Zania Aveeler and her family moved from Belize to the US and then to the UK in 2017 for her mum’s work, “however I didn’t move straight to the UK I went to the US for two years then I moved to Northern Ireland where I have been living for the past four years, I came here in 2019 and have been here ever since”. It was a giant move as Zania said, “When I initially left Belize I felt scared because I hadn’t left the country before, it was all new especially going from a third world country into a first world one, but I ended up liking it”.
“The reason that we are home is because my mum got a job here as a nurse and I have a aunt who lives here for 16 years, she told my mum that their was nursing jobs wanted here in the UK and so that’s when my mum came over but I stayed in the US studying for two years, then I came to the UK and continued my studies”. Adjusting to the lifestyle was difficult was Zania and her family, “we are having a hard time settling in even up to now as it’s very different to what our lifestyle was before”.
She spoke out about the differences, “the food is different, here would be more like more potatoes and root vegetables whereas in Belize we had a lot of corn, beans and spicy food while here it is really hard to find spicy foods unless it’s Indian but Indian is not the same”. Also she spoke about the weather, “it’s always hot in Belize, so going from that to here is a shock weather wise totally”.
Zania opened up about what she misses from Belize, “mostly the food and maybe how close I was to people around me in Belize as I feel like people here are much more to themselves, they don’t want to talk much and that’s ok but in Believe we are more open, our family and friends are much more closer to the little family and friends that I have here”.
There are a lot of major differences from living in Belize to living here, “one of the biggest differences would probably be lifestyle, Belize is a third world country so in Belize we would have house’s that are made with wood, cement but not bricks, we don’t have heated water unless you have money to afford that, so our water is just cold all the time”.
“Here the the UK, it is much more developed and advanced so you can have fast internet, whereas in Belize not everyone has access to internet, here you have to go to school but in Belize there are some kids who don’t finish school and at 16 they have to work on farms and have children, while here it’s advised to go to university and get an education, whereas in Belize it is much harder for people to do that”.
Changing locations has a mixture of its ups and downs, hopefully Zania and her family will evolve in the UK.
