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Tales by teens who fled war-torn nations strike a chord with Yarmouth youth.

By TESS NACELEWICZ, Staff Writer December 22, 2007

YARMOUTH — They live just about 12 miles up the road, but Yarmouth High School freshmen have learned that there is a world of difference between their lives and the lives of immigrant and refugee teenagers in Portland.

Earlier this year, the Yarmouth students read some "coming-to- America" stories written by the Portland teenagers, and were struck by how their experiences contrasted.

On Friday, during a day celebrating world culture at the high school, the Yarmouth students got to meet two of the young authors and hear them speak about the horrific experiences that drove them from their home countries.

"When we're thinking we're having a really bad day, compared to them, we're having a really good day," said Sierra Ryan, 14, after listening to Aruna Kenyi and Ali Mohamed read their stories and answer questions about their lives.

Kenyi, 18, read a part of "The Photograph," the story he wrote about how Arab militiamen swept into his peaceful village in southern Sudan when he was 5, burning the houses and killing nearly everyone. He and his older brothers escaped and lived in refugee camps for years until they came to the United States.

They arrived in Portland four years ago. Only after that did they get a photo showing that their parents are still alive, although their father is in a wheelchair because soldiers shot him in the legs.

Kenyi, a student at Southern Maine Community College, said they have spoken by phone but the family has yet to be reunited.

Mohamed, 17, also was 5 when men with guns surrounded his village in Somalia, shot and killed his father and 3-year-old brother, badly wounded his mother and took all of their money and valuables.

Mohamed, too, lived in a refugee camp. He came to Portland just last year.

"It is peaceful here," wrote Mohamed, a student at Portland High School, "except sometimes in my dreams."

Kenyi and Mohamed's stories are among 15 in an anthology called "I Remember Warm Rain."

All of the stories were written by immigrant and refugee students who participated in the Story House Project conducted by The Telling Room in Portland, a nonprofit writing center for children and teenagers.

Writing mentors worked with the students to help them craft their stories, and The Telling Room published the anthology of their work this year.

Yarmouth High School teacher Josie Tierney-Fife had her freshmen in this upscale suburb of Portland read the stories.

"It has been really wonderful for my students to have that kind of exposure and to hear those voices and about those experiences that, otherwise, here in Yarmouth, they wouldn't be able to," she said.

The students were so moved by the stories that they e-mailed the authors, Tierney-Fife said.

"Dear Aruna Kenyi," began Lexi Pelletier, 15, in an e-mail, "I just can't imagine like running for your life, not knowing if the people you love are dead or alive ... Your story was very eye- opening to the troubles that our world goes through. I am just awed. I've read stories similar to this kind of thing, but then reading it firsthand from your point of view. Wow."

The e-mail correspondence led to the visit to the school on Friday.

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, executive director of The Telling Room, said the goal of the organization is to get young people to write, share their stories with the community and make connections. The authors in the anthology have given talks and readings at other schools where teachers have had their students read the anthology, and plan to do so again.

At Yarmouth High, Katie Hodgkin, 14, was impressed to meet the writers. "To actually hear them talking and telling their stories was more, like, powerful," she said.

After the readings, the Yarmouth students peppered Kenyi and Mohamed with questions such as what the two young men think of Maine.

"The only thing I hate about here is the snow," Kenyi said.

The students also questioned Mohamed...