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Hassan Lamungu had never seen a laundromat before. He knew he must first put his clothes into the washing machine. So he did that. Add quarters into the coin slot. So he did that too. Then he stepped back, waiting. Nothing happened. Someone finally had to point out that he should press the little button that said, "Start." Lamungu looked confused. "Why?" he asked. "They told me it was an automatic washing machine." To a Somali refugee from a world away, there are some things about the United States that aren't what they're cracked up to be. But for the most part, Lamungu's new home country has exceeded his wildest expectations. Less than a month ago, the 42-year-old Somali Bantu refugee and his eight family members stepped off an airplane at Phoenix International Airport. The journey from war-torn Somalia, through a decade of being holed up in Kenya's squalid refugee camps, was finally over. A new life began. Lamungu is one of almost 12,000 Somali Bantu—among the most persecuted people in the world—whom the U.S. government is bringing to the United States in one of its biggest resettlement programs ever. "These people literally had nowhere else to go," said Craig Thoresen, director of the Lutheran Social Ministry of Southwest, the agency that is helping the Lamungu family to settle in Phoenix, Arizona. In the quest to help the world's refugees, however, the resettlement of the Somali Bantu is a mere drop in the bucket. Friday marks World Refugee Day, and while the Lamungus are learning how to master American appliances, most refugees are still languishing in dirty refugee camps. There are at least [|35 million people] around the world who have been forced to run for their lives and are exiled from their homes (National Geographic).
 * Hassan Lamungu:**

A Somali women and her child in a refugee camp.

media type="google" key="-4815448109404973984&q=somali+refugees" A video about the life of young girls in a refugee camp.

Read about some refugees journey to a new country at this website. http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=61106

Resources: 1. Refugee story: "Refugees in the U.S.: One Family's Story." __National Geographic__. <[|http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0620_030620_banturefugees.html>.] 2. Refugee story: "KENYA-SOMALIA: Refugee Crisis Festers as More Flee." __IRIN__. <[|http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=61106>.] 3.Photo of women and child: http://www.somalirefugeesinyemen.com/pictures/somwom_kenya1.jpg