Immigrant Life in New York

To My dearest wife,

23^rd June 2010,

Dear Azuka,

Hello, and how are you doing over those months have passed without seeing you. It is my sincere wish that everything is fine and the whole family is doing great. I actually miss you so much and everybody back at home. How are our lovely twins doing? I am very sure that these two lovely daughters have grown so big and very beautiful. I also hope that you are helping our son peter in his homework now that I am not around to help him.

My dear life here is not that simple as one has to struggle so as to get life going. Asked for my opinion, I would say that, life back in Nigeria is cheaper than here in the New York City. That makes me to kindly request you to motivate our children very much towards putting a lot of efforts in their education so that they may live their dream.

When I was leaving Abuja, I expected that life would be very fair on me here in the united states as earlier promised but I was mistaken. This is the reason as to why I have delayed in sending you this money as I had to first make sure that I settle and get myself a job. Actually, you should not be shocked to hear that, I am a vendor of Kente clothes here in New York, all in all, I will always make sure that you and my kids are the first priority of the money I get.

The reason as to why I do this kind of job is that their education system here is very different from Nigeria and for you to get in a white color job you have to undergo through their education system. This left me with no option but to join this business which is normally left to people from West Africa. This kind of clothes come from our neighbors "Ghanian" When I was first introduced to it I could see myself booking the next flight to Lagos but due to encouragement from my cousin I had to give it my level best and trusted much in God so as to get a break through. Right now I am used to it and it has become part of me as on a good day I can get a profit of around two hundred dollars which is equivalent to around two thousand Naira.

So far I can say that life is tricky here as I am not used to the climate here. Right now it is winter and actually very cold. For the last few days I have been having some flue but right now I am recovering. The other biggest problem I have is the issue of food. Some of the foods cooked here are very different and to be sincere I have never seen such type of foods in my life. So in most cases when I came I used to sleep hungry before I got used.

However, I should tell you that, living standards here are very high. People are very civilized compared to Nigeria. My dream is to make sure that, I one day manage to host you and my kids here and God willingly, we settle here. It is also very important to let you know that, I enrolled in one of the colleges so that a may pursue a course in business so that I may succeed in the world of business. I am planning to diversify my business into electronics sometimes in future and become a very prominent entrepreneur.

One of my biggest fears is that I may be deported back just in case I land in hands of the policemen since I have overstayed my Visa. I would kindly request you to remember me very much in prayers since there is some upcoming tension here in New York due to every day's increase of immigrants, posing security threats as believed by the FBI, who lately released security report showing that, African Islam in the city are currently hardcore criminals and have the largest channel of drunk trafficking.

I would like to inform you that, one of the most important things that has helped me to reach this far is my strong belief in our religion we insist that we should entirely depend on what we faithful learn otherwise when life became hard, I would have joined some of the illegal sects here such as Ku Klux Klan.

One of very interesting event I have so far attended is the Kwanza (Willigen, 1993). This is a new holiday established here in the city for the African Americans, and normally comes between Christmas and New Year. It really sparked economic opportunity for me as I got to meet some Californian lady who after we had a close to four hours chat felt touched by my disparity in the New York and funded me to increase my stock. She is a very wonderful lady who has a very good caring white man and they show a lot of concern to me and would wish to meet you someday. Actually, they were talking about visiting Nigeria during summer time.

The government here is very accommodating. Last week there was a motion they were debating on. If it is approved it will allow Immigrants who have overstayed here to get citizenship. I would like to encourage you to try applying for a green card, you may be lucky to be awarded one and if it happens I will be very happy.

However, some government officials here are very strict on those who operate such business as they hold that you have to acquire legal papers from the government in order for you to run your business, failure to which you land in hot coals. At times I am forced to part with my sales so as to buy freedom from them.

I forgot to tell you that, if you come here in New York you will feel like you are in Abuja. So much has been Africanized. Tourists and African American are our biggest clients. They flock into our stalls so as to experience a piece of Africa in the streets of New York, making it become one of the city's tourist attractions (Frierson, 2003).

Please note that I will communicate with you very soon as I am set to come over during summer with my friends. Take good care.

Your Loving Husband,

Radish.