By Maki Becker
Buffalo, December 22: Santa Claus strode into the dining room of the Vive La Casa refugee center on the city’s East Side on Friday — and 2-year-old Sarah Tesfamariam burst into tears.
The toddler, from Eritrea, didn’t know what to make of the big, strange white man with the fluffy beard and red suit.
“She was scared,” a translator explained.
The little girl perked up quickly, though, after she finally worked up the courage to sit on Santa’s lap and received a gift: a Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn toy.
Sarah is one of about 40 children from around the world who are spending this Christmas at Vive La Casa as they and their families await entry into Canada.
Having fled their homelands in fear of persecution, the refugees have few belongings and next to no means to purchase any gifts for Christmas.
To help the refugees feel more at home and a little more festive, Vive La Casa throws a holiday bash.
Friday, the dining room was filled with toys and goodies donated by the public and local churches. The children excitedly lined up in front of Santa — portrayed by Tom Tripp, a deacon with the Episcopal Diocese — who handed them presents and urged them to be good boys and girls.
Christen Tandau, 5, from Tanzania, was at the front of the line and beamed as she got on Santa’s lap. She darted off with a big box filled with art supplies. But then turned around and went back to Santa.
“Thank you!” she said with a smile.
David Moreno, 14, who arrived from Colombia with his mother and brother 11 days earlier, was especially happy to receive a set of winter gloves, a hat and a scarf. The snow storm that hit last weekend came as quite a shock to his whole family. They’d never seen snow before.
“It was beautiful,” said his mother, Ana Maria Moreno.
“It was cold. Very, very cold,” said David, struggling to come up with the words to describe the winter weather. “But not like ice. Soft.”
Assad Mahamoud Abakar, 38, one of the few at the center seeking asylum in the United States, couldn’t help but feel a little sad as he watched the revelry.
Abakar had fled Chad earlier this year after he was imprisoned for three months. The government had wrongly accused him of helping rebels in Darfur.
When he was let out, his wife and five children were gone and he has had no way to find them.
“I’m not happy,” Abakar said. “I have problems in my country.”
Although a Muslim, Abakar said he knows his children, who range in age from 1 to 12, would have enjoyed the Christmas party.
As he awaits his asylum hearing, Abakar is volunteering at the center. He had to leave Friday’s party briefly to help deliver baby gifts to a Haitian refugee who had just given birth at Women and Children’s Hospital, three days after arriving in the United States.
Lhahpa Dolma, 51, one of several Tibetan refugees at the center, also was volunteering Friday. She helped serve beans and rice, part of the holiday dinner. She and her brother had escaped Tibet through India and are hoping to go to Canada to be with their nephew.
She’s enjoyed her 19-day stay in Buffalo. “It’s not bad, not so rushed,” she said.
She was pleased to hear that the Dalai Lama had visited Buffalo last year.
“He’s the only hope we have in the world,” she said of the exiled Buddhist leader as she put her hands together in prayer.
As a Buddhist herself, Dolma does not celebrate Christmas. “But we have to respect it,” she said.
She and other refugees decided they would share in the celebration.
“We dressed up in our custom, and we came down to celebrate,” said Dolma, wearing a colorful, striped traditional Tibetan dress. “We choose love, peace and respect,” she said. “Not hatred.”
mbecker@buffnews.com
