Refugees in a New Land

• Sunday, January 10, 2016 Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins [ 208-735-3242 • vhutchins@magicvalley.com ] • B1

THE BIG STORY Refugees in a New Land

Idaho’s 2015 Refugee Controversy ‌ pril: Zeze A Rwasama, director of the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center, tells the college’s board that the center will likely receive 300 refugees during the federal fiscal year starting Oct. 1. He expects the biggest populations of newcomers to be from Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

April: The next morning, readers begin posting anti-refugee comments on Magicvalley.com’s news story. The Refugee Center receives phone calls, and letters to the editor pour in to the Times-News.

May-June: Spurred by constituent inquiries, at least four Magic Valley legislators write to CSI about its Refugee Center, asking for information.

June: Deborah Silver — a Twin Falls accountant who ran for state treasurer in 2014 — starts a group to support the Refugee Center.

June: The U.S. House’s Homeland Security committee voices concerns about incoming Syrian refugees, saying security checks are inadequate.

June: Conservative activist Rick Martin forms “The Committee to End the CSI Refugee Center.”

This month, it has about 100 members in a closed Facebook group.

June: CSI’s Refugee Center holds its sixth annual Magic Valley Refugee Days with food and performances. Despite fears of protests, the event is peaceful.

CSI security officers monitor the event, and yellow caution tape surrounds the area.

July: A federal trial starts for Fazliddin Kurbanov, a refugee from Uzbekistan living in Boise, accused of instructing people how to create bombs to target transportation systems and other public places.

July: For a third month, community members show up in droves to CSI’s board meeting to Please see TIMELINE, B3

Strange New World Family Who Fled Violence Begins New Life in Community Divided on Refugee Resettlement

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Beatrice Bahati and her children, Sarah Mulabwe, left, and Daniel Mulabwe, refugees from Democratic Republic of the Congo, wait for their luggage after arriving at the Twin Falls airport just before 11 p.m. Nov. 16. Bahati’s family traveled for two days to reach Twin Falls from a crowded refugee camp in Malawi.

TETONA DUNLAP tdunlap@magicvalley.com‌

‌ WIN FALLS • T In darkness, the man pulled two suitcases out of the white van and the woman unloaded two children. Curtains dimmed the windows of nearby houses. Overhead, a tree shook as cold wind whipped through its leaves.‌ Somewhere in the darkness lay the family’s new home, in an unfamiliar country.

Barely able to see the sidewalk, refugee Kanegamba Mulabwe carried his family’s bags — everything he owns — toward the steps of an apartment building. Following a College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center employee, and trailed by an interpreter and a community volunteer, Mulabwe lugged his suitcases to the top of the stairs and stopped at the door marked B. Resettlement manager Chandra Upreti unlocked the door, flipped on the lights and immediately took Mulabwe and his wife, Beatrice Bahati, to the refrigerator.

Their orientation had begun: a crash course in American living for a couple accustomed to washing their clothes in buckets in a crowded, hungry refugee camp.

Upreti pointed out the list of emergency numbers tacked to the refrigerator door: fire department, police. He identified items inside: milk, orange juice and the grapes he pulled from the bottom drawer. Interpreter Akembe Bilombele repeated the names in Swahili.

“Hopefully you have something similar back home?” Upreti asked.

Home was the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Bahati’s family disappeared and Mulabwe’s parents were killed.

After three years of awaiting approval, Mulabwe, 26, Bahati, 22, and their children, Sarah, 3, and Daniel, 1, passed security checks and were approved to come to the U.S. The family left the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi, a country in southeastern Africa, and arrived in Twin Falls on Nov. 16 — eight hours after Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter sent a letter urging President Obama to halt refugee resettlement.

That night, Mulabwe and Bahati knew nothing about the anti-refugee backlash that followed Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris which killed 130 people. Their midnight orientation took all their attention.

That night was the first act in a rapid, scripted series of lessons meant to introduce refugees to life in America and prepare them for self-sufficiency.

More than 300 refugees made that transition in Twin Falls last year, but today’s new arrivals

Home is a few steps away. After a ride through the darkness from the Twin Falls airport, Kanegamba Mulabwe carries his belongings up a flight of stairs to his family’s new apartment on the night of Nov. 16. build new lives in a community where opinions on refugee resettlement are deeply divided and opponents are vocal.

That night, the Times-News launched a special project: following Mulabwe and Bahati for a year.

The couple silently took it all in as Upreti rattled off appliances and groceries on the kitchen counter.

Now and then, Mulabwe muttered, “Hmm, OK.” He recognized a package of dry beans. Other things were not completely strange. He and his wife had seen apartments with electricity and showers before, but only from afar. Those places were used by United Nations guests or other officials, not by refugees.

Now Mulabwe would learn to use a vacuum cleaner inside an apartment that was to be his new home.

As Upreti showed her parents the vacuum, Sarah squatted to take a closer look. She didn’t

flinch when it whirled to life, and she watched mesmerized as Upreti made a few swipes across the carpet.

When it was Mulabwe’s turn, he copied Upreti’s motions. Bahati smiled as her husband pushed the machine across the floor.

••• Mulabwe and Bahati traveled for two days to reach their new home in south-central Idaho.

They flew from Malawi to South Africa on Nov. 15, arriving in New York City the next morning. They boarded a flight to Salt Lake City and reached Twin Falls at about 10:40 p.m. Nov. 16.

Walking through the glass doors of the terminal, they recognized a smiling face: Bilombele, a fellow DR Congo refugee who lived in the Dzaleka camp and relocated to Twin Falls in August.

Please see REFUGEES, B2

B2 • Sunday, January 10, 2016

Where the Refugees Come From The mixture of refugees settling in Twin Falls reflects violence and civil wars across the globe. countries of origin were Refugees in Some heavily represented among a New Land the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center’s incoming refugees in most or all of the past six years, including Eritrea, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Iran and Iraq. However, the influx from Bhutan has slowed significantly. The Iraqi number peaked a couple of years ago, and the Myanmar number a couple of years before that. Arrivals from Afghanistan have been slowly growing in number.

The latest additions: A surge of refugees from Sudan began in 2012 and was still growing in 2014, when a surge of arrivals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) began.

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Near East/South Asia Europe and Central Asia

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SOURCE: ZEZE RWASAMA, CSI REFUGEE CENTER DIRECTOR

Region of Violence

Kanegamba Mulabwe and Beatrice Bahati, refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lived in the Dzaleka refugee camp on the outskirts of Lilongwe, Malawi, where their first two children were born, before resettling in Twin Falls.

Nigeria

Sudan

Chad

South Sudan

Ethiopia

Democratic Republic of the Congo KINSHASA Tanzania Malawi

Angola Zambia

LILONGWE

Namibia Botswana

South Africa

Indian Ocean

In Stephen Reiss’ special video story, Congolese refugees talk about what resettling in Twin Falls means to them. Another video, by Drew Nash, records the family’s first moments in Twin Falls. Watch both at Magicvalley.com.

On Friday, Magicvalley. com debuted a biweekly podcast, following the project’s journalists into the field. Listen to and download podcast episodes at Magicvalley.com/podcast, or search “Refugees in a New Land” in your podcast player, iTunes or SoundCloud to subscribe and automatically download future episodes to your mobile device. The season will have seven episodes, wrapping up April 1.

Times-News photographers are extensively documenting this refugee family’s first year in the U.S. See a gallery of more of their photos at Magicvalley.com.

TETONA DUNLAP, TIMES-NEWS‌

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Chandra Upreti, left, resettlement manager at the College of Southern Idaho’s Refugee Center, helps Beatrice Bahati, right, and Kanegamba Mulabwe shop for shoes Nov. 18 at Walmart in Twin Falls.

Bilombele didn’t know Mulabwe and Bahati were the refugees scheduled to arrive in Twin Falls until that moment. They’d been only data on a page.

Grinning, Bilombele t u r n e d to Upreti, telling him he knew the family.

Bilombele They were only acquaintances in Dzaleka. But in a new country of strangers, any acquaintance matters.

••• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees established the Dzaleka camp in 1994 in response to a wave of people fleeing genocide, violence and wars in Burundi, Rwanda and the DR Congo.

About 23,000 refugees live in the camp.

Living in a makeshift shelter among those thousands, Mulabwe and Bahati started the relocation process before Sarah’s birth.

While they waited for security screening, Daniel, too, was born. Now Bahati is about six months pregnant.

Their third child will be the first U.S. citizen in the family.

The young couple’s priority is to provide their children a safe environment to grow up. In the refugee camp, they were given food, but never enough.

They made homes with scraps of wood.

“It’s very difficult to live like that with a family,” Mulabwe said, speaking through an interpreter.

Mulabwe was apprehensive to fly because it was his first time. However, he felt at peace as the airplane descended and he saw the twinkling lights of Twin Falls. He would finally be able to provide safety for his family.

“For real, God has brought us from a place of war to a place of opportunity,” he said.

Arriving in Twin Falls meant his children would not have to experience the things he saw. The things he tries to forget. The ones that still give him nightmares from which he wakes up crying.

••• The last time Mulabwe was in the DR Congo, he was running away as fast as he could.

Mulabwe grew up in the city of Uvira. Life was good before the war, he said. He lived with his mother and father and went to school.

Then rebels came to the teenage Mulabwe’s house and killed his parents. He ran.

He saw other people being killed, and he ran faster.

His story is like that of thousands of others from the DR Congo who fled across the borders to neighboring countries.

“It’s a sad experience because you Lupumba are not even thinking of grabbing anything,” Mulabwe said in Swahili as Mary Lupumba interpreted.

Initially, he considered a long walk to South Africa

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DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

400 and a small bag hold everything the Mulabwe family owns as Two suitcases the refugee family settles into its Twin Falls apartment the night of Nov. 16.

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DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

The lesson: Bills will arrive in the mailbox, and you must not ignore them.

Chandra Upreti, right, talks to interpreter Mary Lupumba, left, while Kanegamba Mulabwe waits behind her for the Swahili version Nov. 17 at his Twin Falls apartment. to find a job. But in Malawi, after passing through Tanzania, he met others who had fled from the DR Congo.

They told him about a refugee camp.

Mulabwe told the bare facts of his story in answer to a reporter’s questions, with Lupumba explaining the questions to him and giving short answers in English.

That Nov. 27 interview, Mulabwe said, was the first time anyone except resettlement officials and fellow refugees had asked about his painful past. He told Lupumba to say that he didn’t like answering those questions. But he and his wife spoke more openly with the Times-News during later visits, and more of their story emerged.

Mulabwe lived in the Dzaleka camp for seven years. That’s where he met Bahati, a refugee from the DR Congo with a similar story — except she doesn’t know where her family is. They disappeared five years ago. Does she think they are dead? She doesn’t know, she answered. They just disappeared.

When Mulabwe and Bahati met, they shared their stories of tragedy.

They have been married for four years.

“She is beautiful. I can’t explain,” Mulabwe said, waiting Nov. 18 for his next orientation at the CSI Refugee Center.

Bahati smiled, bringing her hand — the one with her silver wedding ring — to her face as she laughed.

The simple band matches the one on her husband’s

left hand.

“They went to Malawi as refugees to look for where they can live in peace,” interpreter Bilombele said, “and by chance, they came to America.”

••• The family’s firstnight crash course was just the beginning of a long string of orientation sessions. There’s a lot to learn.

“This is laundry detergent to wash the clothes,” Upreti said that night, pointing to a bottle on the kitchen counter.

“This is the time,” Upreti said, picking up a clock still in its box.

“Right now it’s 11:34.”

In another Upreti 12 hours, in daylight, he would be back at the apartment to finish his spiel and go over any questions.

“I know it’s a lot of information and you are tired,” he said, then turned to the interpreter. “I’ll come tomorrow after some time and we will teach them again to use everything.”

Every refugee family settled by CSI arrives to an apartment furnished simply: a couch, paid for by a federal grant. A table. A chair for each person.

On the afternoon of Nov. 16, Upreti readied the apartment for the family, with the help of his wife and father.

They unpacked boxes of new cookware — plates, bowls, silverware — and lined up the dishes on

the counter. They hung blue towels, with tags still attached, on the bathroom rack. They assembled metal bed frames and covered the mattresses in sheets, pillows and comforters.

“When I came here, I did not know how to make a bed,” Upreti said. “It depends on where they are coming from. So I make the bed just to be safe.”

The apartment is furnished according to U.S. Department of State guidelines. The refrigerator and cabinets are stocked with culturally appropriate food to last for three days. A hot meal is prepared for the family’s arrival — in this case, fried chicken.

Upreti was born in Bhutan and lived most of his life in a Nepalese refugee camp.

His family, like many ethnic Nepalis, fled Bhutan during a government campaign of discrimination and detainment against them. In 2008, Upreti and his family were granted refugee status and relocated to Twin Falls. In 2013 — five years after arriving on American soil — Upreti and other members of his family became U.S. citizens in a Boise ceremony.

Now, Upreti takes the lead on preparation for the CSI Refugee Center’s new arrivals. He took pictures as he went from room to room in the apartment meant for Mulabwe and Bahati. “ We ta ke p i c t u re s because we are charging” the federal grant account, he said. “It’s proof we give to them.”

Please see REFUGEES, B4

Sunday, January 10, 2016 • B3

Selection, Security Clearances for Congolese Refugees JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com‌

‌ WIN FALLS • T The College of Southern Idaho’s Refugee Center has resettled 79 Congolese refugees in the past two years. How are these refugees selected to come to the U.S.? And what security screenings happen before they arrive?‌ Those are questions of intense interest in Idaho since April, when the Refugee Center announced it could receive the largest groups of refugees this year from Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Controversy has brewed since then, with some community members fearing an influx of radical Muslims from Syria.

Those questions grew louder on the national stage in November, after terrorist attacks in Paris. Refugee opponents argue that terrorists could go through the refugee resettlement system and that security checks are inadequate, but federal officials counter that the vetRwasama ting process is thorough.

“People come to realize that every agency involved in security in this country is involved,” CSI Refugee Center director Zeze Rwasama said.

Plus, the United Nations workers protecting refugees would discover people with terrorist ties, Rwasama said.

“That person isn’t going to last in a refugee camp.”

