'From Seattle with love' - A touching Somali love story makes it to the NYT

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Duchess

HRH Duchess of Puntland, The Viscount of Garoowe
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It all started with the dream of Ifrah Ahmed, 25, who barely remembers her early years in Mogadishu, Somalia, when her country was at war. Growing up in Seattle, she wanted to be a chef, or an astronaut, or a detective, or a librarian. But by junior high, Ms. Ahmed knew what she would become: a human-rights lawyer, who would work with women, children and refugees.

Benjamin Verdoes, 34, met Ms. Ahmed at an elementary school in Seattle on Nov. 29, 2010. At the time, Mr. Verdoes was a substitute teacher. Ms. Ahmed was a tutor, helping Somali students strengthen their English. They were on their lunch break when they spotted each other.

“My goodness,” Mr. Verdoes thought. Ms. Ahmed noticed him, too, but walked into the teachers’ lounge and pulled out “Leaves of Grass” by Whitman. Mr. Verdoes sat down next to her, thinking up his best line — not hard, since he had read a lot of Whitman’s poetry and had recently been reading his biography.

“Oh, Walt Whitman,” he said to Ms. Ahmed, and then proceeded to share many facts about the writer.

“I was like, ‘Who knows all these facts about Walt Whitman?’” Ms. Ahmed recalled.

Mr. Verdoes asked Ms. Ahmed if she was Somali, and spoke a few words to her in her native language. He said he was learning Somali because he worked with so many Somali students. She later sent a text to her friends: “Hey guys, I met my soul mate today.”

Not so fast. They became friends on Facebook. Mr. Verdoes, playing the detective, found her email address on Facebook and sent her a note: Maybe they could meet for coffee, and she could teach him Somali? But the email address was an old one — a Hotmail one, which a true detective would have realized was outdated. Ms. Ahmed did not respond.

Mr. Verdoes was disappointed, yet he was also distracted. His first marriage had just broken up, and his ex-wife was in his band, which was foundering for obvious reasons. Mr. Verdoes’s mother fell ill and died that winter. He kept his focus on raising his adopted younger brother, Marshall, whom he had had custody of for four years.

He thought he and Ms. Ahmed might have something, but she didn’t email back.

Mr. Verdoes kept playing with Mr. Quiroga. And he sent Ms. Ahmed a message on Facebook. This time, she replied. They met in late January 2011. It was, in theory, a Somali lesson on verbs. It ended up being a three-hour conversation (so says Mr. Verdoes) or a four-hour one (Ms. Ahmed). Not one word of Somali was uttered.

Dating commenced, on Feb. 3, 2011.
At Ms. Ahmed’s suggestion, the two men called their band Iska Dhaaf, which in Somali means, roughly, “let it go.”
Yet people move to New York for all sorts of reasons: to disappear, to reinvent, to never sleep, to run away from disappointment, to follow their dreams, jobs and lovers. For the team, following someone else’s dream across the country made perfect sense, especially since their own dreams fit perfectly into the glittering, alien-shaped, garbage-smelling bucket that is New York.

Mr. Verdoes agreed to go, especially since his younger brother was planning to move out. The couple told Mr. Quiroga and Ms. Blouin over dinner at Quinn’s Pub on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

“I was like, we play every day,” Mr. Quiroga recalled. “I’ll go.” Ms. Blouin was also up for the adventure. “My immediate reaction was ‘Of course, let’s go,’” she recalled.

In May 2014, Ms. Ahmed and Mr. Verdoes married in an Islamic ceremony known as a nikah. Two months later, Ms. Ahmed moved, staying with a friend before landing in an apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn that had only an air mattress. “I just couldn’t wait for them to get here,” she said.

Now, Ms. Blouin and Mr. Quiroga live near Ms. Ahmed and Mr. Verdoes, about a 15-minute walk apart. Ms. Ahmed studies law and works on an online magazine she helped start for expat Somali women.
mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/nyregion/from-seattle-with-love-a-tale-of-four-friends-and-one-band.html

My bad, only one of them is Somali and she's a SJW. :drakelaugh:

They're a bar hopping, Christmas celebrating, Somali Muslim couple. Are they integrated enough for you AJ? :diddyswag:
 

Bielsa

Free Wi-Fi > Free Palestine
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Yeah, half way through I thought to myself "wait... isn't she that SJW chick".

I don't know the guy but I wouldn't be surprised if he had that white saviour complex.
 

Duchess

HRH Duchess of Puntland, The Viscount of Garoowe
VIP
Yeah, half way through I thought to myself "wait... isn't she that SJW chick".

I don't know the guy but I wouldn't be surprised if he had that white saviour complex.

He's a grimy hispter who looks like he hasn't seen the inside of a bathroom in decades. He's nearly 10 years her senior, has no real job, and spends most of his time trying to 'make it' with his Indie band. If he were Somali, she wouldn't have looked twice at him but he's a blonde-haired cadaan who can help her attain her childhood dream of having light-skinned soft-haired mixed kids. :wow::urgh:
 

Bielsa

Free Wi-Fi > Free Palestine
VIP
He's a grimy hispter who looks like he hasn't seen the inside of a bathroom in decades. He's nearly 10 years her senior, has no real job, and spends most of his time trying to 'make it' with his Indie band. If he were Somali, she wouldn't have looked twice at him but he's a blonde-haired cadaan who can help her attain her childhood dream of having light-skinned soft-haired mixed kids. :wow::urgh:

She can have light skinned soft haired kids with a Somali dude.

