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Problems with culture shock
Problems with culture shock
Problem with culture shock
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Haiti
There were three weeks left until Christmas, I was fourteen at the time and trying to get my Christmas list made with as many items as I could think of. Between me and my friends, it was a contest to see who could get the most presents. Once I was sure that my list would win, I took it to the kitchen and hung it on the refrigerator to make sure my parents saw it. Once my parents read my list, they decided to call a family meeting about Christmas this year. When we all gathered in the living room, my dad began by saying “boys I’m happy to announce that we will be doing Christmas differently this year.” When he said those words I immediately knew I was not going to be happy. He continued by saying “instead of getting gifts this year, we
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They reassured me and my family that we would be okay and asked once again if everyone still wanted to go. Everyone said yes, so we headed for the plane to go to Port Au Prince, Haiti. When we arrived we instantly knew we were a long way from home. The airport was a dirty, rundown building with no air conditioning and half of the lights in the building were not working. There were no restaurants or stores, it was a night and day difference from the Atlanta airport. The security consisted of dogs sniffing your bags, unlike Atlanta’s airport where our bags were checked using high tech scanning equipment. When we got our bags off of a barely moving conveyer belt, we were immediately greeted by Haitian men who wanted to carry our bags for money. This made me realize how lucky I was to have air conditioning, security and all the other luxuries I was so used to seeing. Even though before the trip, we were warned people would be constantly asking you for food and money, I was overwhelmed with sympathy for these people. These men were only trying to make money so they could eat, our translators told us the average pay for a day’s work in Haiti was $1.00. With our luggage in toe we headed for a bus that would take us on a two hour drive to La Gonave Haiti to meet
Haiti is the unequivocally the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, indeed, the country is so poor that its citizen cannot even afford eating foods and Haitian children need to eat dirts to stay alive. [1] Nevertheless, Haiti is the home to the only successful slave rebellion; Toussaint Louverture, last governor of French Saint-Domingue, was born a slave.
Growing up Haitian, it’s the cultural norm for the parents to depend on the oldest to care for the youngest and household needs. At the young age of eight years old, my parents taught me responsibility and how to humble myself. They depended on me while they both worked long hours, my mother as a Certified Nursing Assistant and my father as a truck driver. When my parents were growing up in Haiti, they were the lucky ones to have the opportunity of going to school to gain an education. Haiti is a poor country and poverty is at an all-time high still to this day. So my parents strived to live the American dream and moved from Haiti to Miami and planted within my brother and me the seed to dream big and make a difference. Thanks to my family
I was born in Guatemala in a city called, called Guatemala City. Life in Guatemala is hard which is why my parents brought me into the United States when I was eight months old. Some of the things that makes life in Guatemala hard is the violence. However, Guatemala has plenty of hard working men, women, and children who usually get forced to begin working as soon as they are able to walk. However, unlike many other countries, Guatemala has a huge crime rate. I care about the innocent hard working people that live in Guatemala and receive letters, threatening to be killed if they do not pay a certain amount of money at a certain amount of time.
As a Haitian immigrant, my parents and I would spend our family vacations in our hometown of Port-au- Prince, Haiti. I would enjoy participating in family activities such as card games, cooking, and just the quality time that we spent together. We could play these games and laugh amongst each other for hours, without a care in the world merely telling jokes and listening to the elder parables. Amongst my family I felt untouchable. Like a tree in the wind, my only cares were that of the breeze and the beauty of my foundation. In the sway of the wind I was overcome with a sense of peace.
As my family and I walked into the plane, we were excited. The plane ride to jamaica stopped in L.A. and, after that, it went to jamaica. When we arrived in Jamaica it was really hot, but it was wet. I immediately took off my sweater I was wearing on the plane. We took a bus to our hotel. Then we started swimming in the water park. Every night there was a show in the main stage. The next day we woke up early to go to chukka. It was awesome. We saw a great house, rode on horses, and did a challenge course. After we came back from Chukka, we went to the water park and swimming pool at the hotel. Then we ate at fresh, which we went most of the time. The next day we woke up earlier to go to the dolphin cove. The bus was an hour late, but the wait
When I walked inside the front door something didn’t seem right. The feeling of sorrow overwhelmed the house. It was so thick I could literally feel it in the air. Everyone was motionless. They were sulking;I was befuddled. The most energetic people in the world, doing absolutely nothing. I repeatedly asked them what was wrong. After an hour or so, my dad pulled me aside. He said that my Aunt Feli had passed away last night. My mind went for a loop, I was so confused. I thought that he was joking, so I replied “You’re lying, don’t mess with me like that.” and punched his shoulder softly while I chuckled. My dad quickly started tearing up and said, “There...
