Madut Agau and Adaw Makeir have lived in the United States for only five months, but the Sudanese refugees already have much to be grateful for on their first Thanksgiving.
If they made a list, it would include simple pleasures they probably have in common with other Westminster residents: Makeir appreciates her electric baseboard heaters, which will keep them comfortable during a colder winter than they're used to.
But ranked higher on that list would be good friends from Westminster Church of the Brethren, which adopted them; the education they provide to their four young children; and the safety they enjoy.
"This is a free country, and I feel freedom and I feel peace," Agau, 38, said through an interpreter. "Nobody will attack me and hurt me here."
Westminster is the latest stop in the family's long journey from its village in southern Sudan. The members of this family, like the Pilgrims who celebrated America's first Thanksgiving, fled persecution overseas.
Civil war between the Muslim government and southern rebels has devastated Sudan. Since 1983, more than 2 million people have died because of war and famine, and more than 4 million have been displaced, according to the CIA's World Factbook.
Makeir's ready smile does not reveal the losses she and her husband have experienced. Her father and five of her brothers and sisters died in the war, she said, also speaking through an interpreter. Agau's first wife was a casualty, as well.
They don't know where Makeir's mother is, although two of her siblings live in Egypt. Nor do they know whether Agau's son from his first marriage survived. The 11-year-old became separated from Makeir, now 26, when she fled Juba in southern Sudan with her brother five years ago.
Makeir said she carried her oldest son, Akoy, on her back and cradled his brother Magay in her arms. But Agau's son, who was running beside her, was lost in the confusion.
They went to a refugee camp in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, and Agau later followed, although the family did not connect there. When he tried to enter a women's camp to find his wife and children, he was jailed for 21 days.
Both Agau and Makeir independently left for refugee camps in Cairo in 1998. There, Agau recalled, he was saddened by the sight of children who reminded him of his own.
But Agau, who is Christian, found Makeir and the children in a church in Egypt "by chance," he said, and their journey wound its way to America.
The family was co-sponsored by Westminster Church of the Brethren and New Windsor Refugee Resettlement, a local affiliate of Church World Services - one of 10 agencies placing refugees in the United States.
Agau knew another Sudanese refugee family from their Dinka tribe that had settled recently in Westminster, which made the area a logical choice.
Every day there is a steady stream of visitors to the semi-detached house the family rents from a church member. The church subsidizes their rent and other expenses, with financial support that decreases by $60 each month. Members also donated furniture, which Makeir has decorated with doilies she knitted.
Team of helpers
A primary team of 10 Brethren volunteers sorts the family's mail, takes them to get haircuts and provides child care during English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes that both parents attend. Other church members pitch in when needed.
The family is quickly learning how to handle the minutiae of daily life in the United States, such as writing checks and handling bills.
"Little by little, they're taking on all the challenges," said Marilyn Ebaugh, who takes Makeir grocery shopping each week.
The family's schedule is fairly full. Weekdays, Agau bales clothing donated to New Windsor at a warehouse and on weekends washes dishes at Baugher's Country Restaurant in Westminster. During his breaks in New Windsor, he will learn to drive a car.
Akoy, who turns 8 today, is in the second grade, and 6-year-old Magay attends kindergarten. The youngest son, Aguir, goes to Head Start. Makeir takes her 10-month-old daughter, Achol, to Evenstart early childhood education classes.
Communication with the family has been less challenging than one might expect. Agau and Makeir do not read or write in any language, though they speak Arabic and their native Dinka. They hire an Arabic translator for financial decisions and medical appointments.
Gestures and photos
In other situations, volunteers rely on hand gestures. Ebaugh cuts photos out of circulars to create a shopping list. Still, the trips can take as long as three hours of walking up and down the supermarket aisles, searching for what Makeir needs and buying what she recognizes.
It was difficult for church members to explain Thanksgiving to them beyond the practice of eating turkey. But after the two older boys ate a turkey dinner with their father at a school celebration, they asked their mother to cook a similar meal.
"They pointed at the turkey and said, 'Yum yum!'" Ebaugh said, rubbing her stomach to imitate the children.
Church volunteers helped to prepare their Thanksgiving feast yesterday at the family's home near the center of town. Last weekend, Ebaugh showed Makeir how to make mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.
While the bird lay cooling on the counter yesterday evening, young Magay lifted the foil cover to snatch a piece of dark meat. "Tomorrow!" his mother said, shooing him away.
Initially, Ebaugh and the other volunteers encouraged the family to commemorate the day in their own way.
Makeir wanted to cook a leg of lamb for Thanksgiving after she tasted some at an Evenstart event. And, Agau said, it would be appropriate to eat lamb on Thanksgiving because it is also served during a Dinka harvest festival called Mioch Piny, or Feast of Offering. So Makeir and Ebaugh selected that menu for their weekly shopping trip.
But instead, they will serve turkey and all the trimmings to their Dinka friends who are visiting today to celebrate Akoy's birthday. And they'll observe their adopted American holiday.
"I'm happy for finding a new home and a new people," Agau said. His wife agrees.
She thanks America, she said, "because she gives all the people running a new home."