NOLAbeings

“I'm a first generation Lebanese American. My parents both escaped during the Lebanese Civil War to find a better life. My mom says a lot of the French Quarter reminds her of Beirut - especially the Achrafieh neighborhood. Lebanon is probably the most beautiful country in the world… I'm definitely biased! And the people are super kind and resilient. But it's a country that has forever experienced so much heartache... Right now, I'm balancing working in the hospital (in New Orleans) and working on this campaign that my brother Peter and I started. At first the campaign was an effort to raise money for our family and neighbors in Beirut, Lebanon after the blast, because their neighborhood was significantly affected. But it got so successful within a couple of days that we expanded our efforts to helping more families devastated by explosion. We have a couple of my cousins in the neighborhood identifying people who really need help and money - and we're sending them money directly. It's pretty awesome. They basically find these people that our family knows, or that have been identified by the UN or NGOs that haven't been able to help to them yet. They send me their case, their name, pictures of their destroyed homes, and then I text them on WhatsApp or call them and I'm like "Hey, this is George - I'm with the campaign that my cousin Lea just showed you. I'm going to send you $500 through Western Union right now."⁠ There is this one old woman who was very close to my grandmother - she used to play with me and my brother when we were little. Her family’s house got destroyed. Right away, we called the family and said 'We're sending you money right now.' She sent me this really nice voice message over WhatsApp… 'Thank God, I can't believe this. We have just been praying every day.' I wish I were there right now because I want to help in person, but it feels good to do what we can from afar.” – To learn more about the GoFundMe fundraiser, visit https://gf.me/u/ynjiag (link in bio). #nolabeings #neworleans https://www.instagram.com/p/CECqnMUgpQi/?igshid=4rbtlq840767

"I’m New Orleans born and raised. I graduated from Carver in 2001 so to go back home and teach there gave me an instant connection inside of the classroom. I really have a cheat sheet, because I sat in the same seats that they sit in. They want to hear what it was like back then. If I say something, you could hear a pin drop. And it's not because I'm about to say anything profound. My biggest joy from teaching is building solid relationships. This was my first year teaching seniors. I started with one picture on the wall because I went to one of the kid's basketball games and I took a picture of Speedy shooting a free throw. I didn't say anything about it - I just put this picture up. So of course everyone comes in like 'Oh! How'd Speedy get on the wall? What'd he do to get on the wall?' Come to my classroom now, I got 175 pictures up there. The students started bringing pictures - 'I wanna put my mom on the wall! I wanna put my grandma on the wall!' It's little stuff like that, bringing a sense of community inside the classroom. School is a seven hour relief of whatever problems [the students] have going on outside of this. I always keep that in the forefront of my mind. I understand the struggle that you took to get here. Your lights are out. Your water's off. Your mama ain't home. Your daddy ain't home. There ain't nobody fending for you and you still made the choice to come here. The relationships that I'm building are like: I'm at your Thanksgiving dinner table. I'm at your daughter's 1st birthday. I'm at your wedding. Those are the type of relationships that you get to build when you intentionally teach or you intentionally love or you intentionally fill the space with joy. You always want to be optimistic in the times that we're in, right? Because sometimes school is the only safe haven that the babies have. But then you think, is this safe? In this time - are we really going to be able to house a building full of people? It's almost a Catch-22. You want to make sure that everybody's getting taken care of, but then you always second guessing, is this the best choice for the school? For the students? Is this the best choice for families? For teachers?" https://www.instagram.com/p/CDMqgKBAFo7/?igshid=1h4983m8lsias

