When David Piang, all earnest and young and handsome, blurted in a Starbucks coffee shop in Oshkosh Wednesday afternoon, “I have to help. I know how they feel. They are excited now,” he meant it.
He was shy and serious at first, but his face lit up when he said the words and anticipated the part he would play in welcoming a Burmese refugee family to Oshkosh that night.
Piang was a refugee from Myanmar, also known as Burma, three years ago who lived first in Spokane, Wash., for two years before coming to Oshkosh a year ago. He knows how Wai Hinn Oo, 32, and his wife, Nang Shwe Thein, and their 2-year-old daughter Christina Jolie feel — excitement mixed with fear of the unknown along with a huge amount of anticipation for a chance at a good life sums it up.
Piang had just finished his job for the day at Pick N Save, where he makes sushi, when he made the stop at Starbucks. He talked about the part he would play in welcoming the members of the refugee family who were expected to arrive on a flight that evening at Outagamie Regional Airport. Piang would act as an interpreter.
“Before we came to this country we had a dream. We studied about America in school. We were very excited to come to the United States. Everything changed,” he said in careful English.
The language barrier is the hardest part for refugees, Piang said. He said he intended to encourage this new family to go to school to learn the language.
He made arrangements for him and his wife Di Dim to ride along with the welcoming party that would travel to the Appleton airport that night.
Oshkosh has become the home of hundreds of refugees from other parts of the world – Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and Laos. People from these lands came to Oshkosh under the auspices of humanitarian organizations such as World Relief, Shelter Now International and Catholic Diocese of Green Bay’s Catholic Charities Resettlement a and Immigration Services.
They came to escape persecution for ethnic, political or religious reasons.
Piang, a member of the Chin tribe, fled the country of his birth nearly seven years ago during a time of mounting military activity.
Source : http://www.thenorthwestern.com
No comments:
Post a Comment