Silvano Kissanga saw places in his native Sudan as big as Coors Field. However, the Sudanese desert doesn’t have 50,000 seats in it.
That’s OK. Coors Field probably has never seen the likes of Kissanga and his South High School classmates, either. Kissanga was one of 14 immigrant students from South’s Newcomer Center to attend Wednesday’s Rockies game. Many had never seen a baseball game.
Kissanga, wearing a Fred Sanford sweat shirt and an “L.A.” medallion, sat in the Rockpile and surveyed the crowd on a beautiful sunny afternoon.
“It’s big,” he said, “but there are too many empty seats.”
Welcome to Rockies baseball, kid.
The South High contingent was made up of teens from the East African countries of Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan, plus one teen from Mexico. The East Africans are refugees escaping their countries’ conflicts. Eight are from Somalia, where 550,000 people have died since civil war broke out in 1988. Mohamed Youssef’s father died in the war two years ago, and Abdi Abdiaziz lost his mother.
Between the 14 of them they speak 36 languages, from Arabic to Mai Mai, a Somalian dialect. But because of conditions in their war-torn countries, they can read or write in almost none of them. They came to Denver through the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program, hoping for a fresh start. But first they must assimilate into American culture.
What better way than attending a baseball game?
“We take the kids on a lot of field trips because it exposes them more to the world,” said Dennis Smith, a 1977 Regis High School graduate, in his third year teaching at the Newcomer Center.
“The more places they go, it opens their eyes, they see opportunities, they see people at work. They realize some things are within their realm of possibility.”
Their favorite field trip in Denver is the zoo. However, coming from East Africa, they have an unusual reaction. “They see these animals,” Smith said, “and say, ‘Oh, we’ve eaten that one! We’ve eaten that one, too!”‘
The Rockies’ 13-4 loss to the San Diego Padres also provided an educational opportunity. They all learned a new English word: Boo. As Rockies starter Zach Day got lit up for eight runs, Silvano deciphered the scoreboard and said, “It’s 8-1. We go home now? We keep watching, it’ll be 100.”
The group left after standing for the seventh-inning stretch. Halima Masakira, wearing a beautiful black jellaba, a traditional Arabic gown, rocked back and forth to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” then was asked what she thought of the game.
“I like it very much,” she said, “but some (players) look like they drink beer because they’re not catching very well.”
John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
