This is my husband Rick and a sweet little boy named Musa Jabril Musa. Musa's family came to the US in July of 2003. They are Somali Bantu people who spent twelve years living in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. The only English words Musa knew when we first met him were: "Chicago" and "America." (I guess his family had been saying those words a lot around that time.) He was three years old. Rick has a short video clip on our camera of the first time Musa visited a grocery store in America. It was a pretty overwhelming experience. Food had not been all that easily excessable in Kenya. Certainly not in that quality or abundance. When Musa first came here his belly was round and swollen from malnutrition. It took a really long time for that visable symbol of his suffering to go away.
We love Musa. Today is his 8th birthday. He is in 2nd grade. He loves pizza and batman. He's gentle with his little siblings. He likes writing his name and spelling simple words. He's getting enough to eat and learning to read and has access to medical care. I'm not sure how much he remembers about his time in the refugee camp, but when Musa grows up I hope he won't forget about the millions of other kids just like him. I hope he'll find a way to remember Kenya.
Happy Birthday Musa!
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