Season of Giving

Liz Allen

(left) Nanda Chuwan, whose family was forced to leave Bhutan when he was 12, lived for 17 years in a refugee camp in Nepal before arriving in Erie in 2009. Now director of finance for the International Institute, he was previously an employment counselor there. (center) Dharma Amrita Gurung, who came to Erie as a refugee from Bhutan via Nepal in 2011, worked three jobs to save money to start her business, Tandoori Hut, featuring Indian food. (right) Let There Be Wisdom is a collection of poems by Dr. Asif Shakoor, an Erie physician. Maliha Shakoor, a high school student and one of his five children, illustrated the book and Benjamin Aysan, a native of Turkey, did the calligraphy.

I sometimes stumble upon stories, but I literally fell into this one.

Walking in my neighborhood with two friends, I tripped, hit my head, got an ugly black eye, then dallied before seeking medical care, because who wants to admit that you need your head examined? At the insistence of my three sisters, I went to the UPMC Hamot ER the next afternoon and was admitted overnight for observation.

But if I hadn't taken a tumble, I wouldn't have met Asif Shakoor, M.D., the UPMC internist and hospitalist who examined my test results and discharged me. And if I hadn't met Dr. Shakoor, I wouldn't have known that he would be part of the Nov. 15 Gannon University panel discussion on "Immigrant Stories."

I marked my calendar to attend, because I wanted to hear his tale. Born into a poor caste in Pakistan, he grew up in Brooklyn, then became the first in his family to finish high school, to graduate from college, and to go to med school — when he was also married and raising his children. "The idea is you can all achieve something," he told the audience of about 100 Gannon students.

I also wanted to hear the other panelists: moderator Kaustav Mukherje, Ph.D., an assistant English professor at Gannon; Nanda Chuwan, the International Institute's finance coordinator; Syed Khalid Rizvi, Ph.D., a former police officer in India and retired professor; and Niken Astari Carpenter, New American liaison for the City of Erie.

When Dr. Shakoor's mother asked why he moved to Erie, he teased that he took a wrong turn on Interstate 79 after his residency at Allegheny General in Pittsburgh in 2007. But Erie is the right place for him, he said. "What drew me to Erie is that cultural diversity and so much beauty out there," he said. "I have an opportunity to change so many lives. It's not what you receive, it's what you give."

Dr. Shakoor's comments were a perfect reminder that some of the best presents we can give and receive this holiday season are real-life family-origin stories. In the 1990s, I quizzed my family and recorded videos about their favorite childhood memories, first jobs, proudest accomplishments, and best advice they'd ever received ("Look busy," my dad quipped).

One answer from my mother also sticks with me. "I think I fell out of a tree," she replied when I asked about her early life. Years after Mom died, I finally understood that she was only half-joking. Born in a scrubby Pennsylvania coal-mining town, the daughter of Italian immigrants, she was raised at St. Joseph's Home in Erie from infancy until high school graduation. She never knew her parents and had no birth certificate. My siblings and I are only now learning about our Italian heritage, thanks to a relative who connected on Facebook with a distant cousin from Tuscany.

In contrast, New Americans remember exact details about their journeys here. Those facts may include years spent in refugee camps, the date they were approved for resettlement, the number of airport layovers before landing in Erie, and the tight deadlines to become self-sufficient in a new place known for its biting winters, where they don't speak the language, and where they have to be schooled in the basics, including how to ride the bus and go to the grocery store.

Eventually, after studying hard and saving up for the application fees, they also cherish the dates of the naturalization ceremonies when they take oaths as new American citizens.

Rather than griping about Erie's small-town feel or cursing the snow, as we are wont to do, immigrants and refugees view the city as a welcoming place with a beautiful, inviting lake.

Rizvi, from India, describes Erie as "a good place for youngsters." Chuwan, from Bhutan, calls Erie "beautiful by nature" and is determined to do whatever it takes "to make our community better."

Mukherje, whose doctorate is from Michigan State, specializes in international literature at Gannon. He opened the panel discussion by talking about the recent report, "New Americans in Erie County," which documents the impressive impact that immigrants and refugees have made on Erie's economy. Yet, he said, "What we have here is more than numbers. We have stories."

As in any engrossing story, these characters grow and evolve, even as they face challenges.

When I interviewed Niken for a column in 2016, I learned that she had been a judge in Indonesia before she married Erie radio newsman Allan Carpenter in 2010; it then took a year before paperwork could be completed for the two of them to be reunited in Erie.

In her City of Erie role, she guided the process for Erie to be certified as a Welcoming City. She also organized and leads the New American Council, which works to bridge language barriers, to introduce newcomers to various resources and to connect them with each other, across many cultures.

At the first council meeting, she inquired: "How are you doing?" Members were mostly quiet in response. "No one had ever asked them that," she said.

Now there is animated discussion from council members, who are eager to help members of their communities adjust to Erie and to also celebrate their own traditions, as previous generations of immigrants have done. Like many of us, they are multitaskers.

"I have worn many hats," said Rizvi. "An engineer's hat. A police officer's hat. A professor's hat. A grandpa's hat." A native of India, he had lived in New York City before retiring to Erie with his children and grandchildren. "It's true that Erie stands out as a welcoming community. This is a city of immigrants," he said. "Here, people like to scare us. (They say) there's a lot of snow," he said. But he enjoys Erie's leisurely pace, where "nobody's honking at you and yelling at you."

In addition to his medical degree, Dr. Shakoor is a Sufi mystic who has recently published a book of poetry, Let There Be Wisdom in Truth. He read aloud one of his poems, "A Wandering Spirit," which begins: "I am a mosaic of many cultures and the face of many nations. I am a wandering spirit that runs deep into the journey of life looking for unity in the fragment of existence."