So far, no Syrian refugees have been resettled in Twin Falls. But 28 arrived from the DR Congo between Oct. 1 — the start of the center’s fiscal year — and Dec. 15.

More than 90,000 Congolese refugees in southern Africa are spread out among eight countries, a U.S. Department of State spokeswoman said. Malawi has one refugee camp, Dzaleka, on the outskirts of Lilongwe.

Dzaleka — where Kanegamba Mulabwe, Beatrice Bahati and their children lived before resettling in Twin Falls in November — now hosts 23,000 refugees, of whom 11,300 are Congolese.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has an office in each country

Timeline Continued from B1

express opinions about the Refugee Center. The board sets a time cap of 30 minutes for the public forum due to a “tremendous amount of new business,” chairman Karl Kleinkopf says.

July: Iranian-American pastor Shahram Hadian — who preaches against what he calls the threat of Islam — gives two public talks at Baptist churches in Filer and Twin Falls.

August: Some Idaho residents receive recorded phone messages from the American Freedom Party, a white supremacist group, calling for support of their 2016 presidential candidate. The message also expresses anger over “thousands of Muslim refugees headed to Idaho,” the Associated Press reports.

August: A jury convicts Kurbanov of three terrorism-related charges.

August: At CSI’s board meeting, Kleinkopf speaks about what he calls misinformation about the refugee program. The college doesn’t know or track the religions of resettled refugees, he says.

August: A statewide poll by Dan Jones and Associates shows only

where camps host Congolese refugees. “They’ve been working with the population for years,” said Larry Bartlett, director of the refugee admissions office of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

Bartlett came to Twin Falls in September to participate in a Times-News refugee forum, and he answered more questions from his Washington, D.C., office in December.

The crisis in the DR Congo has lasted about 20 years, and the refugee situation is “protracted,” Bartlett said; there isn’t an opportunity fo r p e o p l e who’ve been displaced to return home.

The U.S. put together a resettlement pro - Bartlett gram for a significant number of Congolese refugees. Efforts will focus on a massive refugee camp in western Tanzania with about 80,000 people, Bartlett said. A goal is to resettle up to 40,000 of those refugees within the next three to five years.

The U.S. is also working to increase the number of countries taking in refugees from the DR Congo, he said.

Others already accepting them include Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Some Congolese refugees have been displaced for more than 20 years and can’t work or travel, said Rwasama, who came to the U.S. as a Congolese refugee in 2001 after spending six years in Rwanda.

What’s the Security Clearance Process?‌

Congolese refugees typically have less documentation than other groups, Bartlett said, due to the way they fled and because they left rural areas. But collecting and verifying documents is just one aspect of security clearance.

The typical steps: 1) Registration Most refugees who flee their country and cross international borders are registered with the UNHCR. In some places, a host government

20 percent of Idahoans surveyed had heard of CSI’s Refugee Center, but the majority of those who had wanted the college to keep it.

August: The Refugee Center undergoes a regular yearly audit by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nongovernmental organization.

Auditors take the opportunity to speak to Silver’s group, Magic Valley Refugee Advocates.

August-September: About 10 members of the Islamic Center of Twin Falls — and their non-Muslim neighbors — receive letters mailed without return addresses containing passages from the Quran and Bible. A center spokesman calls the letters harassment.

September: Refugee Center opponents file a revised version of a ballot initiative to ban refugee centers in Twin Falls County; County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said the first version was likely unconstitutional.

The petition proposes it be a misdemeanor for county commissioners to try to repeal the measure for a year after its enactment.

September: About 725 people attend the Times-News’ community forum about refugee resettlement. A panel

takes responsibility for the initial registration.

During the registration, photos and fingerprints are taken and biographical information is gathered about families, including the name, birth date and any documentation for each family member.

2) Refugee Status The UNHCR determines whether an individual receives refugee status. If so, he or she is referred to the U.S. Department of State.

3) Security Screening Before Congolese refugees are eligible for resettlement, they’re typically in a refugee camp for at least five years, Rwasama said. “That person has a history and is known.” In refugee camps, a re-verification process happens periodically.

The U.S. security screening process is “very professionally approached,” Bartlett said. It includes fingerprinting and gathering biographical information about families. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducts extensive in-person interviews with each refugee family.

Homeland Security officers receive intensive training on how to conduct interviews, and they study the conflicts in each country where refugees originate. Refugee fingerprints are checked against records from the U.S. government’s intelligence and criminal systems.

It typically takes 1 1/2 to two years to process refugees, Bartlett said. When agencies are satisfied a refugee poses “little to no risk,” he or she will be resettled in the U.S. 4) Entering the U.S. When refugees arrive at their port of entry in the U.S., a customs agent reviews their documents.

Once refugees arrive at their final destination, “the security clearance doesn’t end,” Rwasama said.

After one year, they can apply for green cards — Permanent Resident Cards, which allow noncitizens to live and work in the U.S. After five years, they’re eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Both processes require more security checks.

How can Someone be Disqualified?‌ The standard reasons

speaks, including local leaders and refugee officials from the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Refugee supporters and opponents turn out in large numbers. Opponents pass out materials to attendees.

September: Unfazed by the controversy, students at Lighthouse Christian School in Twin Falls launch their fifth annual project to “adopt” local refugee families. They’ll clean refugees’ homes and provide donated items during a service day in October.

September: Boise mayor Dave Bieter and other groups express frustration about a decision by owners of a Boise apartment complex — with 400 residents, mostly refugees — to evict tenants. The owners plan to renovate apartments and raise the rent.

September: An Idaho Politics Weekly poll shows 47 percent of those polled oppose taking in Syrian refugees, 46 percent support it and 7 percent are undecided.

October: Supporters of a ballot measure to ban refugee centers in Twin Falls County start to gather signatures at the U.S. Post Office downtown. The Twin Falls

apply for disqualifying a Congolese refugee from coming to the U.S., Bartlett said: • The person doesn’t meet the definition of a refugee. “I think that’s highly unlikely” for the Congolese, he said.

• The person makes a fraudulent claim. For example, the person isn’t really from the DR Congo, or is trying to substitute someone into his or her family.

• The Congolese applicant was a member of an armed rebel group or played a certain role in the military.

How are Refugees Placed in the U.S.?‌ About 25 countries worldwide accept refugees.

The U.S. resettles about 70 percent of the world’s refugees, Bartlett said.

The country has 312 resettlement organizations — including the CSI Refugee Center — in 185 cities.

Nine national agencies have networks of resettlement sites. They select which site would be a good fit for each refugee: Does the refugee already have family members in the area?

Does the site have access to translation services for the person’s language? If the refugee has a complex medical issue, how is the access to health care?

For Congolese refugees, mental health is a pertinent concern — particularly for those subjected to a lot of violence, including sexual violence, Bartlett said. “The mental trauma that people have experienced can be quite severe.”

Each summer, the nine agencies make a proposal for each resettlement organization: a cap on the number of refugees who will be accepted for the upcoming year. One of the nine agencies — the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nongovernmental organization — oversees the CSI Refugee Center and decides how many refugees will come here; it usually makes a final decision in September.

CSI’s Refugee Center has been approved to receive up to 300 refugees this fiscal year, which began in October. Officials don’t know how many Congolese refugees will be among this year’s newcomers.

County Clerk’s office approves the form of the petition. Supporters will have until early April to gather the 3,842 signatures needed.

October: The III Percent of Idaho holds a march in Twin Falls to call for an end to the refugee program.

November: State Rep. Heather Scott calls for a special legislative session to address refugee resettlement.

November: The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints writes a letter urging church members to help refugees.

November: Magic Valley legislators visit Lincoln Elementary School’s Newcomer Center for refugee students during a legislative preview event, held by the Twin Falls School District. Rep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, asks refugee students their response to recent controversy.

“There’s some problems going on right now, but I still feel welcome here,” high school senior Safia Ali responds.

November: Following terrorist attacks in Paris, Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter calls on the president to halt refugee resettlement until the vetting process and state concerns are addressed.

Timeline of Conflict: Democratic Republic of the Congo ‌ 960: The Belgian 1 colony of Congo gains independence.

President Joseph Kasavubu and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba are the new leaders.

1965: Joseph Mobutu leads a coup to oust leaders and takes over.

1971: The country is renamed Zaire.

1993: Rival pro- and anti-Mobutu governments are formed.

The country holds a parliamentary election, which is disputed; it leads to fighting and an eventual ceasefire. The government includes some members of the opposition as leaders.

1994: Refugees pour into the country from Rwanda and Burundi due to civil war.

1996-97: Tutsi rebels take control of land in the eastern part of the country. The rebels — with aid from Rwanda — overtake Kinshasa, the capital city.

1997: A civil war launches, lasting until 2003; warlords are motivated partly to gain control of offshore oil. The country is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. LaurentDesire Kabila becomes president.

1999: Six countries — including the DR Congo — come up with a peace agreement.

2000: United Nations Security Council keeps an eye on enforcing the ceasefire, but fighting continues.

2001: Kabila is assassinated. His son, Joseph Kabila, becomes the country’s new leader.

In total, 2.5 million people have been killed since 1998 in the war, a refugee agency in the U.S. announces.

Rebels and several countries agree to pull back troops.

2002: Warring nations sign a series of peace deals.

2003: French troops lead a rapid-reaction force, required by the U.N. A transitional government is formed, and an interim parliament starts. Fighting

He’s among 23 governors taking steps in response to the attacks.

November: The CSI board and administrators say they support Otter’s call for a federal review of the refugee vetting process.

November: The U.S. House of Representatives passes a measure 289-137 for stricter requirements for refugees from Syria and Iraq before they’re allowed to enter the U.S. November: About 1,000 people attend a refugee rally at the Idaho Capitol in Boise — police officers estimate about 700 supporters and 300 opponents.

November: Motivated by the controversy, CSI’s Diversity Council organizes a Thanksgiving meal for several dozen newly arrived refugees — most from Africa.

December: Calls for better security checks for newcomers to the U.S. intensify following a shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, open fire at a holiday party, killing 14 people. Farook was born in the U.S., and Malik came to the U.S. using a spousal visa.

December: Neighboring Utah announces plans to launch a refugee

continues in the eastern DR Congo.

2005: A new constitution is approved.

2006: Thomas Lubanga, a warlord, faces international criminal charges of forcing children to join the military.

He is sentenced to 14 years in jail in 2012.

2006: First free elections are held in 40 years with two candidates: incumbent Kabila and challenger Jean-Pierre Bemba.

It’s unclear who wins, and tensions rise at the capital. After a runoff election, Kabila is named the winner.

2007: DR Congo and Uganda have a border dispute. A large Ebola outbreak hits the DR Congo. The U.N. looks into accusations that peacekeepers are trafficking weapons and gold.

2008: Thousands of people flee to escape violence in the east, causing a wave of new refugees.

2009: The government signs a law aiming to stop fighting.

2009: Former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba faces international criminal charges for allegedly allowing soldiers to rape and kill civilians. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits the DR Congo and pledges millions of dollars to help sexual abuse victims.

2010: International Monetary Fund and World Bank approve billions of dollars in debt relief.

2011: Lt. Col. Kibibi Mutware is sentenced to 20 years in jail for mass rapes in eastern DR Congo. After a disputed election, Kabila is reelected president.

2013: An agreement signed by 11 countries is designed to end fighting. The M23 rebel group signs a peace agreement.

2014: About 60,000 citizens are deported in a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Sources: BBC News and the Central Intelligence Agency’s “The World Fact Book.”

Compiled by Julie Wootton.

monitoring system, led by two police agents who would help refugees assimilate and watch for signs of radicalization.

December: Diana Whiting and friend Andrea Rule launch a Sun Valley-Twin Falls pipeline, prompting volunteers from the Wood River Valley’s Light on the Mountains Spiritual Center to take several carloads of winter coats, gloves, boots and blankets to the CSI Refugee Center.

December: Evangelical leaders — from the Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God, World Relief and others — urge Christians to welcome Syrian refugees. The group’s statement: “Christian Declaration on Caring for Refugees: An Evangelical Response.”

December: An Idaho Politics Weekly poll shows 60 percent of Idahoans are against taking in refugees from Syria. About 36 percent favor taking in Syrian refugees, and 3 percent don’t know.

December: Magic Valley legislators say refugee resettlement likely will be debated during the 2016 session.

But many doubt the state has the authority to pass anything meaningful.

—Julie Wootton

B4 • Sunday, January 10, 2016

Refugees in a New Land

Refugees Continued from B2

The Refugee Center buys everything in bulk and has about 200 mattresses in storage. A mattress costs $45, and the box spring is $20. Rent, also funded by the federal grant, is $600 a month, including all utilities except electricity.

Upreti puts receipts in each family’s folder.

For the first couple of weeks following refugees’ arrival, they are busy with orientations, appointments to apply for Social Security cards and food stamps and enrolling in English classes.

In their newcomer orientation, they are told to watch their children at all times and to pay for things they pick up at the store.

••• The only identification documents Mulabwe and Bahati have are I-9’s, forms that authorize refugees to work because of their immigration status. For now the parents carry laminated yellow cards with their address and the Refugee Center’s number in case they get lost in town.

Upreti gave Mulabwe and Bahati their yellow cards on their second day in Twin Falls — the day CSI’s board and administrators issued a statement saying they support Otter’s call for a federal review of the refugee vetting process. As soon as Upreti slid the cards across the table, Sarah took one and started off to play with her brother. Bahati grabbed her before she could get far.

That card is important. So is the mail they’ll find in their mailbox, Upreti explained.

“If you do not understand, bring it to the Refugee Center,” Upreti said.

The day after arriving, a refugee family is allowed to make a short call back home to let friends or family know they arrived safely, and they are given their first pocketmoney check. Each adult gets $200 per month and $40 per child for the first three months.

“It’s not a lot of money if you have to buy diapers and wipes,” Upreti said.

The Refugee Center will pay the family’s rent and electricity bill for the first five months. They qualify for food stamps and Medicaid at first, but Upreti said many refugees don’t stay on them for long because they start working quickly.

“The goal is get them to work so they don’t rely on the system,” Upreti said. “We have people here one month and they are to work.”

