Bhutanese refugees: From Nepal to Madison
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/bhutanese-refugees-from-nepal-to-madison/article_2afd2734-7e6b-5780-ae7d-41c3bcf051b5.html
The woman in the purple knitted hat and green sweater is about 75 years old but became a child again, looking out a window at a world completely new to her. Kala Basnet saw streetlights and headlights, paved roads and sidewalks, kids shoveling snow and a man walking a dog.
She had just journeyed for two full days through three continents and across 11 time zones. Her previous home — a bamboo hut in eastern Nepal with no electricity — has an average daily temperature of 66 degrees. When she got to her new apartment on Madison’s South Side, it was about 15 degrees with a fresh dusting of snow. A reminder of her old home could be found on her feet: flip-flop sandals.
She’ll share the apartment with the four family members who made the trek with her, becoming the latest in a wave of Bhutanese refugees who started arriving here in 2009. Now, more than 170 of the refugees call Madison home. Hundreds more may arrive in the next few years.
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They joined family members who have lived here since 2009, reuniting four generations of refugees who lived in next-door huts for 19 years before being separated for the last three, as some got clearance to leave the camps and resettle abroad while others waited behind.