A few months ago, Bislim and Gani Veseli lost their identification papers -- and nearly lost their lives -- as they fled Kosovo for safety.
Yesterday, far from their homeland, the brothers began to rebuild those identities in Baltimore.
Clutching new U.S. Social Security cards, they applied for food stamps at the Department of Social Services on North Broadway and learned how to use their food stamp benefit cards.
For the families -- the brothers and their wives have 11 children between them -- who arrived a week ago with a few suitcases and a load of fears, it was the first of many steps they must make in America.
"The first month, just to survive is good," said Gani Veseli, 40, a textile worker from the village of Alastice in southwestern Kosovo.
Sighing and looking down at his rough hands, he said through an interpreter, "We want to go home and repair what we can and rebuild the same kind of life we had before."
The Veselis are the latest in a tiny cluster of Kosovar refugees to settle in the Baltimore region and the second family to settle in the city.
They moved into a rowhouse near Patterson Park with the help of their sponsor, Lutheran Social Services, a national agency that provides everything from temporary rent to beds and sheets.
In addition, a handful of private citizens are helping the families with food, clothes and fans as summer heat settles in.
Unlike many refugees, the Veselis do not have an official local sponsor -- usually a religious group -- that can help with the small essentials and help introduce them to the city.
As a result, aside from a quick walk to Patterson Park to allow their children to play and brief drives for appointments for the adults, they have barely left their five-room home for fear of getting lost.
So, while Lutheran Social Services ensures that they have medical benefits and job training, they spent much of their first days in America enduring a heat wave, waiting for their next appointment and watching images of their homeland through the static on a television set.
"What they really need," said Dominic Wani, the sponsor's liaison, "is another sponsor who can help them with all the little things."
Arsim Cejku, a Baltimore resident originally from Albania who is helping the family, said, "They are more confused than anything, but they don't complain."
