I am a country girl from a poor simple family from a third world country. When I was young I always had dreamed of getting out of my country, I wanted to see the other side of the world, your world.
I am always amazed every time I will see foreigners from the first world countries coming in our place. It is either, you are coming for travel or mostly you are coming to help us, to give us some free medical check-ups, books, clothes, free education, etc. Those kindness and help you were giving us made a great impact on my young mind and my young heart, because of that I thought you were awesome, you have a golden hearts, I look at you up and respected you a lot. Even as a child I also realized that your life is very different from our life, I know it, I could even see it from the movies, you are a beautiful people with a beautiful country.
Those were the things that made me dream almost every single day of one day travelling to your country. I really wanted to see your world, I wanted to live and work with you, with you who are bright, smart, intelligent and kind hearted people. I wanted to learn a lot from you.
At the age of 22 finally my dream came true. I am now travelling to your world, I was so excited. But after arriving and staying in this foreign land for few years and travelling here in there I get a bit disappointed. I guess I expected too much from you and I haven’t expected that racism is still alive. There are times I would eat in a restaurant, I would come in first but would be attended lastly because my skin is different from yours. Sometimes I would over hear your conversation about my race that “we are cheap people, that you could just tell us anything and will follow you”. That you could just bring the girls (my race) out for foods and drinks then they are already willing to sleep with you, followed by your loud laugh. My heart aches every time I hear your conversation like that most especially when it is followed by your hearty laughs.
It might be true that we are cheap, that we are willing to go out and sleep with you just for some exchange of a little bit of luxury from you which we never had afford in our life, but should you treat us like that? At work sometimes you treat us differently as if you are higher than us. I felt so upset that I didn’t realize I could hear those words from the people I looked up a lot, respected a lot, and I thought a kind hearted, intelligent and amazing people.
Where are those kindhearted and nice amazing foreigners from the first world countries I had met when I was a kid??? The ones that had helped us??? Where are you??
