Camel from Kyzylkum

THE FIRST SCHOOL I WENT TO in America was to learn English as a second language. Then I went to a special school for adult Americans who had never finished high school and wanted to get a GED (General Educational Development) diploma. There were a good number of Russian immigrants in this school because the school promised to help with job placement. I remember one of the lessons they taught us was how to dress properly, both in general and for interviews. It seemed very bizarre to us, Russian immigrants—most of us had been highly educated in the Soviet Union and worked there as doctors, teachers, engineers, and so on. We were interested only in learning English, but we had to follow the rules of the school. After I completed this school and my English improved, I took a certified nursing assistant (CNA) course—I needed to get work as soon as possible, and the course required only a few months of study and then an exam for the certification.

No matter what school I was going to, I was always an outstanding student. In general, I love to learn. I successfully completed the CNA course and passed an exam. I was extremely proud when I got my first certificate in America. I got a job in a nursing home as a nurse assistant for the night shift. To tell the truth, I absolutely cannot function properly working at night and had never worked a night shift in my life. But I had no choice—the night shift was the only one available, and I was grateful that I could get it. It was hard, and not only because I was working at night. My responsibilities were to clean and turn over old, bedridden patients. There was a strong, mixed odor of urine, feces, and sweat in the rooms. It was the smell of the end of life. On the patients’ nightstands and on the walls were pictures from when they were young and full of life. They resembled nothing of what they had once been. It was very depressing.