NEW: They escaped their homeland during the American evacuation and Taliban takeover in late August and are among the 2,000 evacuees resettling in Massachusetts.
The cinder block cellar of an old Episcopal church in Newburyport is alive these days with the sounds of children playing, teens chatting and families coming together over meals. They're full of excitement and hope.
Malija, 12, says school is her favorite experience in the United States so far, and the best part of that is getting to"speak English." One of the fathers, 42-year-old Sami, takes a seat at the table to talk about his new life here. He's wearing a baseball cap, sweatpants and flip-flops. "I didn't have car in Afghanistan. My house was not a professional, a very nice house," he says."Our economic situation was not well. The salary I was getting back in Afghanistan, I was just affording my family because I have big family, and I had to support my parents, as well.""Yeah, my family is expecting me more to support them financially, because there's no work [there] these days," he explains.
That includes showing them some fun. On a recent day, Mercer took the families sledding, along with his own children. "But it's become more and more clear, and we've become more and more committed, to the idea of of long-term support so that they can come to this point of self-sufficiency," Mercer says."And for families of this size, that's going to take some time."
"My hope and my dream is to just study hard and become doctor, engineer or teacher and to go back to Afghanistan and serve my own people there, as well," Afzal says through the interpreter."So if peace comes back and everything goes well, of course I'll go back to Afghanistan. But after I get my dream.""With all of the opportunities available right here, I want to [do] all my studies, and then I want to become a doctor," she says in Dari, as translated by Abdul.
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