Tumultuous Travel from Africa to America

We walk side by side with our co-workers each day and know very little about who they are.  We all tend to judge others based on a select few things we see.  Sometimes we think those who always see the good in every person or situation have their heads stuck in the sand.  Maybe those same people have seen more of the good and evil of this world in a few years than we will ever see in our lives.  Today I want to highlight one of my co-workers, a woman who made it through wars, hatred, violence, and political tumult only to emerge as a bright light from that darkness.

Grace Koromah is always quick to give a smile and a friendly greeting.  You would never know the weight she has carried on her shoulders, the atrocities she has seen and what she went through before coming to America. 

Grace is married and the mother of three children and is in the process of getting citizenship for two children she and her husband have adopted from Liberia.  Grace is one of seven children, one boy and six girls from Liberia in West Africa where the fighting was constant and the times of peace were brief.  Grace left Liberia for high school in Sierra Leone and in her last year the civil war that had been raging in West Africa made its way to Liberia, and she was not allowed to go back home.  Sierra Leone was her new home until she could go back but soon the war found its way to her.  Much of life was lived lying prostrate on the floor of her house staying low to avoid the stray bullets and when the gunfire subsided, venturing out to get some food.  Obtaining food meant passing by rebel forces making it all but inaccessible.   The rebels would treat you like an animal if you or one of your family members had not joined them.  The rebels constantly terrorized families with the constant threat of brutality, rape and murder until you broke and joined them.

One day huddled in the house; they heard the rebel forces outside planning to come inside and kill them.  Neither Grace’s family nor the rebels knew that government forces were just off in the distance planning an attack.  Government forces shot a missile towards the rebel forces and made them scatter, but the missile landed only a room away from Grace.  They no longer had a place to live but were comforted knowing that everyone made it out of the house alive.  After the attack she had to flee with her boyfriend and his family.  With no way of knowing if her family was safe, where they were or If they were even alive she had to push forward with a heavy heart.   They hacked their way through the bush for four days looking for safety.  When they reached Freetown they were finally in an area that was a little quieter, a little more peaceful.  Peace was a fleeting thought, a shadow of a long lost friend, a great relationship you know could never last.

In Freetown Grace became a volunteer nurse caring for those who had been injured in the war.   The injuries were so horrific and gruesome, yet she always seemed to carry on.  One patient in particular Grace will always remember.  He came in with his hands cut off and his eyes gouged out.  One day as he laid in his bed a man came in and tried to give him money.  Although the man could not see, he knew the other man’s voice and told him he could not accept the money.  He asked “how could he give his wife and family money that was given to him by the same man who took his eyes and hands and any chance he may have had of making money on his own”.  He told the man that he did not want the money but only wanted to know why? The man said only that “the rebels had ordered them to do this to scare the citizens into joining them”. 

Grace was one of the lucky ones who won the green card lottery.  This process, if you’re not familiar, is much like playing Powerball numbers but you win a green card and a way out.  She came to Virginia and pursued a career in healthcare and has been with Birmingham Green for 6 years.  She has not wasted a moment of her chance to start life anew in America and has used her strength to uplift others.   Many women that work here are from West Africa and have been through a lot many have similar stories, some worse, some better.  Her name, Grace, it seems was destined to define her and how she would make her way. 

I challenge everyone to get to know someone’s story before the weekend is over because each person’s past is their present and their present becomes their future.