LEWISTON – When Fatuma Hassan came to Lewiston in January, she was in a strange land.

The Somali native didn’t speak English. She was shocked by how cold it was.

“When I came here, the outside is white. Very cold,” Hassan said.

To avoid the cold she stayed indoors, but soon she ventured out to take adult education classes at the Multi-Purpose Center.

“I’m happy to learn English,” she said.

Hassan, 54, is one of about 300 local Somalis enrolled in Lewiston Adult Education.

She was born in Afmadow, Somalia, in 1952. She lived there until 1999, surviving years of civil war. “Many, many people die,” she said, including her husband.

She and her son fled to a refugee camp in Kenya, where life wasn’t much better. Refugees had to make their own shelters from available materials, Hassan said.

“You take some trees and make yourself by your hand.”

There was food, but not enough. Everyone was hungry.

Hassan belonged to a minority tribe at the camp and was unarmed, which made her a target for theft. “You can’t fight, so anybody can take what you have. Your food, your clothes. All the time you’re not happy,” she said.

“At nighttime if somebody has a gun and comes, he takes what you have.”

She worried every night whether she would live or die.

In July 2005, she and her son immigrated to California. She moved to Lewiston six months later because she had friends and relatives here.

Despite the cold, “Lewiston is very, very good,” she said. “When I came here, I don’t know how to talk English. Now I can talk English.

“There are good teachers, good people. People in education help me to learn computers, English class and math class.”

Four days a week, in traditional Muslim dress and head scarf, she attends adult education classes.

She’s also learning to drive a car. And she doesn’t worry about enough food or dying every day.

“I feel better. I feel good in Lewiston,” Hassan said. “I only worry about my children.”

The son who came with her from Kenya lives in Utah. Her other grown children, a daughter and two sons, are in Somalia, but she has no contact with them.

Hassan’s only other worry is finding a job. She studies English so she can fill out applications. She has applied for housekeeping, laundry and shoe company jobs, she said

“But they never called. I hope they call me. I wait.”

She asked a reporter twice, “Can you help me find a job?”