Haiti is an island in the Caribbean Sea not too far off from Florida. Haiti shares the island with the Dominican Republic. That is where my parents are from and where I spent part of my childhood. My primary place of growth was Miami, Florida, with other Haitians and other Caribbean people and/or foreigners. Education has brought me to Tuskegee University in Alabama.
As a Haitian in Alabama, I can say that being up here has been somewhat of a culture shock.
The very first thing that stuck out to me when I arrived in Alabama was that not many people were Haitian! In Miami every other person I met was Haitian. At Tuskegee I can only count four other Haitians that I know and I do not see them all the time. So there are days that go by where I do not see another Haitian and cannot speak face to face with someone in Haitian Creole, the native language of Haiti. Not seeing a Haitian every other minute was something that shocked me immediately upon arriving in Alabama.
“You have an accent, where are you from”? This was a question was asked very often while up here in Alabama. I constantly found myself asking other friends do I have an accent and they all would say yes with no hesitation. I was surprised since I had always been told by family members that I sound “American”. Being partially raised in America and Haiti has given me a hybrid accent and being up here in Alabama has made it more apparent. I will put this down as a positive since I have had a few ladies tell me they like my accent.
Another positive is that I have learned a lot about other people while being up here in Alabama. The first of which is that people have different ways of speaking, acting, and learning. In Miami I would mostly see people from the Caribbean and we would all share many cultural things in common. At Tuskegee there are so many people from all different places around the US and it is fascinating to see how they see and do things. It has opened my eyes to see how important it is to be open and willing to see things from others point of view.
One, two, three, or any amount of years ago if you had told me I would be going to school in Alabama I would have said no every time. However now after spending a full school year in Alabama I can say that it is not bad. In fact it has a southern charm that instantly grabs you. Furthermore the quiet and relaxing scene makes you realize there are other things than just the city life of Miami. I am pretty sure my parents will love to see Alabama next fall semester and add to the number of Haitians who are in Alabama.
