JOURNEY TO EASTER
In November 2004, a nine-member Sudanese family arrived in Knoxville, Tenn., after a 30-hour trip from their homeland. Here is the story of a Bridge Refugee Service family, adjusting to life in a new world, under the care of three Holston congregations.
By Lynn Hutton
Tut Tel (pronounced Toot Tell) left his home in the Republic of Sudan to go north to Egypt in 1988 to study. He received his law degree from the University of Alexandria, and eventually became an interpreter for the United Nations. Why didn't he practice law? Because in Egypt, one has to be Egyptian - and Muslim - to get a job in the private sector.
Such twists of fate have been part of Tel's life for many years now. At every turn, choices have been restricted, circumscribed by politics, religion, legal systems, war, and family considerations. Things have never quite turned out the way he hoped and planned.
Tel, along with his wife Tabisa Ngonjok and their seven children, arrived in this country under the auspices of the Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services on Nov. 22 - just before Thanksgiving last year. Like the Pilgrims and so many others before them, they had made it to the New World, but the road ahead still proved to be long and arduous.
The story of the Tel family is intertwined with the history of their homeland.
Sudan, the largest country in Africa (roughly the size of Alaska, Nevada, and Texas combined), has been independent from the United Kingdom since 1956. During its 49-year history as a republic, it has been embroiled in civil war except for a 10-year period of peace from 1972 to 1982. United Nations estimates place the number of dead at 2 million and the number of displaced at 4 million. Another 600,000 have fled to neighboring countries. The tragedy is termed - unofficially - genocide, and until just recently most of the world ignored the plight of the Sudanese people.
There are more than 100 tribes in the Sudan, each with its own language or dialect. The Tels are of the Nuer tribe, in the southern part of Sudan, and Nuer is their native tongue. Arabic is the national language, and most of them speak Arabic as well. Tut Tel speaks English, as do the older children.
While he was studying in Egypt, Tel moved his family to the northern section of Sudan, because the south was a war zone. His wife's brother joined the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, the resistance movement of southern Sudan, and became a bodyguard for one of the movement's commanders. The soldiers of the Islamic government based in the north came to the Tels' home one day asking Tabisa for information about her brother's whereabouts, in an attempt to locate the commander. She told them, truthfully, that she did not know where he was. They beat her for not cooperating with them.
It was at that point that Tut Tel moved his entire family to Cairo. But even then, options were limited.
"The Egyptian people were unkind to us. Even with a law degree, I could work there as a servant, but not as a professional. If you are not Egyptian, you can't work," he said.
Nor could the family stay there indefinitely as refugees, which meant that, eventually, the family would be uprooted again.
As the time limit approached, they made arrangements, through Bridge, to come to America and settle in Nebraska, where they had friends. Usually Bridge-sponsored refugees have volunteer groups preparing for their arrival six months in advance. But for the Tels, it seems, nothing is ever easy. Complications occurred; plans for Nebraska fell through; everything changed.
Bridge Refugee Service contacted three United Methodist churches in the Knoxville area - Cokesbury, Concord, and Middlebrook Pike - and said, "We have a family of nine arriving in two weeks. Can you help?" The churches agreed to make a cooperative effort to help this family get settled.
The Rev. Wil Cantrell, associate pastor at Middlebrook Pike UMC and point man on the project, for his congregation said, "This is putting a human face on an international calamity. This is hands-on mission work. How could we say no?"
Concord UMC owned a house that was sitting empty. Members of Cokesbury knew someone who would donate a van. Middlebrook Pike supplied home furnishings. In addition to Cantrell of Middlebrook, the Rev. Rebekah Fetzer from Cokesbury, and Carla Bower, a layperson from Concord, began work. They coordinated the efforts as other pastors, staff, and laity of the three churches began gathering clothing, school supplies, furnishings, kitchen utensils, linens, and cash donations.
Then came the Monday night in November when the family arrived in Knoxville. Tut Tel and Tabisa Ngonjok (wives keep their family names in Nuer culture) agree that the journey was the hardest part of the transition. It involved flights on four planes and being in transit for almost 30 hours. The children - four boys and three girls: Sunday, 17, Nyawech, 14, Gai, 11, Mosis, 8, Lohang, 5, Nyapot, 3, and Nyagoa, 1 - were exhausted when the plane finally landed in Knoxville at about 11 p.m. There was a crowd representatives from the three congregations - gathered to meet them with signs, balloons, and good wishes.
Church members from the three churches took the family under their collective wings, going by the house and picking up one or two of the children for shopping or for a pick-up basketball game. At first Tut said, "No movies," but he has relented on that hard and fast rule, now carefully monitoring their choices, like any other parent in American culture.
Since their arrival, the family has been busy learning English, and Tut is learning to drive. (In the Sudan, fewer than 1 per cent of the population own cars, and in the cities of Egypt, public transportation is always available.) The older children had to get health certificates and wait for a new semester to begin, but they are enrolled now in schools in Farragut, and Lohang, the youngest boy, is in pre-school at Cokesbury.
Nyawech, the 14-year old girl, whose name has been Americanized by her new friends into "Margaret", is the primary cook for the family. Seventeen- year old Sunday attended Resurrection with the youth group from Cokesbury. When asked what is the best part of America, his brother Gai answers, "Baseball!" His favorite American food? "Pizza."
Tut is recovering from a recent surgery and looking for a job. He would like a position with a law firm - possibly clerking - but would love a position with a humanitarian organization. His years working for the United Nations and his experiences in his homeland have taught him that helping is the most important thing one can do.
In mid-March, the family moved again, to a slightly larger house, yet another uprooting, another transition.
Tut Tel said, "I am happy with the three churches and what they have done for us. I am the first Christian in my family. In Egypt, I was offered large sums of money to convert to Islam, but I refused. In some ways being a Christian in Egypt was easier than in Sudan, because Christianity is very old there.
"I also appreciate what the United States government has done," he said, "bringing pressure to bear on the dictatorship of the Sudan. A cease-fire accord was signed Dec. 31. Will it hold? We'll see, won't we?"
Asked if he would ever take his family back to Sudan, he said, "Maybe, someday, if things settle down. I can't go back as a Sudanese citizen. I will have to wait until I can become a U.S. citizen in order to be safe in my own country. That's a five year process."
Volunteers from the three churches talk among themselves, trying to imagine the adjustments the Tel family has had to make. Leaving home and family and culture, not once, but twice, to enter a country where you know not one living soul, to learn yet another language, and to be surrounded by strangers, however well-meaning. There is loss involved, and grief.
Cantrell put it best, perhaps: "Yes, this is an Easter story, a story of new life, of resurrected hope. But you can't get to Easter without going through Good Friday. And right now, in many ways, the Tel family is going through the Good Friday stage of their journey."
The story of the Tel family was written by the Rev. Lynn Hutton, minister of music at Middlebrook Pike United Methodist Church. Photographs were made by the Rev. Sarah Martin, associate pastor at Cokesbury UMC. Middlebrook Pike and Cokesbury, along with Concord UMC, are the sponsoring con- gregations of the Tel family.
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