Family, life and migration

Hey !!! How's everybody? Sorry for my absence the last few weeks, I decided to take a trip to the outside of the city to visit my grandparents. Have you noticed how beautiful the countryside is? large green fields, you can harvest your food, there is no traffic and the nights are extremely quiet. This little vacation break made me question: What would my life have been like if my parents hadn't moved to the city?

During this short time that I shared with my grandparents, I was able to hear how their life has changed since my parents and my uncles migrated to different cities, as well as how the passing of the years and the difficult access to health has affected them. My grandparents say that when my mother was young and in love with my father they used to have huge crops, so much so that they look like a green sea, and then all the children helped to harvest to earn money for living, they still remember the joy of when their children managed to finish high school, that was a masterful achievement because none of my grandparents could finish school. My mother was the first to leave town, she was pregnant with me and was followed by my uncles, it was a generalized situation in all the families in the area that their children began to migrate to other areas of the country. Today the town of my grandparents has almost no children, or young people running through its streets, which is a place where old age dominates.

Intrigued by the words of my grandparents, I decided to ask my mother what it was like for her to live in the city as a small-town girl, her answer was interesting but quite crude at the same time, my parents went to the city because they wanted a future for me. They wanted to continue studying and go to university, however, they did not imagine how difficult it would be to adapt to this life, getting a house was not easy because life in the city is very expensive, and with my pregnant mother and my father studying we did not have many economic possibilities. Also getting a job was eventually difficult, my mother did not have university studies and nobody wanted to hire my father due to lack of experience, the job opportunities were many but the demand was massive, so the possibility of getting a job was low. With the time, living in a small apartment, in a city full of noise where it was possible to hear the fights of the neighbors and the pity of smock predominated, my mother began to question if it was the right decision to continue in the city, she missed the countryside, the rivers, and the bird's nest when she woke up, although she knew that studying in the rural area affect in a significant way the chance to go to university and to be honest I was also a very sick girl so I need constant visits to the doctor.

            After both testimonies I began to question how this affected me, for my parents it was not easy and neither for my grandparents, but ... what has it been like for me to grow up in the city? It was interesting, we lived with people from all places, it was a somewhat poor area where most of the migrants and foreigners lived, it was great to be able to experience going to the movies with friends or to a large shopping center, I loved it. But, sometimes I think about how my life would have been if my grandparents and uncles had been with me, maybe I had learned to sew like my grandmother or my grandfather had taught me to ride a bicycle, I ask myself sometimes if my uncles had been in my recitals and birthdays.

As a conclusion to all this journey, I understood that migration is not easy and affects everyone in a significant way. I was able to appreciate how 3 generations of a family were affected by migration to the city, how my grandparents miss their children, how my parents fought to survive in the city, and how discrimination affected me when other children considered me less for being a migrant. Migration is not an easy decision, but it can improve lives progressively, I hope to go further than my parents and have a business, buy them a nice house, take my grandparents to the doctor and hire someone to help them on the farm. This is my experience about the last 2 weeks, I will be writing to you soon, does anyone identify with my story?

Working on it!

How the weather changed my life forever.

Moving out. A tedious process, generally, planned weeks, or even months in advance. Not for me though. Life can only be so predictable, and when you are being thrown at two tornados and a one-in-a-lifetime blizzard, packing up your stuff can be easy, and even fun to do. Before all that chaos, things were looking better than ever before for my family, and moving out to a city never crossed their minds. We have everything we would ever need right at home right?

We lived at the borders of a small town, mainly living off our farm’s produce and cattle. My paternal grandfather, a grumpy man back then, managed it. He says he would have my father help to do chores all day long. “He always found new ways to jam the tractor and I had to come to rescue him,” he said when telling me this story. According to my father, that farm was a “labor camp”. My mother, on the other hand, had a way with business and managed a little stand in the community market where we would sell vegetables. Back then, we didn’t have much, money-wise, but I was living the life. My only two obligations were going to school and going to bed early. There were other family members living in my town, like distant cousins or uncles, but I can’t remember much of them and my grandpa can’t either, who will be the main source of information from this point forward.

