It happened on September of 2014, the year that changed my life forever. I moved from Honduras to United States. From a small country to one of the biggest countries in the world. It was, still is, a different environment from living in a big city to a “small” city in the south of the United States. I left all my friends, family, and college studies. I left everything behind. It all happened so fast, my mother told my brother, Samuel, and I, “Would you like live in the United States? ” The answer was obviously. We said, “Of course, we want to live in the United States.
Then, my mother began the process of applying for the Permanent Residence on April or May of 2014. A lot of paper work. They asked us, to get our high school diplomas, our penal status, if we had been in jail or not, our marital status, and work history from parents. Then my mother got a lot of letters from people she had worked before to get it ‘easier’ for the first step. Two months later, actually on June, we move to the next step of the process, getting medical exams. I remember they took my blood like four or five times in a day, and finally, my urine.
Then, I had to get half naked, just in my underwear; they wanted to know if I had tattoos. I have one. They ask me if it belong to a gang and I said, “Obviously not. ” Which gang use music tattoos on their bodies? Exactly. NONE. After I pass all those tests, we move to the next step. Injections. They put me four injections. They put me two in each arm. I don’t remember what they were for. Those were six intense and long hours. Next and final step for getting the Permanent Residence was an interview in the United States Embassy in Honduras. We arrived at six in the morning.
Then, we waited almost two hours in line outside the building. We spend another hour waiting inside the United States Embassy. We hear they call us, they said, “Alvarenga family, it’s your turn. ” We get up and they get us to a small room. On the other side of the room, we see this person, the interviewer, and then just ask us three questions; first, our names, second, why we wanted to live in the United States, and third, if we speak English. It was really fast. We were in that room for about ten to fifteen minutes. They told us we were accepted. We were going to be United States Permanent Residents.
We were kind of shocked, because we thought it was going to be more difficult the interview part. Then, they asked us for passports and some paper work. They told us to come back in two weeks. We waited the two weeks. We come back to the United States Embassy and we waited for thirty minutes and they call us. They gave us a folder with our passports, more paperwork, and some letters. The letters said we have 6 months to move to the United States. We had until December of 2014 to do it. On July of 2014, my mother decided to rush everything to move to the United States.
The first week of July we bought our plane tickets. Two weeks later, we put the car on sell; it got sold in three days. Our house stay for rental, we move all our stuff to the other house. We lived in that house one month, because the first house was getting repaired for its rental. We waited on month before leaving everything behind, friends, family, and most important, my dog. Leaving him was one of the most difficult things, to be honest. It is September eight of 2014, the journey begins. First, we get ready our baggage, there were like eight or ten baggage.
It is the next day, we got everything ready. We get to the bus station. We travel from our city, Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula, on bus. It was a five hour drive. I thought it was going to be terrible. It wasn’t. I fall asleep the entire time. We stayed in San Pedro Sula one day, which was really terrible because it was so hot. Next and final day, September tenth of 2014. We woke up really early that day, at six in the morning. We get ready and get in the shuttle. We arrived to the airport at nine in the morning and got everything ready for checking-in.
We waited for two hours; the plane was schedule to take off at eleven in the morning. It was eleven in the morning. We get in the plane, sit in our seats. Thirty minutes later the plane starts flying. We are in the air and saying goodbye to our country. Next thing, we arrive in Miami and then, we take our second plane, which by the way, got damaged and then ten minutes later they brought a ‘new’ and we lift off to Charleston, South Carolina. We arrived at one in the morning. More than fifteen hours in airports. My uncle, Jose, was waiting for us and then he took us to our new “home”.
