Every morning I see myself
And my family alone talking.
I hear their voices in different tones.
I don’t hear anybody else talking or
Walking in my neighborhood but
All I can see and hear is the sound of cars.

I am tired of living in a neighborhood
Like a cemetery
Where there is nothing fun to do.
The one and only basketball hoop
That the kids can play with has fallen
Down and there is no one to fix it
In my neighborhood, all I can do
For fun is to be in my room
And watch movies or listen to music

My present neighborhood is full of sick and
Disabled people.
A neighborhood full of old people
There are no teenagers.
It makes me feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere
It makes me feel sad.
I keep asking myself “Is this my neighborhood?”
My neighborhood does not deserve the name “neighborhood”
It should rather be called a cemetery.

Let me take you to my past neighborhood
This was in Ghana. All the kids came
Together and played games like soccer,
Basketball and a game called mancala
The most exiting part was when two people were
Playing the game one had to win and the loser
Would have to drink a gallon of water on the spot.

The boys in my past neighborhood
Made us happy because they played music
Loud and organized dancing competitions
And there were prizes for those who win.
So many people came from different
Neighborhoods to watch or compete
With others and that was really exciting.

In my past neighborhood, which is in Ghana,
All the women gathered in one house to prepare food
And have fun together they organized get togethers
They all came together in one
House to prepare food and ave fun together
Every Saturday to show their love for each other

I was so happy to live in a country like Ghana
I felt so happy and I thought I would never move
To another neighborhood. But I was proven wrong
Everything has changed ever since I moved to my present
Neighborhood. I’m all by myself.

I don’t have fun like I used to have in my past
Neighborhood and I don’t have a lot of friends
In my new neighborhood to talk or play with
All this makes me sad, bored and it makes me
Feel like I want to go back to my country.
I hope all the neighbors will bring their heads
Together and do something fun for the young ones to
Have fun with; I think that will be much better.
I hope I will one day move to a happy neighborhood

Since I arrived in Tucson, Arizona, I started to feel weird. I don’t know why, but I was sure that something was going to happen. When I looked at my neighborhood for the first time, I thought: “It’s a nice place. I will have a lot fun over here.” But now, today, I cannot find the fun and the smiles that I believed were here.

In my old neighborhood, everything was different. I used to visit my friends walking or they came to my home. Sometimes we played soccer on the street or played cards in front of my house with chips and money like a casino. Also we used to eat some snacks, like chips with Mexican dip or peanuts with chamoy; that was very fun and delicious.

In contrast, in my new neighborhood, I don’t know any teens that play soccer on the street or play cards games, maybe because it’s unlawful or against the neighborhood rules. So, I have to watch TV or play video games all alone. Perhaps every teen in my neighborhood does that. Usually I talk on the phone, dial up and speak with my family and friends in Mexico. I wonder what teenagers do in their free time. What are their hobbies?

In my old neighborhood, people hang out on most weekdays and go bowling, to the movies, to a girlfriend’s home, to restaurants, or for coffee. Here you could do the same, but it’s so expensive because here the life is more costly. For example, first you have to get a car to go at those places because walking you never arrive on time; the car needs gasoline. After that, if you want to go to the movies, it costs 9 dollars without popcorn, soda, or other snacks, which are about 5 dollars each. Clearly, it’s expensive.

Most likely, people in my Tucson neighborhood hang out only on the weekend. Maybe it’s just the lifestyle here and I’m not assimilating well to that style. I am accustomed to another life style. I heard from people who came here before me and they it says take a great deal of time accustomed to American life, about 3 years minimum.

Actually, I have never hung out with any of the neighbors or other people living close to me. I hope to get to know all my neighbors and make nice relationships with each other, to build some trust and confidence. Then those persons will have the desire to leave a little bit of their homes and visit their neighbors. Maybe by doing that it will seem like my old neighborhood, and I possibly will change my neighborhood into a happy and nice place to live, making a community effort to obtain that transformation.

Although, my neighborhood is very boring, it’s a nice place. It’s so quiet, relaxed and above all beautiful. It contains an awesome view of the mountains of Catalina and huge spaces to think about life and the future. For myself, it has helped me to obtain maturity. In my neighborhood I always think about God, my family, the problems of the world, my studies and my future.

Hi! Gerardo. How are you? I haven’t seen you since we graduated from middle school. I would like to know what you have been doing all this time. Are you living in the same neighborhood? Did you continue studying or are you working? Do you still like soccer? I remember the first time I met you. It was a sunny day the first day of school; you sat behind me and started to talk to me. I knew that we were going to be pretty good friends. We treated each other like brothers because we used to go to school together every day.

I remember that once every week we used to go to fish in the little lake that was near the neighborhood. Sometimes we used to take some snacks and eat while we were fishing, and then when we were going back home we were all scared because there were no lights on the way back home. That was so scary because there were many trees and bushes that made it dangerous and freaky.

I remember when we used to hang out at the park and play soccer in teams of four. I really enjoyed that because I love soccer. I really miss all the things that we used to do back there, when we ate a lot of Mexican food and all my family lived together. I remember when there were a lot of fiestas and our families got together to enjoy them.

Since we graduated from junior high school, I came to the United States to live with my three brothers and I am studying in high school. This is my last year in high school. I’ve been learning English for three years. This school is not the same school as the one that we used to go to. I don’t have as many friends in this school as I had in the old school.

