Muna
As a young girl growing up in the areas of Ethiopia and Sudan, Muna learned first hand how much of a blessing a large family can be. “Moving,” “mixing,” “changing,” and “togetherness” are all words that Muna is very familiar with. After her birth within Ethiopia to Egyptian parents, Muna moved with her family to Sudan where she spent the majority of her life. After being taught and raised for awhile in Ethiopian cultures (mixed with Egyptian roots), her transition to Sudan was interesting. Her father had other family members who had moved to Sudan to find work and he later followed suit taking his large family along with him. Muna had nine children in her family as well as three step-brothers and sisters, all of which lived in one house. Muna said that “they [were] happy together. They [were] very good with my mom and [my mother-in-law.] We called them [both] mamma, mamma.” Staying close as a family helped Muna cope with the environmental changes that accompanied their move to Sudan. She had to quickly learn Arabic, as all the schools in Sudan taught Arabic.Muna had and always will have a love of learning. As a young girl living in a recently independent Sudan, whose educational system was still under British rule, she loved to learn and learned to love. She exclaims that “the school in Sudan before is very very good. Very good. We studied a lot.” Muna loved to learn about the world in which she lived. Before moving to America at a much later time in her life, Muna told me, “We have studied [America] before in elementary school in geography. We studied what happened here and that the country is going better, quick; not like my country.” Sadly her chance for attendance in a school system was taken from her at the young age of twelve years old when she married her husband and “in Sudan [at] that time, [there was] no school for someone who [was] married.” It was common practice during that time period to marry very young in Sudan. Although this is not a very common practice to date, Muna said that many people in small villages all over Africa continue to marry at a very young age.After meeting her husband’s parents in a city named Umm Durman who lived near Sudan’s capital city, Muna experienced another “mixed change.” She moved from her small village of Sannar to the home of her husband’s Egyptian and Moroccan parents, and she began to start a family. In north Sudan, “every family is mixed” Muna said. “You can go into one family, one is white and have green eyes, one is dark and is many color in one house. And they are together.” Muna learned the lesson of unified love across lines of difference. She continues to teach that today as well.During this time there weren’t only changes happening in her social and family life, but also the political structure around her. After discussing the history of Sudan with Muna, I learned that Sudan declared its own independence in 1954, and since then “every government…coming [in], they change many things.” The political framework of the Sudanese drastically changed as the British left and new forms of government entered the scene. One such change occurred as the British-run educational structure began to decay after their exit. “That is still every government is coming and change [the school], and now the school is not like before. Before it is very very good.” With some of her children still living in Sudan, Muna and her daughter Hiba, who was present at the interview, reflected on the different style of education she had versus that of her grandchildren still living in Sudan. Hiba shared some of the hardship that has come as a result of that historical change. She said that the “school over there, it’s expensive. Even with the public school, you have pay money to go into it. And [my sister in Sudan] has two kids in college right now.”Although Sudanese independence was promised to bring more freedom, in Muna’s personal experience, it brought more hardship. The early years of being a newlywed were difficult for Muna and her growing family, but they conquered it together. “Sudan… many years ago, [had] a lot of problems. For every family.” Many people were out of work, forced to sell their homes, or imprisoned for alleged treason if they voiced their opinions about the shaky government (which was often the case for Muna’s oldest boy Aladdin). Over the years Muna gave birth and raised a beautiful large family of nine children: Aladdin, Manahil, Madjuline, Ahmed, Huda, Mohammed, Sarah, Sahar, and Hiba. All children were born and raised in Sudan, all of which are now married except Mohammed and Hiba. After seeing my amazement of such a large family, her husband joked that “she have too much children” as he chuckled from the upstairs during our interview, putting a smile on Muna’s face.
