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Picture by PCC ESOL student: Jennifer Barbosa Caro
A Level 5 Student Writes About Life in a New Country
New Beginning
Nobody talks about leaving your home and starting from scratch in a new country. It’s hard because you miss your home all the time. When I say home I mean the culture, family, friends, places and all those things that surrounded me and gave me peace. This new beginning has helped me to value everything I had in my country. For example, now I value my dad very much because he stayed by my side when I was sick, but now getting sick is the worst thing for me being in the US. I miss the love of them, the hugs, and the fights. But on the other hand, it makes me happy to have the possibility of giving details from a distance to my family and my boyfriend. I know that distance is not forever, but a year is a long time for me. Missing my home has made me a stronger person, and now I am convinced that if I could leave my country for a year and get away from the people I love most in my life, now I can achieve everything I propose in the future. Although I like to know the United States, I prefer Mexico. I count the days to go back and never let go again, because being where you feel happy doesn't compare to anything.
Written by: Alondra Avalos
A Level 5 Student Writes About Emergency Preparedness
Preparing for an Emergency
Emergency preparedness is important even if our lives are safe and wonderful. Have you ever wondered how you would survive if a disaster happened to you? What do you need to do to prepare? How do you prepare for emergencies? I have some suggestions. According Marcel Rodriguez, a Portland's NET (Neighborhood Emergency Teams) leader and instructor, you can prepare things such as water, food, light, warmth, communication, shoes, important documents, medicine, gas, etc. Water is the most important thing. If we don't have water, we can only survive for 3 days. Usually after an emergency, our water supply may not be available or safe to drink for 14 days. The general rule is to include one gallon of water per person per day in your emergency kit. You can purchase bottled water or use your own containers. If you select to use your own containers, you should replace the emergency water every 6 months, and it should be stored in a cool and dark location. In conclusion, water is essential to our survival. Hopefully this advice on emergency preparedness can help you.
Written by: Yihe Zhang
Students in level 5 read the short novel Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman. This novel includes 13 chapters about the stories of different people who live on Gibb Street and who work together to create a community garden. For this assignment, students had to write an additional chapter using their imagination and creativity. The idea was to invent a character and write a short story that could be connected to the whole novel.
Chapters are below:
Tatiana
My name is Tatiana. I moved to Cleveland last year with my parents and my brother. I am 10 years old. I didn’t like my view from the window, because I saw a dump. But one day some changes began and suddenly I saw a garden. It seemed I didn’t understand how it happened. Once a girl came up to me at school and said that she saw me in our apartment. I didn't speak English well, but we were able to talk a little. This girl was very kind to me. She often talked about her dad. Her father died very early and she never saw him. She wanted to do something for him. Suddenly, in the mornings, I sometimes began to see my girlfriend near the dump. I asked her what she was doing there. At first she didn't say anything. As if it was a very important secret for her. But then she shared that she planted lemon beans. I was very surprised. But she explained everything to me. And I also wanted to do something with her. But I was afraid of that place. And we decided to come with her and give water to the plants very very early in the morning. She and I decided to share our small field. And I understand her. She had a responsibility to her dad. After a while, we did not even understand how the miracle began to happen. And now she and I often remember the days when we ran from prying eyes to grow our beans.
Written by: Zlata Zemlianskaia
The Faith of a Seed
A seed the size of a walnut appeared in Schroeder's backyard. Later, all the neighbors came to see this miraculous seed. Everyone says the seed will bring fortune, others say it will bring disaster. 5 years ago, he started taking care of his sick mother and spent all his savings, but she still left him.
Schroeder went to the garden with the tools and this seed. Then Schroeder came to water him every day and take care of this magical seed. A year has passed and the seeds have not germinated. One of the friends said, "Don't waste time, go grow vegetables and distribute them to everyone", and then laughed. Schroeder was a little dazed, but he always felt that this seed represented his mother, and he didn't want to abandon this seed. Another year passed and the seed was like an unborn baby. Because the time has not come, it still cannot see the world, let alone see the changes of Schroeder in the past two years. Everyone thought Schroeder was mentally ill, a fool who spent two full years watering a seed that didn't germinate.
In the early hours of the morning, the neighbor's partner Dixie yelled at Schroeder to hurry to the garden. Schroeder didn't even have time to put on his shoes, and went straight to the garden barefoot. He came to his garden, already unearthed and sending forth tender green leaves. Schroeder stood crying in front of the plants, feeling his mother was looking at him in another way. Schroeder hopes it will bear fruit and keep life going.
Written by: Tinghe Xu (Terina)
Habib
I am an immigrant coming from the Middle East with my wife and daughter. We live in a residential apartment in an old neighborhood, which is located near Gibb Street. I work as a cashier in a grocery store near my residence.
One day I was returning from my work and I saw a vacant lot (empty piece of land) filled with rubbish, and some of the residents of the neighborhood were cleaning, each one cleaning a piece of this place.I stopped for a while to see what this place was, which was filled with waste and bad smells. They removed so much trash that the lot became clean and some plants grew from it. It's really amazing.
After one day, someone invited me to join them in their community. I was very happy and joined this community. I cleaned a piece of waste and planted some seeds. I love tomatoes, cucumbers and some vegetables. Yes, everything has become interesting to look at. My cultivation has grown, and everything has become green. The garden has become a center for cultural exchange and communication.The area is now full of life. This shows that a community working together can do many positive things.
Written By: Adel Kamel
Hye
The dahlias can mean a lot of things and it doesn't matter how I try to separate the dahlias from my life. Wherever I look there are dahlias. One day while I was walking through the street, coming back from my home, I couldn't stop myself from crying when I saw the dahlias in the flower shop because the dahlias were always his favorite flower. Honestly I don't think escaping from Korea was a good idea. My mother says that in this place there are no plants. There are no plants in an urban environment, but she lied. I realized when I saw the empty lot in front of my building full of flowers and plants of many different kinds. Then I started to hate this place more than I hate Korea.
It doesn't matter how bad the weather was, there's always people in the garden taking care of their flowers and plants. I wanted to die. He used to say that the flowers give color to life. He gave color to my life, but he is not here anymore. What should I do now? What should I do in this gray city? What should I do instead of sinking in the abyss? It hurts so much! He died and I was dying. Then one day while I was having an anxiety attack in my lonely home, somebody knocked at the door. When I opened the door, there was nobody there. But there is a flower pot. There were dahlias. I took the flower pot in my hands and when I was about to throw it in the trash, I looked at the lot with plants in front of my building. It looked so alive! Something I can't see in myself. Then I thought these dahlias do not deserve misery. Without thinking too much about my actions, I took one big spoon and left my apartment, feeling my tears run down my cheeks. When I was standing on the ground, an unexplainable peace covered me. My legs failed and I fell on my knees and I didn't know what I was doing. But I kept doing it. I made a hole in the ground with the spoon. I got the dahlias out of the flower pot and I put them in the hole, I couldn't stop crying. My breath left my chest. Maybe it was a moment to let him go.
Written by: Magda Guagalupe Sánchez Maldonado
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