Abdinasir Ali presents Somali Maxamed Ibraahim Warsame's poem Hooyo (Mother)

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Once Upon a Time by E. G.

        There is a young girl and her name is Jacky. She is a high school student.  She is kind of a shy person.  She loves everybody and she wants to be friendly with others but she is scared and it takes time to be with others.  She is from an uneducated family.  Her family can’t support her because they have no idea about education. They are just pushing her to learn because they want to see her become an educated person.  They want her to achieve her goals.

             She has a dream and she has a responsibility to do what her family wants her to do.  She wants to study medicine but there are many types of medical careers so she really does not know which one to choose.  She will go to college very soon.  She is worried about paying for her college and thinking who is going to pay for her because her mom doesn't have a job.  Her dream is to go to college and achieve her goals.  She trusts in God that her dream will be true.  She knows that there is a long trip with many stairs in front of her.  So she is thinking that she must climb the stairs without giving up and at the end, make her family proud of her.  She believes that gold must be tested by fire to know if it is real gold.  In the same way, life will test by many problems and difficult situations to know if you are strong.  If at first life is bitter to you don’t give up because it will be sweet at the end.  When you live life, without problems you will not be successful because success will only come after you fall.  

          Let me tell you one thing, everyone wants happiness, no one needs pain. But it is not possible to get a rainbow without a little rain..! That is life..! Her mom and her teachers make her strong and whatever happens to her she must stay focused and not give up not.

           There are two most important things in her life, her mom and her teachers. The one important person in the world is her mom because she feeds her love, pushing her to be educated, teaching her to be a good person for others and she gives her whatever she wants.  Her teachers are important for her because they are a candle in the darkness. Her mom and teachers care about her future and the both of them push her to be educated.

           Jacky really loves to be educated and a smart student.  She goes to school everyday, works very hard and she wants to finish her work on time because she has a dream.  She believes that the result of working very hard is getting a good grade. With a few weeks of school left before the close, she was trying to get her work done on time and suddenly she became sick.  She went to the hospital emergency room.

          Jacky stays four days in the hospital because she is sick.  On Thursday, when she comes back home from school she uses a computer.  She spends more time on the computer.  When she looks at the time it is around two o'clock but she has homework to do and also she has to sleep.  She has a dilemma, to sleep or to do her homework.  Finally, she decides to do her homework and sleep a little.  She gets a few hours sleep.  The next day she goes to school.  It is Friday.  She feels tired and sick.  On Saturday, she became very sick.  She got a high fever, back pain, and headache.  On Sunday, her pain is out of control and she went to hospital.  First, the doctor gives her glucose then they take her x-ray.  The doctor takes something liquid from her spinal cord to know if there is something that can cause a headache.  Also they take her blood for laboratory tests.  After that the doctor decides that she has to stay in hospital until they find out the cause of her illness. She stays three days at the hospital.  They are taking her blood twice a day for tests.  She is crying because it hurts.  After three days she is back to home. She quits school for more than a week and she misses a lot of things because of her illness.  After she gets out of the hospital she doesn’t go back for a check up because she just wants to focus on her education. Two weeks later her doctor sends her blood test results.

         She has some unexpected results from some blood tests.  The result is that her blood is not normal that she has two blood infections, one is called Hepatitis C and the other one is called Epstein-Barr virus.  So the doctor says she has to visit the clinic as soon as possible, otherwise she is going to be sick again.  After when she gets the letter, she decides to finish school first, then to make appointment to see the doctor.

But her paper is on time.

Why Elephants are Better Than Humans by Rustam Muharamov

Why are elephants better than people?  Even if they are not able to jump?  There are many reasons why elephants are better than people, but I will explain only a few. To begin, cupidity is almost the biggest problem of the people. Jealousy is the second thing that is no less important. And the last but not the least thing is what elephants don't have, selfishness. Did you know that elephants never lie to each other? And they are never greedy.

Greed will never make an elephant marry an old rich elephant just for his money. But no matter, I still think that the best animal for a pet is a chicken.  Even though elephants are very pretty, it is not enough to be the best pet. Maybe I could be wrong about greed. But I am confident about grudge(.

Jealousy also is not a trait of elephants. That’s why elephant are never jealous of each other. Did you see how some elephants envy other elephants?  Of course not because there is not many elephants in Minnesota.  Do you remember the last time when you saw an elephant?  However I know that you see chickens every time that you go to Target. Also elephants never are egoistic.