Eventually, we managed to save enough money to afford a radio. Just a few days later, a local broadcast informed all the community of an incoming tornado in the following hours. My grandfather says that no one, not even my father, lost a single second securing anything of value before disaster struck. I distinctly remember everyone running in all directions, and then being picked up in a panic. We got lucky the first time and only lost a few acres of crops. Our neighbors weren’t so. Then, the first snow blizzard in 20 years came down really hit hard. Our cattle suffered the most and our tractor was found 2 miles from our farm. We figured that moving out was the best option and began planning where to go, but then the second tornado came unannounced, barely leaving us time to pack the essentials and drive away. Before my grandpa told me about that day, I thought our house being ripped apart from its foundation was just a bad dream I had as a kid.

In a rush, we never planned where to go after we left our farm aside from a general direction: away from tornados. We apparently lived in a handful of motels throughout a month before we finally settled in the big city. My great uncle took us in shortly until we could afford our own apartment. Everything changed in what seemed to be just a day. The price for everything grew exponentially and no amount of experience farming would get any of my family members jobs. Against all odds, my mother got a job, conveniently, managing a small grocery shop. Turns out, organization is as valuable in the countryside as it is in the city, if not more. Nowadays, she is managing a supermarket, my father works as a plumber and I now go to a new school, with new friends. We even have our own apartment! It’s amazing how fast one can adapt to adversities. Not everything changes though: my grandpa still hates the noise of traffic at night.

*Accurate representation of us leaving our home by 3 year old me*

Goodbye urban life! Hello big city...

 As some of you might already know, I come from a rural part of the country, land that was used to plant crops and raise animals. Most of the families that lived there had done so for hundreds of years. The countryside had many incredible things to offer, even if it was far away from school and other modern-day establishments. Nothing could compare to the vast green spaces that covered the land and the chirping of crickets late at night.

My family owned a small farm with cows, chickens, corn, and believe it or not, bees that would make honey for us to sell every morning at a local market. Selling what we could get from our animals and plants was our only source of income, it wasn’t much, but it was enough to keep us satisfied, this all changed, of course, last year when sales started to drop and drought destroyed what was left of our fields, and so a few months ago I said goodbye to my old rural life.

(Pictures above, some flower pics I took before we left and a building I liked when we arrived)

Coming to the city has been an interesting experience so far, when my family first arrived we were greeted with kindness by our new neighbors. We live in a rather poor part of the city, with people that share problems similar to ours. One of our neighbors, in particular, is an old woman by the name of Clara that befriended my parents rather quickly, it was nice to see them already making friends, I, on the other hand, struggle immensely with the idea of having to meet new people, I’m starting school again tomorrow so I’ll try to write on a future entry about how that goes.

As I talked with my grandpa yesterday, I discovered that I wasn’t the only one struggling to adapt to big city life, and so I decided to finally open up about what this experience has so far meant to me and the people I care about, as I believe we can all learn something from it.

My parents had lived their entire lives as farmers, they loved getting their hands dirty when working to plant new crops and taking care of their animals brought them lots of joy, even if it was hard work with little pay in return. Our farm was a family business, one that they had hoped I would join someday, but, as my grandpa told me, this is now no longer possible, I hadn’t really thought about it, but moving to the big city meant having to sell our old home, and it devastated my parents, even if they now think it is for the best. My dad recently got a job working for some company and things are starting to look better lately, but I still feel like he and everyone else including myself are far from letting go of our old lives.

Moving to a completely different environment to the one I grew up in has been a difficult task, but to my dear readers out there, if you’re experiencing something similar, know that you are not alone. Migrating seems to be a growing trend with nothing to stop it, but if you ever find yourself in a similar position, remember that things can get better, it’s hard, but I’m hopeful!

