I arrived in USA from South Africa less than a month ago and wanted to share my long, hard and expensive journey to make it here. No, I am not one of those refugees you recently saw arriving into the USA on TV being greeted by government officials, I came on my own before they actually arrived. Incase you are wondering, I came into America the legal way, we followed the protocols and got all our visas and paper work done which was a slow expensive process due to the exchange rate.
The trip took lots of planning, almost a year and it was a HUGE sacrifice and expense to me and my family, its the biggest risk so far that Iv taken, big because it involves the safety, protection and well-being of my wife and kids. Financially it was also the biggest risk as Iv literally put all our life savings in 1 very risky uncertain basket. It was also quite an emotional toll on us all as we literally had to give up everything we had including our loving pets and all our family, friends, familiarity and our country of birth, not knowing if we will ever have the opportunity of seeing those people ever again or if we would make it here, we secured only a few small sentimental items but we basically had to refine our life's possessions into 1 suitcase each and a backpack, thats it and we came from a big house, big property so we had lots of things.
The trip was long as we didnt fly here directly, it was tiering and we suffered from jet lag when we arrived and 3 days later we all fell ill, with 3 small children we arrived at our destination tired, hungry, thirsty and disorientated. Unfortunately the people who were supposed to help us when we arrived in the US, some family members and one who became a US citizen some time back, let us down and werent able to help us for quite a few days due to some complications and difficulties of their own that we found out later. For about 10 days we had a very dark cloud over us and lived 10 days of hell, it got to the point where I actually had regrets of coming here and worried that I might have made a huge mistake and I even apologized to my wife for leading us here.
It was a shock for me when I arrived as everything is so different to back home and with no help and guidance I almost felt like a new born baby unable to navigate on my own. I know it might sound strange but even taking a shower or turning on a light or opening a door was all a challenge, my wife couldnt even turn on the shower by herself and had to wait for me to get back home from the grocery store to help her, a store that I struggled to buy 3 simple items from, it took me 30min due to all all the products being new to me and all the bright luminous packaging and just how different things work here. Turning on the shower is totally different to back home and even plugging a bath tub I had to call someone to assist me, it so happened the wrong plug was left in the wrong bath tub so it didnt work.
America is a very advanced country, in South Africa we open and close our doors with locks and keys, In America they use keyless locking systems with a digital passcode or access cards, totally foreign to me. All these new things (which are great) made my initial adjustment very difficult.
Fortunately a member of the forum @chancevought whom I had already been in contact with since last year came to our rescue and showed us some real American kindness, he took time out of his day and drove an hour to come and see us and to loan us a car and was the first person to teach me how to drive here as we drive on the other side of the road back home and showed me how to fill up the petrol tank (we have petrol attendants in SA) he also asked us to write him a list of basic survival items we needed, in this part of America Im in you cant survive or do anything without a car or cellphone, we didnt have transport and outside of wifi our phones didnt work, I didnt know whats north or south up or down, the exchange rate from our rands to USD is also terrible and our money is basically worthless here, like peanuts. Our children ate everyday but my wife and I didnt have a decent meal for many days, the best meal I had was at Chance Vought house when I dropped him off in his car, his wife made us hot dogs, Chance Vought said I could have as many as I wanted, I didnt tell him but that was THE best meal I had in days thanks buddy! His wife also packed us a whole lot of oat bars for my kids and a huge bag of chicken nuggets which we still rationing until today, life savers.
Americans are very friendly, kind and helpful people and besides all the amazing help Chance Vought gave us including pots, pans, mugs, plates, great set of knives etc etc other people we met also gave us brand new blankets and even furniture and other household items. When I arrived in the US I stayed at a very low budget hotel with only 2 beds in a single room and we are 5 people with nothing, no cutlery, no broom, no dish clothe or sponge etc so these basic items Chance Vought brought to us were life savers, I no longer had to sweep the floor with toilet paper or wash my plastic disposable cup with the small complimentary shampoo with my bare hands. The hotel staff were all non white but very very friendly, welcoming, kind and helpful, some of the hotel guests you could tell were doggy people like drug addicts but even so we were well treated by them and people even held doors open for us and always smiled and said hello. A higher percentage of the guests were black at the second hotel we moved to as we needed a bigger room which we got, the first hotel more hispanics, once we got the car from Chance Vought we moved around to 3 other places trying to get the best deals and find better living conditions, it wasnt easy moving around all the time with all our luggage and 5 people all squashed into 1 car, it became tiring.
Things have turned around since then and we are doing MUCH better now, we are in contact with our family and see them often now and we have transport and can make calls and texts (no data yet we are told our phones are not compatible in USA), we have a nice place we are staying at that was offered to us for 1 month before the previous owners lease expires, we are all well and have now adjusted and we have the ball rolling, we still have hurdles and challenges coming but God has helped us up to this point.
I am very impressed with America It's a great country, people have a high living standard here, fuel is cheap, great products and stores everywhere, America has a bad name for unhealthy foods but there are many good quality foods too and lots of organic products too, I can also see so far that there are lots of opportunities here to earn a decent living that I havent seen in other countries, no shortage of work and business opportunities. The nature is great too, lots of wildlife and big open spaces everywhere mixed inbetween city and suburban life.
I know there are people on the forum who dont like AI but chat GPT has been our best friend here and really helped us with information and even to fill out documents and forms, get info and demographics of neighborhoods and schools ANY information, we are using chat GPT daily its been a life saver in a foreign land.
In closing, if anyone on here would like to advise me on my asylum process if you have any expertise in this process pls DM me, anyone who lives in America and would like to share some helpful info and advise for me and my family about anything feel free to comment I would greatly appreciate. I would also like to ask for your prayers for me and my family, for those who pray, that Gods will be done and for guidance for us
