Monday is Nowruz, the Afghanistan new year. On Sunday, several hundred recent Afghan immigrants from across Upstate New York gathered at the Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center to see each other and celebrate a new year in a new country.
They were of varying ages, dressed in everything from at least one tuxedo to traditional Afghan dress. The party included kids running around the room, letting off steam, and their own music, an Afghan string instrument player who just came here because the Taliban in Afghanistan doesn't like music. Most of those at the party were new to the area and there will be more as others go through the refugees process.
Milae Safary, president of Afghani New Generation, is a University at Buffalo graduate whose family came here in 2015.
"Just about everything that is happening Ukraine and Afghanistan, we share similar pain and we all have similarities that are connecting us together today," Safary said. "So for us Afghanis who have been displaced from Afghanistan and for all Ukrainians who are coming to Buffalo, we are more than happy to help them as the Afghani community."
Safary said the first question new arrivals have is, Where will our new home be?
"Where they will be put to live. That is the main common question everybody asks and we tell them that we are doing our best to find a place for them to live or stay," he said. "We know that some places like Buffalo State and Canisius have offered their dorms for the Afghani people for coming over here and, yeah, for now it's just temporary until we find them a permanent house."
Safary said there can be cultural shocks for the immigrants.
"People who are coming from Kabul, who are used to living in the city, they usually have no problem coming to Buffalo. But people who are coming from other parts of Afghanistan, as you mentioned, like rural cities, they have a bit of a hard time getting used to living in the city," he said.
