Coming to America Look Book Project Issue 16 Home Page

How I Came to Study in the U.S. Franck T. Kabundi from the Democratic Republic of Congo Photo: Andreas Bauer Since we were all students, this war was very hard on us because suddenly we had no way to complete our education. On January 11th, 1999, fifteen of my friends and I came to the U.S. from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was my birthday that day. We all were members of the same church in Kinshasa, the capital city. When the civil war started on August 2nd, 1998, the government closed most of the universities and colleges in Kinshasa. Since we were all students, this war was very hard on us because suddenly we had no way to complete our education. One day a Congolese woman, who was living in the U.S., came to our church in Kinshasa. She was the president of Jeremiah Ministries, and she decided to help us to come here so that we could continue our education at Chaffey College. When we arrived in the U.S, we all lived with this woman in Ontario. The living conditions were hard for everyone, so after a week, eleven of my friends left to go live with their relatives. Personally, I didn't have anybody to take care of me, and my parents didn't have enough money to support me in the U.S., so it was very hard for me. Suddenly, at the end of January, two journalists from the Daily Bulletin came to Ontario where we were living to interview me and three of my friends about our country and our life in the U.S. A week later, a wonderful woman, who read about us in the Daily Bulletin newspaper, came to visit us. Her name was Linda, and she is a doctor. She decided to take two of us to live with her in Upland. Since that day, my life in the U.S. has changed. Now, I can go to school, I have most of the things I need, and I have somebody to take care of me. (Please don't forget when you see people that are suffering that they need some help from you.) This story was selected from Julia Karet's ESL writing project at Chaffey Community College: The Look Book Project More stories about coming to America: War in My CountryUnforgettable Early Days| My Arrival in the U.S. My First English Words | Trying to Immigrate | My Most Difficult Experience Coming to America (1) | New Horizons | Coming to America (2) Return to: Coming to America | Issue 16 | Home Page TOPICS Online Magazine - ©1997-2007 - Sandy and Thomas Peters - topics.mag@gmail.com