A New Family Comes to Dallas

The Sunwar family is one who is incredibly near and dear to my heart. When they told me more of their relatives were approved to leave the refugee camps and come here to the U.S. – to Dallas! – I was overjoyed for them. When they asked me to go with Nar, the father, to greet them at the airport, I knew this was an honor I couldn't pass up!

So today, bundled up and masking bronchitis, I had the honor of going with Nar and Sam, the caseworker assigned to this new family, to the airport. I could feel the anticipation coming from Nar, who was going to see his brother, sister, aunt, brother-in-law, and 5 year old nephew for the first time in a year and a half.

The Sunwar family, much like all of the Nepalese/Bhutanese refugees, were victims of ethnic cleansing in their home country of Bhutan, due to their Nepali heritage and Hindu religion. For 17-18 years, they lived in overcrowded refugee camps in Nepal (where they were again considered outsiders because of their former Bhutanese citizenship), making homes out of bamboo and thatch, growing accustomed to inadequate healthcare and rationed supplies.

This new family, unaccompanied on their flight – the first time they’ve left rural Nepal – of course got lost inside the airport, not knowing where to go or where to find us. We waited, and waited, and waited. We had their bags with us, asked for security’s help, but still, all we could do was wait. After an hour and a half, the family, tired from two day’s and four layover’s worth of travel, came stepping out the door, accompanied by a sweet airline worker. They looked shell shocked. And exhausted.

It was a beautiful and unique experience, to escort the 5 of them back to Vickery, to watch them interact with their relatives for the first time in 1.5 years, and absorb all there is to absorb in a new country, stepping into carpeted and heated apartment complexes and take in their new surroundings, coupled with the handicap of jetlag. I have not yet been to Nepal, let alone to the camps, but from the videos and photos that have been shared with me, I cannot imagine a place as different from Dallas, Texas as the refugee camps in Nepal.

This is the first family I’ve had the pleasure of getting to meet immediately upon their arrival to the U.S. I cannot help but think back to when I first arrived in Chengdu, China, shell-shocked with the noise, the busyness of the streets, the smells – I wonder what is most overwhelming or most identifiable aspects of Dallas for this family as they take in all there is to take in of this new place they are now to call home.