Sorry

Hello, my name is Sol-Belen and I am 17 years old. My family is catholic and Christian. We are like anybody else but the most important thing in our family is respect.

I was born in Argentina but I’m from Bolivia. My parents are Bolivians. I have 4 sisters but we don’t have the same father. It was a little difficult for me when I was a kid but it was more difficult I think for my mother because she did everything for us alone !

When she had her first daughter, the father left her, so she had to work to take care of her baby. She was helped by my grandma. Then she married to my father and both went to Argentina to work. There, I was born. My grandma and my big sister, who was 4 years old, joined us in Argentina. Finally we stayed in this country for only two years and came back to Bolivia because I suffered from a burn when I was one and an half years old and my mom broke up with my dad, so she had enough.

Then my mom went to France. She was the first from all the family to go to Europe. After, her two big brothers followed her. She left us with my grandma in Bolivia in Santa-Cruz. For 4 years it was my grandma who took care of us. We didn’t see my mom for 4 years. One year she came for the holidays with her boyfriend who was a Peruvian and promised us that she would do everything to bring us with her to France because she found a good job over there. At the end of the year my grandma, my sister and me took the plane to Paris.

I remember it was so funny, I felt living like in an adventure. It was magical too because we arrived on the 25th in 2005. My uncle was disguised as Santa Clause. It was the first time I saw a Santa Clause flesh and bones. It was the first time I took the plane at the age of seven. I was so happy.

When Christmas was over, I realized that I was going to live in France for a long time. I was so scared when my grand ma came back to Bolivia, I didn’t want her tot. She had to return because she couldn’t become used to France. So I stayed with my mom and this man that we didn’t know.

Then my mom was pregnant. I was so happy because I was having a little sister. But it was so strange for me. We were not that close with my mom. There were never hugs. Then I went to a school in Paris where I learned to speak French for a year. I felt like nobody would ever know me totally, but I liked making new friends and they also liked meeting a girl who came from South America, especially from a country they didn’t known of.

Two years later my grandma came for two months just for the holidays. We told her that we suffered, she said: “I suffer too but she’s your mother and you have to stay with her. Here you have a lot of opportunities !” Then she returned to Bolivia, we have always kept in touch. We promised to her that we would study and have a good job. Her voice asking us to do our best  is always in my head. That’s why I have never stopped studying.

I had another little sister in 2008. My two little sisters are everything for me. They changed my life and now I live for them.

In 2010 my grandma passed away, It was terrible. My heart was broken. I saw my mother in such a terribly painful situation because she had no more parents. She was very alone. She cried a lot and so did we. At that moment I couldn’t realize that my grandma was dead. But I understood that I would never see her again yet she would always be with us. This moment changed my life too and it makes me stronger. And now my mother really takes care of us.

I think what makes me unique in my life story is where I was born, where my parents and grandparents were born. I feel unique too because of my name Sol, because it is unusual in Europe whereas in Argentina it is very common.

Growing in France for me gives me a lot of opportunities that I wouldn’t have had for sure in Bolivia because it is a poor country. I try to keep the promise that I gave to my grandma to be professional. I have a lot of dreams, a lot of projects and that’s a good thing I suppose. First and foremost I would like to finish school and graduate and next get in an audiovisual school. In the future I would like to work in the cinema and become a director or a writer. My family only wants me to have a good job, a good health and a good husband. Then and to finish,  I would like to come back to my country to help all my family who still lives in poverty.