A Travel Story by Megertu Boke

A Travel Story

by Megertu Boke

Almost everyone wants to travel to different countries.  But not everyone travels, because some people don’t have money to travel.  Some people travel for business, to visit family, and to move from their own country.  It doesn’t matter where you travel or who you travel with, there is always a story.  Maybe you have experienced traveling.

I have experience traveling to unusual places.  When I was in Africa I had to travel to a lot of different places, like to different countries, usually places to visit family.  First, when I was in Africa, I lived  in Djibouti.  I grew up and I was born in Djibouti.  So I went to Ethiopia to visit my family.  All my extended family is in Ethiopia.  

Every summer my family and I traveled.  We always traveled, because it is so horribly hot in Djibouti.  When we traveled to Ethiopia, we always visited many villages.  I always got scared of the people in the country side and of nomads.

Every time we visited the villages in Ethiopia the people in the countryside were nice, but there was a big problem.  The problem was when the countryside people saw a pretty girl they often kidnapped the very beautiful girls that were new in the town.  My mother had told me a story about a girl who was kidnapped.  They just saw her and did not know any thing about her.  They kidnapped her and they forced the girl to get married to someone who wanted her.  So I was so scared of the nice people in that village.  I told my mother, “I love you with all my heart.  But I did not want them to kidnap me."

My mother found out about our travel to the United States.  My aunt was our sponsor.  My mother talked with my aunt on the phone.  So my mother got off of the phone then she said “alhamdulilah”.  This means thanks to the God.  My mother was so joyful about this move to America.  My mother and my father wanted a better life in America for us.  They always wanted us to have a good education so we can have a lot of opportunities.

My aunt has been in the United States for 27 years.  She has been working on sponsoring us for ten years, so that we can come to the United States.  My aunt didn’t have any family in the US.  My aunt said, “You are the luckiest woman in this world”.  I really don’t know why it took her so long.  Maybe that is how much time it takes to bring one of your family to the United States.  

It takes so long, but it doesn’t matter how long it took because we finally came to the United States.  It took us a very, very long time.  We started to travel from Dire Dewa to New Orleans.  While we traveled it was very bad, because I don’t like to travel very far.  We took a bus from Dire Dewa to Addis Ababa and then we took the airplane.  When we reached the United States we got lost in the airport going to New Orleans.  We were so tried, hungry, sleepy, and frustrated.  All we wanted was to eat and sleep, because all of us had not been in this kind situation before.

When, we came to New Orleans we were so joyful.  My aunt cooked for us too many different foods.  It was on a big table.  All of us didn’t see that much food in Ethiopia.  So we were like “wow”, but we couldn’t talk because we were so hungry, so we just started to eat the food.

I was not expecting that American houses were very small just like in Africa.  I was so surprised by the life in America.  I never thought life would be easier in Africa.  In America everything is harder and harder.  Everything is just you and you.  First, you have to think of yourself and then the others.  There is no help from others here in America.  You will just help yourself, no-one will help you.  All of us were so confused about this new life.  We were so scared and we had a hard time learning English and everything else.  

Those are my experiences traveling from my own country to the United States.