Abdi Hussein sits in a cramped classroom full of old metal chairs that clank and scrape the faded tile floor.
Here he learns English idioms like “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
It’s a long way from Somalia, where Hussein struggled to find food and lived in constant fear of being dragged into the country’s ongoing civil war.
“There’s horrible things,” Hussein says. “People kill each other. That’s why we get help to get in here. People call us the refugee.”
Hussein lives in a growing Somali community in Buffalo - where inexpensive housing has proven fertile ground for ethnic neighborhoods made up largely of refugees.
The West Side Bazaar is cash only kind of place, with a handful of tabletop storefronts where refugees peddle homemade goods and services.
The store’s owners – a small non-profit – hope their flea market approach will be a spring board for some merchants to get their own stand alone shops.
