Middle of Everywhere - Mary Bray Pipher [0]
Helping Refugees Enter the American Community
Mary Pipher, Ph.D.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Table of Contents
...
Dedication
Copyright
Epigraph
Contents
Foreword
Prelude
PART ONE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
PART TWO
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
PART THREE
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
CODA
Appendices
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
A HARVEST BOOK • HARCOURT, INC.
Orlando Austin New York San Diego Toronto London
To Sara, Zeke, Jamie, Kate, and Aidan
Copyright © 2002 by Mary Pipher
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be
mailed to the following address: Permissions Department, Harcourt, Inc.,
6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777.
www.HarcourtBooks.com
Translation of "Hoa Sen" ("The Lotus Flower")
taken from The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland.
A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to
The Pipher Refugee Fund, Lincoln Action Program,
210 O Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pipher, Mary Bray.
The middle of everywhere: the world's refugees come to our town/
Mary Pipher.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-15-100600-8 (perm. paper) ISBN 0-15-602737-2 (pbk.)
1. Refugees—United States. I. Title.
JV6601 .P56 2002
305.9'0691—dc21 2001005863
Text set in Bembo
Designed by Linda Lockowitz
Printed in the United States of America
First Harvest edition 2003
K J
There seemed to be nothing to see, no fences,
no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road
I could not make it out in the faint starlight.
There was nothing but land. Not a country at all but
the material out of which countries are made.
—WILLA CATHER
Contents
Foreword [>]
Prelude: Ellis Island [>]
PART ONE: HIDDEN in PLAIN SIGHT
Chapter 1: Cultural Collisions on the Great Plains [>]
Chapter 2: The Beautiful Laughing Sisters—An Arrival Story [>]
Chapter 3: Into the Heart of the Heartland [>]
Chapter 4: All that Glitters... [>]
PART TWO: REFUGEES across the LIFE CYCLE
Chapter 5: Children of Hope, Children of Tears [>]
Chapter 6: Teenagers—Mohammed Meets Madonna [>]
Chapter 7: Young Adults—"Is There a Marriage Broker in Lincoln?" [>]
Chapter 8: Family—"A Bundle of Sticks Cannot Be Broken" [>]
PART THREE: The ALCHEMY of HEALING-TURNING PAIN into MEANING
Chapter 9: African Stories [>]
Chapter 10: Healing in all Times and Places [>]
Chapter 11: Home—A Global Positioning System for Identity [>]
Chapter 12: Building a Village of Kindness [>]
Coda: We're All Here Now [>]
Appendices
1. Working with People for Whom English Is a New Language [>]
2. Becoming a Cultural Broker [>]
3. Universal Declaration of Human Rights [>]
Bibliography [>]
Acknowledgments [>]
Index [>]
Foreword
As long as there is respect and acknowledgment of connections, things continue working. When that stops, we all die.
—JOY HARJO
I finished this book on refugees in Nebraska on September 9 and on September 10 my husband and I flew to Canada. This was our first vacation in a year, a well-earned vacation—a time to catch up on laughter, sleep, hikes, and novels. We drove from Calgary to a cabin nestled along Baker Creek in a valley between Castle Rock and Storm Mountain. On our way we stopped to watch caribou and mule deer. The bushes and grasses were turning mauve and rose, the aspens golden. In the late afternoon sunlight, we marveled at the luxury of living cradled in these mountains for a week.
Tuesday morning we woke early and planned our first hike. As we walked out into a blue and gold day, a man stopped us and asked if we were Americans. When we nodded, he said, "Some terrible things are happening