“It’s a difficult time at the Orleans Public Defenders. A big portion of our budget comes from traffic tickets and court fees, which means that if people aren’t getting speeding tickets and our own clients aren’t being convicted, we have to make hard cuts, like cutting our expert fund, which pays for services like DNA testing and psychiatric exams – services that people with money can pay for themselves. For example, this is Emmanuel Benjamin. He was 17 when he was accused of firing a gun at a Mardi Gras parade, a very serious offense. It's a Mardi Gras parade, it's chaos. People are running everywhere, hiding or trying to get away. Emmanuel, he was there with family but with a group of friends at the time, and just like everyone else, when he heard the shot he ran. Then, an officer said, 'I saw him. This is the person that fired the gun.' The gun went off at least 5 blocks away from where Emmanuel was stopped. But this officer said that he was sure. When I met Emmanuel he said, 'I was there. I ran. But I didn't do it.’ He played football at his high school, got good grades, and had never been in serious trouble. But, that kind of crime has a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 3 years, and a trial would come down to this one police officer saying he was somehow certain it was Emmanuel, and us saying there’s no way he could really be sure it was him. But the expert fund changed everything. It paid for us to send the gun for DNA testing, and guess what? Someone’s DNA was on it, but it wasn’t Emmanuel’s. It could not have been him, and the officer was just plain wrong – but with this test, now we could prove it! Emmanuel’s case was dismissed and he didn't have to go to trial risking 3-15 years of his teenage life, because we could fund a simple DNA test. This service vanished because of our insecure funding structure – and sure, staff is furloughed and that's uncomfortable and hard for many people. But what each one of those people cares about is how it's affecting our clients. Emmanuel straight up did not do it, and an entire year and half of his high school life was spent worrying about going to prison for something that he didn't do.” #nolabeings https://www.instagram.com/p/CCblWPUg-8h/?igshid=1vm5sko5m1qlb

“My mom put me in violin when I was 7. At the time, I was doing ballet and karate. I saw that there was a violin class and it looked interesting. It was really hard. I thought I wouldn't be able to do it because I'm left-handed and you have to use your right hand. But I went through it. My teacher always said that I was really good and that I was his best (sight) reader in class, so I got faith in myself after he told me that a few times. Music is my thing. So I'm also learning how to play the guitar, the piano and I'm learning how to sing. When I'm playing the piano, sometimes the notes I play feel weird. Like, F and G are best friends and E got in the middle of it and now E and F are best friends and it's like a story but not exactly a story that's going on. I'm not exactly sure what I mean. It’s just like the notes are going through a situation. I was trying to write a song for violin and when I was trying to play it, I noticed that the rhythms didn't go well together, so I had to re-write it and it still didn't sound good. But I do enjoy writing music. I like figuring out what the notes are or if they're quarter rest, half rest, full rest or quarter note. I want to become a musician and I wanna play more than just four different instruments. The minimum of instruments I want to play is nine. I don't know why - I just feel like I want to do nine.” #nolabeings #neworleans https://www.instagram.com/p/CB00fJGgxk2/?igshid=1xgsv7stkpgm5

“I have always been a caregiver. When I was younger, I was the one who took care of the younger cousins and then when my grandparents - my great grandmother and my grandmother - when they got sick, I was the one who took care of them a lot. So going into a profession like nursing just seemed to make sense. Because of this virus, it has made it difficult to touch our patients in the same way. The physicality of nursing - we're always touching our patients to care for them. And when you're doing it in this layer of PPE that is hot and uncomfortable and you have this layer of fear on top of that, it doesn't feel like we're doing the same kind of job. Like, you don't want to contract it and you don't want to spread it to other people - and we're trying to minimize how much we're in the rooms… we're not really doing all of that intimate care that we normally do. One day I had been having just a particularly hard day, like, had already seen a lot of people pass away. But there was one thing that really kind of made me laugh and brought some tears to my eyes. And it seems like something so simple and silly but there are lots of drawings and thank you notes posted all over all of the units. A lot from younger kids. And there was this one in particular that was a rainbow and something else and it said , "YOU’RE AWESOME" but was totally spelled wrong. And it was so big that it really stuck out. So walking out and seeing that really touched my heart because it was like ‘Ok, these are the people that we're doing this for.’ There are still like these sweet little children out there in the world who are hopeful and learning and have everything ahead of them.” #nolabeings #neworleans https://www.instagram.com/p/CBylH4KgXP9/?igshid=u4leevsl9xjy

