Baskets full of ambition

When a group of Bhutanese refugees set out to plant a community garden in September, the would-be growers found themselves knee deep in the south’s leafy headache: kudzu.

The 12 families ripped, tugged and yanked the pesty vine, but the weed had taken control of the forgotten patch of green behind their apartment complex.

Yet, the newcomers suddenly saw this old problem in a new way: They saw a purpose, even opportunity and beauty in the vine everyone else loves to hate.

They started weaving the husky vines into baskets —- hundreds of them in all shapes and sizes. Some are shaped like birds nests. Others have star-like details.

In the end, the kudzu from the garden —- at various times teeming with lettuce, turnips, tomatoes and garlic —- was not enough. The families have gone on kudzu-cutting expeditions and now also make sturdy Christmas wreaths.

“We are new here, and we are still finding our way,” said Birendra Odari, 18, who moved to the Decatur area with his family less than two years ago.

Birendra is an A-student at Druid Hills High School. He said he doesn’t have time to make baskets, but he helps sell them on the weekends.

Birendra’s mother, Oma, can make a basket in less than an hour, and she now makes as many as four or five every day.

With Odari’s father recently out of work, the money from the baskets has become critical.

“It can help pay for paper and school supplies. And, if we can make $200 in a month, it can really help pay the rent,” said Birendra.

In recent weeks, the kudzu crafts have become fixtures at holiday bazaars and farmer’s markets, including the market in the Morningside neighborhood of Atlanta.

At a recent crafts show at a fair trade holiday sale at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Ron Stein admired the baskets —- then spotted a familiar face. Oma Odari is one of Stein’s students learning English at DeKalb Technical College.

Stein bought six baskets, each costing $15 or $20. He and his wife will keep two and give away four as Christmas gifts.

“I think they are just wonderful. They look substantial, like they would last a lifetime,” said Stein.

Meanwhile, Oma Odari and Durga Dulal, using knives they brought with them to this country, sliced a thick piece of kudzu into pieces and then began to twist them together to make the base and sides of the baskets.

It’s a skill they honed under dire circumstances thousands of miles away.

Exiled or expelled

Birenda, now 18, was just one month old when his family and 100,000 other people were expelled from their native Bhutan, a monarchy wedged between India and Chinese-ruled Tibet.

The Bhutanese refugees are descendents of people who left Nepal during the 1800s in search of better farmland.

They settled in what is now southern Bhutan and became known as Lhotshampas, or “People of the South.”

In the 1980s, Bhutan’s king worried that the largely Hindu Lhotshampas population could put the traditional Druk Buddhist culture in the minority. So he barred the speaking of Nepali in schools, required Druk dress and stripped citizenship for many Lhotsampas. Tens of thousands were either expelled or fled the country.

The Odari family and many other refugees ended up in camps in eastern Nepal. They lived in huts with dirt floors and thatched roofs.

The huts were made of bamboo, and the roofs were also made from weaving bamboo, which has a similar coarse texture to the kudzu here. Birendra said families had to replace the roof at least once every two years.

‘Just fell in love with them’

The idea for the garden goes back to a summer picnic and chance encounter with Decatur resident Craig Gilbert. Gilbert was invited to attend the 4th of July festival organized by a group of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees who formed a volunteer group to help these newly arriving families.

He met the families and immediately wanted to do something to help.

“I just fell in love with them,” said Gilbert. “They are the kindest people I have ever met. They want to be self-sufficient.

“Imagine surviving 18 years in a bamboo hut in a refugee camp, and then being picked up and resettled in Decatur where the language and culture are so different.”

Gilbert, a gardener himself, offered to help the refugees clear the land and plant some vegetables and enlisted assistance from the Atlanta Community Food Bank, which provided the seeds. Together, they prepared the unused land —-the size of two tennis courts —- to be a vegetable garden.

Within a month, lettuce and spinach emerged —- enough to regularly feed the refugee families living in the apartment complex.

Gilbert shared the refugees’ interest in finding use for the kudzu. He knew of a local teacher who had taught her students how to make kudzu baskets.

But it was quickly apparent that the Bhutanese didn’t need any help.

These days, Gilbert helps organize outings to get more kudzu and, since many of the families don’t have cars, also transports the families and the crafts to weekend festivals.

” I feel like the world owes them a great debt, and if everyone made a small effort to help, the path to putting their lives back together would be greatly eased,” he said.

The families said Gilbert has helped them build their roots and new relationships in their new homeland.

“We could have never done this without him,” said Birendra. “He is a good person. He helps us a lot.”

Baskets show work ethic

On a recent afternoon, Oma Odari weaves pieces of kudzu in her living room.

The vines are thick, but she handles them with ease. Sometimes, other refugees who live in the complex join her in her modest but tidy apartment filled with bright silk flowers.

Within a couple hours, the baskets stack up and fill the room.

Ramkumer Timshina, 58, said the basket weaving “supports our life,” but he hopes to eventually find work either farming or making furniture.

“We are very skilled craftsmen, but how do we get and pay for the wood? I don’t even know where to start,” he said.

For now, they will make baskets.

“For most people, they see the baskets and they think they are beautiful to decorate their house. They see the hard work, and they see the person who made the basket, and they can see what we did with kudzu,” said Birendra. “And I think people here want to help us and support us.”

Bhutanese refugees

Atlanta is one of the main destinations for Bhutanese refugees recently admitted to the United States.

The United States has agreed to resettle up to 60,000 of the 107,000 Bhutanese refugees living in seven U.N. refugee camps in southeastern Nepal.

They have spent 17 years in U.N. refugee camps and have been referred to as the “forgotten people.”

Since March of last year, 1,600 Bhutanese refugees have immigrated to Atlanta, and thousands more are expected over the next five years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

For more about the Bhutanese refugees or to find out how you can help, go to bhutan-atlanta.blogspot.com