Being a teenager when you grew up in a rural area.

Kerly´s on what it is really like

November, 2021
So, did you have problems when you moved to the city?
Here´s my perspective of being a teenager when you grew up in a rural area. Before I tell my story, I should write that you would think that moving to another city, is easy, and in my personal opinion, it´s not.
I lived in Shadowale  from the age of 1 to the age of 10, spending time on my family´s farm, taking care of animals, and also sowing food. Previously in Shadowale did not have Internet, so the Covid 19 pandemic affected us educationally because we did not have virtual classes like a normal student had. My parents, for many reasons more, for example, in the city there are more opportunities in life and there is my career that I want to follow decided to move to Sahowa, now I am a student of Colegio Menor San Victoria with a scholarship, I do not know the facilities, however, I saw it on the Internet, it´s beautiful and they have a lot of natural areas. Tomorrow, we return to pressencial classes, I only know my classmates by Zoom, I am a little nervous. Furthermore, this pandemic has affected us emotionally because I did not see my grandparents for a year, nonetheless today I am going to visit them and I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. 
 

 First of all, we´ll get the negative of being a teenager when you grew up in a rural area

 My grandfather told me that our leaving the town of Shadowale felt like a void, they had no appetite to eat and to do their diary things for days, however, Simba, their dog, spoke to them with her eyes, and they understood that it is the best choice we made. Also, they called the Technician to put the internet to talk by video call with us, the problem was that in our rural area we did not have an antenna, but my grandfather talked to the mayor, and she listened to all the reasons to put it, she agreed with it and the rest is history. In addition, sometimes we miss them and vice versa because we lived together for 12 years and we felt his and her absence.

And now the good stuff of being a teenager when you grew up in a rural area

It has happened to me on several occasions, what? My accent and language are different from a citizen here, my neighbors tell me that when I speak I sound like a drowned cow, the first time they told me I felt blue, but then my parents told me "being different is not bad and it is unique" and at present I over the moon for being special. Also, I have a surprise for my grandparents, what is it? Well, I know it's difficult for them to turn on the computer, pay the light of their house, internet, among others, nevertheless currently they do not have to be worried about that, why? Because they are going to live with us, it's great, isn´t it? Today, I am going to tell them, I hope that they like the idea.

Sahowa as a teenager is cool. It may have problems at times, but I can love this place due to the opportunities it gives me, and after all, I love the food, places, history, and I will never be ashamed of my roots, again. Lastly, I want to write that I am going to be over the moon because my grandparents are going to live with me, again. I hope you visit this amazing city someday.

 November 18th, 2021

Have you ever imagined how difficult is to move to a new home? No right and if you know sorry, but now you are going to know my story. 

One day when I only was a little girl my parents decided to move to a new house in the city. To give you some context all of my family live in a rural area out of the city. Living in the rural part has its advantages such as that you can have large animals such as cows or horses, but now that I live in an apartment I can no longer have animals. The bad thing about living here is that you don't have a very good internet connection and if you get sick it is very difficult to be treated, but leaving that aside, everything is very nice. 

Today I am visiting my grandparents' house on the outskirts of the city and he told me that he is very happy to see me but he is sad that I am so big and that he has not been able to see me grow. He told me that when we moved it was very hard for them because they were going to be alone. He told me that my grandmother always called my mother to see how we were doing and told her that everything was very hard in the city and that there was a lot of noise and pollution, but that we were all fine and that my father started working in a new factory. The pay was not very good but it was enough for us to survive. My grandparents had many doubts that we would move to the city because it was a very competitive place but I knew that they had better medical attention in case I got sick or if there was an emergency it would be easier to solve it. 

