Belinda’s Story Continued

            Once we arrived in America, we thought everything would be perfect; we could not be more wrong. We did not realize the adversity journey we would go through to be settled in America.

When we first arrived at the airport, we were greeted by World Relief staff. They helped get our luggage; from there we were off to our new apartment – or so we thought. The first few nights we had to stay in a hotel because they could not find us an apartment. The staff explained that it is sometimes hard to find a landlord who will accept refugees – they do not have social security numbers, or have any background information on them. Within a couple days we were moving into a new apartment that we could call home.

The staff, and volunteers from World Relief showed us around the new apartment; taught us how to use the stove, lights, and how to lock the doors. From there they helped us cook our first meal in our new home. Over the course of the meal we discussed what would have to happen in the following days, and months. I would have to get enrolled into school, and my parents had to start job club. Job Club, as the explain, was a service to help them build job skills, like their resume, and interviewing. They would also have to be enrolled into a language class that was taught at Fox Valley Technical College. We were all excited to start our new rolls.

Once I began school, I realized that this would be much harder than I expected. The school system here was completely different than my home country, or even at the refugee camp. Due to this, I had to take special classes to help me catch up to my other classmates. I also had to take an extra language class, so that I could properly communicate with my teachers, and classmates. I also found at first that it was difficult to make friends at my new school because of my language barrier; but the more English I learned the easier it became to make friends at my school.

As I was in school, my parents attended Job Club, and their language classes. Since my mother had cleaned houses before, she easily found a job as maid in a popular hotel in Oshkosh. My mother loved her new job, and found it very simple.

The more my mother and I quickly adjusted to our new surroundings, the angrier he became because he could not find work and found learning English was very difficult for him. My father felt like he had failed my mother and I, since he was not the main provider for us anymore. This was a great blow to his self-esteem. Lucky for us, we soon found other refugees in the area through the help of World Relief. This feeling of community again help my dad realize that it was okay to take a little longer to find work. Also, one of the community workers helped him with his English and found him a job as teaching our native language to American students at the Technical College.

Though the journey it took us to get to America, and settled into our new home, we would have not been able to do it without the help World Relief provided us with. Through all the setbacks, and successes we went through they were there to help us. In two more years my family and I can apply to become U.S. citizens, and World Relief will be there to help us once again.

*For more information about Job Club, go to http://foxvalleyjobcenters.com/locations/oshkosh/