Within five months, refugees must be completely on their own and start paying back the cost of their airplane tickets on a 36-month payment plan. Before then, it is their responsibility to learn English as quickly and as well as they can. It’s not optional. If they don’t attend classes, they will lose their funding early.

“English is very important in this country, so you can be self-sufficient,” Upreti told the couple.

••• Two weeks after their ar r ival, Mulabwe and Bahati settled into a schedule: Four days a week, he rode the Refugee Center van to take English classes for two hours in the morning, then she went in the afternoon while he watched the children.

On Nov. 30, the first day of his English as a Second Language class, Mulabwe was given a packet of papers to fill out — a language evaluation. He was asked to write his name, address and date of birth. Another paper asked him to fill in missing letters from the alphabet.

In the room where he sat, other refugees worked on computers, wearing

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Congolese refugee Beatrice Bahati takes her language assessment exam Nov. 30, the first day of her English class at the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center. She and her husband take classes at different times so the other can watch their children.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Beatrice Bahati holds the keys to her new apartment Nov. 16. A resettlement worker that night taught her how to lock and unlock a door.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Sarah Mulabwe, 3, finds toys to play with during Thanksgiving dinner at the Bangerter home Nov. 26 in Twin Falls. Sarah mingled quickly with English-speaking children. headphones.

The next page asked him to choose crayons to identify colors. Mulabwe tested several shades before deciding on a crayon for the “green” space on his worksheet.

“What color is it?” ESL teacher Hawng Lum Tangbau asked, looking over his shoulder and pointing to another space.

“Red,” Mulabwe replied.

“What do you speak?

Swahili, French — and English?” Tangbau asked.

“Ah,” Mulabwe said, putting his fingers together to convey “a little.”

••• On Thanksgiving Day, in a Twin Falls living room large enough to hold two long tables and a piano, only Mulabwe and Bahati sat at a table as other adults mingled in the kitchen and children ran around the living room, screaming and playing.

Sarah stood nearby watching the other children play, then started off in their direction. Bahati told her in Swahili to sit down, but Lupumba encouraged her to let the girl play.

Mulabwe and Bahati had been invited to Thanksgiving dinner by their assigned mentor, Allison Bangerter, a Twin Falls volunteer.

Bangerter’s job is to help them acclimate to their new home. She was at the airport to greet them Nov. 16, armed with the Swahili words for “welcome to America,” a fruitcake wrapped in plastic and pictures that her four children drew for the family.

“I just thought they needed help, and it sounded like a great opportunity,” Bangerter said. “I wanted to do something that involved

my family, so my children could meet people from another culture and learn how to serve.”

On Nov. 26 — five days after 1,000 protesters and counter-protesters on opposite sides of the refugee resettlement issue demonstrated in front of the Idaho Capitol — Bangerter was in the kitchen preparing a feast as members of her extended family milled around the room.

Sarah found a kaleidoscope and held it to her face. A young woman asked her if she could see anything and showed her how to look through it out the window.

Sarah disappeared down a hallway, toward children’s bedrooms, then re-emerged with a red balloon. Balloons are her favorite thing, her dad said.

The two long tables were set with paper plates decorated with fall leaves and plastic cups filled with pink punch.

Outside, snow fell softly and steadily in clumps.

Before Idaho, the newcomers had never seen snow. When they touched it, it was wet, a surprise to the children.

“During cultural orientation they were told when it gets cold, it snows,” said Lupumba, invited to her first Thanksgiving dinner to interpret.

Lupumba and 10 relatives arrived in Twin Falls in October from Zambia, an English-speaking country in Africa. This winter was Lupumba’s first snow, too.

••• Bahati never took off her heavy coat during Thanksgiving dinner.

That coat was only a

Though reporter Tetona Dunlap has followed several feature subjects over time, this reporting project is the lengthiest she has undertaken. Here Dunlap, at right, observes interactions during Thanksgiving dinner at the Bangerter home.

week old. She and her husband arrived in Twin Falls wearing coats that weren’t heavy enough for the Idaho cold. Two days later, Upreti took Mulabwe and Bahati to Walmart to shop for winter coats and shoes. At first, Mulabwe unknowingly shopped in the women’s section, choosing a navy blue coat with fur trim.

Redirected toward the men’s section, he found that many of the coats were too large.

He selected a lightweight coat but put it back after Upreti told him he would need something heavier.

As Bahati looked through racks of coats, she left her shiny black purse on the floor. She picked out matching polka dot coats for her daughter and son.

The day of the shopping trip was cold and windy.

Before Thanksgiving at the Bangerter house, Sarah would trade in her sandals for socks and shoes.

Bangerter had heard about the mentor program on the radio.

“If I was a refugee, that is what I would like,” Bangerter said. “If I were going to Malawi and I didn’t know Swahili, and I didn’t know anything, how helpful would it be if someone there welcomed me? I think it’s like the Golden Rule.

That’s how I would want to be welcomed.”

As everyone lined up to fill their plates, Bangerter pointed out different foods on the table.

“So in America, we have turkey,” she said. “Do you have turkey in Africa? No? It’s like a big chicken.”

Mulabwe added familiar items to his plate, such as corn and bread, but paused when he got to the bowl of gelatin.

“What’s this?” Lupumba asked.

“It’s Jell-O with whipped cream,” Bangerter replied, as Lupumba repeated in Swahili. Mulabwe decided not to sample it and placed the spoon back in the bowl.

In Malawi, the family ate dishes made of cornmeal, beans, beef, chicken and pork. As Mulabwe described the “white corn” they ate, Bangerter left the table and went downstairs.

She returned to hand him a huge can of hominy. It was the white corn he was talking about.

When Bangerter’s husband, Joel, explained that farmers in Twin Falls use irrigation to water their crops, Mulabwe seemed surprised.

Back home, Mulabwe said, people are preparing to plant their crops for the rainy season. They plant corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and tapioca.

He feels lonely sometimes because he misses home.

••• With the holiday break approaching, the ESL classes Mulabwe and Bahati are required to take were put on hold for two weeks.

There would be no orientations, either. Bangerter left town to spend the holidays with family.

Mulabwe and Bahati do not have family in the U.S., so they would spend most days inside their apartment. Mulabwe expected to be busy with the new cellphone he got at the mall — the phone he put to heavy use taking photos of his family at a Dec. 11 Christmas party for refugees organized by Lighthouse Christian Church. A woman in a Santa hat offered to take a photo of the whole family at the table. Another photo shows Daniel posing in front of a lighted Christmas tree.

“I think they are doing great. They are doing OK,” Upreti said earlier that week. “They speak some English, and they keep their house clean. The goal of the Refugee Center is to help you adapt to your new environment. The longer you stay, the more you will feel comfortable here.”

Bilombele and his wife, Zaina Kirirwa, live a couple of blocks away, and the two families quickly began visiting each other. Mulabwe and Bahati, who are Christian, got rides to Sunday church services from a church member. But during the holidays, they wouldn’t have anyone to drive them to the grocery store and the mall like Bangerter did.

Bangerter took Bahati to a laundromat Dec. 8 and taught her how to insert dollars into

Reporter Julie Wootton has covered Idaho’s refugee controversy intensely since April, writing about activists, hot public debates, a community forum and outreach projects.

“I’ve met people with a wide variety of perspectives,” Wootton says.

the change machine and start the washing machines. It was their first outing without an interpreter.

“Do you want to practice English?” Bangerter asked Bahati. “Yeah? OK.” While the clothes washed, Bangerter pointed to her hand, nose, shoulder and mouth, naming them in English. Bahati repeated the words. “ Te e t h ,” B a n ge r te r said. Bahati pointed to her front teeth.

“A h , y e s , g o o d ,” Bangerter said.

Mixed with the sounds of sloshing water, the voice of a Fox News reporter drifted from a television in an attendant’s nearby office. The on-screen reporter talked about Obama allow- Bangerter ing terrorists to come into the country.

On Dec. 2, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire at a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. The following weekend, someone spray painted the Islamic Center of Twin Falls with the words “Hunt Camp?”

— probably a reference to the internment camp north of Eden where the U.S. government moved some 13,000 Americans of Japanese descent after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in World War II. As Bangerter and Bahati practiced English vocabulary, both women’s children snacked on bananas and oranges. Again and again, Bangerter’s youngest daughter redirected Daniel away from the door that led to the parking lot.

Bahati began to count: “1, 2, 3, 4 ...” When she got to 21, she fumbled a little and said “23” instead.

“Twenty-two,” Bangerter corrected.

“Ah,” Bahati said, throwing back her head in embarrassment.

“No, you did good,” Bangerter said, leaning forward and looking into her face.

She visited the family later in December, bringing an old VCR and movies. A tiny tube television from the Refugee Center sat on plastic drawers in the corner of the living room. But without an antenna it doesn’t pick up any channels. Now the children can watch the “The Lion King” and “The Jungle Book.”

A f te r t h e h o l i d ays, Bangerter planned to attend mentor meetings she’d just learned about and — despite the language barrier — invite Bahati and the children to library and community activities.

••• In mid-December, the pregnant Bahati was waiting on a Medicaid referral to establish a family doctor so she could start checkups, and she said she felt tired and lazy because of her pregnancy. Soon, her husband will begin searching for a job — after an orientation class that teaches the expectations and rules of employment. In April, the month they expect their baby to be born, he will have to start paying the rent and the electricity bill that comes to his house. In May, the two must start repaying their plane tickets.

Mulabwe was exhausted when he arrived home Dec. 8 after a six-hour orientation. His eyes were bloodshot and heavy as he joined his wife at the dining room table, where she peeled potatoes for their meal of fried potatoes and eggs.

That night could resemble nights to come: Mulabwe coming home late from a long day of work. His wife preparing supper as the children play. Perhaps she’ll be returning from work, as well.

They may even keep attending ESL classes, the ones held on nights and weekends.

But that stress is tomorrow’s problem, and Mulabwe relaxed as Daniel found his usual spot on his father’s lap.

Soon after supper, Daniel fell asleep in his father’s arms, and the quiet man dressed the sleeping boy in pajamas.

• Sunday, February 28, 2016 Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins [ 208-735-3242 • vhutchins@magicvalley.com ] • B1

THE BIG STORY Photographers Stephen Reiss and Drew Nash are extensively documenting the lives of this refugee family. See more of their work in a gallery at Magicvalley.com.

In Stephen Reiss’ special video story, a Twin Falls volunteer talks about why she mentors refugees.

Watch it at Magicvalley.com.

A biweekly podcast follows this project’s journalists into the field. Listen to and download podcast episodes at Magicvalley.com/podcast, or search “Refugees in a New Land” in your podcast player, iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud to subscribe and automatically download episodes to your mobile device.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Reluctant to try bowling for the first time, Beatrice Bahati eventually warms up to the game Jan. 9 at Bowladrome in Twin Falls.

Bowling is just one of the unfamiliar experiences that volunteer mentor Allison Bangerter is introducing to Bahati’s family.

Adapting to Idaho Refugees Struggle to Adapt to New Lives as Resettlement Opposition Wanes TETONA DUNLAP

About this Project

tdunlap@magicvalley.com‌

‌ WIN FALLS • Through his slidT ing glass door, Kanegamba Mulabwe silently watched snow accumulate on his deck as a song by Florida Georgia Line drifted from a clock radio on the counter.‌ Next to the radio, the alarm clock Mulabwe and his family received the night they arrived in Twin Falls was also plugged into the wall, still in its box. No family photos hung on the walls. No toys were in sight.

Mulabwe, 26, can’t understand the “Cruise” lyrics, but the country music fends off the silence of his new apartment. He and his wife, Beatrice Bahati, 22, and their children, 3-year-old Sarah and 1-year-old Daniel, are still learning English, adapting to a strange culture and figuring out how to start their lives over.

That afternoon, Dec. 29, marked 43 days since the family of four arrived in Twin Falls from the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi, on the day Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter joined other governors in urging President Obama to halt refugee resettlement.

The parents are refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo — where Bahati’s family disappeared and Mulabwe’s parents were killed — and their children were born in the refugee camp.

Now, they’re building new lives in a community where opinions on refugee resettlement are deeply divided and opponents are vocal.

••• The camp in Malawi was crowded. In Twin Falls in late December, confined to their apartment by the cold, Mulabwe and Bahati faced isolation instead.

With no scheduled English classes — the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center was closed for the holidays — the family hadn’t left the house for two days.

They don’t like Idaho’s winter weather and opted to spend their days inside.

They were already bored with watching “The Lion King” and “The Jungle Book” over and over — the two movies that volunteer mentor Allison Bangerter gave them with a VCR before she left on vacation. The small tube television sat silent on a set of plastic drawers in a corner.

More Inside

This is the second installment in a Times-News special reporting and multimedia project: following a refugee family through its first year in America.

“Refugees in a New Land,” led

by Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins, began with a Jan. 10 installment that described the rapid-fire lessons that newly arrived refugees receive, chronicled Idaho’s refugee resettlement controversy, detailed the selection and security clearance processes and presented data on Twin Falls resettlement.

Missed those stories?

Find them on Magicvalley. com/refugees.

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Volunteer mentor Allison Bangerter helps refugee children Sarah and Daniel Mulabwe, right, with a craft project Jan. 8 at the Twin Falls Public Library.

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

A Jan. 7 ultrasound at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center shows that Beatrice Bahati will have a boy.

Sitting on the floor, the pregnant Bahati propped her back against the living room wall. Sarah and Daniel rested near her, fiddling with a cellphone charging in a nearby outlet. With no intention of facing the snow, Bahati wore a skirt and flip-flops, and her daughter wore jean trunks.

Mary Lupumba, an Englishspeaking refugee who works for the Refugee Center, visited their apartment that day to interpret for

the Swahili-speaking couple.

Mulabwe can’t drive. And he misses the mingling he enjoyed in Malawi.

“I’m mostly at home, unless someone picks me up,” Mulabwe said, as Lupumba interpreted.

“There is a big difference between back home and here. Here you can’t visit people; everyone is home.”

On the radio, Tim McGraw’s “Just to See you Smile” began to play as Mulabwe talked. In Malawi,

you can just visit someone without planning ahead, he explained.

Mulabwe said he was eager to start working and earning money.

