A Productive Day One

(Nicoya) - It was cold, but spirits were good. During our first learning block the group went to the Prudential Center and split into groups of three. They walked around for about an hour and a half asking employees their opinions about immigration. At one o’clock we had our meeting with MIRA Coalition in down town Boston (MIRA works with a lot with students trying to get into college). Here’s what the students had to say about the day:

 

Danny F.: Today was my first day of JUA.  I thought it went well, I learned some new things about immigration.  The person that taught us the new information name was Carlos.  He was Hispanic and probably had first hand experience about what he was telling us.  Overall I thought the experience I had today went well and I had lots of fun on my first day of JUA.                  

 

Molly M.: One of the things that I thought was interesting was that both the immigrants that we talked to were against illegal immigration.  One even said he the US should strengthen the boarders.  Another thing that I learned that I thought was interesting was that immigrants who are only six or seven years old were being sent to prison with murders for just coming illegally to America.

 

AJ H.: The really hard part of today was asking random people if they or someone they knew were an immigrant. When two separate people didn’t even understand what I was asking them, it was really embarrassing for myself also. I did learn though that people that work in America from other countries sometimes only know English words that they use in their jobs. Carlos from M.I.R.A. was a very cool and down to earth, and I learned a lot from him.

 

Ever H.: Today, we arrived after along and annoying bus ride and went to the Prudential Center. We had to go around and find out peoples opinions on how they felt about immigration in the United States.  After that we took the T to go ti the MIRA Coalition in down town Boston, and met with Carlos, from Peru, and found out how the United States deals with the Immigration system.                        

 

Toby S.: Today we showed up in Boston and we went to the MIRA building and we talked to one of the guys who worked there  and it was very interesting. Then after that we walked around china town and asked people there views on immigration and I found that it was a lot harder to get people to actually comment on it then when we were in the mall. Today was a lot more fun than I was expecting.

 

Ray G.: When we went to the prudential center we met one man who was willing to talk to us and his story was pretty sad, it seemed like it was pretty tough for him to create a life out of nothing, which is expected, but it was crazy how hard it truly was.  We went to the Mira coalition and we learned a lot about the immigration process and the things that they face, as well as the consequences for any misdemeanors or crimes and they were much more harsh than consequences given to citizens.  We also learned that there are 36 different immigrant statuses and there are different things allowed to each.  There were a lot of cool things we learned and I think this experience is going to be good for us and maybe open our eyes to what’s really going on around us.

 

Dani A.: I was really impressed; we were talk to the immigrants in the prudential center, because we talk to a girl from Kenya and she was really scared, when we first talk to her. We asked her, where she is from and she didn’t want t tell as, so we asked some other question and when we were about to leave, she told us, that she is from Kenya. I had the impression, that the immigrant are really careful, about what they say and many of them are not really comfortable to talk about them being immigrant.

We also talked to a guy from China who was working in a little shop and he wasn’t even able to understand us. We just asked, if he likes to life in the US and he couldn’t understand us. The only thing, that he could tell us, was that h is from China and I really wondered, how he is able to work in the US without speaking English.

It was also surprised, how many immigrant are everywhere in the city but it was really interesting, to talk all these people and hear there opinion and experiments with immigration.

Kevin M.: Got verbally abused in Wendy’s by a lady cop who talked about doing in a bathroom Fitzy asked a security guard his immigration opinion and it turns out what we were  doing is actually illegal. Didn’t really believe much of Carlos the MIRA guy.

 

Baron V.: At the Prudential center we walked around trying to interview people about their thoughts on immigration, when we did that and actually walked up to people it was a lot more awkward than I thought it would be. Out of the three people then we tried to interview two of them didn’t even speak enough English to understand and respond to us. The one person that did talk to us was from Kenya and she felt awkward at the beginning of it and didn’t feel like saying much until later. That shows me how hard it is for immigrants to talk about something so simple as coming over to America. The second part was going to the Mira organization, and I learned a little bit about immigration than what I didn’t know before such as jails for whole families of immigrants. Other than that I didn’t learn much more, but I did find a lot of it interesting.