“I remember the day I became a father. I was young - 17. I had my first daughter. And all the things that I used to do - I stopped. I just love kids. I have seven kids now. My last daughter, she's 2 years old. That what brings me joy and happiness. My family. I've been working for Metro for over seven years now and we've been on strike for seven weeks now. 3:30 in the morning we get up from our beds and our kids and our wives to help the community get the garbage up. All we're asking for is better living wages - $15/hour. Right now we make $10.25. We asking for correct PPE. We asking for $150 of hazard pay - we not asking too much! That's all we asking for. But we can't get a response from them. We got trucks that leak hydraulic fluid all day. The trucks you be seeing - hydraulic fluid be leaking on us. But we manage to work so we can take care of our bills. It's like they don't even care about us. And we are exposed to the corona. We are frontline. They give us one pair of gloves. You gotta come early just to get a mask! When I go home, I get so much love from my kids that they run to me when they hear the door open. And I gotta say, 'Oh no you can't come on daddy right now because I'm exposed!' They want to give me a hug, but I can't. My kids, they got me on the right path. The love that they give me - I love 'em so much. That's where all my joy come from - them. Keeping them on the right path, making sure they do right at school. I give them whatever they want. I got honor roll students at home. That's all I want, 'cause I ain't graduate. It gives me joy to see what they accomplished with daddy there. That's why I'm trying to fight for better living wages. I want better for them. I want to buy me a nice house where my kids could run around in big ol' rooms! Let's get this together and make these jobs better. Not just the garbage! Everybody. Everybody that's being underpaid, mistreated! Once you pay your bills, you got little coins in your pocket. But what about something in the bank? It would be a better world.” #nolabeings #neworleans #supportthehoppers #happyfathersday —- Support: gofundme.com/f/helping-the-essential + follow @thecitywasteunion https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtp_p3gAdN/?igshid=1cigh9br6d0vf

“I'm a 65 year old grandmother, great-grandmother, and one of the first four to desegregate public schools here in New Orleans in 1960. This is the school that I was part of helping desegregate. I can remember coming in the first morning. We got to St. Claude and got to the front of the building: masses of people. But it didn't stand out to me that they were all white. Being six years old, the only thing I could relate it to was that a parade was coming. And they were waiting and I needed to know why I had to go to school when a parade as coming. I saw police on horseback holding the crowd back. It looked like Mardi Gras. I forgot about it for so long, I didn't even share that with my kids for a long time. And it just didn't seem like it was important to anybody else. It took ten years for me to acquire this building. When I came back after Katrina, we found out that there was only going to be one school in this whole area where there was like, 5 to 7 schools. The lower ninth ward was suffering - we needed something to energize it. I thought this building was in a prime location to bring people back together. We've been planning for years. We might have started out one way and we ending up a whole 'nother way this time. We are going to do on the first floor Undoing Racism workshops and gatherings where people can have dialogue and some kind of reconciliation to this building. We'll have our programming for the youth - I want to do some kind of entrepreneurship for the youth in the cafeteria area. And then the second and the third floor will be 25 affordable units for 55 or older. I feel like if this building was complete, it would be packed with people. There's so much we need to learn about racism. Hopefully this building will play a big part in helping people come to that understanding. I hope I see busloads of children running through that door. And not just children, we all need to be educated on this. Nobody is born racist. You're taught that. I think we could teach it better. We welcome everybody. Put the word out there, we'll be here soon.” #nolabeings #neworleans https://www.instagram.com/p/CBoYouVAHZn/?igshid=10ghjpdt5ncfi

