{"id":11281,"date":"2017-09-25T08:53:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T12:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/?p=11281"},"modified":"2023-11-08T16:28:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T21:28:14","slug":"balla-kamara-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Struggles of Balla Kamara"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bicycle-storage\"<\/p>\n

This is one of a series of stories we are sharing to show what\u2019s inside CubeSmart. You not only get a peek inside our customer\u2019s storage unit, but also a peek inside what is important to them. Thank you to Balla Kamara, customer of our CubeSmart store in Washington, D.C.<\/a>, \u00a0for sharing his story with us.<\/em><\/p>\n

Balla Kamara arrived in the United States in 2003 as a war refugee, one of about a million people uprooted by the 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

He was one of 13 family members \u2014 three brothers, four sisters and nephews and nieces \u2014 to leave that country for Silver Springs, Maryland, at the invitation of his sister who was already a U.S. resident.<\/p>\n

Balla, who is now 26, was about 12 years old at the time they took flight. He said he remembers waiting at the airport for departure for six hours. He struggled to get accustomed to the food here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t like the pizza or the chicken when I first came here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Balla said an aunt and an uncle were killed by rebels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were really nice to me,\u201d he said of the couple. \u201cThey were living in the villages when the rebels attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balla said he has not completely healed from the trauma he faced in his youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up I kept thinking about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI had the flashbacks. I get paranoid about what happened. I was shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balla finds work through a temporary agency, most recently landing a job setting up for conferences at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.<\/p>\n

He couldn\u2019t afford his apartment so Balla ended up in a shelter for a while before staying at various friends\u2019 houses. \u201cSometimes I camp out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At the time he shared his story with us during a visit to our store at 645 Taylor St. NE in Washington, D.C.<\/a>, Balla was preparing to move into a government-assistance apartment the following week.<\/p>\n

Balla\u2019s passion is bicycles. He enjoys repairing them. He keeps an electric bike, a beach cruiser, a road bike and a mountain bike \u2014 along with clothes \u2014 at our store.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like working on bikes,\u201d he said. \u201cNot cars. Too much oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was working, Balla would send money back to relatives in Sierra Leone. His mother died of natural causes there. His father lived in the U.S. for a while but returned to the African nation. Much of his family in the U.S. now live in Laurel, Maryland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep thinking it\u2019s my responsibility,\u201d he said of his family\u2019s suffering in Sierra Leone. \u201cI just tell myself now I got to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of a series of stories we are sharing to show what\u2019s inside CubeSmart. You not only get a peek inside our customer\u2019s storage unit, but also a peek inside what is important to them. Thank you to Balla Kamara, customer of our CubeSmart store in Washington, D.C., \u00a0for sharing his story with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":23811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1938,648],"tags":[691,743,742,21,722],"class_list":["post-11281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-life","category-dc","tag-customer-stories","tag-dc-storage","tag-dc-stories","tag-family","tag-storage-stories"],"yoast_head":"\r\nInside the Struggle of Balla Kamara | The Storage Space<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Take a look as we explore what's inside the units and stories of our Customers. Balla has survived war-torn Sierra Leone, loss of family, and loss of home. He finds happiness in his bicycles.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inside the Struggle of Balla Kamara | The Storage Space\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Take a look as we explore what's inside the units and stories of our Customers. Balla has survived war-torn Sierra Leone, loss of family, and loss of home. He finds happiness in his bicycles.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Storage Space\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-25T12:53:30+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-08T21:28:14+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rsz_balla-web-800x600-1.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Storage Queens\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cubesmart\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cubesmart\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Storage Queens\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/\",\"name\":\"Inside the Struggle of Balla Kamara | The Storage Space\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rsz_balla-web-800x600-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-25T12:53:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-08T21:28:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67d25c3d5286e06e72d026d46688b9d5\"},\"description\":\"Take a look as we explore what's inside the units and stories of our Customers. Balla has survived war-torn Sierra Leone, loss of family, and loss of home. He finds happiness in his bicycles.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rsz_balla-web-800x600-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rsz_balla-web-800x600-1.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Storage Space\",\"description\":\"CubeSmart Self Storage Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67d25c3d5286e06e72d026d46688b9d5\",\"name\":\"The Storage Queens\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56009031a311978c84919342ca72f708?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56009031a311978c84919342ca72f708?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The Storage Queens\"},\"description\":\"We know a thing or two about moving. Together, we share the best tips in organizing, storage, navigating your city, and more!\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/about-us\/\"]}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Inside the Struggle of Balla Kamara | The Storage Space","description":"Take a look as we explore what's inside the units and stories of our Customers. Balla has survived war-torn Sierra Leone, loss of family, and loss of home. He finds happiness in his bicycles.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Inside the Struggle of Balla Kamara | The Storage Space","og_description":"Take a look as we explore what's inside the units and stories of our Customers. Balla has survived war-torn Sierra Leone, loss of family, and loss of home. He finds happiness in his bicycles.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/","og_site_name":"The Storage Space","article_published_time":"2017-09-25T12:53:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-08T21:28:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rsz_balla-web-800x600-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"The Storage Queens","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cubesmart","twitter_site":"@cubesmart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Storage Queens","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/","url":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/","name":"Inside the Struggle of Balla Kamara | The Storage Space","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rsz_balla-web-800x600-1.jpg","datePublished":"2017-09-25T12:53:30+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-08T21:28:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67d25c3d5286e06e72d026d46688b9d5"},"description":"Take a look as we explore what's inside the units and stories of our Customers. Balla has survived war-torn Sierra Leone, loss of family, and loss of home. He finds happiness in his bicycles.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/city-guides\/dc\/balla-kamara-struggles\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rsz_balla-web-800x600-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rsz_balla-web-800x600-1.jpg","width":800,"height":600},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/","name":"The Storage Space","description":"CubeSmart Self Storage Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67d25c3d5286e06e72d026d46688b9d5","name":"The Storage Queens","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56009031a311978c84919342ca72f708?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56009031a311978c84919342ca72f708?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"The Storage Queens"},"description":"We know a thing or two about moving. Together, we share the best tips in organizing, storage, navigating your city, and more!","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/about-us\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23812,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11281\/revisions\/23812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cubesmart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}