Editor’s Note: This story was written by Humans of New Mexico contributors. This is part of our new project to help connect the Daily Lobo audience to more members of our community.
Leaving one’s homeland
My name is Ramazani Mwanza, and I am from the Republic of Congo. I have been in New Mexico for two years. We were refugees, and we had been in Burundi for eight years. We are proud that we got a chance to come here.
We went to immigration services, and they told us we had a chance to go to the United States. It’s hard to get approved, because hardly any Africans get to come to the U.S.
Back home, there were people killing each other. That’s why we came here. There were countries and cultures who didn’t like each other. People would kill each other for nothing.
My whole family didn’t come to the U.S. — I still have my brother, who lives in Burundi. I live with my mom, and I have three sisters with me here.
Immigration services are the ones who told us we would go to New Mexico. They took us to our house, and we went to get our social security and they assigned me to Highland High School.
First impressions
When I arrived to the U.S. for the first time I was happy. My dream had come true.
It was very different than Africa. I was happy to go to school, but it was also scary, because I didn’t know any English. Ms. Melanie White kept telling me to keep working and keep studying. She recommended me to read books and watch cartoons. I am happy now, because I have friends that I can hang out with and play soccer.
I speak Kirundi, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, and I speak a little bit of French. Right now a little Spanish, like, “Hola, ¿como estas?”
I have a lot of friends who tell me, “Don’t be scared, just talk.”
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My coach from Highland High School tells me, “Don’t worry, just come to practice.” My freshman year, I was already in varsity, and it was all because I was working hard. I keep playing soccer, because it’s my whole life.
A worldly hub at Highland High
Every day, I wake up at 5 a.m. I catch a bus at 5:35 a.m. and I get to Highland at 7 a.m. It’s a little hard, because I need to take two buses. But it’s still worth it to go to Highland.
Highland is a very good school. If you have someone who speaks the same language, they can show you your classes. My friends would also invite me to play soccer. That’s how I met the coach. He saw me play, and he said I was good. The biggest problem at first was fixing my grades. And it took me a while, because I had to talk to the principal.
At first it was difficult to communicate with my teammates in the field. Most of the teammates speak Swahili or Spanish.
I’m not just going to hang out with my African friends, I want to hang out with everybody. I want to be nice to everybody. I want to respect everybody. All students know that I talk to everybody.
Challenges and visions
My mom works in a hotel, and my two sisters are also working in a hotel. They like it. They work hard to pay the rent.
My future goal is to be a doctor. I want to try to play soccer in college. I want to be a doctor so bad. I am going to try so hard to make my dreams come true.
I would tell refugee populations, “Welcome! Feel at home!” When I got here, all my friends helped me, and so I am going to help them if they come. I will welcome them to Highland High School.
School in Burundi is different than here. Some students here, they don’t listen to the teacher. But in Africa, all students listen to the teacher. You don’t do anything stupid in front of a teacher. If they kick you out, you are done, you don’t get to go to school anymore. You will just go find a job and go work. It’s not like here where you take a break, and you get a lunch. In Africa there is no lunch. You can’t talk in class or use a phone.
I am Muslim. In Africa, all my family is Muslim. We go pray in the mosque. We are sometimes scared, because people here say that all Muslims are terrorists. We are scared, but we just keep going to pray everyday. I would tell those people that it’s not true that all Muslims are terrorists.
Humans of New Mexico serves as a guest columnist at the Daily Lobo. The project can be contacted at humansofnm@gmail.com or on Instagram at @humansofnewmexico.