[2/2] “We just got past Cristobal, but I want to say to the city, there's another storm brewing up and it's happening sooner than later. On the 15th of this month, eviction court is going to open up. Those people who didn't pay their rent, now the land owners can take them to court. That's a STORM that's brewing up out there. I want to tell the city and anyone that's listening that there shouldn't be no evictions. We should hold the federal government responsible for this pandemic. I think they should pay, they should pay people's rent or mortgage, whatever it is, until we get through this pandemic. When there's enough jobs so people can be able to go back and become independent and pay their rent. You can't all of a sudden start evicting people because now you claim the pandemic is over. You're saying conflicting things. You say, 'The pandemic is not gone...' but now you gon’ open up the city. Now you're going to open up eviction court. Where are people going?! There's no jobs - you done took away all the jobs - you say you're only bringing 25% of the workforce back. What do you want to do with the people that's not working? People are afraid that in July when unemployment run out, what's going to be the next meal on their plate? And you want to evict?! It's a disaster. We need to keep the eviction courts closed.” #nolabeings #neworleans https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbNViTgK0t/?igshid=1rxl3l99qtbih

[1/2] “I come up out of Brick City - we call it a project. They had 1,500 units. Bricks and mortar. When you add up ones and twos and threes, we’re talking about 4,000 people living in one area. We was a village! Back in the 60s when I was coming up, there was the Panther Party. They would pull us before school to go to this program they had and we'd eat breakfast. And in that program, I seen that we was a village. We had our gardens, we shared, there wasn't crime, people would support each other. The Panther was in control. They had signs, 'Pigs stay out!' They wouldn't let the police come in. Whatever conflict that we had in that neighborhood, big mama would figure it out. Or the elder would figure it out. 'Y'all put on your gloves and get some boxing on.' We'd fight. We figured it out! So from that - I learned that if something's broke, you fix it. We've got the power, if we organize, to fix it. I learnt that and it stuck with me. Unfortunately, coming out of the projects, I went to jail on a bogus charge they got me on. Wound up giving them 2 years on that. When I was in parish jail, I saw a system that was broke. They give you a TV and you got 65 men that's in one spot, and all of 'em watch BET or women shaking - and they used to be fighting about that. I just look at them like 'This is crazy!' So what me and three other guys did, we got together, wrote up a petition, and went around individually, 'Man, sign the petition - we need books and libraries here. Y'all fighting over TV. What if we had an option?' If you wanted something to read you had to buy a magazine - Ebony or something - that was costing you $4 back then. People didn't have that kind of money. Through organizing, getting a petition, we got all those 65 guys to sign it, sent the note over to the other side, so we got everybody to sign it. And in three days, we had a library. That alone came from the Panther Party… the way I was raised. We were a community. And I knew we were stronger together. That's embedded in me - that people collectively can change something.” #nolabeings #neworleans https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbNCpbAKot/?igshid=1idtluagj1zwh

“I knew the update was going to happen December 16th at 4 pm. At this point, I had only applied to Yale, because with Yale, it's restrictive Early Action, which means you can only apply to one school early. I was like, 'Okay, you know, the odds are way against me. This is kind of a long shot.' I was starting to think about other schools I would apply to, not really preparing my applications, but looking into it. December 16th came and I stress-baked three batches of cookies and 60 cupcakes. I was either going to decorate the cupcakes with 'Yale 2024' or I was going to not, and was just going to have Christmas cupcakes to cheer me up. Four o'clock came, and my friends were there with me, but my mom and dad are at work. So we're all on FaceTime, and the internet's not working of course, because that's the moment where it needs to crash. And, I click 'View Status Update' and a screen comes up that it's buffering. And then the link to play the video pops up, and I play it, and it's the Bulldogs fight song. And Mom and Dad start bawling on the phone, and I start crying and we're reading through the letter. I kind of knew going into Yale with their financial aid and with my mom's income, it would definitely be cheaper even than going to LSU, but this year was the first year that they kind of upped the qualifications for full tuition and we happened to fall in that income range. So, they're actually paying me $2,000 to move in! So that was part of the tears. It was the night of the Saints game, Monday Night Football, and my mom was working downtown right by the Superdome. She takes the bus to and from work and so she's trying to get on the bus and she sends me this picture of her surrounded by people and the caption is: 'When you're just trying to get home to kiss your baby 'cause she just got into Yale, but there's traffic and football.' It was so sweet. And then I decorated all the cupcakes with 'Yale' and I gave them to all my teachers and my classmates.” #nolabeings #neworleans #classof2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/CBRNws3gL_q/?igshid=d7vnt01c405y