Selfishness is the thing that causes problems many times, when you think only about yourself. But of course elephants never feel selfish. Maybe because the brain of an  elephant is three times bigger than the brain of a human. Elephants never eat the last piece of a cake, when you have even not tasted it and they already ate three pieces. Furthermore, not only are elephants unselfish, they are very beautiful.

Just as I said elephants are very smart and beautiful creatures. They never cheat, lie or be greedy. Elephants never feel jealousy when they see how somebody is doing something better than them. Elephants will always give you a dollar if you very much need it. And if elephants have more food that they can eat, they will share with you. Respect elephants and be nice to them. And now for my favorite part.

Why chickens are better than elephants?  Maybe because they can jump, and even more some people think that chickens can fly. Chickens are even more beautiful and very clever animals. But people don’t think about it. They think that chickens are very stupid.  They think that the only thing that chickens can do is lay eggs. Once I saw a chicken that put to death (*WC) a cat just to preserve (*WC) her little kids. Elephants never kill a cat to defend their children. Also chickens have eight thousand feathers, however an elephant has no feathers at all. The best thing about chickens is that you can eat a chicken for a breakfast, lunch or dinner. However you can eat elephant only for dinner. 

Things are very difficult in this life, and people don’t have time for the problem of chickens and elephants. They only think about their selves.  No matter chickens or elephants, breakfast, lunch or dinner, and no matter who is better, the point is you spent two minutes of your life reading this. And you can never return that time. However now you know that elephants are the only non-jumping land mammal.  

Shelly and Chris by Melida Tigre

By way of context, this writing is a response to: The Story of Chris and Shelly

For purposes of debate and reason Shelly's gender, as a surprise, was never specified.

- Editor

Shelly and Chris

by Melida Tigre

Introduction

Chris was a student of business at the University of Minnesota and Shelly was waiting tables in a restaurant.  So they met when Chris went to eat in that restaurant and they fell in love. Shelly was an artist and that was why Chris fell in love.  His drawings were so good and interesting they impressed Chris.  But Chris and Shelly did not have equal human rights.

Human Rights

I think they should change the law because they should have human rights and they know who they know want to be.  Both of them are adults and they just want to be happy with the person they want. We have to respect others feelings because only God can judge us by who we are. We can’t change their feelings about a person because love changes a person and it doesn’t care about what people say.  Every person deserves civil rights and our respect and we should give them all the support that they need. They be should married because we can judge if this is a true and honest love. The people will understand one day that it doesn’t matter who you marry and that it only matters if that person is happy with the other person. People should have human rights but also have to be responsible.

Responsibility

I didn’t change my principles when I thought about Shelly being a gay man because they are free to do what ever they want.  However their family doesn’t agree. They are adults and they have to be responsible for the decisions they make.  They are not kids and they also have human rights.  We can’t  judge them because no one is perfect in this world.  Everybody can make mistakes.  I think it is not important if you are from a different social class or if you have money or not.  It matters what do you feel about that person.  If your love is true, it can change a bad person to a good person. Chris should not be worried about his family so much because one day they will accept that he is gay and that it doesn’t matter that he is gay and that they can’t judge him because he’s their son. They should accept him because he is going to die early.  Shelly and Chris deserve to be treated well and given respect because they are nice persons. Some people will say they are bad, however they are just in love.  They are responsible and they should work hard to have more money.

Money

I think that Shelly should not be homeless because he really loves Chris. Chris should give Shelly all his money because he is poor and he is not a bad person.  Shelly doesn’t care about money, he cares more about Chris than the money.  Money doesn’t give you happiness, it just gives you more things but not love.  You can’t buy love with money.  Chris’ uncle only cares about money. He doesn’t care about Chris’ health and he also doesn’t care if Chris is going to die. Chris’ uncle believes that he is powerful and that Shelly just wants to keep Chris money when he dies.  Chris’ uncle is a mean guy.  He discriminates against Shelly because he is not from the same social class and he doesn’t have money.  That’s why I think Shelly should not be homeless with no money. Shelly doesn’t want Chris money.  He just wants the freedom to be happy with the person he loves.

Freedom

Chris’ rights are that he can do everything that he wants because he is free. He also can marry the person he wants.  It doesn’t matter the type of sex.  What matters only is his choice. Chris is a responsible man and knows what he is doing.  Chris and Shelly deserve to be happy because both of them are in love and they want to happy and live their love. Our family is also important in our life because they love us and appreciate us. They know us really well because we grow up with them.  I think that our parents just want to protect us from the bad things and from mean people. They care a lot of us.  That’s why I think that Chris’ family is worried.  They never expected that Chris was gay, maybe because they wanted to be grandparents.  Even when Chris got sick they still did not accept that he is gay, but deep in their heart I think that they love Chris.  Chris’ parents don’t like Shelly, however Chris does not care about what the family said to him. For some parents it is not easy to accept that their sons are gay.  Although they will have to accept it one day.  They both are adults and they have the freedom to make their own decisions.

