“The school, the weather, the food, the people, the culture, the lifestyle, everything is so different,” said senior Nasteho Mohammed, who came to Iowa from her native Ethiopia in 2015.

While Mohammed brings her experience growing up in East Africa to Marshalltown, her friend and fellow senior Hay Htu brings her experience from Southeast Asia, specifically Myanmar.

Like Mohammed, Htu said the differences between classes in her home country and Marshalltown are as wide as the oceans that separate the countries.

“Here, students move every period, they go to their next class. In my country, the student just stays in one class(room) and the teachers are the ones that are moving,” Htu said.

That difference proved difficult for her to get used to when she arrived in Marshalltown a little more than two years ago. She said it was a strange concept to move from one room to another throughout the day.

Another difference Htu saw was that teachers are kinder to students and that students aren’t made to memorize every single thing they learn in class. Instead, she said students’ opinions are listened to and valued more than in Myanmar.

Mohammed said she also noticed a major difference.

“In Ethiopia, you can go to school if you want to and if you don’t want to, you can stay at home,” she said. “But here, it’s like everyone goes to school.”

Both girls said another difficulty was overcoming language gaps.

“When I first came to this school, I didn’t really know anyone, it was hard to make friends because of my language … it was lonely,” Mohammed said. “After like a month, I met my friends … and I have a lot of friends from different countries.”

Htu said she didn’t have a good grasp on English when she came to Marshalltown either. However, she picked up the language quickly and found out through her friends that the school provided counselors to help with class scheduling and navigating the school.

The students said they have come to feel welcomed in Marshalltown. Like many Americans of all backgrounds, both girls have immigration in their family history.

Both of Mohammed’s parents are originally from the neighboring country of Somalia. They moved to a refugee camp in Ethiopia and that’s where Mohammed grew up.

“I just call myself, like, Somali-Ethiopian,” she said with a smile.

Htu said either two or three generations ago, her ancestors moved from their native China across the border into Myanmar, formerly Burma. Her mother also lived in Malaysia for some time before moving to the U.S. and becoming a naturalized citizen.

The girls from different parts of the world both converged on the same high school in the same small Iowa town and became friends. They are two examples of the many Bobcats from other nations who now call Marshalltown home.

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Contact Adam Sodders at

(641) 753-6611 or asodders@timesrepublican.com