“What I’ve noticed is that everything here in America is about money,” he said.

Another of Mulabwe’s goals is learning to drive. With a job, he could afford to buy a vehicle and make his family more independent.

Instead of waiting for a ride to the store, they could come and go as they please.

“I am confident to go shopping,” he said. “My only problem is bringing it back.”

Mulabwe also needs to start working for another reason: the baby to be born in April. That means another mouth to feed and clothes and diapers to buy.

Back in the refugee camp, Mulabwe was a tailor — a skill learned by watching others. On Jan. 6, he would receive a sewing machine donated to the CSI Refugee Center, and within days he’d start making a new dress for his wife.

“It would be good to find a job like that since I already know how to do it,” he said.

However, he knew that’s unlikely.

A Refugee Center employee told him that a job application was

Refugees in a New Land submitted for him as a housekeeper in Jackpot, Nev. Mulabwe said he’d be happy to work, no matter the job.

“My main focus is to speak English and write it well,” said Mulabwe, who hopes to get his U.S. citizenship in five years and his high school diploma. “I want to get a better job to earn me more money and provide for my family.”

A knock at the door interrupted Mulabwe. Before he could rise, Sarah jumped up and opened the door.

Kathy Blamires from the Refugee Center had arrived to deliver the family a monthly check — $200 for each adult — and take Mulabwe to the bank.

Please see ADAPTING, B2

Faces of Twin Falls’ Refugee Community, B2 • Refugee Center Sees Influx of Donations,Volunteers, B3 What Benefits Do Refugees Receive?, B4 • Dunlap: Stepping Outside My Reporting Comfort Zone, B4

B2 • Sunday, February 28, 2016

Faces of Twin Falls’ Refugee Community Masoud Ghotbi, 37‌

Origin: Iran Twin Falls arrival: January.

Ghotbi came to the U.S. by himself as a political refugee.

Background: He used to play electric guitar in IRANICA, an underground heavy metal band.

The style of music is banned in Iran, and he was arrested twice (in 2009 and 2010) for performing and was threatened by police.

“Your music and lyrics must be controlled,” he said. He was scared to criticize the government or talk freely about issues such as poverty and child abuse.

Ghotbi said he was investigated by the state intelligence service for promoting Western culture.

He spent five years as a refugee in Indonesia, starting in 2010. “I had to leave everything behind.”

Ghotbi said he’s “very proud” of the artistic freedom in the U.S. “People welcome new ideas freely.”

Job search: Ghotbi worked as an English translator in Indonesia, so using those skills is an option. And he has a college education and worked as a teacher.

He’d like to be active in the music scene but said it would be challenging to get a music job in Twin Falls because it’s a small city.

Gebregziabher Abrehaley, 30‌ Origin: Eritrea Twin Falls arrival: December.

He was resettled in Boston, where he lived for two months. Then he moved to Twin Falls to join his nephew, who has been in the U.S. about two years.

Life in Boston was challenging, Abrehaley said.

“Life is hard. Everything is expensive.”

Background: Abrehaley studied psychology for three years at a college in Eritrea before fleeing to Ethiopia due to a violent political situation.

He worked as a social worker in a refugee camp.

Life was difficult at the camp, so he moved to Sudan in 2008 and spent two months at a refugee camp.

Then he went to Egypt, where he was captured and sent to a prison for a year. After he was released, he went back to the refugee camp in Ethiopia. He received a scholarship and finished his bachelor’s degree in psychology.

Job search: Abrehaley hasn’t found a job yet but said he can “work anything.” Ideally, he’d like to work in a field related to psychology. He hopes to earn a master’s degree in a related area, such as social work.

Until then, he said, “I need a temporary job.”

Joseph Lupumba, 49‌

Origin: Democratic Republic of the Congo Twin Falls arrival: October.

Lupumba came with his wife and nine children, ranging from 12 to 26 years old.

Background: He left the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1993 and spent about 20 years as a refugee in Zambia.

The U.S. has kind people, Lupumba said. “We love Twin Falls. It’s a good place. ... America is blessed.”

He wants all of his children to go to college once they’re 18 — studying part-time and working part-time. But college is expensive, both in the U.S. and the DR Congo, he said.

Job search: He has completed a few job interviews and is waiting on the outcomes. Two of his sons work at Commercial Creamery Co. in Jerome.

Lupumba is an electrician by trade. To work, he needs to pass a few tests in the U.S., he said. But first, “we have to put our feet down.”

Obedi Debaba, 24‌

Origin: DR Congo Twin Falls arrival: December.

Debaba came with his two brothers — one of whom is married and has three children.

Background: Debaba lived in a refugee camp in Uganda. In the U.S., he said, he’s excited to be safe. He wants to go back to college to study communication.

One thing that has surprised him about life in Twin Falls: the weather. “It’s just cold.”

Job search: Debaba will take “whatever I can get,” he said.

In Africa, he tailored clothes. He’s not sure whether he can use those skills here. “Right now, I don’t know if I can get that.”

Reza Hajizadeh, 29‌

Origin: Iran Twin Falls arrival: July. He came to Twin Falls with his uncle.

Hajizadeh said he wants to thank the Refugee Center; “it’s my family and home.”

Job: He works at Chobani — a job he found within three months of arriving in Twin Falls. “I just like it because I’m getting paid,” Hajizadeh said.

He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, as well as more than five years’ experience in construction. He also has experience in graphic design.

He’d like to get a job as an engineer if he can get his degree validated, he said. And he’s interested in earning a master’s degree.

Hajizadeh said he’d also be open to a job in graphic design. And he has thought about studying business management and opening a construction business.

He oversaw 200 to 300 workers as a construction manager. “I loved that.”

—Julie Wootton

PHOTOS BY STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Refugee Beatrice Bahati, center, with her son, Daniel, shops for groceries with interpreter Mary Lupumba, left, and mentor Allison Bangerter on Jan. 12 at Walmart in Twin Falls.

Adapting Continued from B1

In March, this monthly check will stop — another reason Mulabwe was anxious to start working.

••• Before Bangerter was a wife and mother, she dreamed of living in another country to help establish a school or dig wells for clean drinking water.

Then she met her husband, Joel, they had four children, and life became busy.

Now Bangerter, 37, drops children off at school, picks them up, makes lunches and teaches piano students.

But her desire to help people from other countries never lessened.

“I feel very spoiled with my whole life,” she said. “When I look at my whole life, I was so blessed.”

So when she heard a radio advertisement for refugee mentors last year, Bangerter got involved. She was there the November night that Mulabwe, Bahati and their children got off the plane after two days of travel. She was there when they walked into their new apartment.

Now, she’s with them every week — guiding them through the complexities of laundromats and grocery stores or finding experiences they might not try without her encouragement.

In January, Bangerter took Bahati to the bank. They sat in Bangerter’s van before going in, so Bahati could practice saying, “I would like to cash my check.”

Bahati was nervous in the van, but as soon as she stepped to the counter, she did fine.

“I felt like I did something that was so helpful to someone else,” Bangerter said. “What they are doing is amazing.

If I were in their shoes, I would want somebody to help me.”

Bangerter is one of 16 mentors who volunteer at the CSI Refugee Center.

“They are a friend, essentially, who can help them around the community and adjust to life here,” Americorp volunteer coordinator Jenny Reese said.

Reese started working at the center in December. Her position is new — scheduling mentor orientations, training and activities involving mentors and the refugees they’re assigned to — but the mentor program is not.

“There is a desire from the community to be involved with refugees,” Reese said.

Reese held her first mentor meeting Dec. 21 at CSI. Bangerter and two other mentors showed up to share stories of dealing with language barriers, differences in culture and walking the fine line between helpful and intrusive.

“I still haven’t found something they like to eat,” Bangerter said later. “Except for oatmeal cookies. They liked them so much they wanted to take some home.

They also like popcorn.”

Bangerter spoke in her dining room, where a red flower bloomed on the table, soaking in light from a large window. The flower was one of two amaryllis Bangerter bought in January; she gave the other to Bahati’s family. When Bangerter’s husband found an air popper at Deseret Industries, he gave it, too.

The two families have been attending weekly story time at the Twin Falls Public Library. The Jan. 8 story time included songs and an activity where children made their own bear paws.

“If you wanna hear a song, move your eyebrows,” said a woman sitting in front of the crowd of children and adults. Lupumba turned to Mulabwe and translated. He then turned to Sarah, a finger on his eyebrow to make it move.

It’s a fun activity for the children, but Bangerter chose it for another reason, as well. She hopes the repetition of story time will help them with their English skills.

After a few songs, many of the children became restless — standing up or walking around the room. Daniel headed for the stacks of books, but Mulabwe motioned for him to come back. The storytelling wasn’t over, and Mulabwe was listening intently.

After the singalong, participants

Dr. E. Monte Crandall explains ultrasound results to Beatrice Bahati on Jan. 7 at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center.

Refugee Kanegamba Mulabwe boards a bus Feb. 2 in Twin Falls for his first day of work at Cactus Petes Resort Casino. made bear paws from paper bags.

Bangerter helped Sarah and Daniel fasten bear paw pieces with a purple glue stick while Mulabwe and Lupumba watched from the side. The room quickly filled with sounds of cutting paper and children talking. Daniel was distracted by the commotion, but Sarah was focused on her bear paw’s assembly.

“Are there bears in Africa?” Bangerter asked Mulabwe.

Mulabwe said no, so Bangerter told Daniel it could be a lion’s paw. Mulabwe helped his son put it on his hand and make a clawing motion.

The children, Bangerter said, are a good bridge between her family and Mulabwe’s. Story time isn’t part of some perfect prescription for refugee mentors — she’s never been given a to-do list — it’s just one of Bangerter’s best guesses for helping newcomers adjust.

“It’s been a learning process. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” Bangerter said. “There is no right answer.”

••• This matter of new experiences can be uncomfortable.

Bangerter and her family took Bahati and Sarah to Cabin Fever Day’s free activities at Bowladrome and the Herrett Center for Arts and Science on Jan. 9 — two days after Otter said his meeting with federal officials revealed a more thorough refugee vetting process than he’d realized.

Still, the Idaho Republican Party’s central committee Jan. 9 passed a resolution asking the state Legislature to stop Idaho’s refugee resettlement and disbursement of funding for refugee benefits until economic costs are analyzed and national security concerns put to rest.

That day was the first time Bahati and Sarah had ever watched a planetarium show. They sat near the front row of the Herrett Center’s crowded planetarium. Before the first preview came on, Sarah fell asleep in the darkened room. But Bahati was startled by the images on the screen, especially when a preview for “Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure” flashed strange creatures across the ceiling.

After a tour of southern Idaho’s

nighttime sky, the group got up close and personal with snakes, lizards and cockroaches in the Herrett Center’s reptile room.

While other visitors held snakes in their hands or peered at them lying in glass boxes, Bahati shook her head, indicating she wouldn’t go near them, let alone touch them. When Sarah slowly approached a girl holding a snake near the entrance, her mother called her back in Swahili.

When the group ordered lunch at a McDonald’s drive-through, Bahati refused to eat a hamburger, but she accepted some fries. When they arrived at the bowling alley, she munched on an apple near a foosball table as the Bangerters waited in line for shoes and an open alley.

At first, Bahati didn’t want to bowl, either.

“You gotta do it,” Allison encouraged as others chimed in.

When she finally, reluctantly agreed, Bahati knocked down four pins on her first throw. Told she had another try, she knocked down three more. No big deal.

Lupumba, the interpreter, also took some convincing.

“Go Mary, go Mary,” someone chanted.

Beatrice laughed as Lupumba finally stood up and chose a ball.

Sarah was trying to press buttons on a console when it was her turn. Hearing her name, she quickly grabbed a ball and scurried to the front of the lane. Her ball was not even halfway down the lane when she danced her way back to grab another.

By the third frame, Bahati, too, was warming up to the game. When she knocked down nine pins, she clapped her hands, grinning.

••• For Bahati, everything in Idaho is different: grocery shopping, laundry, going to the doctor.

For a Jan. 12 trip to Walmart with Bangerter, Bahati had a shopping list written in Swahili. Daniel and Sarah sat in the cart while Bahati browsed the produce. Whenever Bahati walked away, Sarah yelled, “Mama!”

Please see ADAPTING, B3

Sunday, February 28, 2016 • B3

Refugee Center Sees Influx of Donations, Volunteers JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com ‌

‌ WIN FALLS • Almost a year T after controversy erupted over refugee resettlement, the College of Southern Idaho’s Refugee Center is still seeing a wave of community support.‌ To handle an influx of donations and volunteers, the center rented a storage unit in October and hired a full-time volunteer coordinator in mid-December.

The influx is due to news stories and talk around the community, said Deborah Silver, leader of Magic Valley Refugee Advocates, an informal organization of supporters.

“People are asking me what they can do,” she said.

Controversy has brewed since April over the possible arrival of Syrian refugees. Some community members are worried about an influx of radical Muslims, and the Committee to End the CSI Refugee Center is gathering signatures to pursue a ballot measure to ban refugee centers in Twin Falls County.

The Refugee Center is slated to receive 300 refugees from around

How to Volunteer or Donate

Call 208-736-2166 or bring donations to the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center at 1526 Highland Ave. E. in Twin Falls. Hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. the world this fiscal year, which started Oct. 1. So far, none have arrived from Syria.

Meanwhile, an influx of donations has been “overwhelming,” Refugee Center director Zeze Rwasama said. “It’s a good problem to have.”

People brought carloads of donations — clothing, furniture, kitchen items — from as far away as the Wood River Valley, Pocatello and Moscow. “We are getting donations from all over the place,” Rwasama said.

The center’s existing donation room is full, so it rented a storage building.

Some have even donated vehicles. And during Christmas time, two people made $1,000 donations.

To manage volunteers, the center hired a full-time volunteer coordinator, who started in December. “That’s tremendously helpful,” Silver said.

Rwasama covered those duties previously but said it became overwhelming.

Before each refugee family arrives, a local family is assigned to them and meets them when they arrive at the airport. There’s a waiting list of 10 mentor families who want to be matched with incoming refugees, Rwasama said in late January.

