 My name is Ann Smith and this program is called Africans United of New England. I'm here today with my guest and my partner in working in non-profit organizations Antony Bazia and we're going to talk today about your future. If you're watching and you're a refugee or the child of a refugee an asylum seeker or maybe you were born here and you're the 10th generation American we're still going to talk about your future because I've done a bit of research and Bazia and I have done quite a lot of talking about the problem of choosing what you want to do with your life particularly the way of work getting an education that works for you but that doesn't leave you in incredible debt and confusion. I want to start however by asking Bazia today to talk a little bit about his first job I know you can talk about this even though I didn't warn you I want you to tell them about your job in Egypt when you were doing such an interesting job as a young man helping to run cruises. Yeah, in Egypt there's a red sea a lot of these countries they would visit and then plus they would do a pyramids it's kind of a history everybody loved to go to Egypt to see all the tourists, all the tourists and moses it's kind of a mixed story. The Bible a little here of the sea, the red sea have different flavor because you used to do a ship, you can be under the water the ship is going but you can see the other fish you have glass bottom, you see the other fish, you see the other animal whatever you want to call it, under water and then you can take some picture you have a camera you can shoot any picture you have. So that's one of the things a lot of people from Middle East a lot of people from Italy, even United States Australia that we came to have good time in the summer. And you had a specialty, you worked for the man who owned the company with all the cruise ships once for the Nile as well as the Red Sea, right? Yeah, the hotel called Sea Edge Params. Sea Edge Params is a big family in Egypt and they are owned by one area called Giza, it's kind of a if I say I think Giza. Yeah, something. So these people they have them all cars, land cruiser they do safari. Oh they did safaris too? Yeah, we do a full cruise, we can take 200, we can take 500 people we do food in different places. So you lived on the cruise ship you went on this experience. Right, so all this is part of it and then they used to operate with Hollywood. If somebody requests like Argada is a place it's all tourists, Sherma Sheik of the yuster of Jesus when he left Egypt and went to Israel. I'm sure if you wanted a special, right, special tour of a special right we can we can take a contract because we take a contract by the group. So say a church group wanted to see the parts along the Nile where Moses might have gone with the Holy Pete, you know when they were leaving when they were having their diaspora from Egypt. Okay, but at your specialty I know you mentioned this to me also the part I think that maybe you enjoyed the most was occasionally you got to man and command a ship that all the people on the ship were children. Yeah the one other thing you know I don't know if anybody watching this show when you are a dad and you try to remember when you're a child not just to remember when you get a chance to work with the kids it bring something in the back of your brain like a movie. Oh I was one of them but today I'm not one of them but I'm trying to see what's my time that and then them time and this all almost happened to everybody if it's if you're a man if you're a woman you're going to look at the little girl when I was little girl I was like this if I was a boy I would say oh when I was a little boy like this. So it's kind of amazing he bring you back to your memory of your childhood and this is one of the reason I used to go into work with the kids because nobody born big everybody born little when they grow but sometimes the only difference between me and other people I'm gonna say I'm especially but when somebody became a dad and he forget he was a child that for me he looked like a little bit. That's actually kind of sad when you think about it. Yeah but some people do according to when when you don't give a value or you're talking with a child it's like ignoring them another way I feel that way this is me but I almost feel I was a child I don't born big. I'm going to tell our audience a secret. He's still a child. So you are still a child in many ways. I mean I've known this man for quite a few years and I think that's one of the nicest things about somebody you know is when you know the child in them too it hasn't gone away that part of them. Now I'm going to ask you a slightly unusual question I don't think you've I've asked you this before how did you get that job in the first place? I'm a I'm a person since I can start when I was nine years old I almost believe I never feel I want to work under anybody but sometimes I work but almost I believe I can create my own thing. So you can create a job? Yeah because I'm a child who born I want to be my own boss when I was even young and and I'm good at one thing I can go somewhere and I used to use this example when you go to the party do not dance I would sit down I don't care which kind of language those people speak but I can find out what is wrong and what is good what I can do what I cannot do. So you're an observer you start by observing? That's me okay on a when the situation. The first thing they give me the job because I have different skill of travel and on travel and on travel that I speak different languages and especially Egyptian Arabic I was good on it it's just like if I'm talking in the radio you're not seeing me you can say well this guy is Egyptian because and I learned that too through the radio and that's why I love radio radio it's about you're a target one person but the TV is different you don't know how many people watching the radio almost a target of one person so when I was there I was just so you were there in Cairo which you had been you had traveled to Cairo before you were familiar with the city yeah and you went how did you find out there was a job I'm just curious about what it's like on another continent when you're jobless what do you do yeah one of the things I go back to my my own design I love hotel uh all these places sometimes I can live with my parents or my cousin who have good job and a lot of them have job under the embassy but I'm a child since I was young I love hotel one of the things I love hotel you would have good attention I love attention I don't need no worrying about to fix the bed I don't need to worry about the food everything is there and then you pay only one bill you cover everything but if you stay in an apartment you want to pay the house separate I just like feel that's the way I meet people who are important okay so while you were in the hotel you met the man who owned this or at least he was I was in the same hotel that's what we met and did he stay there or did he just he had no no he stayed there okay even him old family they have a suite a suite yeah okay complete one part of the all circuits and he ran this business his business yeah which was cruises and other kinds of tourist attractions okay and um did you just so did you get someone to introduce you to him uh this a witness was in the hotel when I was in the dinner and I met part of