Other changes that were forced on her growing family were the new government’s decisions to issue a mandatory military draft. “The government [would] come take all your house and your kids in high school. They [would] take the children to war in the south […] and after that, we [had a] very hard time.” The draft brought tough changes economically, and after a while, Muna’s husband’s job as a teacher was threatened. Afterwards, he began working in the new government’s temporary workforce. The increased cost of living coupled with economic hardships forced them to lose their home. It was difficult for Muna and her husband to see their neighbors forced to work for the government just to have enough money to put their children into school. “Many many many people from the north of Sudan [were] killed in the south. They [were] very young [and] they [were] very good people. They [were] killed. Nobody [came, so] what [could] they do?”Amidst the hardship, her faith and family only grew, while their love for one another and their pride as a diverse Sudanese family grew as well. Muna proudly taught that a true Muslim “[has to] have responsibility about your family.” During all this mixing, changing, and moving, Muna always fulfilled her responsibilities as a parent and worked hard to raise her children to teach their children the same values. One word frequently used in her speech was the word “together.” Although Muna detailed some of the hardships she faced as a Sudanese citizen, she never complained. She simply objectively explained “how things were” and then would follow up with a personal story about one of her children, her neighbors, or friends, exclaiming “she is nice. She is good.” Togetherness is of great importance to Muna. After one of the biggest changes in her life, her travels to America, she has a deep and innate desire to connect with her neighbors and loved ones. One of the things she misses deeply from the Sudanese culture is that when one “live[s] in the small village, you know about everyone in the village.” Although she has not always been extremely successful in connecting in the way she desires, Muna continues to amaze me and her family by reaching out to her family, neighbors, and community at large.After many years of joy and hardship in Sudan, her oldest son Aladdin traveled to Egypt and came across a process to apply for political asylum. “Aladdin… because he has… the responsibility about the family, he [traveled] to Egypt and he applied for the… refugee people.” He had the opportunity to be placed in an area with other political refugees, whether on American soil, Australian, Canadian, or somewhere else. He was instructed that he could file for his immediate family to accompany him, however any siblings that were married with their own families couldn’t accompany him. After being matched with Utah in a lottery-type application process, Aladdin traveled here on political asylum and found a place in the Hartland Apartments area in the west side of Salt Lake City. Aladdin was the first of Muna’s family to move to the United States in 2001, and over the next three years the single brothers and sisters (Mohammed, Huda, Sahar, Sarah, and Hiba) of the family, as well as Muna and her husband all landed in Utah and established Muna’s next “mixed change” in the Hartland apartments.
I asked Muna how it felt to come to a brand new place with new people and what she thought when she heard she was going to Utah. Her response was, “We just now American.” My perception was that she was going to explain how vastly different life in the U.S. was in comparison with her life in Sudan weighing contrasting pros and cons, but Muna’s contentment with continual changes struck me as such a wonderful quality. Life for Muna in Hartland somewhat resembled home she said. She knew her neighbors and many people were “mixed.” “Hartland is before have a lot of people from different country, many, many people.” Over the last six years in America, Muna and her family have experienced many changes. Many of the children she brought to America have married, had their own children here in the U.S., and many have moved to different states. One of the greatest changes Muna experienced while here in the United States is another chance to learn.While at Hartland, Muna grew to love and support the newly opened University Neighborhood Partners (UNP) Hartland Community Center. She and her husband had been previously attending the Utah Asian Association with other refugees to learn English, but were slowly making progress until UNP came along. Muna feels that it is crucial to try to adapt to change. She stated “after you coming here, you and everybody is learning English and have to speak the language of the country you live.” She told me a very short anecdote of her first encounter with English classes at the Asian Association that I feel reflects her strong dedication to learning.Muna: After the [UNP] office [was] open, I [saw] so many Somalians [that had been here maybe] ten years and they not speak English. And then I tell [them] “Why?” Maybe they don’t have someone to take them to the Horizonte or anywhere, but after the office is open and I [went] to many houses and they [said they went] to take the test of the citizenship four times…and not passed. And the first time [I went] to the Asian Association, I find some Afghani people, they are maybe 21 people in the class and two years and three years and half [in the U.S. and] nobody [spoke] English. And I [said], “What is that?” Maybe they are many Afghanis coming [and] they speak Farsi, and together in the class they speaking Farsi, still speak[ing] Farsi. And after I [came], that [was] the good thing…Randy: But you didn’t speak Farsi either, right? So you had to speak English?Muna: Maybe that is good for me, because I [couldn’t] find anyone that [spoke] Arabic in that class and everybody speak Farsi and sometime I be crazy. They [were] speaking too much Farsi! The first time, I don’t know how I can tell them to be quiet. [Muna and Randy laughing]Muna: And I use like the potty language. “Hey, hey, hey [Muna raps on table] Shhh! [Muna puts finger in front of mouth to shh] You see the teacher!?” And some they don’t like me, because they just speak. Two years, and after I am [here] two months, I [could] speak and say “Two years in the class and no speak English, what you going, what you come to do?”Randy: You’re a hard worker though. [Randy giggles]Muna: Yeah. You have to speak the language of the country you live. And you going to pay something, you‘re going everywhere, what can you do [without it]? [They didn’t] like to speak English.During the very short duration