Public Project
Jungle Hut to Bronx Refuge
In the early 2000s a large country, the United States, agreed to accept the peaceful Lhotshampa people so less than two days after leaving their jungle camp they were in New York's JFK encountering a cacophony of merchandise and food kiosks. Though hungry they could not figure out how to buy the strange food.
Taken to their new home in a prewar 12 story brick building in the Bronx New York, people who a few days ago had left stick huts in a Nepalese jungle, did not absorb as home a 12 story brick Bronx apartment building - invaded only by strange loud Latin music.
Bhutanese people in the United States have the highest rate of recorded suicide among refugees. According to several studies factors are many including loss of reinforcers of identity in the Bhutanese caste system and helplessness in a society based on individualism.
The adult Tamang children, having learned to read and write English either in the Nepali camp or in classes over the border in India, were determined to overcome fear of an overwhelmingly modern universe. I was assigned by the INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE to teach English to Phul Tamang, the family matriarch who had been too deeply distressed to leave the 4 room apartment she shared with nine family members. Having enjoyed a comfortable home with her large family on a farm where she cultivated a garden, like many Bhutanese she had had no education. Speaking a new language was impossible but, importantly, Mrs.Tamang relaxed as we got to know each other via coloring the letters of the alphabet, playing number games and chatting with the help of her adult children. There were 6 more family members living in the apartment when the seventh, their first native American grandson, was born and Phul's heart succumbed to contentment.
The Tamangs and of course were windows into our very different cultures. I was able to clarify a lot about their new culture, albeit New York style. They demonstrated for me the profound importance of close, non-critical family acceptance. After a few years spent in their rooms, I'm grateful to be considered a family member.
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