Now that she is in America, she is working hard in housekeeping at the Drury Hotel in Milwaukee to help support their family, and she is taking English classes in the evening at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Amir is not the typical Afghan husband culturally. He is always trying to include Damsa in everything he does and everywhere he goes. He constantly tells me that she is the Master and he is the student in the kitchen. He helps chop vegetables while she cooks, and I have come to their home to find him cleaning alongside her. He tells me all the time how excited he was when he met her (for the first time!) on their wedding day. He says Damsa is the very best. The Ahmadis are so full of fun and laughter and joy! We can’t be around them enough.

Their 13 year old daughter spent most of her time in refugee camps trying to learn English because she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. She recently asked me if I could enroll her in English classes at MATC in the evenings after school, so that she can improve her English faster and do better in school. Amir told us that if they had stayed in Afghanistan, she would no longer be going to school because the Taliban would not allow her to go. He told me that they wanted to come to the United States, so that his daughters could receive an education.

Damsa’s brother was taken by the Taliban because of her family’s work for human rights in Afghanistan, and we are hoping to raise enough money to bring her brothers and their families to America, so that they can be safe.

We were sitting with a big group of our Afghan friends the other night, and we asked them what they love best about living in America. They gave various answers like Lake Michigan, and being safe from the Taliban, and then Amir looked right at me and said, “The people. What we love best is the people in America. They are so kind.”