“Immigrants make democracy stronger”– Sahu Bhojwani
Is a story about how Sahu went from living in India to Belize to America in order to pursue her education. It was here that she started an organization about helping immigrants like herself. She wanted to encourage immigrants to vote and get involved in their communities, despite their fear of things in a society where they are casted out. “New Yorkers who were in city government holding positions had no idea how scared immigrants were of law enforcement.”(Bhojwani 3).
In my book “ Out of Nowhere” by Maria Padian, Tom is a senior in high school and captain of the soccer team. His season is changed when Somali immigrants join the team and they are very skilled and better than pretty much everyone else on the team. One of these players is named Saeed, who Tom quickly befriends and even helps him fill out the permission slip so that he's allowed to play. With the help of the new teammates the soccer team starts winning games however Tom makes a big mistake, he and his troublemaker friend Donnie decide to paint their rival highschools special rock. They get caught in the act and everyone is mad at Tom, his parents, his coach, his principal, everyone. Tom gets sentenced to 100 hours of community service and has to repaint the rock back to how it was. At school the immigrants have a hard time finding classes and navigating the school because they barely know English. The confusion leads to other kids making fun of and picking on them which creates a hostile environment in the school. What doesn't help is the rule that the school puts in that students are only allowed to speak English in classrooms which makes it very difficult for the immigrants to communicate. Tom has to start doing his community service at a learning center for immigrant children. Here he meets Myla, a college student who Tom likes, however Tom has a girlfriend which makes things complicated. Tom goes there everyday after school to get his hours in and to see Myla. The soccer team continues to go well with the help of Saeed and the other immigrants. However in the most important game of the year against their rivals Maquoit, Ramadan is happening, so none of the immigrant players can eat or drink anything all day or during the game. Against the odds they beat them and everyone is hyped. Tom eventually breaks up with his girlfriend and starts seeing Myla, and everything in his life starts going great. However things start to go downhill, Maquoit questions the eligibility of Saeed so he isn't able to play. The whole team is angry about this and Saeed especially, when a huge storm comes in and the whole town loses power Saeed goes missing and everyone is worried. That same night, Tom gets a call from Donnie's mother saying that he was in an accident and is seriously hurt. Tom goes to the hospital and through the night most of their classmates show up to check up on Donnie. Tom sees Saeed’s sister Samira who never really liked Tom but Tom gives her a hug to comfort her because she's stressed about her brother missing. However Tom's ex-girlfriend sees this and takes a picture and posts it on facebook, this is very bad because Somali girls are not supposed to touch men. The whole Somali community is mad at Samira and Tom doesn't understand why. Saeed still doesn't show up and the team loses their playoff soccer game. Finally Saeed's family contacts the police and reports him missing.While Tom was being interviewed about Saeed by the police investigators Saeed walks into the house. As it turns out he was in Portland at a soccer game the night of the storm and just couldn't find a ride home. Tom tells Saeed about what happened between him and his sister but Saeed seems upset by it. Tom just doesn't understand why it's such a bad thing but that's just how it is in the Somali community. Soon after, Saeed's family was gone. Nobody knew where they went and they just vanished. Tom was upset about the whole situation and one day while studying with Myla, Myla showed him an email from Samira saying that they were okay and how they moved to Minneapolis. They were living there with their uncle and other relatives. And although Tom was sad they were gone he was still happy that he knew them.
A quote that shows where characters were experiencing fear is when Myla explains to Tom how the Somali community feels about police. “But I do know this: the police are a last resort to these people. They don't want any trouble, and their experience is that guys who carry guns are not necessarily out to help you.” (Padian 265)
Where are your characters experiencing fear? And what is the outcome?
For participants:
-Never use a peer’s real name, only use their username
-Respond to the question based on your book, not your personal opinion
-If the question doesn’t directly apply to something that appears in your book, be clear about what you’re seeing instead
-Make sure to include a summary of your book so far
-Include a quote with the proper citation to give context to your answer
-Reply to one other participant in this group
-Acknowledge your lead’s reply to your response with a comment that clarifies information, offer a question to them about their book, or simply give a thumbs up
To exceed: Reply to three other people in this group, or two in this group and one in a group you weren’t assigned
