Fatima Abdalla’s heart in Sudan, waiting for family to reunite

CEDAR RAPIDS — It was a “blow” to Fatima Abdalla when war broke out last month in her home country of Sudan.

Abdalla, 18, has been living in the United States with her father and some of her siblings for only eight months. Her mother and younger siblings found refuge in Egypt when the war started. Cedar Rapids won’t feel like home until Abdalla’s mother is able to come here with the rest of the family, Abdalla said.

Abdalla is one of about 328 students graduating from Washington High School at 7 p.m. May 25 at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids.

A battle for control of Sudan erupted April 15, after months of escalating tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

“In history class, I would be holding my tears,” said Abdalla, explaining students were studying the Vietnam War in her social studies class at the time. They watched video footage from the Vietnam War, and seeing and hearing the sound of war was hard.

“I didn’t stop thinking about my country, my family and the relatives and friends I left there,” Abdalla said. “For two weeks, I was physically coming to school every day, but all my attention was there in Sudan.”

Civilians have been packing buses and trucks heading for Sudan’s northern border with Egypt. Many others headed to Port Sudan, on the country’s Red Sea coast. Abdalla said her family waited at Egypt’s boarder for three days.

Earlier this month, Mohamed Ahmed of Cedar Rapids was welcomed home from Sudan in a delayed homecoming after being stranded in the country when war broke out.

Abdalla already had graduated high school in Sudan and even had completed a year of college, but she returned to high school after arriving in Cedar Rapids to get a better grasp on English, she said. Her first language is Arabic.

Abdalla is attending Kirkwood Community College to study premed. She plans to transfer to the University of Iowa in a couple years to finish her undergraduate degree.

She wants to be gynecologist or pediatrician.

Abdalla is the oldest sibling in her family, and she said she is taking on more responsibility of caring for her younger siblings, with her mom in Egypt. When asked what she likes to do with her siblings, Abdalla laughed and said, “They don’t listen to me.”

Although Abdalla has been at Washington High for less than a year, she said she likes the school and the way the teachers treat her and check in on how she’s doing.

Washington school counselor Shawnna Ripple said Abdalla is “strong and resilient.”

“She is balancing a lot in her personal and academic life, and no one would ever know,” Ripple said. “When she doesn’t understand something because English is her second language, she’ll use Google translate or ask for it to be explained in a different way without getting frustrated. That to me is incredible.”

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