Chibaloza is an Oakridge resident. Her home country is Congo but she lived in a refugee camp in Tanzania for eight years before coming to America in 2016. She came to America with her five kids.

She was shocked by her first impression of America. She was surprised by the quietness because back in Tanzania, there was always fighting between the police and the citizens.

When Chibaloza was growing up, her life was great. She had no complaints and her family was well-off. That all changed when she became a teenager. Her father was kidnaped and stripped of all his money. All of that trauma caused him to develop a mental illness. It had a tremendous effect on him and ended up causing him to pass away.

Years went by and Chibaloza got married and had children. More unfortunate events occurred and her husband was killed. Nobody knows exactly what happened. She says that there is no legal process in Congo. For example, they don’t hold trials or conduct thorough investigations, so the authorities told her that they didn’t know what happened to her husband. That terrified Chibaloza because the killer was still out there. That’s when she made the decision to move to Tanzania.

In Tanzania, she lived with her kids in a refugee camp. That still did not provide Chibaloza with reassurance that they would be safe, so they moved to America.

What surprised her the most about being here were the schools, because back home they didn’t exist. She felt like her kids could grow up well with all the opportunities that exist in the U.S. She says that being a single mother is hard, but she is trying her best so that her kids can have a good life. She says that although bad things happen here, it’s nothing compared to what she had to go through back home. She says she would rather be here than ever go back there.

– By Ketego and Najmo, Oak Futures communications interns

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