Quiet life is marred by bigotry

She has survived fires, shootings, famine, terrorist attacks and a two-month trek through the Sudanese desert. So when Nyayine Tarjak immigrated with her family from the Sudan to Salt Lake City five years ago, her only wish was to live a quiet, peaceful life.

Now somebody seems intent on taking that dream away.

A few weeks ago, Nyayine, a 33-year-old mother of six boys, stepped outside her apartment and found her car stolen and a large "calling card" left on the sidewalk. "KKK" read the epitaph, engraved in large letters on the cement in permanent black paint.

It was the second time that Nyayine and her husband, Nycoh, have been victims of a racial crime. Last year, somebody shattered their car windows and wrote a warning on an outside wall. "Be Careful — This is Not Your Country," read the message in bright spray paint.

Nyayine's heart sank when her oldest son, then 12, looked at the graffiti and asked, "Mama, this is America. Nobody is supposed to hate us. Why would this happen?"

"I did not know what to tell him," says Nyayine, with a weary smile. "I came here for a very different life for my children, and now, I have a bad life. Some people think we are bad people because we are from Sudan. Life in America isn't what we thought it would be."

Appalled by the discrimination Nyayine and other Sudanese refugees have experienced, Susan Quaal, a volunteer who helps refugees adjust to American life, invited me to join Nyayine and her children for a Free Lunch of take-out chicken at Hogle Zoo during a recent outing.

"What I so admire about Nyayine and other Sudanese women is that they're so committed to making a better life for their children," says Susan. "And yet, they've experienced many injustices right here in Utah."

Nyayine had to quit her late-night job cleaning floors at the Delta Center because she no longer has transportation. Although her stolen car was recovered, it sustained a lot of damage and now needs more than $500 in repairs that Nyayine can't afford.

She has filled out numerous applications, hoping to find a job nearby as a motel maid, "but nobody will hire her," says Susan. "She is told there are no jobs, then she'll hear of somebody else who got hired for the same job. This happens quite often with the Sudanese."

Sometimes, says Susan, uninformed people mistakenly link Sudanese refugees to the violence that has plagued their homeland for so many years.

"Osama bin Laden's group set up a base camp there, and Nyayine and other Christians had to flee the terrorists," she says. "So some people associate the Sudanese with terrorism, even though they're victims, not perpetrators. I've had two employers tell me, 'We can't hire Nyayine because of homeland security.' "