A change in culture.

Joshua Dare Adetala, a Nigerian graduate student who currently attends St Mary’s University, is majoring in Computer Science. Joshua first started studying software programming at 14 years old and became fluent by 16 years old. He then noticed that the hospitals only had information about patients on paper. If a patient is in a different area and has not yet been to the hospitals in that area, the hospitals won't have any information about the person. Therefore, they lack critical information and by the time they do get the information, the person might even be dead. He then was in a project with a group of people and they made a system for hospitals to use online to distribute the information. 

His experience in Texas has been enjoyable. The greatest difference he noticed was that the jail system in Texas is far better than in Nigeria. In Nigeria, the system is very harsh. Even for the smallest punishment, the people won't get fed most of the time. They will either not come back out or they will come out as a completely different person because of what they had to deal with while they were incarcerated. One of the stories he told me was that he went to Atlanta and he was on his way back to Texas. Once he arrived, he saw a man with a confederate flag. He and his friends are black, so they were afraid since they had heard in the media of what can happen. 

Joshua entered St. Mary’s University as a graduate student. Being Nigerian, it was hard for him to make friends, but he met his German friend, who did not have the greatest English. Later on, they ended up hanging out and soon became best friends. He noticed that when he was alone, people would be afraid. But when he was with his German friend, people would easily talk to him and he felt as if it was because of his skin color.  He also said that in Nigeria people would not really be friends with you. They would only talk to you so they could benefit off of you. He did not really make close friends. When he came to St Mary’s University, that's when he first learned that people were very different. Then he met his best friend and that caused him to see how different Texas was. People actually want to be friends and they aren't actually just looking to benefit off him. People would mind their own business and do their own thing. When he went to Dallas he said he would hear a lot of people speaking his language which made him feel more comfortable as he could just go up to people and start talking to them in his own language which sort of felt like home or as if he belonged there.

Posted September 17, 2019

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