"Being an American is embracing what is right, embracing freedom, embracing equality for all, and looking to create a better world not just today but for the next generations. So we have to start that today for the younger generations to come.”

 

Sammy Emorlade gave an interview to Luay Boulahouache on Sunday afternoon, the 20th of October. Sammy was quiet confident and went in depth on the questions I asked him, and answered two questions in one question.

 

Luay Boulahouache: Thank you Sammy for joining me today for this interview.

 

Sammy Emorlade: My pleasure.

 

Luay Boulahouache: I would like to know, at what age did you immigrate?

 

Sammy Emorlade: I immigrated when I was 18, for educational issues and provide me with more opportunity, such as more jobs to do for a living.

 

Luay Boulahouache: So I’m going to ask you questions on your immigration. This question is one question that anybody would ask if you’re an immigrant. Why did you immigrate to the United States?

 

Sammy Emorlade: I came here for a higher quality of education compared to what I would get in my country, Nigeria. Back there a 4 year college will take 6-7 years because during the course of your education, the teachers can go in strike, the government doesn’t pay, like right now we have congress shutdown, and the teachers we’re not going to teach until we get paid. So a four year college is much harder to accomplish. In here we have a much better structure than there, and the financial assistance is here and the level of education is much better here than in Nigeria.

 

Luay Boulahouache: That is quite horrible about the number of years spent obtaining a college degree. Now let’s move on, what did you expect of the US?

 

Sammy Emorlade: I expected the best, because I grew up watching American movies, so I see things that I collected in the classrooms, and I liked the atmosphere, that environment that was given to me, I expected a friendly environment, a good society, it’s open, and I expected to succeed in everything they do, I didn’t had very high expectations and it was actually met, so I’m really grateful for that.

 

Luay Boulahouache: Those were very nice expectations. When the people in your country talked about America, what did they think about it?

 

Sammy Emorlade: The land of opportunity. Oh, America the land of opportunity! Where is it? There is a lot of everything, and it’s a boy’s childhood fantasy. So people say America is a good place, we have democracy. This is true democracy compared to Nigeria’s democracy, which keeps re-electing the same president, so it’s like “It’s West Africa. Welcome to the world!” We see America as the land of opportunity, from my point of view. They also talked about being the country that has so much waste, and the citizens didn’t take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. For instance when I came to school in here and I see people on the street, I’ll say “Are you going to college.” And they’ll say “I can’t afford college.” And I’m thinking if I’m living in a third world country and I pay four times what you pay for education, and you can get financial aid and you can get all these resources grant. So why aren’t you going to college, so you’re not taking advantage to the opportunities presented to you.

 

Luay Boulahouache: That way of thinking, I haven’t heard that often from many people. My next question would be, what was your first impression of the US? How did you feel about the US? What did you see in the US?

 

Sammy Emorlade: It was cold, it was freezing in the airport, and I wasn’t prepared for the cold, but everything just seemed different. I came at night, but the next day I had a report to school, and I hadn’t have time to look around. I just went straight into the system, focus and trying to get everything done, but it took me time to assimilate, but I had freshmen students who came from other countries, so we ask each other where are you from, where are you from. So we form a group and fit in the society. When we get projects, we got a very diverse group of people, in UH at my time it was ranked 3 as a school which had international students, so my class was pretty much a diverse class.

 

Luay Boulahouache: My next question is how would you compare the US to Nigeria in terms of economy?

 

 

 

 

Sammy Emorlade: First, you have to consider that Texas alone is bigger than Nigeria. So the US is the biggest economy in the world.

 

Luay Boulahouache: How is your lifestyle different here compared to Nigeria? In other words, is the US some kind of paradise compared to Nigeria?

 

Sammy Emorlade: I would say yes it’s a paradise, and I have many varieties in the US than in Nigeria, such as the variety of food as Arabic food, Asian food, Indian food…

 

Luay Boulahouache: How many languages do you speak?

 

Sammy Emorlade: I speak three Nigerian languages, and I also speak English fluently. I also understand seven Nigerian languages.

 

Luay Boulahouache: Did you feel lost when you came to the US?

 

Sammy Emorlade: No, I actually had a family member with who I stayed with for three weeks. Then I moved out my own. Back in high school, I did geography for this one reason I wanted to navigate around the world with minimum resources. So I was able take the bus routes and map out which direction to go. I did internet research for safe neighborhood and crime rates, and you just ask around and say “Hey, how do I do this?” and the information is available.

 

Luay Boulahouache: What do you feel when you hear someone say or speak about Nigeria?

 

Sammy Emorlade: Home, I see green, I see red, I see richness, I see untapped resources, untapped potentials, country that needs solid leaders and a lot more, but it’s mostly the corruption in there.

 

Luay Boulahouache: Now let’s go into specific details. Do you have any particular positive memories of home or negative ones?

 

Sammy Emorlade: I have a lot of positive memories of home. I grew up in a society where you know the names of all your neighbors and you know everybody in a quarter mile radius, and you know everybody knows you by first name. When you do something wrong the neighbor will tell you to stop that, so the community is raising the children, not just the parents. Compared to the US, you can barely say “Hi” to your neighbor, but I grew up in a society where if I’m cooking rice for instance, and I realized that I needed rice, I could go to my neighbor and take some rice from them and that is how my community worked. But in here, it’s everyone on his own, every family is like it’s my household, it’s me, me, me.. The family and social dynamics are much different.

 

Luay Boulahouache: Did you have any particularly good, bad, or interesting experiences as an immigrant?

 

Sammy Emorlade: No, not at all.

 

Luay Boulahouache: Do you have any interesting stories, funny or sad ones from your home?

 

Sammy Emorlade: It may have been funny then, but now I don’t even think it’s funny. Well, not from home, so when I first came here, I turned on the TV and watched The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. So I was taking the bus, and I was passing near Bellaire, and I was thinking of the house of Will Smith, so I was thinking, where is the movie? So I asked the bus driver “Hey, where did they film the Fresh Prince?” and he looked at me and said “What do you mean?” and I said “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Where is the house?” So you can imagine what happened, and experiences from back home I can’t think of one right now.

 

Luay Boulahouache: Is there anything that you particularly like about Americans?

 

Sammy Emorlade: Yeah, we’re all cocky, I like it, at least with the people I associate with, when we try to encourage each other, we try to help the next person go further. I don’t like to be run by negative people, because I think their energy vampires. So I like to be around people who are supportive. As a community, whenever I’m around this kind of people, I just feel like we have the same kind of values, as birds with the same feathers fly together, so we still have the same values but from different point of views, but at least it’s a solid built on positive solid foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luay Boulahouache: Nice positive comments. My next question is how do you feel being an American?

 

Sammy Emorlade: It’s good, I like when I can take my passport and go to any country without using a Visa.

 

Luay Boulahouache: I have a question for you. So tell me what you think about this quote from Lyndon B. Johnson “The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources—because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples.”?

 

Sammy Emorlade: I think that is absolutely true, because everybody from different cultures comes different way on improving certain things. For example if you say the East and Asian culture, like Pakistan and India, they’re more intense people, so when they look at a particular thing, they are willing to put their hands dirty, but in America they say that is not a job for me, that’s some big for me. Another thing is the ideas, so it’s like you want to go and buy an apple, and you have a variety, so it’s really nurtured from many cultures, and I definitely agree with that.

 

Luay Boulahouache: Thank you again Sammy for coming here.

 

Sammy Emorlade: You’re welcome!