By Morgan Siem
Carrboro Commons Writer
The stillness that characterizes most elementary schools on Saturday mornings is missing at Frank Porter Graham Elementary. Julie Spomer makes sure of that.
Saturday has become her favorite day of the week since the inception of the gardening club with the Karen refugees, she said.
After being granted political asylum by the State Department through the efforts of Condoleezza Rice in the summer of 2007, a group of Karen refugee families now lives in Carrboro with help from Lutheran Refugee Services. They had been living in Mae La refugee camp in Northern Thailand after fleeing the militaristic government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
“When we lived in Mae La, the Burmese hated us and would bomb our camps,†said MiH Too, who immigrated in September 2007 with her five children. Her 11-year-old daughter is a student at Frank Porter Graham and a member of the gardening club there.
On Saturdays, her daughter and the other Karen students come together, along with some of their parents, for gardening club meetings at the school.
The idea for the gardening club arose during a meeting in which community members discussed ways to help the Karen refugees feel more connected to the community.
“They wanted to give back to the school in a way that builds community and school pride, but they can’t financially,†said Spomer, who teaches English as a Second Language at Frank Porter Graham.
Spomer has played a major role in the gardening club since it began. One of the original goals of the club was to provide the families with nutrition, since many arrived in the United States with vitamin deficiencies.
“I ate onions, lettuce, broccoli and watermelons that we grew,†said 9-year-old Hsar Ree Ree Wei, who goes by “Ree Ree†and stood out for her fluency in English.
But the gardening club has become much more than a source of nutrition. It serves as a social time for the kids, who do not have an after-school program. The relationships fostered have also fueled tutoring lessons, which Spomer conducts for the children as well as their parents, and the group takes outings together, such as trips to the library.
On the first Saturday of March, the group went to Wal-Mart together. For many of the Karen, it was their first time in such a large store. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Sunrise Rotary Club had donated $50 gift cards for each family to spend.
At the end of the trip, shopping carts full of art supplies, a microwave, sneakers, soda, toilet paper and DVDs rolled up to the register.
“Register,†Spomer said, enthusiastically taking advantage of the opportunity to teach English vocabulary.
Spomer also slips in vocabulary lessons while she gardens with the club members.
“They’re so hungry to learn,†Spomer said, citing a time when she went to tutor two mothers and 20 showed up. “It was so awesome. It brought me to tears.â€
She also told the story of one refugee family who had been in town for a month without ever complaining that their electricity still had not been turned on.
“We need people to advocate for them, because they don’t complain, and they don’t speak up for themselves,†Spomer said.
Spomer does what she can to serve their needs.
“It’s enriching, and when I’m tired, it’s physically tired, not sick-and-tired,†she said. “I’ve been blessed and given a lot in life, and it’s time to not be selfish and really give back. I think I’m meant to do what I’m doing.â€
She said that her relationship with the Karen children has become the rewarding relationship she’s sought in her life.
“My favorite book is The Alchemist because at the end the person finds that what he was looking for was right there all along,†she said. “I think that’s indicative of my life. I may never get married, but I’ll have the connections I make with the kids.â€
“I joke with them that they’ve adopted me,†she said. “They really treat me like family, and it’s unusual for me because I am not familiar with big families.â€
“When I see how much they work together, and how much they’ve been through, I think they show how human nature should be.â€
Morgan Siem is a UNC student writing for the Carrboro Commons, the bi-weekly online newspaper produced by Jock Lauterer’s Community Journalism class.