By Peter Smith
The Courier-Journal

March 28, 2006 (Louisville, Kentucky) - Nianchock Dhel waited six years for this moment.
Six years of wondering whether her husband was still alive, then of keeping in touch with him from the other side of the world.

Six years of a refugee journey with her six children through Cairo to Louisville, where she learned some English and earned enough money to buy a home.

Last night, wearing a saffron and maroon dress and holding a bouquet, she waited at Louisville International Airport to greet her husband. He had disappeared amid political turmoil in Sudan and was arriving from Egypt via Chicago.

But as her husband approached, wearing a dark suit and a bright grin, Dhel had to wait a little longer.

That's because their excited daughters surged a few feet ahead of the security boundary to greet their father, Nywot Kat, with embraces, tears and balloons as a security officer gently prodded them backward.

"Papa!" shouted his oldest daughter, 22-year-old Akwal Kat.

"I don't know how to express my feelings," she said moments later. "I feel good!"

Dhel was right behind her daughters to embrace Nywot Kat, who then found himself greeting a cluster of well-wishers who helped his family adjust over the years as refugees.

"I didn't know I would come here and find everybody," Kat said in his native Dinka as his 14-year-old son, Lal, translated. "I feel welcome here."

He said he couldn't sleep at all on his flight from Egypt, and he thanked Kentucky Refugee Ministries for taking care of his family for so long.

One of the first things family members will do is catch up on the harrowing journeys they have taken since 2000. They planned a traditional Sudanese dinner of mutton, bread, rice and other dishes at their neatly decorated one-story home in southwestern Louisville.

Earlier in the day, family members busily cleaned the home as the aroma of spices wafted through the air. "I'm very happy," Dhel said.

Six years ago, the family was living in Khartoum, the capital of war-torn Sudan. Kat worked for the government distributing aid to the needy, but ran into trouble with the government and had to flee, Dhel said.

Because they have been apart ever since, the family doesn't know the full story, and a weary Nywot Kat said he couldn't tell a reporter the whole story on his first night in America.

But for a long time, the family didn't know if he was alive. Dhel took their six children to Cairo, where they lived until they received permission to come to the United States as refugees in 2003. The children now range in age from 9 to 22.

They came to Louisville where they had relatives, and members of Anchorage Presbyterian Church helped them. Dhel and her oldest daughter now work for a manufacturing firm in Jeffersonville, while the others still are in school.

Last year, she learned from a relative that her husband was alive and healthy. They since spoke by phone several times, but yesterday was the first time they had seen each other in six years -- and it was Kat's first meeting with a 1-year-old granddaughter, Akuat.

Lal was eager to get to know his father.

"I've seen a lot of kids having fun with their dads," he said. "I never had a chance to do that with mine. Now's my chance."

Sudan has been torn by two decades of civil war that has killed or displaced millions of people. About 300 Sudanese refugees have settled in Louisville, according to Kentucky Refugee Ministries and Catholic Charities.

Many refugees, like Kat and his family, are from the Dinka tribe, located mainly but not exclusively in the south. Government-backed forces fought a two-decade civil war with the Dinkas and others in the south until both sides signed a peace agreement last year.

Nina McMahon, a volunteer with Kentucky Refugee Ministries and a member of the Anchorage church, said Dhel arrived here with "absolutely nothing except this desire to improve. I cannot imagine the courage to get on an airplane and move to the other side of the world."