Because the Refugee Center has operated for about 30 years, many groups — such as churches — have done volunteer projects for years, Silver said. Now, she wants to provide infrastructure to “keep track of all of the different things that are out there.” Silver wants to provide a centralized place for community members to ask: What’s needed?

A group of community volunteers is coordinating with Boisebased Global Talent Idaho. The work force development initiative helps refugees who arrive with

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Kanegamba Mulabwe says thanks after receiving a donated sewing machine Jan. 6 at the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center. a skilled background or college degree to launch their careers in the U.S. The organization helps maximize refugees’ job potential, beyond the initial survival jobs they get quickly when arriving in Twin Falls, Silver said.

Magic Valley Refugee Advocates is also looking to emulate refugee programs in other cities, such as having volunteers help set up refugee apartments or donate homemade quilts.

Another idea is gathering women in the community to help refugee women. Silver said the idea was spurred by a conversation with the Islamic Center of Twin Falls, where some commented that

“sometimes, women have a difficult time connecting here.”

Over the past year, Silver has met with many community members and faith leaders. And her group has talked about wanting to see the annual Magic Valley Refugee Day become an even bigger community event.

When III Percent of Idaho held a march in October calling for an end to the refugee program, Silver’s group announced on Facebook it wanted to collect one coat for refugees to match every protester in attendance.

It surpassed that goal with more than 400 coats — plus scarves and gloves.

Adapting Continued from B2

Bahati stuffed plastic bags full of apples and bananas. What other shoppers might have put in two or three bags, she fit into one. She examined a head of purple cabbage — she was looking for green — but decided against it and put it down.

Other items on Bahati’s list were challenging to find, too: lotion, fingernail clippers, lip balm, makeup. Nothing on the shelves looked familiar.

Lupumba translated to Bangerter that Bahati was looking for a razor.

Bangerter asked: the kind to shave your legs? Lupumba shook her head. It was to cut nails.

Bangerter was stumped. “We can look and see what they have,” she finally said.

In the cosmetics aisle, Bahati and Lupumba scanned the shelves for Black Opal, the makeup line that Bahati uses. She carried an almost empty compact in her hands to show a Walmart employee.

The first employee directed them to a small African-American hair section next to toothpaste and toothbrushes. The second employee suggested the Queen Latifah makeup line.

Bahati eventually purchased Loreal’s brand in the most similar shade she could find. Instead of lotion, she bought Vaseline. She decided not to buy a fingernail clipper or lip balm when presented with the alternatives.

Not being able to find what she is looking for in the store is minor inconvenience for a woman who used to worry how she would feed her children. That worry is lessened now.

“When they tell me, ‘I’m hungry,’” she said later. “I can give them food.”

Bahati and her husband can sleep soundly at night without fear someone will enter their home and rob them. In the refugee camp, Mulawbe said, if someone finds out you have a little money, they come in and take it.

“Here, I can sleep without worry,” he said Jan. 18, at home with his family.

••• It was difficult to find foods Mulabwe and Bahati liked during lunch at Bangerter’s home Jan. 15.

Bangerter pulled a plastic container of lasagna from her refrigerator. Bahati took one look and, without saying a word, declined the leftovers.

“No way?” Bangerter said, laughing. “It’s good, it’s good.”

Then she offered boiled eggs and leftover stew. Bahati reluctantly took a bowl of stew after Bangerter explained what was in it: potatoes, carrots, celery, beef.

“Do you want to try it?”

Bangerter said. “Or does it look gross?”

Bahati took cautious bites of the potatoes, careful not to drink the liquid. She later tasted peanut butter for the first time.

Mulabwe declined all the foods.

When Bangerter’s children asked for corn dogs, she heated one for Sarah, too. But Sarah backed away from the piece of corn dog on a fork that Bangerter held. The children instead ate boiled eggs.

Bangerter tried again to get Mulabwe to eat, this time offering a corn dog. When others

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Kanegamba Mulabwe, right, Beatrice Bahati and their children, Sarah and Daniel, wait to get their Idaho identification cards Jan. 8 at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Twin Falls.

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Beatrice Bahati, left, and her son, Daniel, eat lunch with mentor Allison Bangerter’s son Nicolas, right, Jan. 15.

Kanegamba Mulabwe, center, declined everything, and Bahati tasted only familiar foods. pressed him to try it, Bangerter’s youngest daughter, Amaya, interjected: “They don’t have to.”

Bangerter agreed.

But when it came to making oatmeal cookies, Bangerter wanted them to help as they waited for loads of Bahati’s laundry to wash and dry.

“Do you want to make cookies?” she said. “Do you understand cookies? We can bake because we have to wait for the laundry.”

Wi t h o u t a n i n te r p re te r, Bangerter read the recipe for oatmeal cookies and explained where they could find the ingredients in her kitchen. She showed Mulabwe and Bahati how to combine the sugars and butter in a mixing bowl.

“The butter is too cold,” Bangerter said. “We should have let the butter get warmer. Do you understand cold and warm?

The butter was cold, so it wasn’t as soft.”

Mulabwe nodded to show he understood, as he talked to his wife in Swahili. They stood close to the bowl, peering in to watch the ingredients mix.

When Bangerter increased the mixing speed, pieces of batter

flipped out of the bowl. Mulabwe and Bahati backed up, smiling.

••• Even giving birth will be different than in the refugee camp.

In Malawi, many women give birth before getting to the crowded hospital. Bahati was lucky; she reached the hospital in time for the births of both her children.

Expecting her third child, Bahati went to her first St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center ultrasound Jan. 7. In the dark room, the only light came from a wall-mounted screen and ultrasound technician Lisa Miller’s computer. Miller pushed the ultrasound wand across Bahati’s bare belly.

The fetus on the screen was curled up, knees blocking its face.

“This is the baby’s thigh and femur,” Miller said. “The baby’s foot is right there. See how his foot is right there?”

As Lupumba translated, Bahati smiled.

Another angle revealed the sex of the baby. Miller typed, “It’s a boy,” on the screen followed by exclamation marks.

“Can you feel that movement right now?” Miller asked. Bahati

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Sarah Mulabwe, 3, looks to her mother as she grabs a ball during the annual Cabin Fever Day on Jan. 9 at Bowladrome in Twin Falls. nodded, eyes glued to the screen.

“He’s very active,” Miller said.

While Bahati learned the baby’s due date, April 18, and its heartbeat, 143 beats per minute, Mulabwe sat in the waiting room with their two children.

Bahati said he wasn’t expecting a son when Daniel was born.

“I’m sure he’ll be excited,” Lupumba translated for Bahati.

Later, Mulabwe reflected on the newest member of his family. The baby boy will be the first American citizen in the family.

“He will have a better life and better opportunities than Sarah and Daniel had back home,” he said.

Mulabwe had never heard of the “American dream” before coming to the U.S. He liked the idea that he and his family could become anything they set their minds to.

“That’s good,” he said. “That means you work hard.”

••• Some in Twin Falls want to close that door.

A group seeking to get a measure onto May ballots banning refugee centers in Twin Falls County has been gathering signatures since October. By mid-January, the group had gathered about 1,500

signatures of the of 3,842 required by the early-April deadline, but it hadn’t turned them all in. The Twin Falls County Clerk’s Office had certified only 219 so far, and Prosecuting Attorney Grant Loebs — who reviews proposed ballot measures before they are approved — had expressed doubts about whether some of the provisions are legal or enforceable.

In Boise, all 105 Idaho lawmakers were invited to controversial antiIslam pastor Shahram Hadian’s Jan. 14 speech at the Capitol, but only a handful briefly stopped by to listen to parts of his presentation — a warning on the dangers of refugees. While about 100 protesters holding “Idaho is too great to hate” signs rallied inside the Statehouse, Hadian argued that states must protect their citizens from Muslim extremists because the federal government will not.

Meanwhile, hundreds of refugees in Twin Falls — 304 arrived in the most recent fiscal year — are navigating the adjustment to American self-sufficiency.

Two of the biggest hurdles Bangerter foresees for Mulabwe Please see ADAPTING, B4

B4 • Sunday, February 28, 2016

What Benefits Do Refugees Receive? for up to six months.

“We can stop the program at any time if they become self-sufficient,” Rwasama said.

Funding source: Health and Human Services How it’s used: Only one-sixth of newcomers are enrolled, Rwasama said, and others get help through the TRA program.

How much: $200 per adult and $40 per child per month. Refugees are also eligible to receive lump sums of $150 periodically, such as 120 days after arrival.

JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com‌

‌ WIN FALLS • When refugees arrive in T Twin Falls, they receive assistance — such as spending money, medical care and assistance paying rent — while they get on their feet.‌ The goal is to help newcomers find jobs as quickly as possible so they can become selfsufficient, said Zeze Rwasama, director of the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center.

The center receives federal money to provide services.

“The accountability of this money is extremely tight,” Rwasama said. The CSI Refugee Center went through five audits by different groups in the past year.

For their first eight months in the U.S., refugees are eligible for Medicaid to pay for health-related expenses. If they qualify based on income, they can also receive Idaho food stamps. Benefits are eliminated or reduced as the refugee finds a job.

Here’s a look at other benefits refugees receive:

Transitional Refugee Assistance (TRA)‌ When: Refugees become eligible after 30 days and can receive assistance for up to eight months.

Funding source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services How it’s used: Refugees pay rent, utilities and other bills out of the funding they receive. And they’re taught about budgeting.

When they hit a certain income level — which can be met by working just part-time — their case is closed.

How much: Amounts vary depending on the family size. For example, one person receives $382 monthly, and a family of four receives $782.

Extended Employment‌

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Refugee Kanegamba Mulabwe signs paperwork with Kathy Blamires from the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center at his Twin Falls apartment Dec. 29. Blamires delivered the family’s monthly check — $200 for each adult.

For one person, the case is closed once he or she earns $637 per month; or $1,303 for a family of four.

Reception and Placement‌

When: First 90 days Funding source: U.S. Department of State How it’s used: It pays for a refugee’s apartment deposit and first month’s rent.

It’s also used to buy a week or two of food — depending on the size of the family — and furnish the living space with bedding, kitchen utensils and a list of other items the federal government requires.

“We buy all we need to buy,” Rwasama said. “Any donation we receive supplements that.”

The Refugee Center also uses funding

to provide an orientation, case management, an initial health screening and help connecting with a primary care doctor, and transportation.

How much: $1,125 per person. Refugees don’t get that money; rather, it’s used by the Refugee Center to provide services.

The amount per person is the same nationwide, regardless of the city and its cost of living. That’s one reason refugees do well in small cities, Rwasama said.

But it can still be a challenge to stretch that money in Twin Falls. “Usually within the first month, we spend it all,” Rwasama said.

Match Grant‌

When: Refugees become eligible after 30 days in the U.S. and can receive assistance

When: Up to five years after arrival Funding source: from TRA money How it’s used: The CSI Refugee Center launched an extended services program in January 2015, open to refugees after their first eight months in the U.S. It targets employed refugees who are not in their field of expertise or need to make more money to support themselves.

They must keep their current jobs, Rwasama said, and the Refugee Center helps them try to resolve any issues with those jobs, such as working conditions or conflicts with management.

If needed, refugees take English as a Second Language classes. The Refugee Center also designs classes to teach refugees English using terminology specific to a career path they’re interested in.

“We design those classes depending on the demand,” Rwasama said.

So far, the center has offered two specialized classes: for eight refugees interested in commercial truck driving and three interested in becoming hairstylists.

Once refugees gain sufficient English skills, they enroll in a local training program to seek certification in the desired career field.

How much: With this program, refugees aren’t receiving money.

Stepping Outside My Reporting Comfort Zone

‌I STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

In her Twin Falls apartment Dec. 29, Beatrice Bahati shows pictures of her wedding day at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi.

Adapting Continued from B3

and Bahati are learning English and being financially independent. When communicating without Lupumba’s help, Bangerter has learned to use hand signs.

Bangerter also wants Mulabwe and Bahati — both stopped attending school in the ninth grade — to finish their high school educations so they aren’t limited to low-wage jobs.

“I think it’s going to be important to get a GED, but it’s not going to happen overnight,” Bangerter said. “We got to get English going so it’s really easy.”

She also has high hopes for 21-year-old Lupumba, who graduated from high school in Zambia but didn’t come to the U.S. with her diploma.

Lupumba plans to take the GED. When Bangerter first met her, she asked what Lupumba’s dreams were.

Lupumba’s answer: to be a doctor.

Bangerter gave her a GED study book to encourage her to remember that goal.

“I don’t want the dreams to be sucked out of her,” Bangerter said.

Back in Zambia, Lupumba worked for a theater company that led children’s ministry classes such as acting and dancing; here, she attends Our Savior Lutheran Church.

Mulabwe wants Bangerter to teach him to drive and is taking classes at the Refugee Center to pass the written exam. When the weather gets nicer, Bangerter and Mulabwe plan to start

lessons behind the wheel.

And before the baby comes in April, Bangerter wants to hold a baby shower for Bahati. The couple hopes to move into a cheaper apartment in preparation for the baby’s arrival — and for the first payment they’ll need to make toward repaying their plane tickets to the U.S. Mentors stay with their families for a year, but Bangerter plans to check in with Mulabwe and Bahati long after that. She’s known them for only three months but already is looking to the year ahead. When November comes, it will be marked with happiness and some sadness for her.

“I don’t know, it will be sad,” Bangerter said. “It will mean they don’t need me anymore.”

••• A white CSI Refugee Center van pulled into the Fred Meyer parking lot the morning of Feb. 2. Mulabwe sat inside with other refugees.

It was Mulabwe’s first day of work in Jackpot, where he’d become a hotel housekeeper at Cactus Petes Resort Casino.

“He was happy with that. He knows we can’t live without a job,” Zeze Rwasama, director of the Refugee Center, translated Jan. 22, shortly after Mulabwe took a drug test for employment.

Mulabwe said he will be paid $8.40 an hour. After two months he will be eligible for benefits.

Cactus Petes for years has worked with the CSI Refugee Center to fill positions including housekeeping,

Photojournalist Stephen Reiss found documenting this family’s life incredibly rewarding. Though refugee resettlement is a polarizing issue, he witnessed people going out of their way to assist the family’s transition.

houseman, stewarding, cook and security, Dawn Vandiver, the casino’s human resources manager, said later. Cactus Petes’ talent recruitment specialist goes to the Refugee Center and conducts employment screenings, assists with the online application process and even does uniform fittings.