Now I am living in Tucson, Arizona. I am living in a small boring neighborhood where we don’t do anything interesting. I am living in an apartment that is called Riviera. I don’t have many friends because they live so far and if I want to hang with someone I have to use a car because the places are so far. Here, everything is not the same. Here, there are places to hang out but it is too difficult to go because of the distance. Here, everybody does the same routine everyday. Adults go to work and there is not time to be together and have fun. Here, there are fiestas, but not very often.

Even though sometimes I miss my old neighborhood. I would like to make my new neighborhood look like my old neighborhood. First thing I would do is to bring all my family starting with my parents and every body else: cousins, uncles. Having all my family here, it wouldn’t be the same boring routine. Everything would be almost like old times because the whole family would be together and that’s what I like. I don’t like to be alone because it is boring. Bringing all my family would be fun. It would never be boring. We would do many things here like go shopping or go to fun parks. That would be fun, but not the same as the old neighborhood. I hope to see you soon to do the things we used to do and also see my parents because I haven’t seen them for one year and I miss them a lot.

Sincerely,

Omar Perez

My former neighborhood in Somalia was very different than my new neighborhood here in the U.S. My former one was so crowded because there were a lot of mango trees around everybody’s houses. When I first saw our house, I thought it was in the jungle. But my dad told me it is not in the jungle, but it was located in the town. The town had a lot of trees around it. I asked my dad whose house is this? He told me it is house that we were going to survive in for the rest of our life. We even had a lot of lakes, rivers, dams, and ponds that we used to swim in during the summer period. We even used to fish in the rivers that we had over there.

The neighborhood I like the best is the one I live in now in the U.S. It has lights, a kitchen and indoor bathroom that are important for me. The houses in my country, Somalia, have no lights or kitchen inside. My neighbors in Somalia used firewood and charcoal to cook food. Over here in the U.S, we have our own kitchens in the house. We don’t have to worry about collecting and buying firewood and charcoal. In Somalia, we used to buy the firewood and the charcoal in order to cook food for our daily survival. We even used to pay for kerosene for the lamp that we used in order to get light for the dark houses.

Another difference between my new neighborhood and my old neighborhood in Somalia was we didn’t have basketball courts. In the U.S., we have basketball courts, but where I live it doesn’t have one because the kids are not good. If the basketball court was there, they would break all the windows of the apartments. The manager of our apartments decided not to make a basketball court until the problem has been solved. So, the kids use the carts from Fry’s as a basketball court in order to play basketball. It was so exciting when I was taking the picture; they looked so great making their own basketball court.

In my former neighborhood, we didn’t have supermarkets. When we needed fish to eat, I went fishing in the nearby Juba river. I was the one to go fishing because I was the oldest in my family, but once my younger brother went fishing in the river. Our parents didn’t know that we went fishing in the river; they were looking for us in the town. We didn’t tell anybody that we were going to the river for fishing. My dad got upset about what we did, because he didn’t want my younger brother to go with me. But my mom didn’t want us to be beaten by our dad and she told us not to do it again without permission. I told her and my dad to calm down and we won’t do it again; it was our fault.

Another difference between Somalia and Tucson is that there is a swimming pool and a laundry room close to my house. We didn’t have swimming pools and laundry machines in my country, Somalia. That is another big difference between my new neighborhood in Tucson and the old one in Somalia.

Over here, we can use the laundry machines to wash our clothes. In Somalia, we took the clothes to the river to wash them or we used a basin to wash our clothes. It was very difficult to wash clothes by hand in Somalia. But, here in the U.S, it is easy to wash clothes. You put the clothes in the laundry machine and wait for about 28 minutes; then it will be ready to dry. In the U.S, there are drying machines; you put in some quarters to start the machine and then dry your clothes. However, in Somalia, we hung our clothes on cloth lines in the sun. The wind and dust made our clothes dirty while drying.

The last difference is we didn’t have that many cars in Somalia. We have here lots of cars going around everywhere in the U.S. In Somalia, when we needed a ride we had to wait for the one car we had in the area of Jilib. This car was a shuttle bus that picked people up along the way to take them where they needed to go.

In summary, life is very different in the U.S. The neighborhood, the houses; the transportation, and conveniences are much better than in Somalia.

Hi! How are you? I want to tell you how proud I am of my neighborhood. I would like to tell you how pretty my neighborhood is and what I like about it.

I want to tell you about my neighborhood because it’s very interesting. There is a lot of Mexican culture around my houses and others. I like the way that houses are decorated. I would like you to visit my house to know my family and to see how pretty my house is. Some places in my neighborhood are dangerous, but our feeling of being Mexican makes everyone happy.  I think if you come and visit me, you are going to love my neighborhood and you will like to come every day to visit my house. My parents want to know you and to see what kind of person you are because I always talk good stuff about you. And my mom always cooks Mexican food we can eat. That’s one reason why we don’t forget our Mexican culture.

What I love the most about my Mexican culture is the Mexican food and the traditional mariachi. I love when my abuelita makes delicious tortillas and the tamales. Even though I am here in the United States, I still remember my culture because my mom cooks delicious Mexican food and we have our Mexican spirit in our hearts. My mom always tells me that even though we are not over there, we still are going to remember our culture in our hearts.

Sometimes I am sad because I am not in the place that I love with my family. My mom  tells me to hold on a little bit more so we can go to Mexico every summer. I go visit my grandma and my uncles, aunts, cousins, and my friends that I love to hang out with. I want you to come to my house and to see what you think about my neighborhood and to see what it looks like. Maybe you will like it because I like it a lot. That’s the only thing that makes me remember my culture.

Hope your mom lets you come over to my house so you can know my neighbors, my family, and the place where I live.

Sincerely,

Melissa Torres