After years, many miles, Eliows have home

Today is a special day for the Eliow family: They’ll have dinner together under their own roof for the first time.

Georges Eliow and Akout Agang are Sudanese and members of the Dinka tribe. In 1987, a civil war forced them first to leave their home and later to leave their country via separate routes: Eliow ended up in a refuge camp in Syria before moving to Lebanon; Agang walked for two months to meet him in Beirut – but she had to leave her then 2-year-old son, Eliow Jok Eliow, behind with family in North Sudan.

It wasn’t until 2006 that the boy, now 14, joined his parents and three new siblings, Akon, 7, Nebol, 5, and Adio, 3, in Spokane, with the help of Valley Fourth Memorial Church.

Today, after fulfilling their three-year commitment, they get the keys to a new Habitat for Humanity house into which they’ve put 500 hours of “sweat equity.”

“How I feel? What can I say? It’s my house – it’s wonderful,” said Georges Eliow as he walked through the almost-finished house on Friday.

This winter was especially challenging, with heavy snowfall and long cold spells.

“It was hard work, but our friends helped, too,” Georges Eliow said. “And all the people here helped.”

The family has been living in a cramped apartment.

“My mom may come,” said Akout Agang. “I have three children now that she’s never seen. The children ask, ‘When can we see Grandma?’ And I keep saying, ‘Not right now but maybe soon.’ “

The Eliows are trying to raise bilingual children and frequently speak their native Dinka language together.

“I’d say they understand Dinka – but they speak English to us, too,” Agang said.

Tonight, there will be African food on their table.

“It’s tradition that the families bring their traditional food for a feast the day they move in,” said Courtney Susemiehl, development director for Habitat for Humanity.

Agang planned to make a lamb stew with onions and potatoes and bake traditional African flat breads.

“African food is spicy – it’ll be good food,” she said.

The family hopes to remain in Spokane.

“You have a house, why would you go somewhere else?” Georges Eliow said.

“God bless the people who work here; they show up and do the job. In my country, they don’t.”