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Nina Medjibe
Ms. Jennings
English 111-119
28 April 2014
My Personal Experience
The struggle for success constitutes a daily challenge for people in need. As a daughter of
a big family in Central African Republic (C.A.R), I always dreamed of a good education so that I
could be able to a get better job and take care of my family. But I realized that success requires a
lot of courage, sacrifice, and determination. Some specific examples will explain my experience
from where I came from to who I am today. It is based on my personal experience from what had
happened to us on our journey from CAR to Cameroun in order to get the visa for the USA. It
describes how determined I was to get my visa and to come to US, in addition, it provides more
clarification to how my life had changed since I arrived as an immigrant in USA. Living in the
USA has made me become a stronger person than I have ever thought I could be. And on top of
that, it makes me capable of defending myself when faced with any kind of situation. This is like
eyes open for me on the many things that I did not know before, for example, cultural
differences, foods from different countries around the world, gender equality, and finally the way
people think and interact with one another in this country.
I am from Central African Republic (CAR), and I was born in a big family with one older
sister and four little sisters. I finished my education in CAR and got a job as a high school
teacher, which I loved. As a technician in social and family economics, I taught the discipline for
two years in private and public schools in Bangui (capital of CAR). In my family, I am the first
to go to college, and at age twenty-seven I got married to my current husband who is working at
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Duke University in Durham North Carolina as a Post-Doctorate Associate. Before he got that
job, he got a job with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Republic of Congo, where I
joined him, and I got also a part-time job with the conservation project. My duty was to control
field research data entered previously by a data entry person. The work consisted of using the
Excel spreadsheet and the field data sheet and check for any mistake. I corrected those mistakes
accordingly so that the data corresponded to what was recorded on the field data sheet. That job
helped me to understand how to use an Excel program and also how to manipulate large research
data set.
Three years later, my husband got admitted to the University of Florida in Gainesville,
Florida, for his Ph.D., which was a five to seven years program. We decided to go together to the
USA because it would be a long period of time to be far away from each other. As we knew,
traveling from my country to the USA was not an easy task, mostly for people who come from a
big and poor family. Luckily enough, my husband got all the paperwork required for the
clearance VISA for the US that allowed me to go with him.
The price of getting the visa for the USA was very high, however, I went to the US
Embassy in CAR to apply for my visa, and the US Consul in CAR said to me, Sorry maam, we
do not deliver the visa here anymore. You have to go to the US Consulate in Cameroun to apply
for it. I thanked him and left. I called the USA Embassy in Cameroun the following day and
made an appointment for my visa. They sent me a web link where I filled out the application
forms online and also made appointment for the visa interview. It was in early November 2008,
that we left Bangui the capital of our country to go to Yaound the capital of Cameroun for the
visa. The first trips day went well and was enjoyable because we were on a nice bus and the
road condition was great. Then, after four hundred and fifty kilometers (two hundred seventy
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nine miles) from Bangui, finding buses or any kind of transportation became very difficult.
Suddenly, a Toyota truck came from no where and the driver said, We are going to Beloko, who
want to go? Beloko is a city at the border of Cameroun and CAR. That was the second day of
the trip that was going so far smoothly and fine. Three hours after we left, two motorcycles with
two men on each speeded up in front of the truck, and then disappeared. Half-hour later, we were
under gang men attack. There were four of them, wearing military uniforms, and their faces were
covered so that nobody would recognize them with machine guns in their hands. Everybody
jumped out of the truck and ran in different ways, and hid in the forest. My husband ran in a
different direction than I did. I lost everything that I carried with me except the visa document.
The gang men asked for money, but I do not know if they got any. I ran through the forest and
stayed in the nearest village without knowing anything about my husband. A few hours later, a
big truck came, and I asked the driver if he could take me to Beloko, and he accepted. Once we
were on our way to Beloko, I saw my husband running, and I asked the truck driver to stop and
pick him up. Nevertheless, we arrived on time for my visa appointment, and I got it without any
problem. One week later, we got back to Bangui to prepare our trip to the US.
I left my country on 31 December 2008, while everyone was celebrating the New Year
Eve to go to USA, where I would to spend five, six, or more years, who knows? Although, I have
been in other Africa countries (Republic of Congo, Gabon, and Cameroon), the trip to the USA
was my first time to travel overseas. I was so excited when I knew that I was going to the USA,
it was like a dream come true. But meeting with new people, living in a new environment with
different cultures, and speaking a different language were challenging for me.
I arrived in US on January 1
st
of 2009, in Jacksonvilles airport in Florida. It was in
winter, and I could not stand the cold that day because this was the first time for me to
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experience that kind of weather. In our country, we have only two seasons (dry season and rain
season, six months each). When I arrived in the US, I did not speak any English at that time, I
just knew few words like Good morning, how are you? I am fine. That was it. I studied
English in high school and university, but just as a subject. I was not interested in speaking it.
During the daytime, when my husband left for school, I found myself alone in the house, and I
was afraid to go outside for the reason that if someone talked to me I would not understand and
would not know what to say. Then, I asked my husband to search for an English as a Second
Language (ESL) class for me to attend. As soon as he found it, I started my ESL class offered by
the University of Florida. I studied hard, watched TV to practice my pronunciation, read any
newspaper I found, and asked questions to people even though my English was not good.
Students (mostly foreigners) in the ESL class spoke different languages, and the only
communication language for us is English, so I had to speak English. I even met friends from
Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, etc.), but they spoke only English and their dialect language. I had a goal
when I was coming to US, which was to get into college to earn a degree and be able to get a
better job one day. I am currently attending Durham Technical Community College enrolling in
Registered Nursing program. I am so happy that one of my goals has been honored, but this is
not the end I will keep going until I have achieved my objective.
Besides the language, I also encountered good things in the US. For example, I see most
women are very independent, many of them do the same job that a man does (like driving a bus
or taxi) because they say, What men can do, women can do. In contrast, women in my country
think that driving a bus or taxi is a mans job, and most of them depend on their husband. My
experience in US allowed me to be capable of making decisions in my family, to have my
drivers license, and I can drive anywhere I want to go, something that I have never done before
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even in my country. Then, I also learned that people in the US are very friendly and social; they
like to spend time with their friends in their free time, and are always ready to help others. There
are many opportunities of being successful in life, but the key is just to work hard, never give up
no matter what kind of difficulty. The reason that I decided to get a better education is because
with my degree I could find a better job that would help me to share the expenses of my house
and to help my parents.
In short, I know that life does not always work the way I want it to. But being a hard
worker, I have surpassed any kind of difficulty that I encountered in my life. Becoming who I am
today demands lots of efforts, courage, and sacrifice. Sometimes, I wanted to give up everything
and go back home, but I did not, because I decided to never abandon my education: I have to
finish what I have started. I am raising my voice to tell my fellow sisters in the world,
particularly from CAR, to be brave and strong in life no matter what. After all, they will be
happy and independent one day in their life.