When asked to describe her mother, 12-year-old Priante takes a moment to choose the right word in English: “She is brave.” Priante’s mother, Alphonsine, is strong, indeed. In 2005, she and her husband fled violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and lived in Malawi and Rwanda, where the family endured illness and poverty before resettling in the United States.
SILVER SPRING, Md. − When asked to describe her mother, 12-year-old Priante takes a moment to choose the right word in English: “She is brave,” Priante decides. Prodded to explain further, she pauses again. “Okay, for example—when you’re not shy or scared … it is about someone who cannot shake.”