Full Transcript: Abdul Kaed on Immigrating from Yemen
Abdul: In Ibb. Well it was a little village so and after that I lived when I was little to Kuwait. I take my education in Kuwait. I was— I have— my uncle was there so he take me and I was in a school until 1973.
Abdul: Sometime you know when you think about back home, especially when you born over there, to me, when you born in place, you like it, you feel to go back there, to inside your heart, to go. [Speaks in Arabic] It’s too much trouble.
Interpreter Omar Alkusari: Yeah so he said, you know like after you said there’s displacement, life right now over there for many people, it is hard. So he does feel bad for that and he feels that affection, you know, for home. Like he was saying, like almost every Yemeni here, by the way, just so you can know, even his children, they go back to Yemen. Even if they’re born here, 17, 16, they’ll go home to visit and come back. You— because you still got your grandmother there, you got cousins there.
Abdul: You still got relatives back there.
Omar: You got relatives there.
Abdul: You live, it’s like, I don’t know it’s that culture, it’s different. [Speaks in Arabic]
Omar: In Yemen, it’s a lot of coming and going. Like the whole day, you’re just over at people’s houses, you go visit people. People work in the morning, at 3, 4 o’clock, everybody, the whole country’s off, you know. It’s a whole different lifestyle. Nighttime everybody’s asleep, there’s no such thing— there’s no people out at night. The best way I could describe it for you— like if you see one of those, like the movies when you see the country pe— like in the country, small towns, how that connection, everybody knows everybody. But like in Yemen, it’s like that times 10. It’s like not just a small town, the whole city is just— you know, you go to the marketplace, everybody everywhere is just yell— you know a lot of yelling, like eyyy, it’s just talking, just a lot of like activity going and everybody knows everybody, everybody’s cool with everybody.
Abdul: Do you know how many bathroom I got in my house?
Omar: First how many stories is your house?
Abdul: Four.
Omar: Four stories, okay.
Abdul: Every story got four bathrooms. And big living room down in the first floor.
Omar: Every house has a place called diwan where it’s long but not too, too wide. The living rooms are more longer, it’s like a rectangle shape. That’s where everybody gathers, everybody sits like in a circle and you want to be able to like— usually it’s distance like where we’re at and it’s in the middle just you know where the food goes.
Omar: It’s not like--
Abdul: The culture is different.
Omar: Yeah, it’s— over here it’s like, it feels like you're always working. Over there, so much more life, you know? So like weddings, like the whole village from everywhere else come over like thousands of people just come to your whatchamacallit so people know the villages like “Oh, you’re from this city, oh, I know your house.”
Abdul: Well when I came over here it was a little town, it’s— the culture is Polish, and it’s lot of, lot of Polish and they are good people, nicely, and lot of— it was lot of African American and Arab, little bit Yemeni so until that, we are— when anybody coming from Yemen or came from another state, we come into work, we go into Chrysler Corporation, Ford, General Motors, and they live together.
Abdul: You know the Polish people they was doing good for the city. They make the cities— it’s good, they clean the street, they clean the houses. They are a good people, Polish people.
Abdul: Lot of people they open business themself.
Omar: When people come [Speaks in Arabic]
Abdul: Yeah.
Omar: Yeah, when people come they also like— everybody, they used to give them like money.
Abdul: It’s, it’s to help them. It’s like— you have to give them, no matter how is he. No matter, somebody coming, you have to invite him. But you know what? [Speaks in Arabic]
Omar: Yeah, he said but these days it’s different. It’s not like how it used to be before, you know?
Abdul: It’s different, it’s— when somebody coming, even if you see him, you shy to talk to him.
Abdul: I feel like more comfortable I feel when I am in Detroit. When you live 40 years in some places, you love it. I live more than Yemen in Detroit. I love it.
Abdul: Sometime you know when you think about back home, especially when you born over there, to me, when you born in place, you like it, you feel to go back there, to inside your heart, to go. [Speaks in Arabic] It’s too much trouble.
Interpreter Omar Alkusari: Yeah so he said, you know like after you said there’s displacement, life right now over there for many people, it is hard. So he does feel bad for that and he feels that affection, you know, for home. Like he was saying, like almost every Yemeni here, by the way, just so you can know, even his children, they go back to Yemen. Even if they’re born here, 17, 16, they’ll go home to visit and come back. You— because you still got your grandmother there, you got cousins there.
Abdul: You still got relatives back there.
Omar: You got relatives there.
Abdul: You live, it’s like, I don’t know it’s that culture, it’s different. [Speaks in Arabic]
Omar: In Yemen, it’s a lot of coming and going. Like the whole day, you’re just over at people’s houses, you go visit people. People work in the morning, at 3, 4 o’clock, everybody, the whole country’s off, you know. It’s a whole different lifestyle. Nighttime everybody’s asleep, there’s no such thing— there’s no people out at night. The best way I could describe it for you— like if you see one of those, like the movies when you see the country pe— like in the country, small towns, how that connection, everybody knows everybody. But like in Yemen, it’s like that times 10. It’s like not just a small town, the whole city is just— you know, you go to the marketplace, everybody everywhere is just yell— you know a lot of yelling, like eyyy, it’s just talking, just a lot of like activity going and everybody knows everybody, everybody’s cool with everybody.
Abdul: Do you know how many bathroom I got in my house?
Omar: First how many stories is your house?
Abdul: Four.
Omar: Four stories, okay.
Abdul: Every story got four bathrooms. And big living room down in the first floor.
Omar: Every house has a place called diwan where it’s long but not too, too wide. The living rooms are more longer, it’s like a rectangle shape. That’s where everybody gathers, everybody sits like in a circle and you want to be able to like— usually it’s distance like where we’re at and it’s in the middle just you know where the food goes.
Omar: It’s not like--
Abdul: The culture is different.
Omar: Yeah, it’s— over here it’s like, it feels like you're always working. Over there, so much more life, you know? So like weddings, like the whole village from everywhere else come over like thousands of people just come to your whatchamacallit so people know the villages like “Oh, you’re from this city, oh, I know your house.”
Abdul: Well when I came over here it was a little town, it’s— the culture is Polish, and it’s lot of, lot of Polish and they are good people, nicely, and lot of— it was lot of African American and Arab, little bit Yemeni so until that, we are— when anybody coming from Yemen or came from another state, we come into work, we go into Chrysler Corporation, Ford, General Motors, and they live together.
Abdul: You know the Polish people they was doing good for the city. They make the cities— it’s good, they clean the street, they clean the houses. They are a good people, Polish people.
Abdul: Lot of people they open business themself.
Omar: When people come [Speaks in Arabic]
Abdul: Yeah.
Omar: Yeah, when people come they also like— everybody, they used to give them like money.
Abdul: It’s, it’s to help them. It’s like— you have to give them, no matter how is he. No matter, somebody coming, you have to invite him. But you know what? [Speaks in Arabic]
Omar: Yeah, he said but these days it’s different. It’s not like how it used to be before, you know?
Abdul: It’s different, it’s— when somebody coming, even if you see him, you shy to talk to him.
Abdul: I feel like more comfortable I feel when I am in Detroit. When you live 40 years in some places, you love it. I live more than Yemen in Detroit. I love it.