On a cold winter day, my family was getting ready to meet at my grandma’s house like we had done our whole lives. Christmas was one of the most important days of the year for the Robertson’s. Each aunt made entrées and deserts along with the delicious food that my grandma made each year. Food and family were the two main reasons everyone loved Christmas. On the way to Triune where my family lives, my mother started to cry which I thought was odd for
The Haitians that I am speaking on the Haitians who are from Haiti, also known as The Haitian Republic. Haiti is a Caribbean country that takes up one third of the island of Hispaniola), and it resides near the Dominican Republic (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). Haiti is linguistically affiliated with France as its official language is French (Every Culture, 2014). Haitians are also known to speak Creole and Patwa, and some Haitians are able to speak English as well. There is a lot of diversity within the community of Haiti, which consists of nearly 10 million people (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). Everyone is unique and individual and has their own style.
it is an honor to announce that me alongside other Haitians classmate from different background including the college president we will be headed to Haiti over the spring break to do some volunteering work to help build wells and sustain clean water we will be partenering with a nonprofit
In case you are just tuning in to my Loving This Life! New Orleans adventure, here are some quick links to my previous posts.
I cried in my room for hours wishing my dad would not go, a whole month without him seemed like the end of the world. I would have no one to play hockey with, no one to tuck me in at night and no one to eat donuts with every Friday. My dad tried to console me but I was too angry to listen to him, I suddenly hated my grandpa for causing my dad to leave me alone. At the airport my dad gave me a long hug and told me to be brave since I was now “the man of the house,” (even though I am a girl), I had to take care of my mom. Promptly this made me suck in my tears and stop acting like a “loser.” It was hard repressing my feelings, seeing my dad leave made my eyes tear severely but I held them back, the man of the house does not cry. Time went by faster when I was at school, I had less time to miss my dad. About two weeks later, my mom got a call from India, my grandpa had died. My mom broke down crying, she slammed the phone across the room into the wall. I felt scared to appr...
One day in the midst of summer, my friend Mike and I got off from a hard day of work and were on our way to the mall. While at work we had planned to meet a few people there. I was going to be seeing my friend Jessica who I had not talked to in years. Before leaving, we stopped off at our houses, took showers, and got ready. As I anxiously waited on the stairs for his car to roll into the driveway, my mom said, “Be careful and do not drive like an idiot.” I obviously said alright and she was on her way. Minutes later I see my friend Mike pull into the driveway. I slipped my feet into my shoes and got in his car. We were almost to the mall when his phone rang. He picked it up and said, “Hello?” It was my mom and she wanted to speak to me. Upon putting the phone to my ear she told me that I had to come home right away. She said that my dad had just gotten into a car crash and that I had to come home and watch my sister. I did not know how to break the news to Mike, that what we were anticipating all day would not happen. He was upset, but he understood what was going on. I came home thinking it was the same old same old; he had gotten hit by a drunk driver, the car got totaled, and he was fine.
One beautiful day that summer, I was playing outside with my friends when my mom called for me to come home. I did not want to abandon my guard post at the neighbor's tree house so I decided to disregard her order. I figured that my parents would understand my delima and wouldn't mind if I stayed out for another two or three hours. Unfortunately, they had neglected to inform me that my grandparents had driven in from North Carolina, and we were supposed to go out for a nice dinner. When I finally returned, my father was furious. I had kept them from going to dinner, and he was simply not happy with me. "Go up to your room and don't even think about coming downstairs until I talk to you."
It was Friday night, I took a shower, and one of my aunts came into the bathroom and told me that my dad was sick but he was going to be ok. She told me that so I did not worry. I finished taking a bath, and I immediately went to my daddy’s house to see what was going on. My dad was throwing-up blood, and he could not breath very well. One of my aunts cried and prayed at the same time. I felt worried because she only does that when something bad is going to happen. More people were trying to help my dad until the doctor came. Everybody cried, and I was confused because I thought it was just a stomachache. I asked one of my older brothers if my dad was going to be ok, but he did not answer my question and push me away. My body shock to see him dying, and I took his hand and told him not to give up. The only thing that I heard from him was, “Daughters go to auntie...
It was around 2:00pm and it was time to open presents. I started with opening friend’s presents then I opened families. I was finally done opening all my presents. I looked around at all the people, who were looking at me and my dad was nowhere to be. That was the only present that I was looking forward too. The party ended and my dad didn’t show up, my little four years old hopes were in the ground, it was like I could feel my heart ripping appart. I looked at my mom and she mouthed I’m sorry, my faced turned rosy red and my eyes filled with tears. From that moment on my life was never the same. It was a dark cloudy day and I was going to see my dad. We were playing the game Sorry and he was winning. I was the yellow player and he was the green player, he was laughing and smiling the whole time. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend my Friday afternoon any other way. When the game was over he asked me to clean up the game while he went out to smoke a cig. When he entered the room and the game wasn’t picked up, he went crazy. His eyes seemed to turn a dark almost black color. It was like he was a completely different person when he came back