My Life as an Immigrant: Being in the United States of America

By Pebbles Frederick

Searching for jobs to survive without a green card and trying to nd help as an immigrant. Then desperation comes in when you meet the wrong guy thinking he is going to help you. Watching someone run away with your money when you thought they are helping you le for you proper documents. Having to get arrested by the FBI and sleeping in a jail cell was a nightmare, then comes this tall handsome man into my life and offered to be my husband best man.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469164823

Pebbles Frederick

My name is Pebbles Frederick, Am originally from Trinidad I grow up in a village called Belle Vue in a family of seven kids and I am the baby of my siblings. At times things were hard for my mother having to take care of us without a father, but we make the best of things. I had my schooling in Trinidad and studied business and after I finish school I had a daughter and now she lives in Portland Oregon. And so I said some day I will love to go America and get a better life so I could help my brothers and sister just the way I saw the advertisement on the television about the big apple. I live in New York now in Brooklyn; I have a one room apartment. I want to tell the public how being an immigrant is really like and the things you go through without proper documents in the United States of America.

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Copyright © 2012 by Pebbles Frederick.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2012904299

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4691-6481-6

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4691-6480-9

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-6482-3

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My Life as an Immigrant

BEING IN THE United States of America was a dream come true for me. When I got my visa, I was so excited and full of joy that I was finally going to see the Big Apple.

I organized myself and got my ticket and packed my bags—even though everyone told me it was the month of November and it was cold here. I didn’t care—I was just excited and wanted to go to America.

I set out for the airport and boarded the plane. While I was on the plane, all I could think about was that this was a great opportunity for me and what I was going to do when I got to America.

When the plane finally landed in America, I got out at the airport where a friend of mine picked me up. I planned on staying at that friend’s house in Brooklyn for two weeks.

But when the fourth day passed, that friend of mine—who had been calling me her daughter since before I reached America—flip the script on me and started treating me like I had come there to be her personal slave- telling me, not asking me, to do this and to do that, such as take her grandkids to school. That was my first time ever being in America, and I didn’t even know where the front from the back was.

She monitored what I drank from the fridge, rarely cooked, and without ever mentioning a word of this to me before I came to visit her, the first weekend I was there, came and told me she was selling the house I was staying at with her and moving to Florida.

Hearing that from her without prior notice concerned me greatly because that was my first time in America, I came to visit her, I didn’t really know anyone else here except her, so I didn’t know what I was going to do, where to go, or who to call. She knew I didn’t have anywhere else to go yet she still told me I had to find somewhere else to go.

Lines formed on my forehead, my eyes stretched opened wide, and a sickening feeling hit me in the pit of my stomach, "Is this the start for me in America?"

Taking it in stride, not showing how I really felt, I went out into the street until I found a liquor store. I walked toward the entrance, pushed the door, and walked right in.

A guy from the Caribbean was selling Lotto tickets. I asked how to play the game. When he spoke to me, I asked what country he was from. He told me that he was from Trinidad.

I purchased couple of the lottery tickets and we both started talking a little. When I told him I was looking for a job, he told me what papers to buy and which section to look for a job.

I thank him and the Irish Echo classifieds for getting me my first job in America. I told him that the lady I was staying with was moving, and asked what he thought I should do.

He said the best thing to do was to get a live-in job where I could stay at the job doing housekeeping or babysitting so I didn’t have to go out much. If I stayed in one place, I could save some money to buy what I wanted for my family and me.

I took his advice and got myself a live-in job from Monday to Friday. When the Irish Echo papers came out on Wednesday morning, I returned after dropping her grandkids off at school. After picking up the papers, I looked for the guy at the liquor store to thank him.

He gave me his phone number so I could call him. I took it because I didn’t have a phone number to exchange. I told him that I would call him with my number when was settled.

When I went back to the house, I knew I had to act quickly because the lady and her grandkids were leaving that weekend.

I started looking into that classified section immediately and saw a few numbers to call. The best time to make a couple of calls was when the lady went to the doctor at 12:30. The first call I made was to New Jersey. The ad was for a housekeeper. The woman asked if I could come for an interview that same day at two o’clock in Springfield. I told her I could come but not at two o’clock because I was in Brooklyn. I had to wait for the lady to get back.

She was nice enough to say it was no problem. She gave me the address and told me which bus to take and where to take it.

I knew the lady was going to pick up the kids on her way home. I had time to get myself together—and she didn’t have to question me about where I was going.

I left a little note to tell her I would be back before six o’clock that evening because I was going to find a friend I could get situated with and have somewhere to stay.

I called the guy at the liquor store and gave him the good news. I asked him how to get the train to Manhattan. I asked the lady I was staying with how to get the train to Manhattan, but she said she had never taken a train in the US.

The guy at the liquor store told me where I should take the train. I went on my journey to seek the housekeeping job. I got to Manhattan and asked around to get the information I needed to get the correct bus to New Jersey.

When I got there, I was so proud of myself that I hadn’t gotten lost. I got to see the woman who needed the housekeeper and she offered me a cup of tea or coffee. She asked me how soon I could start working after getting some information about me.

I said, As soon as you need me, I’ll be ready.

She said, As soon as yesterday.

We both smiled. I said, That will be great, but I have to go get my clothes and I can start working tomorrow.

She gave me enough money to travel back to work the next day. I went back to Brooklyn and told the lady