Decisions

I think that we have to make our own decisions and listen to our hearts, not to any one else because we are free to make our own decisions. Chris should think really well what he is going to do when he makes a decision.  Shelly and Chris should listen to their hearts and do not give up their love. Although Chris and Shelly should care more about their love than what people say, some people are not going to tolerate them.  Shelly and Chris made their own decisions and their choice was to marry.

Choice

Some people are born gay.  However, some 0f them choose to be gay. But some of them have a past with a bad situation that makes them gay.  I have a friend that is gay and some people discriminate against him just because he is gay. They don’t know what he did in his past life and that he didn’t choose to be gay.  His life was very sad and he has experienced many terrible things.  That’s why I think that some of them choose what they feel is better for them. Their family should accept their choice and respect their life as the family that they are.

Respect

All people deserve respect.  There will be no peace in the world until this happens.  It doesn’t matter the type of gender they are or if they are poor or not.  All people deserve equality and to be respected  by each other.  All people have human rights and have feelings.  All people should respect everybody's  feelings.

Feelings

We don’t choose who we get.  Things just happen and we don’t choose who we fall in love with.  There is an attraction between people then they get in love easily.  Many people fall in love after knowing a lot of people and they just love that person.  In the end it is our feelings that should be important.

My Travel Story by Egigayehu Ashagre

Henry Miller said, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

        The day was my travel day to come to America.  I will never forget that day.  It was a very unsatisfactory day.  I was traveling with my older brother, my nephew and my brother-in-law.  

             In the morning, there was a torrent of rain and it lasted all day.  We had to leave from home earlier because the national airport is in the Ethiopian capital city.  The capital city of Ethiopia is called Addis Ababa.  It is 113 kilometers from my neighborhood to the airport.  Also it is more than two hours to drive.  We rented a car and we said goodbye to my dear, lovely family.  That day I got a headache because I cried a lot.  My family cried too.  It was my first time for me to leave my family.  

              The heavt rain made us late.  Between my neighborhood and the other city there was a small bridge and in the day, cars could not travel over the bridge because there was too much rain.  The water was going up on the bridge.  It was very treacherous.  We had to wait until the water went down.  After one hour the cars were able to accelerate again. It was 8 pm but we had two hours before we would miss the airplane.  The flight departure time was 10 pm.


         I had horrible day.  When we finally got there the time was over to catch an airplane.  We got to the national airport after 10:05 pm, and already the plane was gone.  I was hungry.  I had no money to buy food because Ethiopian money and American money are not equivalent.  So before I went to the airport I gave my Ethiopian money to my friend.  I was broke.  In the airport I only drank water.  After a few minutes we took the next plane.  

             When I was in the plane I felt two things, happiness and sadness.  It was my first time travelling by airplane.  Wow! it was amazing, because I saw myself above the clouds.  I wanted to see God but I couldn't see him because I thought I am too close to the sky.  Many things on the earth were under me and very small.  When the plane went up higher the only thing that I could see was the clouds.  This made me feel happiness.  

I couldn’t sleep on the airplane because I was imagining what America will look like.   During the long trip I had become tired.  It was more than 24 hours long.  So when I was in the airplane I thought of my family and cried.  The thing that made me sad was, when I thought of my father, my grandmother and my friends.  I remembered my father crying.  I said to him, “I am not going to die so why are you crying?  I am going to get a good education and a better life, you have to say good luck.”   Then he said, “I know, but I can’t say goodbye because I think I will never see you for a long time so I will miss you so much.”  I hugged him and I cried too.  I told him, “I will come to visit when I done with my school.  You just have to pray, don’t worry about me.  God is with me.”  Also my grandmother was crying and she told me, “ Concentrate on your education and come to see me before I am dead.  Don’t stay a long time because I am too old of a woman.”  I said , “Don’t say that, you will live a long time.”  To said goodbye, I gave her a hug.

         After a long trip we got to Washington D.C.  Then we had to take Delta airlines to come to Minneapolis, but we missed the plane because we lost the first one in Ethiopia. When I was in Washington DC I was surprised because I saw a train, I said, “Wow!”  It was different from an Ethiopian train.  An Ethiopian train travels from Djibouti to the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa 784 km.  The railroad between Djibouti and Addis Ababa is slow and uncomfortable.  It has 1st class, 2nd class and 3rd  class seats.  In addition I saw many long buildings, different people and different foods.  Everything was different for me. And it was beautiful.  After one hour we got on the plane.  We came to Minneapolis around ten o’clock.  It was also raining In Minneapolis.  I said to myself, “What?”  I was surprised.  “Is the rain was following me?” I asked to myself.
         
