Charlotte, 19, Pascal, 18, and Louise, 15 are Cougars who arrived here from Tanzania almost three years ago. Recalling this moment exactly, they moved here on November 16, 2016 from a beautiful jungle to the dry desert. They describe Tanzania as a beautiful place that’s full of jungle and nice weather all-year around. “Like 70 or 69 degrees…It rains a lot, you can skip school because of the rain,” Pascal explains.

When they first arrived here in Tucson it was Fall, and for them it was pretty cold because they have never experienced cold weather since it’s always warm in their country. They were not prepared for the cold weather at all since Tucson is a desert and they didn’t know what the weather was going to be like, they expected Tucson to have the same weather as Tanzania.

They miss everything about their home. Charlotte misses the cultural and especially “the way people dressed.” Charlotte was wearing a long skirt and a nice blouse. Louise misses church, but the thing that they miss the most is the food, not just one dish because they couldn’t pick a favorite. Typical cuisine of Tanzania includes Some typical mainland Tanzanian foods include wali (rice), ugali (maize porridge), chapati (a kind of bread), nyama choma (grilled meat), and ndizi-nyama (plantains with meat).  They also miss hanging out their families and friends a lot.

Before taking a plane to the United States, they were scared because it was their first time flying in a plane. Pascal said that they took three planes to get to Tucson. The first plane was from Tanzania to South Asia which was 16 hours. The second plane was from South Asia to Los Angeles that was 22 hours and the final plane was from Los Angeles to Tucson, about a hour.

One of the reasons they came to the United States is because of the education. Charlotte explained how the highest grade in their country is a C and she is hoping to get better GPA since the credits and the grades messed her GPA up back in Tanzania. School was nothing like Sahuaro.  They take different classes daily; for example, they only took a 45-minute English class a week. Their first language is Swahili; they didn’t know any English, so they had to learn English once they got here. The three siblings are in Ms. Erickson’s English as a Second Language class.

Their favorite things about Tucson are school, friends, and the food. They love the new friends that they made here ever since they moved away from their friends in Tanzania. Charlotte and Louise’s favorite food that they tried here are pizza and Mexican food, especially burritos. Although, Pascal is really not a fan of American food. In their free time, Pascal loves to swim and play soccer.  He especially loved playing soccer in Tanzania with his friends, which he has been playing since he was 8 years old. Louise loves to play volleyball just for fun and Charlotte is starting to get into guitar.

“I love everything!” Pascal said about his home country. They hope that they can go back to their home in Tanzania and see their family and friends soon.