
{"id":2282,"date":"2008-04-10T06:33:21","date_gmt":"2008-04-10T14:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2008\/04\/10\/refugee-families-plant-food-new-roots\/"},"modified":"2008-04-10T06:33:21","modified_gmt":"2008-04-10T14:33:21","slug":"refugee-families-plant-food-new-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/04\/10\/refugee-families-plant-food-new-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Refugee families plant food, new roots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/siem_gardening-clubresized.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/siem_gardening-clubresized.jpg\" alt=\"The Karen refugees from Burma show off the friendships they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made in the gardening club at Frank Porter Graham Elementary, where many of the children are students. From left to right: Hsar Ree Ree Wei, 9; Iza Garayua-Tudryn, 7; Hla Win Tway, 10; Hsar Paw Paw Wei, 12; Mueh Pay, 10; and Kyew Shar Aye, 9. Photo by Morgan Siem.\" align=\"left\" height=\"112\" width=\"161\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Morgan Siem<\/strong><br \/>\nCarrboro Commons Writer <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The stillness that characterizes most elementary schools on Saturday mornings is missing at Frank Porter Graham Elementary. Julie Spomer makes sure of that.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday has become her favorite day of the week since the inception of the gardening club with the Karen refugees, she said.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->After being granted political asylum by the State Department through the efforts of Condoleezza Rice in the summer of 2007, a group of Karen refugee families now lives in Carrboro with help from Lutheran Refugee Services. They had been living in Mae La refugee camp in Northern Thailand after fleeing the militaristic government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When we lived in Mae La, the Burmese hated us and would bomb our camps,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said MiH Too, who immigrated in September 2007 with her five children. Her 11-year-old daughter is a student at Frank Porter Graham and a member of the gardening club there.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturdays, her daughter and the other Karen students come together, along with some of their parents, for gardening club meetings at the school.<\/p>\n<p>The idea for the gardening club arose during a meeting in which community members discussed ways to help the Karen refugees feel more connected to the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They wanted to give back to the school in a way that builds community and school pride, but they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t financially,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Spomer, who teaches English as a Second Language at Frank Porter Graham.<\/p>\n<p>Spomer has played a major role in the gardening club since it began. One of the original goals of the club was to provide the families with nutrition, since many arrived in the United States with vitamin deficiencies.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I ate onions, lettuce, broccoli and watermelons that we grew,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said 9-year-old Hsar Ree Ree Wei, who goes by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ree Ree\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and stood out for her fluency in English.<\/p>\n<p>But the gardening club has become much more than a source of nutrition. It serves as a social time for the kids, who do not have an after-school program. The relationships fostered have also fueled tutoring lessons, which Spomer conducts for the children as well as their parents, and the group takes outings together, such as trips to the library.<\/p>\n<p>On the first Saturday of March, the group went to Wal-Mart together. For many of the Karen, it was their first time in such a large store. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Sunrise Rotary Club had donated $50 gift cards for each family to spend.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the trip, shopping carts full of art supplies, a microwave, sneakers, soda, toilet paper and DVDs rolled up to the register.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Register,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Spomer said, enthusiastically taking advantage of the opportunity to teach English vocabulary.<br \/>\nSpomer also slips in vocabulary lessons while she gardens with the club members.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so hungry to learn,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Spomer said, citing a time when she went to tutor two mothers and 20 showed up. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was so awesome. It brought me to tears.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She also told the story of one refugee family who had been in town for a month without ever complaining that their electricity still had not been turned on.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need people to advocate for them, because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t complain, and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak up for themselves,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Spomer said.<\/p>\n<p>Spomer does what she can to serve their needs.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s enriching, and when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tired, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s physically tired, not sick-and-tired,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been blessed and given a lot in life, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to not be selfish and really give back. I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m meant to do what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She said that her relationship with the Karen children has become the rewarding relationship she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sought in her life.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My favorite book is The Alchemist because at the end the person finds that what he was looking for was right there all along,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s indicative of my life. I may never get married, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have the connections I make with the kids.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I joke with them that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve adopted me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They really treat me like family, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unusual for me because I am not familiar with big families.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I see how much they work together, and how much they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been through, I think they show how human nature should be.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Morgan Siem is a UNC student writing for the Carrboro Commons, the bi-weekly online newspaper produced by Jock Lauterer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community Journalism class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Morgan Siem Carrboro Commons Writer The stillness that characterizes most elementary schools on Saturday mornings is missing at Frank Porter Graham Elementary. Julie Spomer makes sure of that. Saturday has become her favorite day of the week since the inception of the gardening club with the Karen refugees, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}