I’m an immigrant from a country in South America. I just want you to know that the experiences that I had when I was a child that I’m relaying to you, are experiences you can relate to, even though we are from different places.

The reason why I came here is because my mom and pretty much everyone in America thinks of America as a land of opportunity.

By Elijah Floyd

On May 5th 2016 Madiba Johnson’s mom Shindy Johnson came into the fourth grade classroom at Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School. She came into the school to tell her story of immigration.

“When did you immigrate to America?” Shindy immigrated to America from Guyana. Shindy said most people think Guyana is part of Africa but Shindy said, “It is actually right above Venezuela!” Shindy also told us about her childhood in Guyana. “It was wonderful I cannot complain” said Shindy. During Shindy’s childhood she was exposed to many different types of reptiles, and animals, but when she immigrated to the United States she says “You could go to a place like Maryland and walk in the woods for miles and still only see one deer.”

During Shindy’s childhood she was born in a hospital right by the water. So while Shindy was growing up she would swim in the lake that was the color of coca cola. It was common for someone to spot a snake or an eel in the water but Shindy said “We would take our chances.” One time while Shindy was swimming in the water she saw a log on the shore, so she thought it would be fun to roll the log back into the water. Shindy went and pushed the log into the water, in the water a snake emerged from the log and Shindy ran and got her uncle who killed the snake.

Shindy brought in a picture of her family and friends at her wedding. In the picture there were four black people and one white person. She asked us what is different in the picture. “There is one white person,” said a fourth grader. Shindy said, “Really?” It turned out that the white woman was actually an African American woman who also has Irish ancestors. She had pale skin. Madiba said, “I didn’t know I had Irish in me.”

“Just because someone is a different skin color than you that does not mean that you cannot be friends.”-Elijah

By Jett Demattia

In fourth grade on the fifth of May Shindy Johnson came in to talk to the students about her immigration story.  It was about how she moved to America from Guyana.

She showed us photos of her family. Below is a photo of Madiba’s maternal grandparents on their wedding day.

 
And here is a photo of Madiba’s paternal grandfather, Buddy Johnson, who was a jazz and blues pianist and band leader in New York.

She talked to us about lots of stories she had from Guyana. One of her stories from Guyana was when she and her cousins were pushing a log into a river that looked like Coca Cola. After they pushed in the log a giant 7 foot snake came out.  They were all running and screaming then they got their grandfather and he killed it with a machete.

Another one of her stories was that she had lots of pets. One of her pets was a rabbit. She played with it and fed it but then one special night it looked like a normal dinner. Then as she sat down and asked what she was eating she heard rabbit.

When she was finished talking to the fourth graders everyone wanted to share a favorite animal story from their own life.

Have you swam in a brown river with snakes and eels? Shindy Johnson has!