Hello Guys,
Am sorry for being out of this wonderful forum for the last 6-7months, the true of the matter is that i have a better job here and felt it should be wise to come back and pick my job, and really life in America is not easy if you did't study there, secondly with little kids under 10yrs is another things to cope with, because u can't leave them for anybody to take care of except u go every were with them.
my husband and i thought of picking up a job in the hospital after undergoing a 9 weeks program in CNA (Certified Nursing assistance) and worked for few months and discovered we are just working for the nanny who takes care of our kids (because she charges $5 per hour for a child and we have 3 of them) at the end of the day we notice our income is just for feeding, house rent and no savings.
i will resume back to complete my gist
Thonia, I sure commend your courage. I guess it will take someone like you to make pple believe that it is not a bed of roses for many pple even if they have valid papers. I am of the opinion that pple who have really moved up in their career in Nigeria should not bother to relocate here. As Thonia said, getting jobs here commensurate with your experience back home is difficult. Child care is expensive and you can't leave the children at home alone until they are about 14yrs old unless you want wahala with the police so you go everywhere with them etc. Many don't ever recover from the dashed expectations & shock and just keep living from hand to mouth doing jobs they never would have dreamt accepting back home.
Many lawyers, acctants, MBA holders etc are working as care givers in nursing homes for a few dollars per hour in spite of many yrs of experience in their respective fields and good career back home which they left in anticipation of the American dream. Top managers resign from banks to get here to wonder why they ever did because they may never ever get up there again.
I met a Ph.D holder former head of dept of a big bank in Nigeria, who resigned to come here after winning the green card. Six mths after that decision, all she kept saying was 'America is a leveller'. She kept remembering all that she left behind because 6mths later, she was yet to start a job because all she got were very low admin jobs that would fetch next to nothing compared to the luxuries she was used to back home.
A lot of what we see or hear back home is faked success by those who come on holidays. They flaunt wealth that they probably just borrowed off their credit card and will have to spend yrs paying back. Someone told me pple 'buy' things to wear & show off and return them to the stores to get their money back as soon as they get back to the US. Someone posted some details here on the forum about naijas in america but most pple disregarded it. Those details are very true. I didn't want to post anything 'cos pple might think it was an attempt to discourage.
Pray well before you come and if possible take some leave of absence from your job if you have a good job and come and see how things are. I'm glad Thonia had a job to go back to. It's better for pple who haven't achieved much in Nigeria to live here because then, buying a car, house etc, mind you, all on credit 'shacks' them for a while before the novelty wears off and the bills start coming in and the reality hits them.
In spite of all these, I still must say if you have the courage to stick it through and God is with you, all things are possible. Just weigh things very well and pray for direction. There are still many pple here with wonderful testimonies. For some, it took weeks, others mths, some others years before they received their breakthrough. For some yet to come here, it may just be better to visit every six mths for the next 5yrs at least until you get the citizenship so as not to lose the visa.
I wish everyone the best and may God grant you the wisdom to take the right steps.
God bless everyone.
2Tee
