From Ghana to Texas
Christian & Doris Buatsi's Journey to Texas
Leaving Home
Leaving our home in Accra, Ghana to start a new one on a whole other continent was not easy. All we had had known our whole lives was here, and now we had to go. We knew it would be hard, but we also knew it would be for the betterment of our children. So we did it. We left. Left to help the generation to come.
Who Are We?
We are the Buatsi's. Christian Atta Buatsi & Doris Ama Butasi, to be more precise. We have one beautiful daughter named Selase Euinice Aku Buatsi. We live in Accra/Kumasi, Ghana. We were raised in homes that thought us to do whatever we could to allow our children's lives to be better than ours. And that's kind of how this whole thing started. All we want for our children is to make their lives better than ours.
How Did We Make This Decision?
As we mentioned earlier, our goal in life is for our children's lives to be better than ours. That was the reason of this big move. What made the move set in stone was when Christian won the Visa Lottery. The Visa Lottery is a lottery that gives free Visas to those who win and their families. The Visa allows you to move to America and live here as long as you eventually get the proper documents required, like a citizenship and such. (Don't worry. We did.) Once we won the lottery, we knew that God was telling us to go.
What Influenced Us To Move?
There were a couple of push and pull factors that played an important role in our decision to move. Education. The difference in education systems between the U.S. and Ghana were major push and pull factors. Ghana, not having a very good education system kind of pushed us away. We wanted our children to be very well educated and the U.S. offered just that. The United States drew us in by their high qualified education systems. Success. Success also influenced our decision. It's not impossible to become successful back home in Ghana, but there are not as many opportunities. We felt like America would give our children the opportunities and chances that they need to go far in life. The U.S. is already a very successful country and we hoped that our children will add to their success.
The Strugle
Why do we have to go by air? What if something happens on the way the way there? What if the air is hard for us to breathe at the different elevation? Those were just some of the questions that went through our minds on the way to America. Intervening Obstacles. We knew that there were going to be obstacles. We knew that 99.9% of the citizens in America were not going to be Ghanian. We were aware that the individuals there had had different cultures than us and that made us scared. Are we supposed to adapt to there cultures or are we supposed mesh them together? We barely knew how to speak English, were people going to understand what we were saying with this thick accent of ours? Intervening Obstacles. They are a big deal.
Treated Well
International Migration. Migrating from one country to another. That's what we did. We moved to a whole other continent. We didn't expect to fit in right away, but we did. The United States was already a country of different races. There were people from just about everywhere. It wasn't very hard to fit in at all. The Americans treated us well. We think that was mainly because we came here legally. Yes, there were some rude individuals here and there, but there was really no segregation. We were just like every other individual living in the United States. We were Americans.
It Was Hard
We had nothing. That includes no job. It was difficult to find some fairly well paying job. It was hard to become financially stable once again. The environment was also different. The temperatures were much warmer, and the winters were much cooler. The cities were also more urbanized and populated than they were back home. Ghana was also a Republic government at the time, so that didn't really affect us.
Rubenstien's Relation
We moved during this recent period of time. We also moved during the wave of people who moved from Asia & South America to the United States, except we came from Africa. This wave started in the 1990's and has continued on until. Those who migrated to the U.S. came for opportunities. The opportunities drew us in.