Читать книгу Immigration Stories from Upstate New York High Schools - Группа авторов - Страница 19
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Muna Ismael
Born: Mogadishu, Somalia
Current City: Buffalo, NY
“I remember when I was five years old my mom used to tell us to go under our bed and cover our ears because of the gun.”
I was born in Somali, Mogadishu. I remember when I was five years old my mom used to tell us to go under our bed and cover our ears because of the gun. There were guns everywhere. We didn’t leave Somali. My dad left Somalia to find a better place to live. My dad traveled around and finally find it—a small village in Ethiopia. Then we moved there, but my mom and brother stayed in the capital city of Somaliland in Somalia called Hargeisa. My other siblings and I went back to a small village in Ethiopia called Aw Barre.
When I was eight years old, I came to Ethiopia. I didn’t know anyone except one of my dad’s friends who lived with her aunt. We stayed with her until we found a house to live in. We found a house that someone used to live in, and we moved to the house. We lived there until we came to the United States. We lived there for four and a half years.
It was good until one day when my dad’s friend told us to go to school. My little sister went to a small school, and I went to a big school. I got to wear a uniform, and you have to have books to be in that school, but we didn’t have enough money to pay, so I just stayed home until my dad found work. Once my dad found work, I got to go to school. The school was a big school, and it had a lot of people. It was good, but I still didn’t understand the language. It was hard for me to learn the language. One day my brother and my mom came to the small village. My brother also started school, but he was above me; he was older than me. He was in fifth grade, and I was in fourth grade.
In Ethiopia, my life was better than living in Somalia. I didn’t used to go outside—I just had to stay inside and go under the bed to hide all day. But in the small village we lived in Ethiopia, we had a farm. We shared the farm with my mom’s and dad’s friend. We had enough food to eat. We planted cabbages, carrots, onions, and other things. We also had a cute animal, a sheep, that used to live with us. The sheep didn’t have a name. I also used to go in the woods and collected some trees and make a fire to cook rice and tea in the morning. I used to give my sister some food so she can take to school in the morning. My little sister was born in the small village. My little sister’s name is Suad.
In 2012, I found out that we were going to the United States. We didn’t know the specific state. Then my brother went to play soccer, and he cracked his leg. He was seventeen years old, so we stayed back in Ethiopia for a few years until he healed his leg. When he healed his leg in 2014, we found out that we’re going to the United States. We waited a year, and then on September 25th, 2015 we came to the United States, to Buffalo, New York. We celebrated. We made a lot of food. We even killed the sheep and then made food from the sheep. A lot people came to celebrate. They brought some clothes and other stuff for us. We packed our stuff—we had a lot of clothes to bring to the US.
In my journey on the plane, I didn’t know how to speak English. We didn’t have other Somalis with us—we were the only Somali people on the plane that took us from Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, to New York City. The plane didn’t work when we got to New York City, so we stayed for two days. Then we got onto a new plane, and the plane went to Canada then to Buffalo. Nobody waited for us except for the two caseworkers. We were a big family—it was me, my mom, my dad, my two sisters, and my three brothers. One of my sisters came six months before us. She made us food, cleaned the house, and made things for us. We stayed there at the house with her.
There was a big table, and there was a lot of food on it. That was surprising because I didn’t know it’s going to be there. There were rooms. Our room was already made up, and we just sleep there. We have four rooms, and we can share them. We used to have handmade bed, and here we have some “other stuff-made” beds. In Ethiopia, the bed was stuck on the ground, but here you can move it wherever you want. The walls are different…the houses are different…everything is different.
In my first week in the United States, we went to the hospital because we had to take the flu shot. We met some other Somali and then we did something good—we talked. We speak Somali, and they told us how Buffalo has cold weather. We came in the fall; the leaves on the trees were falling. They told us how Buffalo is cold. You have to wear big boots—shoes—and you have to wear a jacket before you go to school. They told us to wear clothing. In Ethiopia we used to wear something and then go our way.
I started Lafayette High School in eighth grade in 2015. It was hard, but I saw a lot of different people who still didn’t speak English, but now they’ve learned. I stayed in Lafayette for almost five years. I’m now a senior and will graduate. My favorite subject is biology. I like biology because there’s more things to learn about human life and generations. I also like English because English is my second language, and I can speak to whoever speaks English. To whoever who doesn’t understand, they still can learn English. English is a big language that the world speaks.
I’m a sportsperson. I enjoy playing sports on the weekend. I like basketball, soccer, and volleyball. I enjoy playing basketball with a friend on the weekend. I play every sport in Lafayette. I’m bowling this year, and it’s fun playing. It’s fun trying new things. With bowling, there are special shoes…special balls even. You just use your hand, and then you play. You throw it, and then you get a point. I’m learning, but I’m doing great! There are teachers who teach bowling. Lafayette teachers are the best.
In my life, I didn’t have a lot of friends. I only had one friend, and she became my best friend. Now she lives in Washington. She was my best friend growing up. I met her in Ethiopia, in the village that we used to live in. Her mom was not rich, but we had things to do, and we used to go to the same school. We talked every day. She told me how she wanted to come to Buffalo. We haven’t seen each other since 2015. I met a lot of friends in Buffalo, and I have friends now, who are amazing friends. And I have best friends too.
In the future, I want to go to college and study physical therapy. I want to help people. I like that because it is a simple thing. It takes eight years to be a physical therapist, and I just want to be that and help people who live in Somalia. I am looking at college applications. I already got accepted from ECC, Erie Community College, which is in downtown Buffalo, and I’m looking forward to going there. Someday I’m going to Minnesota. I haven’t been to Minnesota. I hear there’s a lot of Somali there…I like that…. one day I will go.