“I'm tired of waking up every day and seeing my people being slaughtered in the streets. For me, I want to be able to go out into the world and not fear that my daughter's life is at risk. I want to make sure that when I'm coming home at night, I AM going to come up at night, ultimately. I want to make sure that my brothers are out into the world doing what they want to do when they want to do it. Not being targeted for being black.⁠ Every story moves me. Sandra Bland: she's a black woman, I'm a black woman. George Floyd: he's a black man. I have three black brothers. I have black friends. I grew up in an all black community. When I see that my people are being treated unjustly, it hurts.⁠ I teach my daughter to treat everyone fairly, because at the end of the day, we're human first. Before any skin tone, before race, before anything else. You treat people the way that you want to be treated in life. Right?”⁠ “Yeah!”⁠ “I want to know that when I apply for a job, I'm not going to be discriminated against. I want to know that when my daughter goes to school, she's going to be treated fairly and get a fair education. I want to know that my daughter is going to grow up with the same opportunities in life as the kids who go off and their parents have millions of dollars. I want to know that because of the color of my daughter's skin, she will never be treated any different from anyone else. That's one of my main reasons I'm here. I'm sick of it. I'm tired of waking up every day - every other day - it's ridiculous. Today I'm here for George Floyd, but I'm also here for every other person that's been treated unjustly in this world. So for me it's deep. It's deep. I demand change. It's not fair.” #nolabeings #neworleans #blacklivesmatter https://www.instagram.com/p/CA5tgOngjf5/?igshid=15zbqvxhk96mk

“I feel passionate about living and celebrating life. I used to be in the streets. I've been profiled, mistreated by police. It happens often. But I'm proud of my accomplishments and I'm proud of my change. I used to be a whole different person. I have three kids. I teach them how to be their self and how to be smart and learn everything they can learn - not to be ignorant. My last kid, he made me really change... my last son. [When he was born], I just wanted to experience everything because I lost out on that with my first kids because I was in jail. My son is 10 now. He's honor roll. He's good with computers, games, all that. All the teachers love him. And he's really diverse. He's about to start his own YouTube channel, all he needs is a mic! He teaches me how to love and how to keep on striving. To never give up. He's my motivator.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ We need to come together as people, and with love, you know what I'm saying? We don't need that ignorant stuff going on. And everybody needs to vote. Especially black people who just be chilling because they feel like something ain't going to change for them at this point in time.” #nolabeings #neworleans #blacklivesmatter https://www.instagram.com/p/CA1dY9mgJUI/?igshid=1l2g74b881dg6

“I went through a hard time, I'd just gotten out of a divorce, you know, and my kids were still young. It was rough because I didn't have support. I knew I had to do this all by myself and stop feeling pity and I just had to kind of, stand up and do what I had to do and be positive.⁠ The key for me was that I started reading the Bible. I started reading some verses. I started having a relationship with God. I believe 100% that's what led me to the right path. He blessed me with so many good people in front of me and it just made it so easy. At the same time, as a nurse I was working long shifts at the hospital. I'd take care of patients when they come from the emergency room or just out of surgery. When I'd see people who were really sick or injured, you know, I always felt this powerful spirit and just talked to them positive 'cause not everybody's positive, you know? People will come in negative. You'll tell somebody 'Good morning' and they're like, 'What's so good about it?' I'm like, 'Well, you breathing.' I go, 'You're breathing, regardless of what you're going through.'  But I go, 'It's not forever, you know. This ain't forever, this is just a short period of time.'⁠ And if that person says 'thank you' and if that person's smiling and I know that person feels blessed, then it makes you feel so good, like you did something good.” #nolabeings #neworleans Thank you to @porchtalknola for transcribing this interview! https://www.instagram.com/p/CAvq09cgjgy/?igshid=12q3ro1ai63od

