Believing That You Can
I came to the United States in November, 2010 seeking
a better life with my new husband. I have been here for
almost two years. Before I came to America, I knew it is a
very big and a rich country compared to Haiti. I also knew
that it is the best country in the world because it gives lots
of opportunities to the people for their education. After I
spent some time here, my views and thoughts have changed.
Now I see America has high unemployment rate like other
countries. After I came here, I had to face many problems.
The major problem was I missed my eldest daughter who
was in Haiti. I thought of her all the time. It was very
difficult for me to understand English, so I could not
communicate with the people. For the first time, in my life,
I was unemployed and it was very stressful. I like America
because I can use electricity 24 hours a day, not like in
Haiti. America has many schools and universities with the
best education. The streets are clean and there are many
beautiful places to visit. If I can change anything to have a
better life in America, I would make French as a primary
language. Then I could speak much easier. I would also
make the laws to accept all the transcripts from other
countries and then we can find jobs easily. I would also
decrease the taxes for everything such as property taxes.
However, I miss my daughter, my family, my friends and
my job in Haiti. Most of all, I miss the beautiful beaches I
used to visit regularly in Haiti.
Jeanne Bredy is an ESOL student. Her teacher is Renuka Karunaratne.
Life in Cuba
I’m from Cuba, a communist country controlled by a
dictator and murderer named Fidel Castro. In order to
understand the difference let’s start with the characteristics
of the political system that controlled my country for more
than forty years. In my country people don’t have human
rights; you can’t have any initiative or any opinion, unless it
coincides with the governmental agenda. It doesn’t matter
how hard you work or how good your idea or initiative can
be. You never can use or put it to work, because everything
is controlled by the government. Here in the United States,
even before knowing the language, I started working by