ShareThisBy BENJAMIN NIOLET
Raleigh News & Observer
Thursday, May 17, 2007
For years, Denis Mukoka has sweat over a mop and corralled shopping carts while dreaming of the day he would see his children again.
And six years after Mukoka fled his native Congo as a refugee, five of his six children walked off a plane at Raleigh-Durham International Airport late Tuesday and hugged their father.
The moment, all smiles and applause from touched onlookers, came only after a long, hard slog through a tangled mess of federal and international immigration hoops, hurdles and roadblocks. Mukoka, with lots of help from his church and a nonprofit agency, got his children here legally.
"Today, for me is ... the first day of my life," Mukoka said in broken English, a language he has struggled to learn.
The new arrivals are three girls, Rosette, 18; Edith, 16; Mutoba, 15; and two boys, Mukoka Wa, 17; and Armele, 14. They were young children the last time Mukoka saw them. The teenagers stepped off a plane after an exhausting trip from Kinshasa to Brussels to Newark, N.J. In the days and weeks ahead, they will have English tutors, schooling, medical checkups and appointments to get Social Security numbers. The sixth child is over 21, and has to go through a separate process to come to the United States.
Edith told reporters in French that the children were happy to be with their father, who had to leave them so many years ago.
Mukoka worked for a bank in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Central African nation torn by war, poverty and corruption. He became politically active and ran afoul of those in power. He fled to Ivory Coast and then came to the United States four years ago as a refugee. He eventually settled in Cary, N.C.
One day, he started going to Capital City Christian Church. He didn't say much, but members were curious about the quiet man who was a regular at services. Two church members had a son who spoke some French, the official language of Mukoka's country. He didn't offer much at first, but eventually they learned his story.
"We just kind of felt, like, hey, he's one of us. He's part of our family and we need to reunite him with his family," said the Rev. Jon Miller, pastor of the church.
Bob Willson, a member of the church, took an interest and helped Mukoka fill out some forms. Naively, he figured they'd turn in the paperwork, and the children would be here in a few weeks. He underestimated the complexity of coming to America _ the process took two years.
"How would any of us feel being separated from any of our children for even one month, let alone six years? And the bureaucratic delays involved in immigration are just unbelievable ... yet these people deal with it day in and day out and patiently wait their turn," Willson said.
Willson and Mukoka worked with Lutheran Family Services, a nonprofit whose work includes helping refugees get to the United States and get a head start on building new lives here. The church and the nonprofit will continue to help the family now that they're here.
Mukoka works two jobs. He is a custodian at West Cary Middle School and he collects shopping carts at Lowe's. He has been sending money to the Congo, where the per capita income is $98 a year.
(Benjamin Niolet can be reached at ben.niolet(at)newsobserver.com. To comment or for more stories, visit scrippsnews.com.)
