Call Me American

Abdi double-checks the lottery results. He cannot believe that he has been selected. Everyone congratulates him, even though the website notes that he has only won the opportunity to be considered for further processing. Only a third of program’s lottery winners actually qualify for green cards. Abdi plans for the seemingly impossible task of getting his non-existent paperwork in order.

Brutal terrorist attacks by al-Shabaab in Kenya heighten tensions. The police beat and extort Abdi and Hassan. More news organizations publish Abdi’s stories. Soon, every Somali in their apartment block is gone, and Abdi and Hassan are left alone to starve. All day, they hide from the police. At last, Abdi ventures out to find food and meet Ben Bellows. The situation in Nairobi has become so violent that westerners are leaving, so Abdi has to see Ben before he departs. Abdi sneaks and bribes his way across the city. Ben gives him $600, enough to buy food and water.

Abdi has to get a letter of recommendation from the police station in case his application makes it through the visa lottery. He dreads the meeting. Still, days later, Abdi receives an email saying that the United States wants to interview him. He has 69 days to prepare. If this fails, Abdi and Hassan agree to travel north to Libya and make the dangerous crossing over the Mediterranean to Italy.

Abdi studies English and locates the correct documents. He pays hundreds of dollars in bribes to get his medical exam. The interview draws closer and al-Shabaab attacks increase. Finally, the day arrives. Abdi wakes up early and joins the long line. Those who pass the interview walk out smiling. Those who fail are in tears. Abdi enters his interview, sits down, and the interviewer immediately points out that his college transcript is missing a signature. Abdi cannot get a visa until he supplies a corrected document. After realizing what has happened, Abdi rushes across town. He gets the document signed. He manages to send the document and, nine days later, receives confirmation: his visa has been approved. 

Abdi leaps around the room with delight. Hassan is happy for Abdi. Once Abdi has his visa, his friends buy him a plane ticket. A BBC crew of journalists accompanies Abdi to the airport, interviewing him about his upcoming journey. Hours later, the plane finally takes off, flying from Kenya to Ethiopia to Germany and then to Boston. Abdi’s heart races as he watches the ocean spread out beneath him.

When the plane lands, Abdi absorbs every tiny detail of American life in the airport. He sees news reports from Missouri of riots after a police officer killed an African-American man. Abdi chooses to interpret this as positive evidence of the freedom to protest. Finally, he walks out into the terminal, where friends meet him.

They take him to his new home as he asks them many questions about life in America. They drive to Maine, past the neon sites and franchise restaurants. When they stop for gas, Abdi orders a cheeseburger for his first American dinner. At his friends’ house, Abdi is perturbed by their dog. That night, he can barely sleep. At dawn, Abdi wakes and prays. He notes all the differences between this house and those he knew to in Somalia. At breakfast, he is amazed by the amount of food and learns how to use the household appliances he has so far only seen in movies. Until his green card arrives, Abdi cannot get a job, so his friends pay him to do chores such as chopping wood.

Weeks pass, autumn arrives, and the days become cold. On Halloween, Abdi goes trick-or-treating dressed as Spiderman. On Thanksgiving, he meets his friends’ extended family and enjoys a large meal. Finally, Abdi’s green card arrives and he can move one step closer to his goal of becoming an American citizen. In Somalia, his family wonders why Abdi has not yet started to send back money. Abdi struggles to find a job, but finally finds a position with a home insulation company and is excited to start work. The other employees struggle to pronounce his name and joke about his accent. When his paycheck finally arrives, he sends a large portion to his mother.

Abdi works every day. There are a few hiccups: He lends his co-workers money occasionally but they never pay him back, and his possessions begin to disappear. The explanation is that Abdi is the “new guy” (156), so Abdi asks to work with other people. His new assignment is much better; Tom, his colleague, treats him better, but has a drug abuse problem. Thinking about the way the American guys at the company treat him, Abdi sees parallels with “the tribalism of Somalia” (157). The arrival of winter snows teaches Abdi about winter. He hates the cold. At work, Abdi gets a raise and begins working night shifts. American gun culture confuses him; one day, a disgruntled former employee brings a rifle to work and the cops are called.

By the time spring arrives, Abdi realizes that he has been in America almost a year. Gradually, he begins to realize that he, like many Somali refugees, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He misses his friends and family, as well as his own culture and language. To alleviate his homesickness, he seeks out new parts of America. In the city, he learns of a soccer club with people from all around the world. He decides to join the community. 

Abdi joins an organization that helps Somali refugees cope with settling in America. He leaves behind his friends, his job, and his adoptive family and moves to the city of Portland, Maine. Living with other Somali men, he cooks, laughs, attends a mosque, and plays soccer. Unlike Abdi, however, they do not seem to love America. Some of them do not speak English; they are biding time and earning money until they can return to Somalia. All of them send as much money as they can to their relatives in Somalia.

Culture is more difficult to learn than language, Abdi discovers. He finds himself caught between two worlds, between his Somali and his American friends. Somali religious leaders warn their fellow countrymen against integrating into American society. Again, Abdi sees the same clan-based mindset in a different context. Abdi sees that his Somali friends will never truly integrate into American society.

Abdi finds a job as an interpreter for a Christian charity. Before he can begin, he takes an interpretation course with people from Rwanda, Iraq, and other countries. Once he has completed the course, Abdi accompanies Somalis on trips to doctors and dentists. Soon, his services are in such high demand that he needs a car to get around. After two failed attempts, he finally passes his driving test. On one assignment, he meets a Somali woman named Fatuma who does not speak Somali. She was raised in Vermont after arriving in America at age six.

Fatuma and Abdi start dating. When he meets her parents, Somali immigrants who have struggled to integrate, her father and mother ask for the phone number of Abdi’s father and mother. Within an hour, “all four parents […] arranged [Abdi and Fatuma’s] engagement” (167). Abdi and Fatuma feel betrayed by such a traditional display. Fatuma’s parents intend to move back to Somalia soon. Abdi convinces them that he will look after Fatuma. 

Abdi wakes up on November 9, 2016, wondering whether the election of Donald Trump was a strange nightmare. Abdi feels the need “to hide from [Trump]” (170) and the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric on which he campaigned. Friends from all around the world call Abdi to reassure him. The Somali community meets at the mosque to figure out how to avoid being targeted for their beliefs. A week after the inauguration of President Trump, an executive order bans Muslims from certain countries including Somalia from coming to the United States. Abdi is advised not to leave the country in case he cannot return.

Though Americans protest the ban, which is eventually struck down, “the damage was real and affected [Abdi’s] family” (171). Hassan’s final application for an American visa is rejected days later. Though Hassan has an education and a family, he still struggles to find a job in Kenya. In Somalia, the civil war rages on. Madinah, Nima, and Nima’s children are still in the camps around Mogadishu. Abdi sends them what money he can, but a new drought there has driven up prices and brought many people to the brink of starvation. The drought has also struck Abdi’s father. Abdi struggles to support everyone in his family. Abdi reconnects briefly with Faisa, now married to a Somali refugee who lives in Sweden, whom she hopes to join one day.

In his four years in America, Abdi has made numerous media appearances and has delivered lectures at schools and universities. He dreams of being elected Somalia’s first Rahanweyn president one day. He dreams of eliminating war in his country and lifting Somalia out of poverty. Abdi believes, that what you can accomplish is limited only by “what you can imagine” (175).