So we fled to Kenya, which is a neighbor to Somalia. So we went there. You have to go through in a lot of process in order to get to the United States. So it's not like that. Oh, I'm just going to get a ticket. I have a passport. No. So you have to go through a lot of process, which is the refugee camp. It's the part of the process. So when we fled in Somalia, I was only nine months. So we stayed from nine months to six years old to refugee camp. So it took us six years to get here in the United States. So basically I grew up in my childhood, before I get to United States in a refugee camp, there was no water, no food. There's not that much shelter. There's no housing. So people literally live in the tents. So in the morning when you wake up, you have to go in a line and get water and get food and then come back. So that was kind of in my childhood. That was not fun. So when we get here in Minnesota, it was me and my siblings.
--Deka Ali / mother & cultural navigator from East Grand Forks Minnesota
