A Step Into The Unknown

When I was in South America one of my cousins had a friend who could speak English whom I got to know fairly well. It became such a welcome relief to talk the native tongue after speaking woeful Spanish during my time there. I had to listen extremely attentively as the words rolled off tongues about hundred miles an hour. Then my brain would have to process these words, translate them and finally respond in a less than articulate way. It was extremely hard for me to crack jokes and in fact I would give up once a group of people would talk about things passionately. There was no way I could cope with the colloquialisms that were banded about other than ‘bien chevere’ (very cool). So when I did get to talk English it at least reminded me that I could cobble some words together and form sentences that some people could understand.

Anyhow it turns out that my cousin’s friend is now moving to Italy to improve her prospects for herself and her families. Peru is a third world country which is immediately noticeable from the streets of Lima to the villages in Moquegua. Yet it has natural riches beyond belief, a rain forest, volcanoes, a town in the mountains, gold, silver even uranium. The mismatch of the two is for another day. But I can see why young people want to go to the western world to get better lives. We do it here, our parents push us, the government encourages us by giving us loans to tempt us to go to university, hey, they even pay college students money just to attend a terms worth of classes. Unfortunately those mechanisms are not in place there because of obvious resources but the encouragement is equally apparent. What got me thinking like I am right now was that this girl who is going to Italy does not know what she is walking into. Britain is battling on the frontline to keep recession at bay, Germany are already underway whilst Italy are struggling too. Does she know this? I know she is a school teacher and accepts that she will not be one in Italy. But over there you are paid 500 soles a month for that job which equates to £125 here so you can see why even working in a factory would be appealing. I tried to put myself in her position, and immediately everything felt lonely, I have no contacts in Italy so I’d be screwed. I cannot even speak the language so alienation is something I would have to deal with. Trying to get a job, even one classed as non-skilled seems a lot harder now than it did say six years ago. I would be devastated if I came to the first world only to find it crumbling all around me and leaving me unable to find work at all. What would I do if no work was found and all the money I saved for umpteen years had been used up just living there? Emotionally it would be so taxing knowing you are trying hard but the opportunities are not appearing. And financially it would be a mess leaving me potentially homeless and vulnerable. It is such a gamble that I have nothing but the greatest admiration for her bravery in taking on this venture. I do hope that she finds work there and is able to earn money to form the foundations of a platform to move on in life in the western world. I am kind of troubled about this imminent recession but at the same time I think if someone can leave their country, friends, go to another continent in the hope of finding better work then it kind of puts my worries into perspective.

Enough of intense scrawling, the other day I was walking along listening to 6music when they dropped Sophie B. Hawkins’ Damn I wish I was your lover. Man, I love that song but had totally forgotten it existed. It made my day even though it was so cold that when I looked down my scarf had what seemed like frozen air nestled on the top of it.