“I'm from Plaquemines Parish. My first semester of college at LSU was September 11th and my last semester was Katrina. My life was book-ended by two disasters. And after college I was in the army for 8 years. When I Ieft for the army, I was like 'Agh, I'm tired of Louisiana. I'm out.' My whole time in the army I was stationed in Europe unless I left for deployment to Afghanistan or Africa. So I had a lot of time to go to Spain and to France and to Italy. All these places. The more I traveled all over the world, the more I realized there really is no place like New Orleans. Like you just can't - it's just not the same. So then I got my Master's in Disaster Resilience and started doing a lot with that.⁠ In Disaster Resilience studies I realized New Orleans is super unique in that in that – if you think of natural disasters occurring in the Midwest, if it wipes out the whole town, people can leave that town and go to the next town over, or even four towns over, even to the next state, and they'll probably have 90% of the culture they had in their own town. You know just, same restaurants, same music, same everything. You can't get New Orleans anywhere else. I think honestly that's what brought New Orleans back, 100%. Culture. And that's kind of what bothers me the most now. Affordability is key and we don't have affordable housing. The people that create culture can't even afford to be here anymore. What's it going to be like when this next disaster comes through and just wipes everything out, and all the people that make culture don't come back, or can't come back, or don't want to come back because they can't afford to live here anymore?” #nolabeings #neworleans Thanks to @megustafson for transcribing this interview! https://www.instagram.com/p/CAtK7TSgtCX/?igshid=139qclz268ev3

“Right when we were heading in to have her at the hospital is kind of when everything changed in the city. She was born March 11th … that was the day that Touro put in place all its new Covid-19 procedures. The night before, they called us and said 'You can only bring one person, and no visitors, and your partner has to get temperature checked.' It all wasn’t clear yet, you know, that it was going to be wildly different. We just thought they were being cautious. She was born healthy, and we’re healthy. And that’s great. And then the day we left (the hospital) was the day schools closed. That Friday, we (found out) we’d have Emma home with us too for a while. I’m really lucky to be on maternity leave. I don’t really know how people are doing this and working from home.” #nolabeings #neworleans ⁠⠀ Thanks to @rocksferjocks for transcribing this interview! https://www.instagram.com/p/CAngymFApZa/?igshid=12v4osgsx0cu3

“Last week I was at my friend's house and I brought my laptop because college is important right now. I have to figure out everything that’s goin' on. So when I got the financial package from Grinnell, I texted my college counselor – and I was like ‘Can you please explain these numbers to me? I’m not about to evaluate all this. It’s too many numbers.’ He was like ‘Are you crazy? Dude, you got a full ride!’ And I’m like, ‘You serious?’ Then I called him, and he explained everything to me about the scholarships and the grants and all that. And I was just like, oh my gosh, so excited. He was like ‘Are you happy?’ and I’m like ‘Yea I’m happy!’ Because financial was my biggest concern. I knew I was gon’ take the rest of my life to pay off student debt. So I’m like ‘whew, that’s a big relief.’ I’m the first in my family to go to college college, like the big university. My mama was like – ‘Wait, where is Grinnell again? Like two hours away?’ And I’m like, ‘No no, Grinnell is in Iowa.’  And she was like ‘Iowa that’s up there?’ And I’m like ‘That’s the only Iowa I know.’ And then she was like “Well, we just gon’ move with you.” She not gonna move with me... I’ve always been interested in politics. I always wanted to run for office. It’s just a goal of mine, long term goal. I'm inspired by Michelle Obama. She's always stood up for people like me. Black, women of color, women period. And she always did great things. The whole presidency she always did great things and even after. And I just always felt like I wanted somebody to look up to me as I look up to her. Success for me would be if my senior year of college, a lot of people know me for – I win debates in class, I fight for what I believe in, I help everybody, I stand up for everybody. That’s what I’m known for. People look up to me, I’m well respected. Success is if people see me as the girl who never stopped, who always kept going and then still wasn’t satisfied.” #nolabeings #neworleans #classof2020 #congratulationsseniors https://www.instagram.com/p/CAVu-sPA-TZ/?igshid=lw1lmc8b3dff