the family was have dinner and I'm a guy whatever I go I have my own designer nick and he he was interested to know who this guy he noticed you because probably because of the way you dressed uh I introduced myself and he was like what do you do I say I do this I do this and then you say I feel like we can talk I say maybe not today maybe all the time so he gave me the business card and then uh one week later we met with the manager and I was able to get a job and you got that job and I don't tell her that I already did a flavor to to ask something new for the job when you come for the for the kids I'm the one came I was the idea of the kids because there was people come from Europe come from where they don't have program for the kids for the adult okay they just focused on the adults because they were the ones paying the right so I say well why not we can create a new idea and even we we get to the point we teach the kids to have uh the other crews you can be have the the pump of the the air on your back you can get under the water oh so they could try you mean they could try scuba diving we did that we did a special program for the kids wow and the kids love that when they came and then we have uh more than 12 if if I say we're putting three kids down we'll make sure there's all the adults around them because it's a new thing I know you're always very concerned about yeah it's safety so okay the reason I ask these questions is that I'm trying to point out that this is a gentleman who has uh done a number of things that he and I have talked about are things that are eventually going to be very important for you whoever you are who's watching to pay attention to when you think about your lifetime of work and I'm using those words lifetime of work for a very specific reason I think you should take out a pencil and paper someday and sit down and figure out how much time of your life is going to be spent working whether it will be for yourself or for somebody else because let's face it folks you can't get very far in this world unless you inherit a huge fortune without any money it's wonderful to think that we have a purpose in life that's more important than making money but unfortunately and in the reality of things you have to make some money in order to take care of yourself and eventually fulfill whatever purpose it is that you have and that means you need to know a couple things first of all you need to know yourself you need to know what you like in Africa if a child is growing up and he's deciding what he or she wants to do with his life or her life um who makes those decisions a lot of times the parents make decisions but uh I want to add one thing but important before I make decision and I wish if they was thinking about timing and I think I see many parents okay when you say you want to be a doctor if I just say United States take 12 years maybe I can say Africa take eight years but they never think about them age parents whose age the the parents because whatever I look at it I look at it like in United States you buy a house for the 100,000 USA or 200,000 they would tell you this house be finished for 35 years that's right so imagine if I'm 45 or 40 or 30 life really the truth life is all about number if you're in the life are you dead still that's right in between just a lot of numbers yeah everything is so a number but I'm trying to mention something here the parents never see that a lot of the other parents for me I get a chance they allowed me to be who I am but it doesn't mean that's the right thing maybe for other people that are not the right thing they think the parents are supposed to decide for you to be so a lot of them they want to be a doctor they want to be engineer and even when they say engineer they don't even be Pacific what kind of engineer yeah a lot of different kinds yeah it's just a word open just like when you when you look at a freedom word it's it's not a small word it's have long dispelling to write freedom why do you think why do you think so many African parents and you and I know this from bright future which was a group we had at Portland High School which was new arrivals teenagers who were either born here or most of them were new to this country inevitably one of the questions we'd be asking in there in our meetings was what do you want to do in the future what do you want to do for your life's work and inevitably they would say oh well my parents or I think I should become a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer why do you think African parents focus on those three careers for the future of their children one of the things I know that we have a lot of good number of the people who became engineer they are good in reading and they're good in math but it's still for me there is no window in Pacific orders group to look at number of timing okay for them I know I can I can I can go back to my own family I have a lot of my member of my family they love education they like hungry about education that's they they keep going going going all their lives yeah I'm not here to be against somebody who love education but I'm just asking a simple question after all this education there's something going to be end called job j-o-b so if you're putting 20 years in education and look at your age and that education that's how many years on top of that you need to look for something about practice did you do that at school did you practice at field so when you look at the field just say you you done education for 25 years and there's a practice here say five years again that's 30 years so the big grown for Africa I can say colonized by British or by French I can say it very clear there is uh I'm not going to call it confusion but maybe that's the one thing they know about it because the love title a big title you know and even if you see them kiss they almost pick name of the people popular well known famous famous even if he's a good person about they don't even care they just witness our friend who's who was named Hitler as a baby uh because his mother and father knew that was a very important person they had no idea what Hitler had done in his life but they named him that he is now trying to change the spelling of his name to something a little bit like Hitler but a little different because he now knows who Hitler the original Hitler was yeah I wish whatever was in this program let's say take the good thing from the past and art for the future and the better so in this show today we're thinking uh if you get to the United States and you have a background come from Africa or Middle East or whatever country you came please just take him down a little bit and my grandpa used to do this when you go to the party do not dance that the same thing if you came in this country don't rush to make decision by motion or by just your thinking that's the right thing what I'm trying to say because the market of the job sometime it doesn't wait for your education that's right the market it can change anytime if you see today the market academic is is is a good thing but today air condition carpeting mechanic does the quick money and you get it right away and a lot of places they're looking for us even welding machine or even the bridge even right now the road the light design of how to build the building in a better way and and and safely and and although you can go out