Thread by @MakMayek

15 years today - a reflection

1. Today marks 15 years since I came to this great country with my elder brother, my auntie and her five children.

2. Leaving Nairobi on that cold morning of 23 August 2004, waking up at 3.00 am to catch a Kenya Airways flight to South Africa.

3. We were crammed in a small room and slept there over night. I don’t think I slept at all. It was such an anxious time, travelling to live in a country we didn’t know anyone. Yet we wanted to leave so bad for a better life.

4. We flew to South Africa. I can’t remember honestly what I carried. Probably a small bag of second hand clothes and a Sidney Sheldon novel. That was pretty much all I had and the rest of us.

5. We had 0 $. We starved at Joburg airport. Long transit. My little cousins were crying. A South African lady brought some food later on in the day but that was close to 6.00 pm before we caught a Qantas flight to Sydney.

6. That flight was long. I think I read the novel, finished it and we still had 7 hours to go or something. But my brother and I were having these long conversations about education and stuff.

7. We landed in Sydney around 6.00 pm I think. We got on a train to Newcastle. The train was so full. We were so exhausted and no seats to sit. I sat on the stairs and passed out.

8. The kids were so terrified. We had never so many white people in one place. I was so confused about everything.

9. We probably arrived in Newcastle around 10.00 pm or something. Members of the South Sudanese community were waiting for us. I stayed up all night talking to a friend who I had not seen for a long time.

10. I wanted to know about school, employment, and stuff to do. I admired the guy he had a job at the local IGA store.

11. The next day, our friend who had facilitated our travel, took us to do the basics: Centrelink, school, shops, so many things at once.

12. I think the local church would’ve given us a small temporary accomodation we stayed in for a few weeks and then looked for a bigger place.

13. There was so much to learn. But how the accent made it so difficult! Particularly when I went to school in September. I went straight to Year 12. Two days later, we had a test. We had to listen to a cassette and then answer the questions.

14. Ah man, I was so frustrated, I just sat there while others were busy writing. I couldn’t understand a word. The teacher came over and asked why I wasn’t writing, I just said, I didn’t understand a thing.

15. This guy who I was hanging out with in school made it a thing to put on a strong ochre just to make life a living hell for me. I got him back in the soccer field though.

16. I got so much support though from the school. I made many friends from playing soccer and basketball. And then the girls who were interested in the only black student in the school. They thought I was a Rotary student or something and would be leaving soon.

17. We had a party at the park after we completed HSC exams. Everyone was drinking and I was pressured to have a drink.I think I had one beer, I was dizzy. I went to sit on the bench and I passed out. I woke up,everyone was gone except a friend of mine waiting for me to wake up.

18. The following year I went to start university in Canberra. Studying full time and working two jobs at David Jones and Kmart. So relieved I had money now. It wasn’t $390 or so Centrelink money I survived on for a year.

19. It wasn’t easy I tell you. But I think to live a better life, succeed and help the family back home was always a motivation. I sought opportunities and many people assisted along the way, working in a number of Cwth departments after.

20. So many refugees come here with the hunger to succeed and have better lives for themselves and their families. Sometimes some don’t make it because there are all sorts of challenges along the way.

21. That’s why I am often opposed to a policy such as indefinite detention. Those detention centres are full of young men who want to do well for themselves and their families. But have fallen by the wayside because they’ve not been able to overcome those challenges.

22. It may be better to rehabilitate them and return them to the community. They’re not foreign criminals as some tend to call them. They’re part and parcel of our community and we should help them get back on their feet.

23. We can do better. We can bring the handful asylum seekers on Manus to Australia and let them the chance to live decent lives with their families. There’s so much to share in this country and we have plenty of room. Many Australians want them to come here.

24. I am glad I have been able to share this part of my journey with you. We live in a great country and I am grateful that I got the chance to come here and be a citizen of this great country. I thank my friend @MagolGabriel who sponsored us to come here. Australia’s great.

25. I keep promises. Remember I said I was going to tweet 25 times today! Now, I am signing off to read your comments, watch Season 6 of Power and be ready for our son who may be born any day now. Peace out!!