http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/fatal-crash-still-having-impact-on-sioux-city-eritrea-community/article_c0298550-069c-5254-bd70-f155a5b353fb.html
Dec 19 10:21pm
Fatal crash still having impact on Sioux City Eritrea community
KIRBY KAUFMAN
KKAUFMAN_at_SIOUXCITYJOURNAL.COM
SIOUX CITY | An hourlong trip to buy lamb meat is a routine that binds
the members of one
of Sioux City’s smallest East African communities to one another and
to their homeland.
For the past month, the city's Eritrean population of no more than 100
has adopted a less
familiar, more painful routine: Mourning three friends and raising
money to send their
remains home for burial.
The tightly knit group of families and individuals who fled their
strifetorn native country and
arrived in Sioux City with expectations of a better life has said
little publicly since the
incomprehensible crash that claimed a total of five lives on Nov. 22.
Among them was Kibrom Gebremicael, 46, who used his English language
skills to translate
for some of his fellow immigrants who speak either Tigrinya or
Amharic, two common
languages in East Africa.
Gebremicael was a passenger in a Chevy Trailblazer driven by Sishay
Gidey, 53, when the
westbound SUV veered onto the gravel shoulder of Highway 141 near
Sloan, Iowa, on that
awful Saturday afternoon. Authorities said Gidey overcorrected,
entered the eastbound lane
and crashed into a GMC Sierra driven by Larry Malone, 70, of Des Moines.
Gebremicael and two more of Gidey's passengers, Yohanes Tesfamariam,
34, and Bahta
Gebremedhen, 60, died. So did two of Malone's passengers, Donna Timm,
80, of Ute, Iowa,
and Myrna Malone, 70, of Des Moines. Malone and a third passenger,
Jessica Malone, 37,
of West Des Moines, were injured.
Gidey, 53, also survived but remains at Nebraska Medical Center in
Omaha, where he was
listed in serious condition Friday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
A fund was set up to assist family members of the Eritrean victims.
Donations can be made
to the Eritrean Memorial Account at any Wells Fargo branch.
The four were on their way back to Sioux City from a meatbuying trip
to Denison, Iowa.
Many Eritreans living here attend local Greek Orthodox churches
because they are the
closest to the Coptic religion, the largest branch of Orthodox
Christianity in Egypt and the
Middle East. The religion has strict rules about meat preparation and
consumption.
Sioux City's Eritrean community is centered between the 1100 and 1900
blocks of Pierce
Street. Living close to one another, they share rides to work and to
get groceries.
Gebremicael’s brother, Woldu Habte, 50, said it's natural for
immigrants to form a close
group in a new land.
“When (they are) far away from home, they stick together and help each
other. Whenever a
problem comes, they get together and solve it,” said Habte, who lives in Canada.
His brother came to the United States in search of a better life,
Habte said. He landed a job
at the Tyson Foods plant in Dakota City.
Eritrea is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti. The country of
about 6 million has
become a source of forced labor and sex trafficking. It also has one
political party that
controls national, regional and local offices.
Erica DeLeon, executive director of Mary J. Treglia Community House in
Sioux City, said
the city's African immigrants are mostly in their 30s or 40s and
generally come from refugee
camps.
Smalltown life can provide a refuge for them to find stability and
send their children to
school.
Alison Benson, a spokeswoman for the Sioux City school district, said
the district has at
least eight students who were born in Eritrea.
Habte said Eritrean immigrants headed to America now tend to be younger and more
educated than earlier generations. But like his brother, they’ll want
to find work and make
good lives.
“Everyone has a destiny,” Habte said.
How to help
The Eritrean Memorial Account was set up to help the families of the
local crash victims.
Donations may be made at any Wells Fargo bank branch.
Received on Sat Dec 20 2014 - 14:03:57 EST