At a time of so much division, stories from immigrants and refugees can help us to piece the fragments of our existence back together. 

During the panel discussion and in a later interview, Chuwan affirmed his belief in the American ideals of hope and hard work. At age 12, he and his family, who are Hindu, were among thousands of victims of ethnic cleansing that targeted minority religious groups in Bhutan. His family was evicted to Nepal and he celebrated his 13th birthday in a refugee camp, where they lived for 17 years before they were approved for resettlement in the U.S. in 2009. Fifteen days before their departure, "They gave us a map and said, 'You go to Erie, Pennsylvania,'" he recalled.

His family left Nepal on Nov. 3, landed in Newark, N.J. on Nov. 4, and arrived in Erie on Nov. 5. His parents had arrived the previous day. He lives here with his wife and two children and works as the finance director at the International Institute, a field office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, where he started as an employment counselor.

Chuwan, 43, introduced me to Dharma "Amrita" Gurung, 32, owner of Tandoori Hut at West 26th Street and Washington Avenue. When she was four or five, her Buddhist family was also forced to leave Bhutan for Nepal. After departing Kathmandu and changing planes six times, her family landed in Erie at midnight on Aug. 2, 2011.

Chuwan and Gurung had grown up in separate refugee camps, but unbeknownst to them, their parents had known each other in Bhutan. Thanks to Chuwan's caseworker

skills, 23 days after her arrival, she was working at an Erie plastics plant. 

Meeting Chuwan was the first "turning point" in her life, she said, because he helped her to land that first job, which put her on a path to becoming an Erie business owner.

She didn't make the leap immediately from plastics plant worker to restaurateur. After three months at the plastics plant, she was laid off, so she got a hotel housekeeping job. Then she added jobs at St. Vincent Hospital as a sanitation aide and as an interpreter at the Multicultural Community Resource Center. For five years, "I worked three jobs at a time," she said matter-of-factly.

She also took office assistant classes at Great Lakes Institute of Technology, and she helped to put one of her brothers through a technical school in Pittsburgh, all the while focused on starting her business. Even after opening her restaurant in Perry Square in 2018, she continued to work at St. Vincent for six months, "to make sure it's OK to leave the job." She left the Perry Square location earlier this year to buy the spot that had been occupied by the Summer House Cafe.

"I came to America to work. That was in my mind," said Gurung, who already has her eye on starting a new business and on helping the next wave of female immigrants to realize their full potential.

Still, there are always challenges for immigrants, starting with language. "I'm kind of a 'Hi, Hello,' person, but I'm also kind of shy, kind of reserved," she said. Sometimes, it's difficult for immigrants to express in English what's in their hearts, she said.

Despite Erie's official designation as a Welcoming City, there are some who don't welcome newcomers. Niken, whose law degree is from Indonesia, has encountered people who question the master's degree she earned in project management. It must be from a Third-World country, they scoff. She then informs them that her advanced degree is from Penn State Behrend.

Some also criticize accents of the foreign-born. "We have accents, which I cannot change," said Niken.

I personally liked listening to Dr. Shakoor's Brooklynese, as he explained what happened once when the coach of the school handball team demanded an explanation for why he had failed a course. "Because I'm a dumb ass," Shakoor said. "Come here, you little schmuck," replied the coach, who moved him into an honors class from special ed.

"When he put me in that honors class, the whole world changed for me," he explained. He studied Greek philosophers and read Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Frost, and Gibran. In turn, when he was in college and teaching in a program for teenage mothers, he introduced them to his favorite writers. They resisted at first. But he urged them to write what they knew. "Oh, boy, did they write," he said. When he collected their poems to publish and gave them copies, the girls were enthralled. "You're all poets," he assured them.

He reinforced that message for the Gannon students. "There's a hidden genius in all of us," he told them.

That, I am convinced, is also part of the genius of America. "You are our legacy of hope," Mukherje, the Gannon professor, told the panelists. "Talk about Erie as a land of opportunity."

And they did.

Liz Allen has started pecking away at a memoir for her family. You can reach her at lizallenerie@gmail.com.

 Did you know?

The International Institute is currently working to resettle 124 former residents of Afghanistan, according to Dylanna Grasinger, director of the International Institute Erie field office for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Catholic Charities is also resettling Afghans, she said.

"Everything has moved so quickly with this group. They just really need time to settle in a place that's not a military base or a hotel. Then we'll see them as their community comes together, we'll start to see their persona," she said.

The International Institute has created an Amazon Wish List for the newly arrived Afghans. The delivery address is:

Nanda Chuwan - USCRI of Erie

517 E. 26th St.

Erie, PA 16504-2803

To learn more about how to help the new Afghan arrivals and other immigrants, visit the International Institute's Facebook page. 

Read more

"Memoirs have staying power," according to Anitra Gates, technical services manager for the Erie County Public Library who also reviews memoirs for Library Journal. 

"The story of someone's life is timeless," she said. "Places, dates and language may be different, but there are themes that remain true no matter what — such as finding a sense of home and belonging, figuring out one's place in the world, or building and maintaining relationships with family and friends. Memoirs are also a great way to meet a person that you may not normally get to interact with, which gives the reader an opportunity to empathize and learn from the writer's experience."

Recent memoirs from immigrants include Beautiful Country, by Qian Julie Wang; Floating in a Most Peculiar Way, by Louis Chude-Sokei; Seeing Ghosts, by Kat Chow; App Kid, by Michael Sayman; and Concepcion: An Immigrant Family's Fortunes, by Albert Samaha.