you know I see the airplane but I I never
knew they are tied to the terminal the way the way we walk into it.
I
thought you know like you gotta walk into it just like you get into the
car you know but it was different. We were in the airplane in the airport
and then we sit there and then later they call us like they boarded us and
then they tell us okay you can walk this way and then we walk we find
ourselves in the airplane and there there's no there's no room you know
like there's no open talk, we just walk inside the terminal and then we
get in there and then I'm like we are the airplane now huh?
You want to step into it. Uh and then we after after the gate is closed
there now the airplane pull out back and then we I sat in the window and
then I was looking very carefully always always trying to see what is
going to go in on here and then the airplane took us you know run on the
ground and then take us right there up there and then everybody like it
was like wait it was too scared and then I don't want to scared I was
scared inside. But in another way I was I was excited because I wanted to
go to the United States. You know I wanted to go there and then 10 cards
all the way we went all the way Death Planet. I came in with a gun fair,
you know like the Arab Air uh yeah the United Arab Emirates uh there with
the airplane I too. And then we went to from Nairobi we went to
Aba Daba. Okay. Yeah. And then from there coming from there to new york
city okay. Yeah. And then when we get, when we get the J. F. J. F. K. Uh
it was early in the morning you know got the confusing thing with you know
we live that at eight a.m. In the morning in Nairobi and then we went to
Abadan me and then when we get there with the two a.m. Uh huh He made a to
A. And then from two a.m. Now we flew all the way crossing the crossing
the world and then it was the morning somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
It was the morning, you know people work us up in the in the airplane and
say oh you gotta go write your teeth, you know you get to eat breakfast
like what the morning over A
and there was three at the end and we get here at eight a.m. In the
morning. Oh my goodness. Yeah, so the world is changing. You know, you
wouldn't even know where, where you go in and where you come from. Uh yeah
, it was a different experience. What do you think of new york city? You
can just see it or was it? I've got to see the new york city in the
morning, but we were very tired at that time. So when we came out we
thought the America with like a different world, like, like really, really
different, you know, so when we came in new york it looks like Nairobi oh
to us, you know the building a little bit different because new Yorkers
are new buildings but the people who walk on the street in the same way in
Nairobi because the Nairobi, you can see a crowd of people crossing the
world, that's how we see it. And most of the people look around the road
in new york, you know, they very much like african americans, you know, so
when we came there were like it is America
back in neighborhood why it's too many black people here, we thought we
got to see white people here.
So now it's different. Uh
yeah, so in the media in the evening then we were distribute, you know
everyone was taken to their destination state. So I was taken with one of
the drive, we came together at the newer guy. We came all the way to
Minnesota. And then we learned in a twin city, you know Minnesota
International Airport like uh Minneapolis in the international airport. So
we thought because I read when I read our ticket to say your discretion in
Minnesota, but I didn't pay attention to the small town of Washington
Minnesota. You know, then we were sitting right there after we get out of
the airplane. We were sitting waiting. And at the terminal we did not go
out there because we thought people would come and and pick us up. So we
sit there, we sit there for like two hours. All right. So there's more
shutter airplane waiting for all the outside from the terminal one waiting
for us. This is what I realized after after I knew everything. You know?
So they're waiting for us outside there. They knew they have two people
that need to go to a small village. So at that time mhm. You're scared. So
at that time there was one of the Somalia. Uh huh. So Monica, you work at
the airport and then he keeps coming around, you pass us and then you come
and see us again. You know uhh
And then when you came the third time or fourth time,
the people at the terminal knew that you know, we the two people that's
sitting here. We didn't know where we were, what you were doing. So he
called that person and uh talk to them and then they call us and say where
are you from? So yeah we are. We just came from africa. Yeah yeah. Where?
Oh yeah I'm so money. Yeah. So we feel like, oh I just talked to him you
know he's like your whole world, right? You come all the way over here
because he's someone from Somali. Yeah. And then he's like I think man I
didn't know I was I would say so. I would I would ever meet somebody from
from africa you know because this is different. Yeah we have too many, too
many, too many people here and to money. Two minutes. Uh Sudanese too. You
know. Yeah yeah okay. Give me your ticket and I've given my uh yes. And
after I gave him my ticket he said okay now look you this is not your
airplane. So you're going all the way to terminal one. You go to kind of
shorter so it's shorter, will take you to your destination. Your
destination is more time Call Washington men right here. Okay. Okay. Okay.
So now in to God he put us in a small car. Yeah it took us to the
terminal one. How did you like your small town? Did you like the small
town was it? When I when I learned the airplane, the two guards, we were
the only two people and the two and the pilot and the copilot. We were
like four people waiting
and that one you had to walk into right that's when I had to walk into the
plant was affecting the way
it just run on the ground and then it took off and then it was like
shocking you know because I don't like we didn't really like it. Yeah so
up to that we land there and then we can organize people because we have a
relative, the person who sponsored me with actually they're waiting for me.
You know two parts
he was here, they were actually waiting for me. So they pick up a relative
relative from Sudan from Sudan. Yeah yeah and now the pick us up there and
you know the funny thing was when they came we didn't know a person can
drive a car, okay because in africa you know see my story back then you
know like we do not have a car, no running water. No it's street nothing.
You know we never affect anybody from us to drive their own car. So when
they pick us up from the airport they say okay yeah you can take you with
me and then this person can go with, I'm like who's who's driving us? We
drive it. Hey you have a car. He said man you two you will have a car in
just a few months hey is that right now the life is completely different.
You know this is where the lives. And so they took us home and then now
uh after 28 days I started working at the meat factory, you know and uh I
started serving the money, you know, this is how I settled on, you know,
And then did you have a car in two months and in november 2000 and
november 1995. This is when I wore my first car and you get your driver's
license, I get my apartment and then I was driving, this is this is the
first time too. I had a big accident. I read my car that was very excited
, you know? Where did you record? How did you wrecked how I reckon with?
Okay, after 28 days. Then I started working with august when I came and
then in in september I started working and then I said money, a little
money and then october
I have a little bit more. And then I remember I bought my first guy with
the Koran victoria. Ford. Crown victorias cannotforget