      Traveling is good because it teaches you something.  I learned to be patient. But I never forgot that day.  It was not a travel day, it was a terrible day.  You will experience difficult things when you are traveling so you learn to be strong.  

My Travel Story by José

My travel story

by José

When I was fourteen years old I was going to leave my family and I didn’t know when I was returning to my home country.  I was really distressed.  I went to say good bye to my grandmother and some cousins.  When I was leaving my grandmother’s house she told me, “ Let me escort you to your mom’s house, since this is the last time I’m going to see you.”  We walked to my house and when we got there my mom’s eyes were red.  I knew she was crying but she didn’t want me to notice. It was time for me to leave,  my mother was crying very hard. It really perceive me to see her cry that much.  She was crying so much that she fainted.  My grandmother told me, “Leave now or else she wont let you go when she wakes up.”  I felt really bad leaving her like that. It was very painful for me.  I turned and commence my walk to the taxi.  I was on my way to Coatzacoalcos where I was going to get the bus that was going to take me to Mexico City.

After fifteen hours in the bus I finally arrived to Mexico City.  It was kind of scary to be surrounded with people from all over the Country, especially because I was only fourteen years old and some guy could just besiege me.  Many guys were asking questions like, “ Are you going to the other side?” I kind of knew this was going to happen.  The people in Mexico City weren’t really affable and I was intimidated because of that.  I was glad to go to the terminal.

I got in the bus after waiting for twelve hours in the terminal.  It was so strange that I was the only person that  was on the bus and the driver started to drive.  I was starting to feel afraid.  After some hours of driving the driver made a sudden stop just in the middle of the freeway.  I couldn't believe that the bus got full in a few minutes.  I noticed that the people weren’t from Mexico.  They were immigrants from Guatemala and other countries of South America that were also comming to the U.S. After some hour of driving the immigration officers of Mexico halted us.  They started to ask us questions like,  “Where are you from and where are you guys going?”  They even asked me to sing the national anthem.  Fortunately I could answer all of their questions.  But I felt bad for the other people that couldn't, because they were from Guatemala.  They asked one of them to go outside of the bus, I could see from the window and listen what was happening outside.  The soldiers were asking him for a fix to let him go with no problems all the way to the border.  Then the Coyote got in to the bus, really angry asking everybody to give him seven thousand pesos because he wanted us to pay the fix, I was scared because the coyote was going crazy on us.  Fortunately he ended up paying the fix.  For most of us we had somebody who was going to pay for us when we were in the U.S.  After a long drive We entered to Sonora City.

We arrived in Sonora City, Mexico, the border with Phoenix, Arizona. I stayed in a  Hotel called La Alameda.   I stayed there for a few days until I got my turn to try to cross the border.  I could see the desert from the hotel, but I didn’t really see the end of it.  I talked to my mom when I was at the hotel. I called her to let her know that I was okay and that I was already there at the hotel waiting for my turn to cross the border.  She didn’t sound too happy about it.  I could hear that her voice was really sad.  I hung up on her because I didn’t want to hear her cry again.  I was waiting for a call from the coyote who was going to guide me in the desert.

I remember that It was midnight and we were in the desert waiting for the drug dealers to cross with their drugs first, or else they were going to kill us.  At least that is what the coyote told us.  It was very cold there, I was wearing only jeans and a shirt.  I thought the desert was hot.  I couldn’t  believe how cold it was, I even saw snow in some places.  My  toes were hurting really bad and my nose was really red and sensitive. My ears hurted too.  This was the worst night I ever had.  There were twelve of us there suffering the cold.   I had never been so cold in my whole life.  The coyote said that we were going to spend the night there, because the immigration officers of the U.S were there looking for people trying to cross the border.  I remember that I walked for four nights with out eating a lot or drinking water.  After walking for a long time we got to the out skirts of Arizona.

There was a men who was going to take us to Phoenix, Arizona . He was waiting for us in a truck so  He could take us to a house where some people waited for weeks so that when they made a trip to the north of the US they could send some of us. I just waited two weeks there and finally they took me to Madison,Tennessee.

coyote = is a person who guides people in the border of Mexico to cross to the U.S illegally.

fix = bribe

Anayetzi Monroy presents Mexican poet Octavio Paz's poem Dos Cuerpos

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