Welcome to strangers.

From KCW and Radiotopia, I'm Leah Tao.

And 12 and a half years ago, Mark and Maribeth Redmond in Vermont signed up to be hosts

for a Somali refugee family for just one week.

The idea was that the arriving refugees would be placed with American families for eight days or so to ease their transition.

Mark and Maribeth went to the airport in Burlington with the refugee coordinator when the Arbo family that they were to host was arriving.

I remember I naively said, so do they know that they're coming to Vermont?

She was laughed.

She was like, no.

When they land at Kennedy Airport, some are going to Tennessee, some are going to California,

some are going to Michigan, and these are going to Vermont. Some are going to California. Some are going to Michigan.

And these are going to Vermont. So I remember it like, wow, this is really going to be a surprise.

This was August. Like, in a few months, it's going to be really cold here.

I remember seeing Zahara get off the plane with the little kids and they were all, you know, dressed in the refugee white t-shirt and blue shorts.

Like it was a certain uniform that identified them as folks coming from a refugee camp.

And they just looked exhausted.

And just to see this mother coming alone with five young children,

one three, five, seven, and nine years of age, to me was the most heroic, courageous thing.

I was so struck by how little they carried.

It was like a little handbag to start a new life.

It was a very, very moving sight.

Meanwhile, Zahara had no idea that there would be an American family there to greet them

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