I just think she likes white boys and cadaan culture. So to her even a broke jobless homeless looking hipster cadaan guy is preferable to an ordinary hard working Somali guy..
 

Duchess

HRH Duchess of Puntland, The Viscount of Garoowe
VIP
She can have light skinned soft haired kids with a Somali dude.

I just think she likes white boys and cadaan culture. So to her even a broke jobless homeless looking hipster cadaan guy is preferable to an ordinary hard working Somali guy..
If that were the case, she wouldn't be trying to Somalify him. Plus, she's a SJW who hates cadaan culture because she believes its a form of white supremacy. She'd much rather plant kale in her urban garden while rocking a baati and blasting the latest Maxamed BK with her white Faraax.:drakelaugh:
 
Q

Queen Carawelo

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Ugly chick with an ugly guy.

They can have each other. They look like they smell..
 

Sophisticate

~Gallantly Gadabuursi~
Staff Member
Sensei, they have audacity to call a Farax Ashy Abdi, yet they get chocked up when they see a Somali brother that's out of their league. I've seen this occurrence happen many times. These impeccable specimens of the Somali extraction are looking for trophies - in character and/or the looks department. However, these women act like garage sale goodies that are practically giving themselves away to any taker, even if they are thin-skinned and have meager prospects - aka bummy and living in a shack with an oud as their only valuable.
 
Is there another part of this article that I'm not seeing? I don't understand why the link Sensei provided makes you people want to attack this couple. What exactly is in that article that is insulting?
 
Q

Queen Carawelo

Guest
Is there another part of this article that I'm not seeing? I don't understand why the link Sensei provided makes you people want to attack this couple. What exactly is in that article that is insulting?
If he was black or somali you would something slick to say.

Bye Felicia AJ captain save a Jew, captain I want to be the big bad wolf in a Somali website, captain I'm too scared to leave my room, captain I sent money to menace and he dipped.
 

Duchess

HRH Duchess of Puntland, The Viscount of Garoowe
VIP
Is there another part of this article that I'm not seeing? I don't understand why the link Sensei provided makes you people want to attack this couple. What exactly is in that article that is insulting?

She's active on twitter and part of the anti-Ashy Abdi brigade. :axvmm9o:

What is Iska Dhaaf in reference to? :ricrazy:

She knew the hobo looking hipster would be attacked by Somalis so she wants to tell us to Iska Dhaaf her white savior. :ummhmsmiley:
 
S

Shamis

Guest
They're getting cheeky af :ftw9nwa: How about may nayaa - nin gaal oo uskag ah intaad iriddeenna ku soo wartay kuma dhaafeyno :9uoofqd::umhxisq:
 

Sophisticate

~Gallantly Gadabuursi~
Staff Member
She's active on twitter and part of the anti-Ashy Abdi brigade. :axvmm9o:



She knew the hobo looking hipster would be attacked by Somalis so she wants to tell us to Iska Dhaaf her white savior. :ummhmsmiley:

She's desperately trying to convert him into a Farax, when he will only remain a Franz. So just deal with it. He will never be Somali even if you smothered on bronzer and dyed his hair black. This failed attempt at bringing him into the fold by teaching him rudimentary Somali won't change things, despite his large forehead.
 

Duchess

HRH Duchess of Puntland, The Viscount of Garoowe
VIP
She's desperately trying to convert him into a Farax, when he will only remain a Franz. So just deal with it. He will never be. This failed attempt at bringing him into the fold by teaching him rudimentary Somali won't change things, despite his large forehead.

That's what I don't understand. Instead of getting with Mr. Hobo chic and teaching him to appropriate Somali culture, she could have gotten with an actual farax. There aren't a shortage of them in the Seattle which leads me to believe that her problems are deeper than we realize ( suffers from the internalized anti-blackness that she claims to be fighting on social media). :axvmm9o:
 

Sophisticate

~Gallantly Gadabuursi~
Staff Member
That's what I don't understand. Instead of getting with Mr. Hobo chic and teaching him to appropriate Somali culture, she could have gotten with an actual farax. There aren't a shortage of them in the Seattle which leads me to believe that her problems are deeper than we realize ( suffers from the internalized anti-blackness that she claims to be fighting on social media). :axvmm9o:

The thread that binds the SJW together is either a false sense of persecution or actually being bullied in their youth for whatever reason. They also suffer from self-image problems which might explain a predilection they have for ajnabi dudes. Not that we care, but if your going to sell out get a decent payout. Although nothing will quite make up for severing community ties and bonds of blood that are sorely broken via out-marriage particularly among females. Might as well be more than comfortable while being miserable, rather than sleeping on an air mattress in a closet that fits one. The Faraxs might not have showed love though. :(
 
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