Dyaspora

Dyaspora is a story written by Joanne Hyppolite which is about herself, a little Haitian girl moving from her home country to the U.S. in Boston.

In her house, she lives in her own native culture and traditions but outside of her house she lives in U.S. culture and traditions and she has to get used to living like this. This hard for her because she is an outsider and everyone looks at her differently. Throughout the story, she adapts to the new environment and is happy because she knows that she is now a part of the U.S. society.

Narrative Essay

You are a 13-year old girl who has been living in the US for a couple years, 2 1/2 years to be exact. Your first home was in Boston, Massachusetts and you later moved to Florida. You moved to Florida because your parents thought that there is a better chance for job opportunities and also because of the larger population of immigrants that live in Florida. Your parents think that you are more likely to fit in where there are more people like you; more immigrants and more people new to the US. Even though you have been living in the US and are used to the lifestyle, you still feel safer and more secure in an environment that is more similar to yours. In your first home in Boston, you lived in a small home with your family different from the outside community. In your home, you lived in your own culture. You lived eating Haitian foods like sos pwa (beans poured over white rice) and drinking Haitian drinks like kremas (coconut milk with a little bit of alcohol). You also listened to Haitian music and had Haitian traditions, like being called different names at home, or having your mother speak French and you respond in American. These were the ways of your new home. At your new school, people looked at you and treated you differently. You were an outsider and at times wished you never had moved to the US. Everything you did outside school was different than everyone else and it wasn't a good feeling. You would hear people looking at and laughing at you and you would never know what they said. You would also walk into a room and have everyone stop what they are doing because they are concerned about the new, different-looking person that just walked into the room. This was the feeling that all immigrants felt, and it was a scary, unsettling feeling. After a while, thinks changed. People started to accept you and you weren't looked at as an outsider anymore. You were becoming part of the society. For immigrants, this is a great feeling. This feeling of acceptance, and welcome, a rare feeling that all immigrants wish to experience, a feeling like you don't have a problem in the world. After a while, this became normal. You started to talk with other kids and hang out with them. Doing activities like playing sports, sleepovers, or just coming over for dinner with your family. This becomes your life now and you start to forget the feeling of being an outsider. This changes however when you find out that you are moving to a new place, a strange place called Florida. This scares you, the feeling of being an outsider comes back into your mind and you become frightened. Frightened by the fact that you will become an outsider again. You tell your parents that you don't want to leave but they don't listen. They tell you that they need to find more job opportunities and that they won't get these opportunities if they stay. They tell you that we are leaving in a month and that we would be having a goodbye party the night before we leave. You are now telling all your new friends about leaving to Florida. Your friends tell you about Florida, its sunny weather, its hot beaches, and it friendly people. Because of this, you don't feel as sad, but you are still disappointed about leaving your new home after finally settling in. The night before your departure, there is a big party for you and your family. It is filled with lots of food and lots of goodbye presents. You see all your friends for the last time and they all give you something to remember them. The next day you are on a plane heading for the strange new place called Orlando, Florida. When you arrive, you move into your new house and see the home for the first time that you will be living in. After settling into your new home, you get the chance to go from house to house to meet your neighbors. You have the feeling of being an outsider, but it isn't that bad because you have already gone through the experience. It also isn't that bad because most of your neighbors are also immigrants or families from other countries new to America. This makes you feel so much better and you don't even feel like being an outsider anymore. Also to your surprise, about half the kids at your school are either immigrants or kids of non-American background. When you get home, you tell your parents that school is great because people are already starting to accept you and you are already becoming a part of the community. This tells you that moving to Florida wasn't so bad after at all.