Seven-year-old Abdullahi Shongolo fled the Somali civil war in 1992, walking through dense African jungle for two weeks. He encountered hyenas, lions and violent militias before reaching a Kenyan refugee camp. During the twelve years he and his nine siblings lived in the camp, he learned enough English to plead his family’s case to become refugees eligible to resettle in the United States. Shongolo and his family arrived in Denver in 2004. Twenty years later, Shongolo runs the register at the international grocery store he owns in Denver, blocks away from the dwelling where he and his family first got their start in America.