I had many neighbors in Ethiopia. But I had a close neighbor. Her name was Misku. My neighbor and I spent our days off helping each other. For example, we went shopping and studied. I gave her things she didn’t have. And she did the same thing for me.
Mabuba Abafita, age thirty-eight, is from Agaro, Ethiopia. She moved to New York in 2016. She writes, “I am a mom with three children back home. I hope to bring my children here so we can be together. I miss them very much. I went to school only for a short time when I was young because I was married at fourteen and had children. So I am so happy to be in school at Mercy Center now, learning English from Michael McLoughlin, and improving my reading and writing with my education counselor, Jean Choi.”