Hannah

Hannah HR 109 Seedfolks final RAFT

BORIS

I got off the boat from Russia, and stepped onto " The Land of Freedom" for the first time.I looked across the ocean to say good-bye to the land I had left behind.The others around me were crying. I wanted to cry too. I was happy, at the moment.As I walked through the city, I could not see any familiar faces.Those faces were back at home, In Russia. I had nothing but a small bag of my belongings.As the months went by I was still homeless, and always hungry.I had begun to think America wasn't so great after all.One day I heard two ladies talking about some community garden. To me that meant one thing- FOOD! So I followed them to the garden. What I saw made me almost jump for joy! Ahead I could see an area filled with carrots, squash, string beans, radishes, lima beans, peppers, pumpkins and other luscious fruits and vegetables.My mouth was watering but a lot of the plants were not ripe yet. There was one thing that caught my eye though....the tomatoes. Five big beautiful tomatoes stood there just stood there growing on their vines just begging me to come and eat them.So, during the night I crept into the garden and stole the biggest one.It was the first real meal I'd had in ages.The next day I watched to see if the gardener would notice what I did. I saw a boy who looked about 25, he was very upset and was glancing at some apartments a hopeful look in his eyes.I felt bad, but the next night I stole another.It was even better than the first one! I figured that since that young man kept glancing at the apartments, I would be able to steal another in the daytime.I reached my hand inside the fence about to grab one when I heard a women's voice, " How dare you!". I looked up and saw a lady by the window yelling at me in her apartment.I tried to defend my self but all I said was " I thought it was a community garden!" The more I thought about it the worse I felt about saying those words.I realized I had become a stingy and dishonest man.I couldn't believe what America had done to me! I knew I couldn't let myself starve, but I also knew I couldn't steal any more tomatoes! I decided I must start a a garden of my own. I wanted to grow lettuce, it would grow big and would provide a healthy meal. As soon as I set foot in the garden, lots of people turned to stare at me. I suppose it was my raggedy clothes, or my thick Russian mustache. Whatever it was they didn't stare for long. Soon everyone was back to work.In a couple of weeks that lettuce was growing like crazy! I had begun to talk and get to know people. I wasn't the only one from a different country there were others like me who have had a rough beginning.This one man in particular - His name was Sam I believe, didn't even work in the garden. He had someone do his work for him but he still interacted and talked to people. He was the first person I had a real conversation with.Thank goodness I knew some English! I began to enjoy the garden. It gave me something to do ,the people were friendly, and I got free food!Pretty soon it was harvest day. Everybody was here, and everyone harvested their plants.People were smiling, laughing, and bragging about how big their plants were.I saw a man staring hopelessly at a match of dead baby lettuce. I felt bad for him so I gave him some of my lettuce. He smiled and thanked me. Apparently others had seen this happen.They were sharing their food too. I looked up at the surrounding apartments, and saw the women who yelled at me. She was smiling. media type="custom" key="7581767"