I wanted to introduce you to someone who has entered my world, who I felt an instant connection with, who I greatly admire. His name is Amjad Abdalla Muhammed, people call him Ali. He is a big man with a kind face and a love of helping children. He is a teacher at the Refugee And Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus (RISSE) in Albany.
This is where newly arrived refugees to America go for help after the come her. For day care, English classes, financial counseling and help finding work. Ali is a mentor to many children, he runs the RISSE soccer team and teaches in day care.
He has volunteered to work with me and help me tell the true story of the refugee and immigrant experience that is so vital to the American soul and tradition.
This tradition saved my family from almost certain slaughter, and thus in many ways, saved me. Ali was born in the United States. When he was one, his family moved to Egypt, they didn’t want him to lose touch with his culture and traditions.
And this tradition is my patriotic duty to defend.
When Ali was 17, he came back to live in America and is devoting himself to teaching and helping the children of refugees and immigrants who have followed him. He says he lives between these two cultures, each will always be a part of him.
He is open and gentle, and I felt an instant connection to him, his honesty and devotion to the students at the RISSE refugee facility is profound and complete. They trust him absolutely.
He refuses to be angry or bitter about the assault on the immigrant and refugee tradition underway, he sees is a temporary illness, like a winter flu.
“I love America,” he said, “America is better than this. Americans are open and generous and loving, the people who spread fear and anger are the few, not the many.”
He does not believe in hiding from the wider world, but in letting the world know the truth about the refugees and immigrants who are her and wish to come to America.
“America will come back,” he said, “it isn’t going to stay like this, this is not what America is.” I believe that, and I believe him.
We are a nation of refugees, the immigrant experience is part of our story, my story.
Ali and I made plans for the children at RISSE to come to Bedlam Farm as early as next week. Scott Carrino has volunteered Pompanuck farm and its pond and paths for them to visit. He will make some fine pizza for them at the Round House cafe and give them cookies from the bakery.
They will visit Bedlam Farm and see the donkeys and watch the dogs work. Many of the refugee families come from farms and rural backgrounds and I will ask Ed and Carol Gulley to give them a tour of their wonderful dairy farm, a virtual Farm Disney World.
Ali is beside himself with excitement about these trips. “It is just what we need,” he says. “They need to see the country, the animals.”
I offered the farm as a summer retreat for these children, stuck in a big urban city through the summer. What a gift to us, he said. What a gift to me, I said. Maria feels the same way.
My mission is to get to know the refugees, children and adults. To photograph them, visit them in their homes, write about their lives and struggles. “They did not come her to hurt anyone,” he said. “There are bad apples in every group, it is part of life. There is nothing to fear from them.”
That is my mission and message also, in addition to my writings about my life and the animals and the farm. I hope Ali and I can become friends, perhaps we already have. I hope I can help him and them when I can.
Ali is a very good and admirable man, already an inspiration to me in just a few meetings. Such selflessness is rare, I have met few people in my life who can step so completely outside of themselves and think only of others. I meet a lot of people who talk about doing good, not so many who simply do good, every day of their lives.
I think Ali is such a man. We will meet again on Wednesday at the RISSE day care school. I hope to see those 80 art kits in use.