“I think it happened around my birthday. I had cried about it, because my parents were like, we can't afford you going anywhere, you'll have to study here. And I love Honduras, but I felt like I had to go somewhere else to be able to get other opportunities. After opening the letter, I remember feeling euphoric and then telling my dad, 'Have you ever felt like things are too good to be true? Like this is not real?' But it was real! I got a full scholarship at UNO.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ My family, they were sad that I was leaving, but they've told me before that sometimes they feel better about me being here than over there. All my family's in Honduras right now. My parents live with my grandma and they're all kind of high risk, basically. So it was just really scary at first, and I had the feeling of powerlessness. Like, what can I do? Is there anything I can do? Thankfully I had this relationship with Familias Unidas, and with Leti and Mario. They actually called me when everything was starting and they were like 'Hey are you okay?' because they know that I'm alone. And I was like 'Yeah... is there anything I can do?' They told me what they were doing, so I joined. And I was like, I can totally do this. This feels right. This is solidarity. This is us helping our own community.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ When we were starting to get more phone calls and more donations, and it was a lot of work, but we were going somewhere and helping a lot of people... Mario said, 'We're all here out of love.' I could relate to that a lot, because I feel that with all the people who are organizing or volunteering. They're here because we love our community and because we believe that we have to take care of each other. Even though the government, or people in power don't care or don't think that some people deserve to be taken care of, we believe in love and community.” #nolabeings #neworleans -- “Creo que sucedió alrededor de mi cumpleaños. Había llorado por eso, porque mis padres decían, no podemos permitirnos que vayas a ningún lado, tendrás que estudiar aquí. Y amo a Honduras, pero sentí que tenía que ir a otro lado para poder tener otras oportunidades. Después de abrir la carta Recuerdo que me sentí eufórico y luego le dije a mi papá: '¿Alguna vez has sentido que las cosas son demasiado buenas para ser verdad? ¿Como si esto no fuera real? Pero fue real! Obtuve una beca completa en ONU. Mi familia, estaban tristes de que me fuera, pero antes me habían dicho que a veces se sienten mejor de que yo esté aquí que allá. Toda mi familia está en Honduras en este momento. Mis padres viven con mi abuela y son todxs de alto riesgo, básicamente. Así que fue realmente aterrador al principio, y tuve la sensación de impotencia. ¿Qué puedo hacer? ¿Hay algo que pueda hacer? Afortunadamente tuve esta relación con Familias Unidas, y con Leti y Mario. De hecho, me llamaron cuando todo comenzaba y me dijeron: '¿Estás bien?' porque saben que estoy sola. Y pensé 'Sí ... ¿hay algo que pueda hacer?' Me dijeron lo que estaban haciendo, así que me uní. Y pensé, puedo hacer esto, totalmente. Esto se siente bien. Esto es solidaridad. Somos nosotrxs ayudando a nuestra propia comunidad. Cuando comenzábamos a recibir más llamadas telefónicas y más donaciones, y era mucho trabajo, pero íbamos avanzando y ayudamos a mucha gente ... Mario dijo: 'Todos estamos aquí por amor'. Yo me identifique mucho con eso, porque siento que, especialmente las personas de Familias Unidas y todas las personas que se organizan o son voluntarixs, están aquí porque amamos a nuestra comunidad y porque creemos que tenemos que cuidarnos unx al otrx. A pesar de que al gobierno o a las personas en el poder no les importa o no piensan que algunas personas merecen ser atendidas, creemos en el amor y la comunidad." -- Thank you to Familias Unidas en Acción for helping me connect with amazing people from our city's migrant community. Please visit their page or https://familiasunidasla.org/ to learn more about their work and get involved. https://www.instagram.com/p/CANwTUAAhJa/?igshid=185i0101b6ffa