Immigrant Experience
Lawrence Howe
His/125
April 13, 2014
Tabitha Otieno

Immigrant Experience
My name is Adrian, my pa and I along with my ma and my three siblings Ada, Amelia, and Anna. We decided there was nothing left here in Poland; Pa cannot find work to be able to support ma and us kids. We have saved enough money to make the journey to the new world. People are saying we would have travel by boats across the water. I am scared because I cannot swim. Pa says we will be ok, there is a fee to travel and Pa has found odd jobs to do to earn the fee.
The day has come to say goodbye to our family and friends. We board the boat after paying our fee there are so many people. I really hope that the new world is worth this long trip the person that allowed us to enter said the journey could take up to a month. WOW that is a whole 30 days. I have brought a journal to keep track of the events as it happens on this new traveling experience.
Day 1: the excitement of the travel and there are so many children my age I have made a new friend his name is Edward, he is alone so we have taken him in with us so he is not alone.
Day 5: This is hard I look and look and all I can see is water no land, Ma has developed a cough but she assures us that she is going to be ok. The quarters where we are staying there is 22 of us to a room I feel like we are sardines packed together we can barely move.
Day 10: Ma hasn’t gotten out of bed in two days now, I am getting worried I reassure my sister that she will be ok. There is so much sickness and disease on this boat it’s not good at all.
Day 15: There was another death today that makes six in the last five days. Ma seems to be a little better she doesn’t look so pale I am hoping it’s just the waves that are making her sick. My sisters are excited because they are moving away from our lands.
Day 20: Is the journey ever going to end? We lost another 15 people and all they do is toss the over the edge of the ship why is everyone getting so sick? Is there no cure? Why, Ma is doing well now. She seems to be happier, but she wishes the journey to end, Pa said just a few more days and we will be there.
Day 25: The captain said that they should be seeing land soon because we are almost there. I think I see land in the distance. Yeah, it’s sad in a way we had 300 passengers but now there are only 225 that are getting off the ship we have lost 75 people over the journey.
Day 30: We are making our way off the ship we have to go to this placed called Ellis Island, and they said we would have to be processed.
It is day three of being processed on this Island there are so many people here they come from different areas of the world. I was watching Ma talk to another lady, I think I realized what Ma’s problem is she is going to have another baby, and she said this one will be born in America. We were told that we would have to go through the process called naturalization. This will make us America citizens. Pa has found a gentle man that can use his skills as a blacksmith. This is a skill that pa has worked on over the years back home and they said he was no longer needed because they found no more need for this. But why not a blacksmith is valuable is what this Gentle man Hans just said.
Hans lives about 70 miles west of where we are now. He said he will deed land to Pa but Pa has to provide him with shoes for his horses not sure why a horse would need shoes but Pa seems happy. We have settled in a town called Easton, Pennsylvania. This a small town that has small mines and a large vast amount of land. Hans said that he is just about 10 miles out of town which is not too bad, they have schools and a small store that has items that we can buy. Ma is excited because the store will barter for baked goods to products. Ma is an excellent baker. The cottage that Hans gave us on five acres of land has a funny place called an outhouse; this is a place where we can go to the bathroom in private. We are excited because we can go to school to learn and as Ma calls it better ourselves.
Most of the people are pretty much accept us, but there was a man that said mean things about my sister and I wanted to hit him but Pa said violence isn’t the answer. The names that came from his mouth were vile words and mean words, my sister cried and cried. He said she belonged in a Cat house to take care of a gentleman’s needs.
Pa allowed me to work some of the fields that Hans owns we help reap wheat. This is hard work but it’s worth it because we have been taught how to turn wheat into flour. The first week my sister Ada and I worked we earned .50 cents. I have been saving my money up I want a new writing tablet for school in the fall.
Many years of education we have all made something of ourselves. I teach the easiest way to turn wheat into flour; my sisters have become teachers and work at the ministries. Ma and Pa ended up having three more children two more boys and another girl at least I’m no longer the only boy. The new life we chose is the best we could have done thank you Pa for allowing this to happen.