Abdivizak Mohamud
Abdivizak Mohamud
Recent St Louis Park resident from Somalia
Whatever you learn here will help you tomorrow. One day you will be parents and be responsible. The future government will be one of you. When tomorrow comes and you are older, know that what will help you is what you will learn here.
Abdivizak Mohamud
Recent St Louis Park resident from Somalia
I was born in Somalia in July of 1963. Africa isn’t like the United States. In Somalia we get a hot season all the time. There is much rain there. Even the rain is hot in Somalia. In Minnesota you have a lot of trees and flowers. In Somalia you never see a lot of trees.
Somalia is the seventh poorest nation in the world. There’s not many schools there. There’s not much work in the city. Luckily, my father was a math teacher. I went to
agriculture secondary school. At the University I had a two-year program.
When the Civil War broke out we went to Kenya. When the fighting broke out people ran out of the country. My family went to a refugee camp in Kenya. In Kenya we can’t go to school. You have no right to work because you’re Somali and not Kenyan.
I was in the refugee camp called Kokuma. If you eat one meal a day you are rich. If you get lunch you are rich. If lucky, what you cook for lunch you can save and eat at night. I married a woman born in Mogadishu. Her name is Fadumo. We have five kids:
Mohamed (12), Nadio (11) , Ashraf (11) , Abdullah (9) , and Shukran (7).
Some of my relatives ended up in other countries. Some of my family came to Canada. When they see that my family with five kids are still there, they collected some money and give to us for travel. I had been accepted into the United States. I become documented and apply for my wife and my kids to come.
When I came here my family was still in Africa. I started working and sent money to the family and they came. My kids come to Cedar Manor School, which is a great school.
America is the greatest nation in the world. Your fathers and great grandfathers make this a great country and luckily we are here. My kids now get a better future than me. If they behave and work hard they will make it with great friends like you.
It's a Long Way Home
Honoring Abdivizak Mohamud
It's a Long Way Home
It’s A Long Way Home
(Honoring Abdirizak Mohamud)
I was born in Somalia
In the month of July
In Mogadishu
Where so many have died
One of nine children
Weather was hot
Unlike Minnesota
Four season’s you got
It’s a long, long way home
Father was a teacher
Classes I took
Unlike most Somali’s
Nomads who travel by foot
Found work in a factory
With sugar cane
Way out in the country
Abdirizak is his name
It’s a long, long way home
When the civil war started
Fled for my life
Straight into Kenya
Where I met my wife
In a camp called Kakuma
Then to Nairobi
Where we had five children
With hopes to be free
It’s a long, long way home
Some of my family
Came first to this land
Sent me some money
To fly to Holland
To Mexico City
To California
Where I caught a ride
To Minnesota
It’s a long, long way home
Working ten hour days
Into the night
Sending money back home
To my children and wife
To become legal
Last month when they came
My heart started beating
When they came off the plane
It’s a long, long way home
Music by Larry Long. Words by Larry Long with Mrs. Floreal and Ms. Robinson’s sixth grade class of Cedar Manor Intermediate School St. Louis Park, Minnesota
© Larry Long 2007 / BMI