My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

ight away, but at a later time when life was a bit easier. As we
grew into our new lives, however, we both became very busy
working, so she was never able to return to college to get her
teaching degree.
Deodete did find a job very close to the Welfare Housing Project
where we lived. Her job was to make holes for the components of
television sets. She was very disappointed, coming from a very
good job and a beautiful environment in Terceira, to be working in
a factory and living in a low income housing project. My mother
worked as a prep cook at a famous restaurant called Commodore.
It was very close to our home, so she could walk to work. My
mother would baby sit often for our children, but most of the time
we had to get a babysitter. The neighborhood was terrible. People
were always fighting. Police were there constantly, at all hours.
Deodete desperately wanted to go back to the Azores. She simply
could not stand it. I tried to reassure her that things were going to
get better, but she was so sad with our quality of life and the
environment in which we were now living.
A Dream Job that Became a Terrible Disappointment
I kept looking for a better job so that I could earn more money and
move to a better neighborhood. I happened to see an ad in the
paper asking for a Social Worker Director in Hartford. Although I
had no background in social work, I had college credit in
psychology, philosophy and public relations. So I applied for the
job and they agreed to hire me! The salary was $400.00 a week
which, at the time, was a very good salary. They gave me a
beautiful office. The job entailed supervising a group of 32
employees whose responsibility was to assist the homeless, the
drug addicts, and the kids at risk on the streets of Hartford. The
office was located in the worst section of the city, but as I had
experience with prisoners in Cursillo, I was delighted to have the
job. I thought it was perfect since it would put me closer to the
poor and the unfortunate.
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