I like it here in East Grand Forks because it's very small town and there's not a lot of cars. There's not a lot of hustle here. That's why I like here. I remember one of my sister friend were here a little bit, two years earlier. So that makes things easier for my family. Like where? The grocery. Where's the doctors? How to ride the bus? How to order taxi. So that was really helpful. So she taught my family a lot, and especially my sister. When I was in high school my senior year, I decided to become a midwife. And then in order to become a midwife, you have to go through nursing school. And so I decided to do nursing. I took a lot of classes for nursing, which is the requirement classes for nursing. When I was in college. I want to be a midwife first before I become the human services degree and all that. And then one day the father of my children got sick. He was hospitalized. And then he was about to have a surgery. And then as we walk in, we call an interpreter and then a lady who was interpreting for him misinterpreted everything. As I was doing my anatomy physiology, practicing, testing for that, we were studying the body and then I was just doing my own thing, like let her do her job. And as a doctor started talking to her between her and the patient. And then, she totally misinterpreted everything. And I was like, whoa. And then. And that's the time I took the initiative. I need to learn Somali so I can serve my community better. So I did a lot of practice and YouTube. I watch a lot of Somalis movies, a lot Somali shows. And then I went back to Somalia, lived there like a year so I can learn the language and that's the opportunity when the parents to offer their kids to take back home. It's really good to have a two language. Let's see you become a doctor. Okay. Example. And then you know two languages. So how many communities can you serve? Two languages. A lot of communities, right? Two communities. So, when the doctors go get a job, if they interview bilingual person or person who speaks one language, they will hire the person who speaks two languages. And the reason being is that that person can bring more customers and more clients for them, and they can communicate with patients when they walk in right away. So that's why it's good to know to your mother is really important, because there's a term in English saying that you're not who you are unless you know your language, because your language is what makes you who you are as a person. People will criticize you if you don't know the language, people will make fun of you. People will assume things and it was really challenging for me first because I couldn't communicate. There's a time I went to a place that I want to buy a clothes, and I couldn't communicate the person. And it was really hard. And he get so frustrated and he gets so mad at me. And then he charged me extra because he knows that I'm not familiar with the price. So let's see if the dress was twenty dollars. He will ask me fifty dollars. And then that was really so. People can take advantage of you when you don't understand the language and the culture.
--Deka Ali / mother & cultural navigator from East Grand Forks, Minnesota
