(L- r) Abdiaziz Mabruk, Shamso Ahmed, Halima Mahina, Batula Ahmed and Garane Ahmed with Dr. Garane Garane Abdiaziz Mabruk and his wife, Halima Mahina, haven't let the horrors they have seen and experienced in Somalia affect their flexibility and humor they are passing on to their children, Batula Ahmed (nine- year- old, female), Shamso Ahmed (six, F), Hussen Ahmed (two, M), and Garane Ahmed (infant, M). Mabruk and Mahina named Garane after Dr. Garane Garane, SC's refugee coordinator and translator for our conversation during this interview.

Mabruk has a scar on his left cheek. In Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, a bullet snagged his cheek after hitting and killing two people. But sometimes facing brutal conditions is better than staying in a refugee camp, said Mabruk. In the UN- run camps of Kenya, refugees often receive about two days worth of food per week. Starvation is prevalent there.

Mabruk and Mahina served Dr. Garane and I several mugs of shah. And Mabruk joked, "If we don't drink this, we don't live." He said the tea was his fuel any time he had to run for his life.

Mahina and her two daughters wear traditional Sunni Muslim dress because she wants them to be humble. She wants her four children to enjoy both their culture and the Southern culture in which they're growing up. "I want them to be like the nomads who adapt in the two worlds," she said. The idea of a wandering lifestyle is central to Somalis who often must uproot their families to pursue safety in Somalia.

The family knows what it's like to be nomadic. They've been in the U. S. for about five years, coming first to S.C. They moved to Nebraska for a little while but have lived in Columbia since 2007.

Mahina said she misses Somalia, but she loves S.C. because the heat reminds her of home.