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Guyana: Deo and Shari Outar
May 15, 2005

Shari and Deo Outar moved from Guyana, in South America, to Minnesota in 1987. (MPR Photo/Curtis Gilbert)

Maplewood, Minn. — Shari Outar, 54, and her husband Deo, 56, came to Minnesota from Guyana in 1987 and live in Maplewood. Shari's two sisters, her brother and her father live in Minnesota.

She also has a sister who lives in New Jersey, and another, who is a legal resident of the U.S., but lives in Guyana. Deo has a brother in New York, two sisters in the United Kingdom and two sisters in Guyana.

The Outars are of East Indian decent, and Deo is a practicing Hindu. On Sundays he worships at Shri Gaayatri Mandir, a temple founded by Guyanese Hindus that occupies an unassuming one-story wood building in North Minneapolis.

Deo works as an auditor for the state of Minnesota and Shari is a nurse. Even though they had good jobs in Guyana (Deo was the controller of the Guyana Gold Board), the overall economy was bad, and the crime rate was, too. They were worried about being robbed or worse, and they had grates over the windows of their house.

Shari had family who lived in Minnesota, and so they decided to move to the United States. They lived with her parents until they were able to find an apartment nearby, and all told it took them two years to get on their feet.

They were both chartered accountants back home, but most U.S. companies didn't recognize their credentials. Deo studied to become a CPA, and Shari worked as a bookkeeper and then got her nursing degree.

They have prospered in the U.S., and Shari can't imagine ever going back to Guyana. Deo gets homesick sometimes and dreams of moving back there when he retires. He misses being around his own people, the relaxed lifestyle and cricket.