of her time here in America, Muna has done an excellent job at learning and adapting to American customs as well as conquering yet another language, English. Among her fellow neighbors and classmates, Muna is a prime example. She has told me on countless occasions that she used her experience as an older Sudanese woman who learned English on her own and gained American citizenship to help others at Hartland to recognize and see that the sky is the limit.After living at the Hartland Apartments and working and learning from UNP’s Hartland Community Center, Muna and her family were forced to face yet another change. After the apartments were sold to new management, many of the residents who were supported by Section 8 federal housing subsidies were let go after their lease agreements expired. Muna and her family were one of the many who were given only a month to find new residence, which then brought them to their new town home where I conducted the interview. Muna and her daughter Hiba expressed their deep love for Hartland and how much they miss their memories there. When asked if it was hard to leave Hartland, Muna responded, “Yeah, to leave the school.” Her drive to learn and grow was further made evident when she told me that one of the reasons she and her husband picked the location for their new home, was because it was close to public transportation lines that could get them around town and easily to classes at the UNP Hartland Center.Muna’s sense of “togetherness” stretches to the many relationships she has with individuals. Over the course of our hour conversation, Muna told tens of individual stories about her teachers, community leadership partners, friends, family, and children. She knew about their interests, their beliefs, their struggles, their homes, and their lives. Perhaps she doesn’t live in a small village anymore where “you know about everybody,” but she brings that same authentic emotion to her interactions with others. While visiting with her she shared some very poignant advice that she taught her daughter.Muna told Hiba, “everywhere you [go], you have to choose the very good friend. Maybe the black people, they don’t like the white. Everyone is feel like that, but that is not good. Don’t care about the color; about everything. Maybe you going to call them, they be okay with you. The first time you be scary, maybe they don’t like you, maybe they don’t… but after you going and touch everyone, maybe [they’ll] be [a] good friend and help you.”Muna is a very genuinely sincere and trusting person. She respects what others tell her and learn from others’ experiences. One noted example of this came through the process of her picking her new home. She told me that she relied on the experiences of a fellow Hartland neighbor who had a hard time living above a family who constantly needed things quiet. This one conversation changed her perception of her living quarters and led her to choose a townhome, so that no one would be living above them or below them and wouldn’t run into the same problem.
Muna always relates things in a personal way by telling stories. The majority of the answers to posed questions were given in story format. She is a great story teller. While explaining how life as a Sudanese woman in the United States is, rather than explaining her thoughts, she relayed personal stories from her daughter Sahar’s life in San Antonio, Texas and how she networks within the Sudanese population to find new friends. After I asked about her relationships with her neighbors in their current area, she told individual stories about many different neighbors, each coming from a unique background and different areas such as from Kurdistan, Vietnam, Sudan, Utah, and many others.Muna creates community. Through her optimistic attitude, her strong connections to her children, her work with UNP, and her continued effort to learn and teach, Muna has become a great connector of individuals. Although she feels that most of the neighbors she has met thus far are shy, timid, and keep to themselves, she is very hopeful that after more contact with one another they might get to know each other better. It is very evident that Muna continues to and always will connect with others. During every visit made to Muna’s house, there is always something going on. Whether an American neighbor is there eating baklavah or she is babysitting a neighbor’s little girl, Muna is always making an effort to reach out and follow her deep-rooted belief that “you have to see all your neighbor[s] every time. Right and left.” I am amazed at her giving spirit and her drive to share with others. Although now farther from UNP Hartland after “moving” to their town home, she continues to “mix” things “together” and “change” her community with the help of her family and side-by-side with others.Muna is known for her amazing talents in the kitchen and for the delicious food she cooks, and it’s enjoyed by many. Each visit I had with Muna, whether in the classroom or at her home, I never left on an empty stomach. Her culinary talents have led to one of the many initiatives she is currently working on. Muna is currently a member of a committee of diverse individuals who are seeking to facilitate a community kitchen that will provide many people the opportunity to cook in a health-inspected kitchen that has the proper licensing so that their food can be sold to local merchants, shops, and restaurants. Meeting with other Utah women has been a real joy for her. “Mixing” and sharing recipes with other women has brought a bigger smile to her face.
Muna: Another lady she told me, “I’m cooking everyday and you bring [me] some baklavah and falafel,” and [then] she say “I know the falafel I make in my home, but [it’s] not like your falafel.” She say, “your falafel is very stronger.”Randy: Yours is better?Muna: Yeah! I say, “You know, maybe you not putting packing powder in the falafel” She say “Wow. I have to put that?” “Yes.” [Laughs]What the future will hold for Muna, she does not know and she is okay with that. “Sometime you don’t know what is your future… and you don’t know where is your destiny.” As you can tell, change is nothing new for her. She knows that life is an adventure worth living and as she says “I just like to be [with] all my family together everywhere. It’s okay.” One thing she knows for sure is that over the next five years she wants to continue to learn, especially how to speak better English and to begin learning how to read and write English. It seems no matter how much change comes to this amazing woman, mother, neighbor, and friend, that one thing won’t change, her love for others and her love of learning!
