Finding Community

Berthe Mairounga greets everyone with a beaming smile, full of charisma, and asks warmly how you are doing.  Her English has come a long way from when she first arrived in the United States, September 21, 2010, and did not know how to say “hello.”  She is a refugee from Chad – a single mother raising six children without hands.  She was begging for money on the streets of Cameroon when she applied to be resettled in the United States.  Her immigration counselor asked her why she wanted to go to the U.S., and she told him, “I want to go to America; I want my children to go to school; I am asking for money in the streets to feed my children, and it’s no good for me.  It’s better in the U.S. –there are people there to help you.”  She had seen it on TV.

The gentleman behind the immigration desk told her life is hard in America, too.  Berthe responded, “I want to go.  If it’s too hard, I will come back to Cameroon, but I have to try.”  She doesn’t have fingers, and when she arrived in Durham nearly four years ago, she couldn’t move her right arm.

She said it was very difficult when she first arrived and remembers getting lost one night on the Durham bus system and not knowing any English to ask for help.  She also remembers her CWS case manager helping her, taking her to the social security office, the food stamps office and the bus station to get connected with her new community.  She talks about Mary, the CWS Durham Director, interpreting for her in French, and her church, which CWS helped connect with Berthe as a co-sponsor, and how much they supported her.

Now Berthe converses comfortably in English.  She has had ten surgeries and can move her arm, elbow, and wrist, and has some ability to grasp and hold things. She chats with her oldest son’s friends.  He will go to Chowan University in Toronto in the fall.  He graduated high school this year and is working at Chick-Fil-A.

One of her daughters comes home from driver’s ed class.  She hopes her daughter will go to college soon, as Berthe says her favorite thing about America is school.  She takes advantage of the opportunity for education by taking English classes four days per week.  She is also taking a citizenship class to prepare for her exam and says she can’t wait to be an American.

Berthe volunteers at her church, and hopes to join the choir one day.  She would like to write articles about children respecting elders, and she works on her English writing skills with this goal in mind.  She’s also entrepreneurial.  She went to 10,000 Villages in Chapel Hill to tell them about some African women’s clothing her mother is sending to see if they are interested in selling some.  She also speaks to the manager about volunteering at the store.  Berthe and the manager already know each other.

When she leaves, Berthe flashes a big smile, “I know everyone – I really am American.”  When asked if she ever thought about returning to Cameroon, Berthe said, “Never; America is the best place to live forever.”

Storyteller: Mandy Maring, United States