Cactus Petes employees can advance through transfers, training and a tuition reimbursement program, Vandiver said. “We’ve had many success stories of team members hired through the Refugee Center starting in one department and advancing their hospitality career in other departments.”

Candidates from the Refugee Center typically have basic English skills, Vandiver said. Cactus Petes also uses interpreters and InterpreTalk, a telephone-based service. “We also have a number of team members who are multilingual and are helpful in assisting with translation needs.”

Mulabwe waited inside the van for about 10 minutes before a large bus with “Cactus Petes” on the side pulled into the parking lot. As graveyard shift employees unloaded from the bus, daytime workers lined up to board.

Mulabwe shook the hand of an older refugee leaving the bus as he embarked on his first day of employment. Outside the bus’s tinted windows, more vehicles pulled up and parked, while weary workers returning home scraped morning frost from their windshields.

As a photojournalist, Drew Nash says, he’s often a tourist in people’s lives. “That is not the case with this refugee project as I embed myself for a year with the Mulabwe family.”

admire people like Allison Bangerter. ‌I admire her because she is helping others, but mostly because she is stepping outside her comfort zone.

She’s never been to the Democratic Republic of the Congo or to Malawi. She doesn’t know the customs and culture or speak Swahili. But this doesn’t stop her from reaching out to another family in need. She doesn’t allow Kanegamba Mulabwe’s and Beatrice Bahati’s limited English to stop her from interacting or spending afternoons with them. Bangerter said it’s kind of like playing charades. When they can’t figure out what the other is trying to say, they give up, but usually they are able to decipher each other’s motions.

I’ve had to step outside my comfort zone as a reporter for my project following Mulabwe, Bahati and their two children Sarah, 3, and Daniel, 1.

It’s one thing to spend an hour or two with a subject and write a story. But this project has required me to gain the trust of newcomers to this country in a very short time. I’m not talking to them only once or twice.

I’m showing up — often with a photographer — during some of the most intimate moments of their new life in America.

I have relied heavily on the help of interpreter Mary Lupumba, a refugee from Zambia. Lupumba arrived only a month before Mulabwe and Bahati, but her help in reporting this project has been invaluable.

Even with her help, there are many moments where I feel confused by an explanation or unsure whether my questions are lost in translation.

Even time isn’t simple.

In the Swahili culture, the day starts at sunrise — not at midnight. So in Malawi or Zambia, 6 a.m. is “0:00 morning” when spoken in Swahili.

Because I can’t call Mulabwe or Bahati and talk to them, I often text Lupumba questions to ask Mulabwe or Bahati, and she texts back their answers. I was puzzled for a moment the first time

Tetona Dunlap Reporter

Lupumba told me something was starting at 16:30.

She had already shifted to midnight-based military time, but I needed to convert it again: to 4:30 p.m.

Without even language in common, it’s hard to gain someone’s trust.

During one of my early interviews, I asked Mulabwe and Bahati if they had any family photos. They told me no. A few weeks later, I had Lupumba ask them again if they had any photos from the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi. Again: no.

But during a visit to their home Dec. 29, I got a surprise at the end of my interview. Mulabwe asked: “So, what kind of photos were you looking for?”

My response: any photos you have before the refugee camp or during your time there. I told him it would help me understand where they come from.

Mulabwe went into a bedroom and came back with photos of him and Bahati before they were married. There was even a picture of their wedding, held in their simple home because there was no church. Bahati wore a plum-colored suit, while Mulabwe wore khakis and a white collared shirt. On the photo of Sarah’s baby dedication is stamped in yellow “21/10/2012.” Another picture shows Sarah in a gauzy pink dress and flowers.

She went to a New Year’s Eve party and came back that way.

Sarah was excited to look through the photos. She pointed out people and said their names.

These pictures were taken by other refugees in the camp who owned cameras. Mulabwe and Bahati did not own one, so each photo on the table cost 177 Malawian kwacha, the equivalent of $1 or more at the time.

The old photos didn’t make or break my story.

But the moment felt like a breakthrough.

• Sunday, May 8, 2016 Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins [ 208-735-3242 • vhutchins@magicvalley.com ] • B1

THE BIG STORY Refugees in a New Land

About this Project

This is the third installment in a Times-News special reporting and multimedia project: following a refugee family through its first months in America.

“Refugees in a New Land,” led by Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins, began with a Jan. 10 installment that described the rapid-fire lessons that newly arrived refugees receive, chronicled Idaho’s refugee resettlement controversy, detailed the selection and security clearance processes and presented data on Twin Falls resettlement.

The Feb. 28 installment detailed the federal and state benefits that refugees receive, described an influx of volunteers and donations to the CSI Refugee Center and profiled recent arrivals among Twin Falls’ refugee community.

Missed those stories?

Find them on Magicvalley. com/refugees.

TETONA DUNLAP, TIMES-NEWS‌

Until now, eggs were just for eating. Sarah Mulabwe, left, daughter of a refugee couple from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, dyes Easter eggs with Amaya Bangerter on March 26 at the Bangerter home in Twin Falls.

Finding Family

Mentors Fill Family Roles as Resettlement Opponents Vow to Keep Fighting

TETONA DUNLAP tdunlap@magicvalley.com

‌ WIN FALLS • T Beatrice Bahati warmed herself in the sun at a park Feb. 16, the first day pleasant enough to hint at the return of spring to Twin Falls.‌ Enduring the strange cold of her first Idaho winter, the Swahilispeaking mother from the Democratic Republic of the Congo often was confined to her apartment by the weather, by her pregnancy, by the unfamiliarity of her new city and — after her husband started his first job in the U.S. — by the necessity of caring for two children alone.

Finally, under a brilliant blue sky, she could take off her coat.

That afternoon marked 92 days since Bahati and her husband, Kanegamba Mulabwe, arrived in Twin Falls from the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi, on the day Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter joined other governors in urging President Obama to halt refugee resettlement.

By now, a stranger Bahati met at the Twin Falls airport that night was trying to fill the role of sister and friend.

Stay-at-home Twin Falls mom Allison Bangerter — on her first assignment as a volunteer mentor for the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center — helped Bahati and Mulabwe navigate the strange customs and holidays of their new home. While supporters of an initiative seeking to ban refugee centers in Twin Falls County gathered signatures they’d need by early April to get the measure onto the ballot, Bangerter took Bahati and her children to stores and library story times.

On this outing to First Federal Bank Park — the refugee family’s first — it wasn’t yet noon, but the swings, slides and monkey bars already teemed with children.

Sarah Mulabwe, 3, quickly took

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

On her first day home from the hospital, refugee Beatrice Bahati watches over newborn son David while her other two children — Daniel, left, and Sarah — drink Fanta sodas April 18 in the family’s Twin Falls apartment.

More Inside

• 1 in 4 Twin Falls Head Start Families Are Refugees, B2 • Twin Falls Refugee Controversy Draws University Volunteers, B3

Photographers Drew Nash and Stephen Reiss extensively documented the lives of this refugee family. See more of their work in a photo gallery.

a liking to the slides, but she held onto the sides as she moved slowly to the bottom.

Bangerter helped Sarah into a chair swing and pushed her across

the tracks from which it hung. At first, Sarah didn’t smile. But she hopped on for another ride with Bangerter’s daughter.

“All the way to the top,” Bangerter said. “Three, two, one, go.”

She ran and pushed, the red seat floating across the park, the girls’ legs barely visible.

Bangerter pulled them to the top again, and this time, in English, Sarah started her own count: “One, two, three, four.”

When Bangerter sent them sailing, Sarah grinned.

The slide and the swing were nothing to fear.

••• The Refugee Center’s rapidfire orientations and its English lessons have a simple goal:

self-sufficiency. In early February, Mulabwe’s first step toward supporting his family — and repaying certain refugee benefits — was a job as a Jackpot, Nev., casino housekeeper.

With Mulabwe gone at work, Bangerter made a point to visit Bahati often. They spent two or three days a week together, sometimes just running errands.

Bangerter took Bahati to the laundromat and the grocery store.

While the clothes spun, Bangerter taught Bahati how a pregnant woman says “my feet hurt” or “my back aches” in English. With no interpreter for their shopping trips, the women used hand signals when they didn’t have the Please see REFUGEES, B2

Idaho’s 2016 Refugee Controversy J‌ anuary: Fazliddin Kurbanov — a refugee from Uzbekistan living in Boise — is sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Authorities say Kurbanov instructed people how to create bombs to target transportation systems and other public places.

January: Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter tells journalists at the Associated Press’ legislative preview he doesn’t expect any legislation about refugee resettlement. But there could be pushback, he says, if President Obama’s administration increases the number of Syrian refugees being let into the country.

January: The Idaho Republican Party’s central committee passes a resolution asking the state Legislature to stop Idaho’s refugee resettlement and disbursement of funding for refugee benefits until economic costs are analyzed and national security concerns put to rest.

January: Few lawmakers attend a speech at the Idaho Capitol by controversial anti-Islam pastor Shahram Hadian, who warns states must protect their citizens from Muslim extremists because the federal government will not. Protesters gather in the Capitol hallways, some carrying signs welcoming refugees.

January: Refugee resettlement is a topic during a Twin Falls County Sheriff’s debate pitting Sheriff Tom Carter against candidate Cliff Katona, a retired Idaho State Police detective. Katona says he would make sure refugees feel welcome, but they must abide by American laws. During his 24 years Please see TIMELINE, B2

B2 • Sunday, May 8, 2016

Timeline Continued from B1

in ISP, he says, he never investigated a refugee for a crime.

Carter says he supports the governor’s call to fix a broken vetting system but said refugees are more likely to be victims of a crime.

January: A resolution honoring the 130th anniversary of the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty is introduced in the state’s House State Affairs Committee. The resolution’s sponsor, Rep. Hy Kloc, D-Boise, was born in a refugee camp in Germany after World War II, and his parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland. The resolution passes the House and Senate and in mid-March is delivered to the Secretary of State.

February: State legislators hold off on a resolution praising Azerbaijan for its “ancient traditions of interfaith tolerance, inclusion and positive multiculturalism” after lobbying by members of the Armenian National Committee of AmericaWestern Region. Liyah Babayan of Twin Falls, an Armenian Christian refugee from Azerbaijan, meets with the House State Affairs Committee to share her stories of persecution.

February: Twin Falls City Council votes unanimously to appoint a liaison to the Magic Valley Refugee Advocates, a local grassroots group. City Council members don’t offer support for the group’s efforts but agree to an exchange of information. It’s the city’s first time to engage in the heated debate over refugee resettlement.

February: Twin Falls High School Principal Dan Vogt blocks a story students prepared about perceptions toward local immigrants for an edition of the Bruin News.

Some students and parents raised concerns about a survey created by a student journalist asking for student opinions about Muslims and Islamophobia in the U.S. March: State legislators consider a bill banning foreign law in Idaho. Sponsor Rep. Eric Redman, R-Spirit Lake, gives committee members a packet of information on the dangers of Sharia law, including a picture of a severed hand. The bill doesn’t make it to the full House or Senate.

March: U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador — an Idaho Republican — sponsors legislation to give Congress more control over the number of refugees coming into the country and let communities that don’t want refugee resettlement reject them. It would cap the number of refugees to be allowed into the U.S. at 60,000 per year and bar the president from raising the ceiling without congressional approval.

March: In response to the Idaho controversy, 11 students from the University of Idaho spend spring break volunteering for the College of Southern Idaho’s Refugee Center.

March: Mormon women are given a special assignment during The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ general conference: to be part of a refugee relief effort called “I Was a Stranger.”

April: A petition for a ballot measure to ban refugee centers in Twin Falls County falls almost 3,000 signatures short of what’s needed to get onto the May ballot. At the deadline, the petition has 894 signatures. It needed 3,842.

April: The first Syrian refugee family arrives in the U.S. — Kansas City, Mo. — under President Obama’s surge operation to resettle 10,000 Syrians by Sept. 1. So far, about 1,000 have come since October.

April: German officials — plus business professionals and volunteers — visit Boise for two days to gain insights into how the city handles refugee resettlement.

April: President Obama visits Germany and says the U.S. and Europe must welcome incoming refugees. He announces plans to send as many as 250 more U.S. troops to Syria — bringing the total up to 300.

—Julie Wootton

1 in 4 Twin Falls Head Start Families Are Refugees JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com ‌

‌ WIN FALLS • T Bhutanese refugee Shar Upreti has an opportunity for his children to get a preschool education — something he’d struggle to pay for otherwise.‌ Upreti and his wife, Khina Bastola, have three children; two are in Head Start and attend preschool classes four days a week.

The couple recently filled out an application seeking Early Head Start services for 3-monthold Suzana.

“It is a great thing for me,” Upreti said.

The College of Southern Idaho’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs strive to serve a diverse population of low-income families representative of Twin Falls’ demographics. In reality, they have a higher percentage of refugees than the population does.

Nearly one in four families in CSI’s Head Start and Early Head Start have parents who are refugees.

Upreti and Bastola have been in Twin Falls for four years and got involved with the program in 2013. With the language barrier, Upreti said, he’d have a tough time making sure his children are ready for kindergarten. And Upreti, who works at Chobani, said he couldn’t afford to pay for private preschool.

Program director Mancole Fedder said he wouldn’t comment about controversy surrounding refugee resettlement in Twin Falls. But Head Start and Early Head Start, he said, are fortunate to have the CSI Refugee Center here.

“It brings diversity to our center,” said Ruby Hite, Head Start enrollment coordinator.

In total, 160 children in Twin Falls receive services — 44 in Early Head Start and 116 in Head Start — and 22 percent are from refugee families. Federal funding covers the cost; families pay nothing.

Refugees aren’t guaranteed enrollment. But the lower a family’s income, the more points its

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Bhutanese refugee Sahil Upreti, 5, right, plays during free time at Head Start on April 13 in Twin Falls.

Income Guidelines

Income guidelines for families interested in Head Start or Early Head Start. Families with lower incomes qualify for more points on their applications. The more points, the better chances of their children getting in.

