Awake

Birthday Surprise

Two years ago, when the Abdi family prepared to immigrate to the U.S. from a refugee camp in Kenya, they were each given birthdates, "January 1" attached to a hopefully accurate year of birth. I can only speculate that birthdays were not traditionally celebrated or that birth certificates were irretrievable or that they were simply not provided in the first place.

Siting in the living room of the Abdi's suburban apartment, the matriarch of the family, Medina, handed me a letter which notified her that her son would be losing his food stamp benefits as their records show he is turning the ripe old age of 5. (Apparently 5-year-olds in the state of Oregon are old enough to be hungry. God knows hundreds of them are. Fortunately she can reapply for benefits and I directed her to call her caseworker, whose name she knew, thank goodness.)

The question of age now up for discussion, Medina fished out her medical benefits summary, which lists all in her household, and yes, their date-of-birth. Having remembered how old the children told me they were, I immediately noticed a discrepancy between the Abdi family's perception of their age and the so-called reality.

One by one I asked each child how old they were and one by one I told them they were in fact two years older than they thought! One boy was ecstatic to learn he was 11, Famo seemed sobered by the fact that she was all of a sudden a teenager, Mahadho laughed to learn she was 24. Having not celebrated birthdays in 2 years, they had been simply reciting the ages they were taught in their first English lessons, over two years ago.

Another delightful lesson in language and culture learned by both the teacher and the students!