The consequences that moving brought to our family were that I, the last granddaughter of my grandparents, we're not going to be able to take care of her like all my other cousins and that the festivities were only the three of us going to spend in the city alone without our family, so if life in the city is better up to a point, but if you are like my parents who had to leave everything they knew behind it was going to be very difficult and lonely, moving us made my family divided and my grandparents were left alone Moving house was good up to a point but I would have liked to spend more time with my grandparents during my childhood.

Goodbye Anaconda out...

How migration affect my family

 How migration affect my family

Today I would like to talk about what migration is and how it affected my family, I know it is a very talked-about topic but it is almost never known how people felt this process in their own flesh and how it affected that person's family, I remember when I was little my family had to leave the country and we had to go to the city to live, I remember that not all my family came with us, most of my family stayed in the countryside but my mother, my father, my sister, me, my aunt and my cousins had to leave the country. 

I remember that I did not understand the reasons and it hurt me a lot to leave my family behind especially my grandparents, my parents had to work too much so I almost did not spend much time with them, my aunt and my cousins had to leave the country, I remember that I did not understand the reasons and it hurt me a lot to leave my family behind especially my grandparents, my parents had to work too much so I hardly spent time with them, when I was little I used to spend with my cousins and my grandparents, but in the city, I spent most of the time alone because my sister had to go to college and my cousins the same, my aunt got a job that took her all day so most of the time I did not spend at home, I remember when we lived in the country we all had lunch together and we used to watch a movie and my grandfather loved horror movies since we moved to the city we almost never used to go back to the country, sometime after we moved to the city my grandmother passed away.

My grandfather used to cry a lot and asked us to come back but that was not an option, we did not have the resources to be able to return, a few weeks went by when we went back to see my grandfather we sat down to talk and he told me how the family suffered when we left the country, I remember he told me that my grandmother was worried every day because she didn't know if we had had lunch or not, my cousins didn't go out to play as often as we used to, for all of us it was an extremely big change when we lived in the city we had to limit many things, It was a very drastic change, my grandfather told me that things in the countryside were still bad so after my grandmother's death we decided to stay and live in the city permanently since the situation improved for us so we decided to help my family in the countryside so they could live better. Finally, after all this experience I would like to tell everyone that this experience is very difficult for many people, we do not know well what each person feels and what are the reasons why they had to go through this.

Does your family have any secrets?

 

Does your family have any secrets?

No? Well If you don’t have one don’t worry I am about to tell you about how my parents migrated from a rural area to an urban area and they didn’t tell me how this supposedly separated the family until now.

I live in a big city and I really like being here because I have friends and all the things that I need are close to each other, but there is a point in which I get tired of listening to all the noise of cars and trains. 

Yesterday we visit my grandparents on their farm, in which my grandfather told me that the migration of my family divided the family and that if we didn’t move into the city maybe we could be more together and closer to the other members of our family.

We move on when I was really small, I don’t remember too much about rural life, but the only thing that I remember in a clear way is that my grandparents were worried about this move to the city, at first it was difficult to adapt myself to these new things like big roads or all the noise that the city had. 

 

The first place in which we stay in was a tiny space because we couldn’t pay for a bigger apartment or a house, the first year was a mix of emotions that was kind of difficult to process for a kid that was not even aware of what was happening in his life at that time, with the past of years we could recollect enough money to buy our own apartment, that was bigger than the one that we lived on.

                           

The family was separated and my grandparents, aunts and all of my family called us all the time, they couldn’t visit us because they didn’t have the required money to buy an airplane ticket, I miss them so much but at least I can visit them in the vacations.

 

The change that my parents decided to do was, what they consider was the best option for their self-development and for having more opportunities of increasing our economic status. Personally, I don’t blame my parents for anything, because they did what they thought was the best thing for our family, and that migration allowed them to have more income and also allowed me to know more about the world.

 

Migration is not something easy to make, principally because of the consequences that this change can bring to your life, but if it’s something that you need to do, just do it. 

Don’t let anyone stop your development or any kind of advance that you can do in your professional or personal life.