Number in family 5 points 10 points 15 points 2 $16,020 $12,015 $8,010 3 $20,160 $15,120 $10,080 4 $24,300 $18,225 $12,150 5 $28,440 $21,330 $14,220 6 $32,580 $24,435 $16,290 7 $36,730 $27,548 $18,365 8 $40,890 $30,668 $20,445 9 $45,050 $33,788 $22,525 Source: College of Southern Idaho Head Start/Early Head Start application receives. “Most refugees fall within that category,” Hite said.

Certain risk factors — such as being a refugee or a child whose parent is incarcerated — also earn an application extra points.

If families with similar incomes apply, the risk factors determine who’s accepted. “They’re the tie breaker,” Hite said.

A parent council comes up with the risk factors and scoring, and families disclose whether any of the factors apply to them.

In south-central Idaho, 669 children receive Head Start or

Early Head Start services at 11 centers from American Falls to Hagerman, and Hailey to Twin Falls. Head Start offers preschool classes, while Early Head Start is for pregnant women, infants and toddlers up to age 3.

The Refugee Center refers families with children younger than 4, Fedder said, and provides an interpreter to help with the application process.

But after that, Head Start and Early Head Start pay for an interpreter using their federal grant money to operate programs. “We don’t absolutely have to have an

interpreter, but we couldn’t get much done without one,” Fedder said.

Early Head Start families get home visits each week — 90 minutes to two hours — and the cost of an interpreter adds up quickly, Fedder said.

Plus, in rural south-central Idaho, it can be a challenge finding interpreters for each language needed, Hite said. Among families in Twin Falls’ programs, 11 languages are represented.

Two years ago, Fedder encountered a family who needed a Nepali sign language interpreter.

That was a challenge.

Parents want their children to be prepared and know English before they enter kindergarten, Hite said. And learning at an early age is ideal. “Three- and 4-yearolds learn language so quickly.”

Without the program, many children would go without preschool education. Unless a child has a documented disability, most communities — with the exception of Blaine County — don’t have free preschool services, Hite said.

Preschool can get expensive — easily $400 per month or more.

There’s also a gap in accessibility, Hite said: families who don’t qualify for Head Start but can’t afford to pay for preschool.

Upreti’s family heard about Head Start from friends. In preschool, son Sahil, 5, and daughter Salina, 3, are learning English and academic skills. Sahil will enter kindergarten in the fall and already has learned how to socialize with classmates, listen to a teacher and follow school rules.

A Head Start teacher is helping the family navigate the kindergarten registration process — including gathering documents such as a birth certificate and immunization records.

Without Head Start, Fedder said, more children would arrive at kindergarten without any school experience.

“The local schools would be overwhelmed,” he said. “It doesn’t take an educator to realize that.”

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Refugee and mentor families attend a Feb. 23 play date hosted by Twin Falls mom Miranda Irby, at center in white.

Refugees Continued from B1

English words to discuss toiletries or produce.

Bangerter, a mother of four, knows how hectic life can get.

She also knows how important it can be for a young mother to have a support group. So she planned a baby shower for Bahati — not only to celebrate the birth of the family’s first American citizen, but to gather items Bahati would need for the baby.

More than seven months pregnant, Bahati was feeling especially tired March 7, as beef boiled on the stove for that night’s dinner.

Sarah and her 1-year-old brother, Daniel, were watching a PBS cartoon on television. The family television now had an antenna, so entertainment wasn’t limited to reruns of “The Lion King.” Bahati was waiting for her favorite show, airing at 7 p.m. She didn’t know its name.

Daniel and Sarah sat directly in front of the television, their faces close to the screen. Daniel said “A, B, C, D,” with the cartoon character.

Now that her husband works,

A biweekly podcast followed this project’s journalists into the field. Listen to and download the seven episodes at Magicvalley.com/podcast, or search “Refugees in a New Land” in your podcast player, iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud.

JOY PRUITT, FOR THE TIMES-NEWS‌

Members of the congregation sing during Light Pentecostal Church’s Easter service — conducted in four languages — inside a downtown Twin Falls church.

Bahati stopped attending English as a Second Language classes at the Refugee Center; someone has to stay home and watch the children. But if she had a choice, Bahati would go to ESL. “Yes, because I want to learn,” Bahati said in Swahili as Mary Lupumba, another refugee from the DR Congo, translated.

Bahati — who, like her husband, does not have a high school diploma — wanted Sarah to

start her education soon, and on April 13, with Bangerter’s help, she applied for Sarah to enter Head Start. Sarah thought that meant she could stay with the children in the classrooms that day, and she bawled when she learned otherwise.

“I want her to learn,” Bahati said. “It’s very important for her to learn.”

Besides her need for better English, Bahati on March 7 was

also fretting a little about the new baby and finding a job after the birth.

“I haven’t prepared myself yet,” she said. “I don’t have money.”

In the first years of their marriage, in the camp in Malawi, Mulabwe and Bahati were usually together. Those days are gone.

“When it’s just me alone I feel lonely sometimes,” Bahati said. “At the camp, he was always home.”

Sometimes Mulabwe left for work and returned a few hours later; the Jackpot casino sent him home when there was no work for him. But he usually spent his free time riding around Twin Falls on a bike he got from the Refugee Please see REFUGEES, B3

Sunday, May 8, 2016 • B3

Twin Falls Refugee Controversy Draws University Volunteers JULIE WOOTTON

jwootton@magicvalley.com ‌

TETONA DUNLAP, TIMES-NEWS‌

Kanegamba Mulabwe rides his bike back to his Twin Falls apartment after a visit to the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center on March 30.

Refugees Continued from B2

Center — trying acclimate himself with the town and buying items they needed at Fred Meyer and Dollar Tree.

“He rides it all the time,” Bahati said. “Even when he’s not at work.”

And even on nice days, Bahati was still apprehensive about leaving the apartment on her own. At seven months pregnant, she was afraid she wouldn’t be fast enough to grab Sarah or Daniel if they ran into the street.

So for the rest of that March day, she would rest.

“After I am done cooking, I just sit,” Bahati said.

Is she happy?

Yes, she said. “Because I woke up this morning and I’m OK, I’m not sick. No one is sick in the house, so we’re fine. So I’m happy.”

••• Other moms in Twin Falls know what it’s like to stay home with young children.

Miranda Irby, a mother of three, didn’t know there was a Refugee Center when she moved to Twin Falls two years ago. But when she heard about controversy surrounding it, she called the center to volunteer and became a mentor for an English-speaking family of four from the DR Congo.

“I wanted to help provide a welcoming face and positive experience,” Irby said. “It broke my heart that people would come here and be met with resistance.”

The refugee resettlement program at CSI has operated since the 1980s. It became the focus of controversy when CSI announced in April 2015 that Syrians could be among the refugees to be resettled in Twin Falls this year. The issue became more heated as the refugee crisis caused by the Syrian civil war worsened and after terrorist attacks in Paris.

When Irby contacted the CSI Refugee Center last year to volunteer, she introduced a new idea: play dates for refugee families.

Zeze Rwasama, the Refugee Center’s director, liked her idea, but it wasn’t until Jenny Reese was hired in December for the new position of volunteer coordinator that Irby was able to set her idea into motion.

Irby wanted to help refugees — particularly mothers — make friends in their new community.

“I know how it is to be in a house all day with kids,” said Irby, the mother of boys ages 2, 5 and 7.

Bangerter — who met Irby at one of the first mentor meetings Reese organized — brought Bahati on March 8 to their second play date at Irby’s Twin Falls home.

Irby invited some of the friends she is trying to recruit as mentors.

She also invited Sharifa Fnu, a refugee from Afghanistan, who has four children and has lived in Twin Falls for three months.

In the play room near Irby’s front door, children’s artwork hung from clothespins on a clothesline. The opposite wall displayed a canvas map of the U.S. Daniel was drawn to a motorcycle; when he pushed its buttons, rock music played and white lights flashed.

He stomped his foot and danced.

All the mothers in the room laughed, and the moment needed no other shared language.

“It’s been very eye-opening for our whole family,” Irby said.

“It’s good for the kids to focus on another family.”

Sarah also found things in the room that she liked. She put a yellow stethoscope in her ears and held the other end on her mother’s heart. When she discovered a red

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Sarah Mulabwe plays on a slide at First Federal Bank Park on Feb. 16 in Twin Falls.

Paw Patrol backpack hanging from a hook, she immediately opened it to see what was inside. When a boy approached, she hid the bag behind her back.

But it was the playhouse in Irby’s backyard that Sarah and Daniel enjoyed the most.

When it was time to leave the play date, Sarah cried to stay.

••• Later that day, Bangerter and Bahati shopped for the baby shower that Bangerter would host that weekend.

Bangerter bought goat meat at Cash&Carry. Bahati bought cornmeal at WinCo Foods.

Bahati poured cup after cup of cornmeal until she filled two huge plastic bags. Then she chose two bags of frozen tilapia. With her mom busy shopping, Sarah started to climb out of the cart.

Grocery shopping can be difficult with three or four young children.

But Bangerter and Bahati help one another watch each other’s children.

“You want to get down?”

Bangerter said to Sarah. “Don’t be naughty like Nicolas.”

Sarah quickly joined Bangerter’s son, opening barrels of grain in the bulk section and playing with the scoops inside.

At the checkout, Bangerter helped Bahati load items onto the conveyor belt.

“Beatrice, you are a very good shopper at WinCo now,” Bangerter said as they pushed the cart out the door. “You are a professional.”

Bahati just laughed.

As they started across the parking lot, Nicolas hung back looking at the games in the grocery store lobby.

Sarah, sitting in the cart, wanted to make sure he wasn’t left behind.

“Nicolas!” Sarah shouted.

••• Written on a chalkboard, “Congratulations, Beatrice!!” greeted baby shower guests as they arrived March 12 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse on Orchard Drive.

The room’s corner was filled with clothes, a crib, a mobile and a big teddy bear in a stroller. Foods lined a kitchen counter, including the predictable American shower fare: a fruit plate, a punch bowl, tiny lemon cakes. But also the unfamiliar: a bowl of bugali — a cornmeal dish that looks like mashed potatoes — and fried goat meat.

Bahati and Bangerter had made the bugali and goat in Bahati’s apartment that morning. Bahati boiled the meat and pan fried it in oil, retrieving a lid from the cabinet to subdue the grease that spit and popped. Bangerter took notes on the food preparation.

“I am a bad cook,” Bangerter told Bahati. “If I don’t write it down, it will taste bad. It won’t taste delicious.”

That morning, Bangerter brought along her oldest daughter, Clara.

When Clara told her mother she

was hungry, nobody translated her comment. But Bahati — whose understanding of spoken English is improving despite leaving ESL classes — retrieved an apple from the cabinet.

Seeing Clara’s apple — nicoupe in Swahili — Sarah and Daniel wanted their own. Fruit was hard to get in the refugee camp.

Bangerter is trying to learn Swahili words as well as the recipes for bugali and goat.

“I will be a very good African cook and you will say, ‘Allison, cook for me,’” Bangerter said.

••• In a bright red coat, Sarah walked around the room at her mother’s baby shower, licking the blue frosting from a cupcake. Daniel had already eaten all the frosting off his cupcake.

Among the guests, a few faces were familiar. Bahati knew Sifa Kalunga from the refugee camp in Malawi — a discovery the women made at a Twin Falls Public Library story time months after Bahati’s arrival in Idaho. Irby, the mentor of Kalunga’s family, knew Bahati from the play dates. Other guests were strangers.

“And this is Beatrice,” Irby said, making introductions. “She’s the pregnant one.”

The baby shower games started quickly. Everyone received necklaces of multicolored pastel yarn with pink pacifiers hanging from them. Every time someone said “baby,” anyone in the room could take her necklace. When Bahati said “baby” in Swahili, Lupumba took her necklace. Bahati laughed, trying to turn away and keep it.

Some games were typical shower fare: a diaper-changing race and a contest in which Bahati had to choose whose Play-Doh baby she liked best.

But another game was a quiz, matching a list of Swahili words to their English counterparts — diaper, labor pains, doctor. And Kalunga taught the group a Swahili nursery song. Soon the guests were singing in unison: “Babe nyamanza yako mama atakuletaya bombo yako.”

Of all the gifts she received that afternoon, the one that brought the biggest reaction from Bahati was from a woman she hadn’t met before that day — a woman who goes to church with Bangerter.

Bahati gasped when she opened the bag to find a handmade blanket.

“Thank you,” she said softly. She looked up briefly, but with a smile.

••• When the LDS church two weeks later encouraged Mormon women to help refugees, Twin Falls women answered the call.

For Bangerter, it validated her choice to become a mentor.

“I knew I was doing the right thing,” Bangerter said. “It was just great to see this support from my Please see REFUGEES, B4

‌ WIN FALLS • Whipped T by a frigid wind, University of Idaho students plowed ga rd e n b e d s o n e m i d March morning.‌ Leticia Garcia, with her jacket hood over her head, was among 11 members of a U of I group who spent spring break in Twin Falls learning about refugee resettlement and doing related service projects.

The experience was “really interesting and life changing,” said the 21-year-old college senior, a Glenns Ferry native who is majoring in international studies and will graduate in December.

On March 18 — their last day in Twin Falls — Garcia and the other students prepared garden beds used by refugees behind the Episcopal Church of the Ascension.

In response to recent controversy over resettlement in Twin Falls, U of I reached out to the College of Southern Idaho’s Refugee Center about setting up the week-long volunteer trip.

“We just saw it as a really great opportunity for the students to come and learn about refugees and resettlement,” said Jenny Reese, volunteer coordinator for the Refugee Center. “We are grateful to have them here. They were all around the community, really.”

The university students visited the Newcomer Center at Robert Stuart Middle School and tutored English as a Second Language students at Canyon Ridge High School.

They visited refugee mentors’ homes and got to know refugees one on one.

Feedback around the community? “They really wished we could do more of this,” Reese said.

U of I students worked alongside humanitarian organizations elsewhere, too, as part of the university’s Alternative Service Break program, designed to promote learning through hands-on service.