and get an engineering degree that doesn't mean that you're going to be picking up tools and helping to build a skyscraper uh a lot of the jobs that you see that to you look so important so you could say someday you know I helped build that building or I have my own plumbing uh concern and that's that's a very well-paying business or I'm an electrician or something that's very practical that people are always going to need you don't have to go to a four-year college to get the training for those things first of all you can look at your local community colleges but you can also look for apprenticeships one of the things that I began doing when we were talking about the incredible load of debt that people who go to four years or four years of college and then two years to get a masters the huge number of loans they have to take out the amount of money they have to borrow I started looking for possible ways to get around that and one of the things I learned was and I was surprised is that there are an enormous number of companies in the United States where you could work part-time while you're going to college and they will also help you pay your college tuition I'm just going to grab a list here they do it two ways one they can give you money right up front so that you can go off to school while you're working for them of course the condition is that you have to continue to work for them while you're earning your education the other way is tuition reimbursement say you were to work for you're going to be shocked Kentucky fried chicken at the end of your four years of college they might pay you back half of the cost of your education based on your success and your grades I just want to read our audience the names of a few companies that you already know Starbucks Verizon Bank of America Best Buy Home Depot Lowe's Chipotle Amazon McDonald's Target Apple do I need to go on I mean this is a list of 36 companies you can google this yourself another section I came to had 50 different companies that including large financial corporations like a Wells Fargo where I finance my car if you get a job right out of high school working for these this company one of the things you should be asking them as soon as you get the job which is not usually very difficult because it's an entry-level job of some kind is what what kind of programs do you have for me I'm a student and you would be amazed at how many of them there are out there the average cost to attend a full-time private university or college in this country is $40,000 a year okay that's not counting your that's not counting your living expenses that's just to go to school for one year if you are going to USM and you live here in Maine it's about half that because you're a resident of Maine but $20,000 over four years is still a huge amount of money yes you can earn scholarships but there aren't enough scholarships to pay for everybody to go to these educational facilities free so you have to be in this country how many people would you say in in a village of 5,000 people how many people would manage to get a college degree in Africa of that 5,000 it'd be a small number because it'd be back to the parents so family who own money you know because even education I mean the bottom line education everywhere is expensive that's that's where I look at it there's nowhere even if you see I know maybe the the money is different maybe say Africa using a pound United States right different denominations but still education really it's not something free and and this is why a lot of people who struggle in different country even if they cannot do nothing you find out they have high education or look at Africa this is why two weeks ago I was talking about something very interesting if we open just in New England a language we can get a lot of African what person speaks seven languages six languages that's economic right there and that's true um Africans refugees of all kinds already came here with some skills even if they didn't have an education I have yet to meet a refugee who doesn't speak at least two languages besides English um we have a dear friend who used to work with us at Portland High School and who has now gone on to start her own business and when I met her I was struck by the fact that she told me that she had worked for a particular bank in town for 11 years and during that time she earned her college degree when she was hired by them she they didn't hire her because she had a college degree she didn't have anything beyond high school but she did speak French fluently and she told me that they were looking for someone who could speak French and so they hired her over the 11 years she worked for them and she liked working with them they considered her a very valuable employee they paid the bank paid for her to take the classes that she needed to take to get a degree in business a full four year it didn't cost her a thing except her service and loyalty to that company now there uh that's a second kind of opportunity I mean we have the list here of places you can look for funding that you can go and get a job but the other way is to make the right impression on your employer and then who knows what can happen with that I want to mention that there is a cultural event on September 4th at Merrill and you're welcome to take a look at it it's going to be African drumming and percussion and dancing for those of you who might watch this show regularly that would be a fun program to give I believe it's at 5 30 in the afternoon in a Saturday I intend to try and bring a child I know because I think he would enjoy it very much the other thing I'd like to add to our program today and this is obviously a subject we could talk about for hours is that we are affiliated with the welcome center on 24 Preble Street and are hoping with their help and the help of other non-profits to start a group called what I don't know because we've got to name ourselves but it would be young people particularly refugees who want to make a difference in their community and get a possible step up in their own lives by getting leadership training and connections to important people in the Portland greater Portland area and here I am talking about how you can get a job and how you can get a college education and it might not cost you any money or how to find the right place for you but you guys you millennials and I'm not a millennial and neither is bizarre you guys have a skill that we need and that other people need you know more about computers than I will ever know and most of the information I brought to the show today I got from my computer but I can tell you you would have found it a lot faster and you would have found it a lot more easily and then when I find a job to help somebody apply you would help them apply for the job because of your skills so I'm urging you to get in touch with either myself or Bezier or perhaps send an email right to the welcome center and tell them that you are a person of from whatever country of the world or you were born here and you're interested in being part of the millennial leadership group because we can help you and you can certainly help us next month we're going to come in and I'm hoping that we'll have a guest next month so either Bezier or I will interview our guest but in the meantime be well take care of yourself and we'll see you again soon