How an Angolan family found a new home and hope in Maine: 'Life here is better'

SANFORD, Maine — Abel Nimi tapped the chalkboard with his pointer and encouraged his students to repeat after him.

What’s happening?           

I am spending the day OK.

How do you spell the name of your country?

The students repeat all of these sentences, and more, including such everyday words as “noon,” “evening,” and “night,” and a couple of not-so-everyday ones such as “root cause analysis.”

Nimi and his students, all asylum seekers from Angola, are in the North Parish Congregational Church on Main Street in Sanford, the city they now call home. For quite some time now, they have met six mornings a week in their makeshift classroom in the church’s basement. Nimi is teaching them English.

“Pay attention,” Nimi says to his students at one point, proving classes are the same, wherever you go.

The moment is an isolated one. Nimi’s students repeat his every word, committing each one to memory, getting ready for the day when they can converse comfortably with their new friends and neighbors. Toward the end of the lesson, a young man seated at a table in the back row rises to his feet to get a better look at the words Nimi clacks with his pointer near the bottom of the chalkboard.

“Practice,” Nimi says, and his students repeat the word.

“Makes perfect,” Nimi adds, and his students repeat those words, too.

Nimi wraps up the two-hour lesson by encouraging his fellow asylum seekers to listen to music on the radio and watch American TV shows and movies, to continue their efforts to grasp the English language.

And then, after a prayer led by one of the students, class is over.

Nimi and his students are among the 150-plus asylum seekers who arrived in Sanford earlier this year after fleeing their home country of Angola in Africa and spending some time in other American communities, including Portland, Maine.

As Nimi’s students begin to leave the church basement on Friday, Sept. 8, he pulls up an adult-sized chair to a child-sized table and smiles. He continues to smile and soon says something that explains why.

“The life here is better than in Angola,” he says.

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Asylum seekers find refuge in Sanford, Maine

Encouraged by recruiters trying to help them, more than 150 asylum seekers arrived in Sanford this spring, hoping for places to stay, to call home.

City officials had not been alerted beforehand about the seekers’ relocation to Sanford. In no time, municipal staffers became quickly overwhelmed as families and individuals reported to City Hall in search of General Assistance resources. The large influx occurred at a time when Sanford’s housing stock already was at full capacity.

Inefficiencies were exposed as the city’s General Assistance Office did not have a central, statewide system with which to check which seekers were already receiving assistance in another community and which ones were not. By law, Sanford would not be able to provide General Assistance to anyone who already was receiving it in another town or city.

As required by law, the city went to work and provided emergency housing, food, health care, and other needs to the asylum seekers. Parallel to that task, the city also increased its efforts to address homelessness, in general, in the community.

The city assisted 150-plus individuals between May 1 and July 20. City Hall staffers not affiliated with General Assistance services helped out in that office and worked off-hours alongside others. Early on, the City Council held an emergency meeting to bring the public up to date with what had transpired so far. At one point, the General Assistance Office even experienced a changeover at the top, with Vicki Martin taking over as director for Randy White, who resigned in June after 13 years in the position.

Last week, City Manager Steven Buck told city councilors that, in June alone, the local General Assistance Office spent more than $247,000 for supplying shelter to the new arrivals.

Buck said 25 of the 35 families are now housed in Sanford-Springvale. Two of the families are no longer being served by the city, while others have temporary shelter while assigned housing navigators help them find a permanent place. As many as 50 asylum-seeking children are now enrolled at Sanford’s schools.

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Asylum seeker: It's about seeking a better future for my family

Nimi, his wife, Maria, and their three children are among those who now have a home in Sanford to call their own. They live in an apartment in a neighborhood that is close enough to downtown that it’s just a quick bike ride for Nimi to get to the class he teaches at the church.

Nimi speaks seven languages, including English, French and Portuguese. He is an engineer. During his career in Angola, he worked for two American-based energy companies, Halliburton and Chevron. He was the guy you called when something with the machinery or technology was not working on one of the big rigs offshore.

Nimi said he knows what he wants to do, once he can start his career in America.

“What I love most about America is their conception is to help people,” he said. “One day, while I’ll be starting working, some of the money I must give as donations to companies and agencies, so they can keep on helping people.”

Nimi said he also hopes to help people back in Angola, where he says people are mistreated by a corrupt government.

Back in Angola, Nimi said he looked around at the things that were happening and tried to imagine what life would be like for his family there in 15 years. He said he saw no future for them there. As a short-term step, Nimi helped his wife and sons move to South Africa, where he felt they would be happier and safer as he worked towards their long-term plan to relocate to the United States.

Nimi, of course, was not alone in his desire to flee Angola and find a new life elsewhere. According to media reports, thousands have been fleeing violence, poverty, human rights abuses, and other instabilities in that country for years.

Nimi had an idea of what his family could expect in America. As an employee of two American companies, he had twice attended training sessions in the United States. He also got a taste of Western life when he lived for a while in Canada.

Nimi shared his view of America, calling democracy “good.”

“They rely on peace, peace, peace,” he said. “They do not want people suffering ... People must have freedom.”

While Nimi and his wife and two of their sons apply for asylum-seeking status and, ultimately, pursue American citizenship, there is one member of their family who will not have to go through that whole process.

In late April, Maria gave birth to their third son, who, by being born on American soil, is now a United States citizen.

“Oh, we felt proud,” Nimi said, with another smile.

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'The life here is better than in Angola'

A few days after his interview at North Parish Church, Nimi is sitting in the living room of his apartment and cradling his newborn son as he slurps from a bottle of milk.

In the other room, his two older sons, ages 8 and 6, sit at a table and play a video game, their day of classes at Saint Thomas School now complete. When Maria enters the room, Nimi hands their newborn to her, and she takes a seat on the couch. The two boys leave their game behind and join her.

Nimi dons a ball cap and begins talking enthusiastically about the new life his family is achieving. He speaks openly about his Christian faith, noting Scripture has parallels to the world today. He refers to the local Catholic parish, which helped him secure his new apartment and furnish it.

In Angola, Nimi said he dreamt President Joe Biden approached him and urged him to come to America. He woke from the dream, a little mystified about why the president of the United States had come to him and urged him to move to America. Essentially, Nimi thought, why would the president do such a thing?

Then, for Nimi, it clicked.

“Opportunities,” he said.

Nimi started praying. Specifically, he asked God why such a dream had been shown to him. He figured it out.

“At least do something better for my family,” Nimi thought.

He has.

“We are so very proud to be here in this country,” Nimi said. “And we always pray for America.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: How an Angolan family found a new home and hope in Sanford, Maine