In total, 59 students in 11 teams participated, along with seven faculty members

and staff advisers. In addition to the CSI Refugee Center, students helped at Boise Rescue Mission Ministries and Corpus Christi House; North Idaho Correctional Institution in Cottonwood; Growing Veterans in Mount Vernon, Wash.; Friends of Buford Park and Mt. Pisgah in Eugene, Ore.; Tillamook State Forest in Oregon; and The Nature Conservancy in West Linn, Ore. For sophomore Anna Matteucci, 19, Twin Falls was her third U of I service trip. Last year, she did forestry work in Tillamook, Ore. One winter break, she went to Nicaragua.

The Seattle native is a political science major and economics minor, so learning about refugee resettlement was valuable.

“This relates directly to what I want to do,” she said.

She doesn’t plan to work specifically with refugees, but their integration process affects cities.

Matteucci enjoyed evening meetings with refugees and their community mentors — volunteers who help them get settled and navigate life in Twin Falls. “Getting to hear from both of them is really valuable.”

Clayton Garcia, 21, a senior from Tracy, Calif., studying exercise science, was the student leader for the group in Twin Falls.

“I think most people here didn’t know too intimately of the process of refugees,” Garcia said, so it was enlightening to hear refugees talk about the trauma they experienced.

Leticia Garcia’s favorite part of the week was tutoring English learners. “They were really weak in the beginning, but they got it down,” she said.

Refugees taught students how to make foods from their home countries at an event hosted by First Presbyterian Church of Twin Falls, where students stayed during their trip.

T h e U o f I s t u d e n ts “brought a lot of energy to the issue,” Reese said, and they asked how they can help in the future.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Prince Ajanze, third from right, shares a laugh with others as University of Idaho students make food with refugees from around the world March 18 at First Presbyterian Church in Twin Falls.

How to Volunteer at the CSI Refugee Center Become a mentor: Individuals or families may apply to mentor an incoming individual refugee or family for one year. In particular, the center encourages families with children to apply.

Mentors help with activities such as touring points of interest around Twin Falls, preparing American foods, visiting the public library, watching a movie together, demonstrating the use of home appliances, teaching about holidays, sharing a holiday meal and practicing conversational English.

Interested in becoming a mentor? You must complete an application and a volunteer disclosure form and pass a criminal history background check. You also must attend a mentor orientation, meet your assigned refugees at the airport upon arrival and attend monthly mentor support meetings.

Tutor English as a Second Language students: Volunteers are needed to help in ESL classes — particularly for beginning English learners — noon-2 p.m.

Mondays through Thursdays. Volunteers may also help during other class times. Volunteers are asked to commit to coming at the same time each week, if possible.

Organize donations: Volunteers are needed to organize community donations in storage areas, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Mondays through Fridays. It’s a good opportunity for individuals or groups looking for a one-time service project.

Information: Jenny Reese at the CSI Refugee Center, 208-736-2166 or jreese@spro.net.

B4 • Sunday, May 8, 2016

Refugees Continued from B3

religion group.”

Vocal opposition to refugee resettlement in Twin Falls has motivated other volunteers and donors, too.

“It’s not just Mormons and Christians,” Bangerter said.

“There are people interested in helping. I know there is this group of people who have been kind of vocal, but everyone I’ve talked to wants to help.”

In 2015, the LDS church encouraged members to provide assistance to refugees around the world. The First Presidency, the church’s highest governing body, sent a letter Oct. 27 to church leaders, signed by President Thomas S. Monson and his counselors.

But many Mormon women rallied when they were given a special assignment March 26, during the Women’s Session of the church’s 186th annual General Conference.

The church’s organized refugee relief effort, “I Was a Stranger,” has a website that gives women ways to serve as individuals, in families and in organizations to offer friendship and mentoring.

Since then, Rwasama said, the Refugee Center has seen an increase in calls from people looking to help.

The call to help refugees came four days after Islamic extremists struck the Brussels airport and subway in Belguim on March 22, killing 32 people and injuring more than 200. In that attack, three Mormon missionaries from Utah and one from France were among the injured.

Deb Coffey, executive director of the Utah Refugee Center, told the Salt Lake Tribune on March 29 that her group has seen a flood of offers and donations from individual Mormons and LDS groups, as well as families, corporations, bloggers and a variety of auxiliary organizations.

Helping can be simple. When Bahati wanted a microwave, Bangerter posted on her church ward’s Facebook page, asking if anyone had one to donate.

Bahati likes her new microwave.

••• Mulabwe and Bahati grew up Christian. Both of their families attended Pentecostal churches in the DR Congo, and now the couple attends one in Twin Falls. On Easter, Bahati took Sarah and Daniel to Light Pentecostal Church in the basement of First United Methodist Church in downtown Twin Falls.

“I just go there because there are fellow refugees there,” said Mulabwe, who didn’t attend on Easter.

Keyboard music blared from a sound system as Magogwa Eriyakimu and three assistant preachers stood on stage in front of the room. The audience was filled with women wearing colorful dresses — black and white, purple, orange and red. Some sat in metal folding chairs; others stood and sang. A woman in the audience dabbed her eyes with a mint-colored tissue. Bahati, in an orange dress her husband made, sat in the back.

Sarah was drawn to a group of children playing with balloons in the middle of the congregation.

When she left her mother’s side to investigate, so did Daniel.

“For those who speak English,” said Charles Sindayihebura, one of the leaders of the church, “that song was about praising Jesus.”

After many songs, the pastors came forward and preached in four languages: English, Swahili, French and Kirundi, the official language of Burundi.

Sometimes they switched languages mid-sentence, while other sermons were completely in one language.

Sarah and Daniel seemed to grow bored and decided to explore. They took off around a corner near the front of the room and re-emerged in the back next to their mother.

••• Though Bahati is Christian, some holidays in her new home are foreign to her.

Bahati had never dyed eggs or seen an Easter egg hunt until March 26, at Bangerter’s house.

When Bangerter pulled two cartons of hard-boiled eggs from the refrigerator, Sarah immediately grabbed one and banged it on the table to crack it.

“So, Beatrice, have you

In Stephen Reiss’ video story, volunteer mentor Miranda Irby talks about the play dates she arranges for refugee families.

TETONA DUNLAP, TIMES-NEWS‌

Beatrice Bahati opens the plastic Easter eggs that Daniel, 1, and Sarah, 3, found during a hunt at mentor Allison Bangerter’s Twin Falls house March 26.

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Christine Bronson plays on her phone with Sarah Mulabwe at a play date hosted by Miranda Irby, not shown, for refugee and mentor families Feb. 23 in Twin Falls.

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Sifa Kalunga, left, accepts a high five after winning a game at the March 12 baby shower for Beatrice Bahati at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse on Twin Falls’ Orchard Drive. ever dyed eggs in Africa?”

Bangerter asked.

She hadn’t. But following the example of Bangerter’s children, Bahati submerged one egg into a cup of green dye.

“Yeah, do another one,” Bangerter said to Bahati.

Instead, Bahati cracked the next egg and gave it to Daniel to eat.

Sarah watched as 5-year-old Amaya Bangerter placed her egg in red dye then, a few minutes later, pulled the rosy shell from the cup.

Sarah was more excited to write on her egg with a white crayon.

When it was time to hide the eggs, Bangerter sent all the children downstairs to watch television. Sarah and Daniel didn’t want to go, though their mother told them in Swahili to go downstairs.

Instead, the two followed the women outside and helped hide the eggs in bushes and trees.

“Just hide them, Beatrice,” Bangerter said. “Do you understand hide?”

Bahati didn’t, and she placed a few on the ground. Watching Bangerter, she eventually got the hang of it, putting a few eggs in the shrubs.

After all the plastic eggs were hidden, Bangerter yelled down the stairs. “OK, kids, come up for the Easter egg hunt!”

Sarah giggled with each egg she discovered. After the hunt, when other children ran for the playground, Sarah and Daniel opened every plastic egg in their

“While reporting on this project, I’ve been amazed how quickly the entire family has learned to speak English,” said reporter Tetona Dunlap, left. “They are not fluent, but I’ve heard them speak more English in the past couple of months. It makes me wonder how quickly I would transition to a different language, culture and country.”

baskets, piling up the candy they found inside.

••• Teaching holiday traditions is standard fare in a refugee mentoring assignment. But Bangerter was determined to help Bahati through something far more serious: giving birth in a new country, without any relatives around, and with a husband working long hours.

The women had a plan.

Bangerter gave Bahati her home phone number, her cell phone number and her husband, Joel’s, cell phone number. But she was still worried.

Bangerter was on her way to church when Bahati called April 17 — the baby’s due date. Bahati had been having contractions all morning. When Bangerter arrived at her apartment, Bahati had her bag ready to go.

Daniel and Sarah were excited, too, but for a different reason: They thought they were going to a park. Instead, they went with Joel and the Bangerter children.

“Beatrice did great,” Bangerter said later. “She was a trooper. She seems pretty happy. I figured we’d have a long time, but we were there for four hours.”

At 5 p.m. that day, David Mulabwe was born at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center. In the family’s culture, they don’t say a baby’s name until he or she is born, so David wasn’t officially named until his father got to the hospital later that night.

“Oh, my gosh, he was so cute,” said Bangerter, who had never before accompanied another woman giving birth.

That night, Sarah and Daniel spent the night with the Bangerters because Mulabwe had to be ready by 4:30 a.m. to get to work on time.

The Bangerters rocked Sarah and Daniel to sleep. When they tried to move the children to

JOY PRUITT, FOR THE TIMES-NEWS‌

Sarah Mulabwe dances while the congregation sings during the Light Pentecostal Church’s Easter service.

Amaya’s bed, they woke up, crying. So the sister and brother slept with the Bangerters through the night.

“It was a little rough on them,” Bangerter said April 18. “Now they are fine. I think they are having fun. We saw the pigs, and they are going to a playground.”

She planned to pick up Bahati and David from the hospital that day — after 6 p.m., because that’s when Mulabwe would be home. Bangerter didn’t want Bahati alone the first day at home with David.

Bangerter also worried about who would make dinner for Bahati’s family that night.

“When we were at the hospital I asked her, ‘Are you hungry? Look there is tilapia and there is rice,’” Bangerter said. “But she said, ‘I’m not hungry.’ Then I talked to Kanegamba and she told him, ‘Bring me African food.’ So, Kanegamba made her bugali and leftovers.”

Mulabwe had rice ready when his family returned home. Sarah and Daniel carried around bottles of orange Fanta as they crawled on the chair their mother sat in.

On the floor in front of her, newborn David, dressed in green and white, slept in his car seat. When Bahati reached down to pick him up, he awoke and started to cry softly, so she pulled a blue pacifier out of her bag. David looked at his mother as his siblings clambered around to get a view of their new brother.

It was the first time Mulabwe had been away from his family all night. He was glad to have them home.

••• I n A f r i c a , m e n a re n ’t traditionally at the births of their children. Birth is

something for women, Bahati and Lupumba explained.

Here, Mulabwe was prepared to attend the birth, but he had to work instead. In February, Mulabwe had left his housekeeping job for work at a Jerome dairy: 12-hour shifts of machine milking cows, six days a week.

They are long and tiring days.

On April 15, two days before his son’s birth, Mulabwe was feeling the pressure of work and bills.

“Yes, he’s stressed right now,” Lupumba said, interpreting for Mulabwe. “His right foot and leg is hurting. He didn’t sleep well last night.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t like making beds and vacuuming carpets in Jackpot; he wasn’t making enough money or working enough hours.

At his new job, he and other refugee workers communicate in English.

“Sometimes it’s difficult, but there are other refugees,” he said.

“We try to help each other.”

April brought other financial responsibilities for Mulabwe, too; it was his first month to pay the apartment’s $600 rent.

To cut costs, Mulabwe wants to find a cheaper apartment.

Bangerter made a few calls but didn’t find any leads. She told Mulabwe that it may be difficult for him to find an apartment with rent of $550 or less. When she did find an apartment within his price range, the landlord refused to rent to a family of five; the apartment was too small for that many people.

On April 6, Bangerter took Mulabwe to Idaho Housing and Finance Association’s office in Twin Falls. He received papers to apply for low-income housing assistance, but the woman at the front desk said it can take up to two years to be approved.

Despite feeling a bit overwhelmed, Mulabwe was optimistic.

“I feel I have the strength and I have no problem.”

••• A few days before David’s birth, the petition for a ballot measure to ban refugee centers in Twin Falls County passed its early-April deadline almost 3,000 signatures short of the number needed to get the measure onto the May ballot. But Rick Martin, head of The Committee to End the CSI Refugee Center, vowed to continue his efforts.

“I’ll fight on this issue till hell freezes over, and then I’ll fight on the ice, to end refugee resettlement at CSI,” Martin told a reporter.

Bangerter, as usual, pursued a different brand of advocacy.

Her own children’s births had taught her something: “Everyone wants their mom after having a baby.” So Bangerter did what family might do the day after a birth.

She took Bahati’s older children to give Bahati some respite.

When Bangerter showed up at the apartment, Sarah and Daniel were excited to go. This time at First Federal Bank Park, Sarah ran up the stairs and glided down the slides without trepidation.

She spun in circles until she was dizzy and walked across a jungle gym maze.

Bangerter’s mother, Alice Sowards, visiting from Georgia, helped her daughter watch Sarah, Daniel and Nicolas as they took off to play in different parts of the park. A ready-made grandma.

It’s also helpful, Bangerter said, when family takes turns making meals for a new mother. So Bangerter put out a call on social media asking friends to cook dinner for the refugee family that week. She already had someone lined up for Thursday. Bangerter intended to attempt bugali one night. If Mulabwe can do it, she said, she can too.

When Sarah wanted to sit in a black bucket swing, Sowards pushed her gently so she soared back and forth.

Sarah spotted Daniel across the park, and the protective big sister yelled to get his attention — in English. “Danny! Daniel, come here!” When Daniel finally returned, Bangerter put him in a swing.

“Grandma will push you,” she said.

As they powered the swings, mother and daughter discussed the summer Sarah might have: swim lessons, preparation for Head Start.

Martin’s committee intends to focus on November’s college trustee elections. Bangerter intends to show this refugee family Dierkes Lake and the other staples of a Twin Falls summer.