My Travels, Observations, and Dreams for the Future

by Rosa Camano

My name is Rosa. I am 28 years old. I come from Panama. I live with my aunt and her cousin. My parents are in Panama. I have a brother and two sisters in Panama. I finished studying with the Ukrainian Medical Institute in 1992 when I received my degree in general medicine. In the future I want to continue my studies to become a pediatric medic. Also, I want to speak English fluently and to get a good job in an office.

In this year or in the beginning of next year I want to get married, and two years after that I want to have a child, a boy. Later I want to have a baby girl. Maybe I will go to Pakistan and meet my fiance's relatives.

I want to have a beautiful house and a garden. I think that after my wedding I would like to come back to the U.S.A. But I don't think we will receive permission to work here longer, so we will have to live in Pakistan or in Panama. Right now my fiance is a cab driver and I am a student of English.

I met my fiance in the Ukraine, when we were both students at a medical institute there. I had won a scholarship to study, and I lived there for seven years. For the first ten months in the Ukraine I studied Russian so that I could later understand the professors at the medical institute. Life in the Ukraine was very difficult. For example, if I went to the supermarket, and I wanted to buy tomatoes, people there would say, "Oh, you are foreigners. Why are you taking our tomatoes?" I felt very bad. Many times I wanted to go home to Panama.

In the United States, people are not like that at the grocery stores. In restaurants, there is also no problem. But I find it is difficult to make friends in the U.S.A. Maybe it is because most people work and I stay home. The people here are very busy, working often two jobs, and they are very tired. Even when I was a medical student, we had time to go to the park and to visit with each other. But here, people work all the time.

After my studies in the Ukraine, I returned to Panama for a two year internship in a hospital. I found that most of my friends there had changed; they were married now and had different lives. I found new friends where I worked.

I like my country because people there are polite and friendly. Parents teach their children to help others even without being asked, just in order to be helpful, and not because they want to get something for it. They are taught to obey their parents, and to have faith, to believe in God. I also love Panama because the people there know how to have a good time. There are many holidays and celebrations.

Last Updated By Gail Matthews-DeNatale: 10/08/96