Haitian Refugees Reflect On Year Living In South Florida
MIAMI (CBS4) - One year after the earthquake in Haiti, some of the youngest refugees are slowly adjusting to life in South Florida. The transition has been challenging for many Haitian children. They've had to learn English, a new culture and how to cope away from their families.
"If I'm here I have to say praise to God," said Junior Tunis, 16, a Haitian refugee. "I have to say thank you, because it would have been a year that I would have been dead."
Tunis said his brother helped rescue him from the rubble and carried him on his back to medics at the airport. That's where they rushed him to Miami in time to save his life. By the time he arrived infection had set in and his prognosis was not good. But today he's walking and doesn't seem to be bothered by the scars that have healed on his leg. He said life here in South Florida is both and blessing and a challenge.
"I have to resign myself, said Tunis. "I have to take courage. I'm holding myself following the right path, so I don't get into any negative stuff so that I can become somebody."
The transition has not been easy for most of the Haitian children. All were thrown into American schools and had to make sense of classes in English.
"That was my first time ever in an American school," said Tunis. "I saw so many kids, I was very shy, I stood by myself."
Peterson Exais, 10, was also shy on the first day of school in Miami.
"I'm scared because the one time I go to school and see all kids, they laugh at me," said Exais.
Now Exais and Tunis said they both feel more comfortable at school and more comfortable living in Miami.
Exais still has the scars to show across his face and head from the time he spent trapped under the rubble of his home in Haiti for four days. While his physical scars are mended, his emotional ones are still raw.
But despite the trauma Exais and other Haitian refugees are doing their best to settle into their new lives here. Many of them share the same big goal of one day becoming a doctor.
"I want to help my family in Haiti," said Exais. "I want to help my doctor because he helped me. I want to help him."
It's a dream Tunis also relates to. "I really would like to be a doctor so that I could help my family left behind."
