A Word About the Somalis

Before we ever met our Somali friends, we wondered what they would be like.  What sort of food would they eat?  How clean would their house be? What would they wear? We've officially known them for several months now so I thought I'd write a brief post about what they are like.  This isn't meant to be critical or even a generalization of their entire culture.  This is just things that we've noticed since meeting them.  We are currently friends with three different groups of Somali refugees.  The first is an educated family that speaks decent English.  We still get stuck on certain words when talking but you can communicate with them on a fairly basic level.  From the little we know, both parents were educated and even taught their 5 children some English before coming here.
The second family has 8 children and came from the worst refugee camp in the whole world.  From the little we've gathered, they only had enough money to send their firstborn son to school so he is the only one that speaks any English besides basic greetings. They do not know the birthdays for any family members except for the last few children born.
The last person is a single young man who is probably 18-22 years of age.  His English is the best.  He currently works in a factory and is working on his GED.  We just met him so we know the least about him.

Both families are extremely hospitable.  Whenever you go over to their apartments, they immediately hand the kids glasses of juice or chocolate milk as well as biscuits, cookies or cups of pudding.  They give Aaron and myself tea, juice, bottles of water as well as whatever they happen to be cooking for dinner.  It can get kind of tricky because we usually try to visit both families in go since they live in the same apartment building.  This means that we go to the first house and get plied with all sorts of sugary treats (which are impossible to refuse because they don't ask if you want any before giving it to you) and then we visit the next family where this same kind of treatment is repeated.

As far as clothing goes, the women of both families always wear dresses and head covering.  They do not cover their face and their clothes are often colorful but they still adhere to a Muslim dress code.

Both families have served us what seemed to be the same sort of dish.  We've seen them eating it at other times so I guess it is traditional.  It starts with spaghetti noodles covered in a tomato sauce that might also have tiny bits of potatoes in it.  The sauce isn't thick like an Italian spaghetti sauce and it doesn't seem to have a ton of flavor.  They did serve us lamb ribs with it once and they were deliciously seasoned.  I could have eaten a whole plate of just the ribs.  They top the spaghetti with chopped bits of iceberg lettuce, chunks of banana and bits fresh of tomato.  I don't really understand the banana to be honest.

We know that both families are Muslim.  We are not sure of all the details of their faith.   A lot of the books and websites that we've read suggested that a lot of Somali Muslims are more of folk Muslims and combine traditional African spiritualism with Muslim beliefs.  I can't really speak to this as we have trouble communicating more philosophical concepts.

 One of the first things both families purchased once they found a job was a new tv.  The tvs always seem to be on though they are not necessarily always watching it.  We just about dying laughing the other day when we went to visit them because they started off watching soccer but by the time we left, they had switched over to professional wrestling.   Our kids were mesmerized and wouldn't stop staring at the screen.

They always seem to be cleaning their houses and in general things are quite tidy.  However, they seem to not understand how germs work.  The one time we used the bathroom, there was no soap in it at all but there were a lot of cleaning supplies for mopping the floor and such.

That is all I can think of off the top of my head.  If you do not have any ethnically diverse friends, please try and make some.  It is kind of hard where we live to find ethnic diversity but it is so worth it.  I want my children to know that not all people think, act or look just like us and that is ok.  While I really want these Somali friends to be saved, I also want to appreciate their culture and respect their heritage.