Monday 29 November 2010

THEY HAVE A HECTIC STORY - a picture is worth a thousand words

These people did not use to be necessarily poor or homeless.
In a paragraph write your own side of their story. Include: how old do you think they are, what they did before (education, jobs, families). ATTENTION PLEASE: you have to write the story as if you were the person in the photo. Have a look at Alin's very nice example in the comments below.
So your story will start like:
e.g. I am..........(fictional name) and I'm homeless...I was born in ............I used to.............. but now........... or something like that.

So put yourselves in these persons' shoes, try to experience what they are feeling, thinking, etc.
What can be some of the causes that led to poverty. Explain.

30 comments:

  1. This person once worked in a very important company.He was a hard worker and he wanted to be promoted.Because he worked a lot and very seriously he was promoted to a better position.One day an important man from this commpany offered him to start a busines together. They had to invest money in a very promising business.He invested a lot of money,but one day he heard on TV that his company had gone bankrupt.Somebody told me that he was a homeless in Spania.

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  2. I think that those people really had money once, but they wasted it on cigarettes, drinks and betting, until they lost all their money. Maybe because of this they had a lot of trouble and fights with their family and friends and ended up on streets. They had debts, lost their jobs and divorced (if they were married), so now they are alone on the street with no help.

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  3. I think those people became homeless because they practice tax evasion and the IRS has seized all their property,this is my argument and this cannot be true but in other countries tax evasion is a violation of law.

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  4. I think those people became homeless because they were rich and they wasted their money on betting,until they lost all their money.Betting it's like a drog,couses dependence and in this way those people lost their money,house and their became homeless.

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  5. I think those people are poor and homeless because they were fired from their jobs due to the financial crisis. They had once a family but they broke up and remained on the streets. They worked really hard in the past but now nobody wants to hire them.

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  6. When somebody sees people like them he/she says that they are homeless, poor, dirty, have no education, were left by they families and friends. Things, that are uncertain.
    I don't really know what happened to those people. They are maybe 30 years old. It could be possible that they survived a natural disaster and try to start a new life, but without asking for others help.
    Another possibility is that they left their country to find a job, but they were caught by the police doing black work and now they must make some money to go home.
    Or they were left by their families (which nowadays is a kind of fashion) and they were unable yet to start a new life. Who knows???

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  7. Hi, my name is Benedetti Pietro. I'm 41 years old and I was born in Italy. Life was dificult for me even from the moment when I was born because my mother abandoned me and I grew up in a orphanage. With all the difficulties that I had, I studied hard and in one day I became a surgeon. Life was good for me in that period because I had a good job, a house and money. I operated many people until one day when I made a terrible mistake and I was accused of malpraxis. My case was brought in the Court of Justice and they decidet that I must go. I don't think it was a fair decizion but I had no other choise. Because I had many debts at the bank, they took my house and I remaind homless. Now I struggle every day to survive but the authorities promised me that they would give me a new job as a street cleaner. Don't laugh please because it's a decent job in times of economic crises.

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  8. Hi Ionut,

    YOU HAVE A VERY HECTIC STORY INDEED.

    THAT'S WHAT I WANTED YOU TO DO: TO PUT YOURSELVES IN THOSE PEOPLE'S SHOES!

    WELL DONE! REALLY CREATIVE!

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  9. I think that, some of those people, once had family and a good job but unfortunately, at the begining of the Finincial Crisis they lost their jobs and the lack of money had determinated them to take loan from bank. In time, they couldn't afford to pay the credit so their houses were tooked by the bank so they ended up in the streets.

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  10. My name is Ysmail Johnson. I'm 40 years old and I was born in New York. I had a really beautiful childhood. All I wished was around me: my mother, my father, my grandparents, who lived next to us and my friends. I remember the sunny summer days when we traveled together. This "dream" ended when my mother died in an accident and I had to live only with my father. At that time I was 19. Than my father made debts to pay all the invoices and after 3 years when I upgraded college, an executioner came and sold our house. Meanwhile my grandparents died too. We had nowhere to go... My father got old and he didn't got a job. We lived in Bronx in the ghetto. But the entourage was too dangerous and my father was shot. I started to drink and to use drugs. Soon I entered in the life of the dealers and when I decided to leave the gang they almost killed me. Then I escaped and this is the way how I live now: poor but in safety.

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  11. Hello,my name is Alexandru and I was born Romania,but when I grew up I had to get along with my own strength because my parents died in an accident when I was 12 years.My dream was to leave my country and at age 18 I decided to start a better world somewhere.So I arrived in Italy, believing that I will have a better life.But the Romanians have a bad image in that country and I had no chance to succeed because I do not know anyone there.So I ended up living on the streets and live on charity.

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  12. Hello,my name is Alexandru and I was born Romania,but when I grew up I had to get along with my own strength because my parents died in an accident when I was 12.My dream was to leave my country and when I was 18 I decided to start a better world somewhere.So I arrived in Italy, believing that I will have a better life.But the Romanians have a bad image in that country and I had no chance to succeed because I do not know anyone there.So I ended up living on the streets and live on charity.

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  13. Hello, my name is Ion and I was born in Romania. I grew up to be a pretty average boy from an average family. Everything was nice. Like all boys I liked sports and sometimes engaged in little fights, so my parents decided to send me to the Military Academy. It was a very useful experience,but I didn't enjoy having to follow so many rules. One day my friends and I were having fun, drinking and we started fighting for a girl. A beat up one of the guys sobad that the police picked me up and I had to go to jail. Because I had a record I could no longer go to school and I had to pay fees forthe years I had attended. I had debts, I was in jail and my family turn their backs on me. Now I walk the streetsand I have nothing.

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  14. I think that those people once had money but with Financial Crisis,they practice tax evasion and they become homeless.

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  15. Hi,
    My name is Popescu Ion. I am 45 years old and I was born in Romania. I had a nice childhood with my parents. They offered me everything. My life changed when I was 18, when my mother died of cancer, and my father fell into alcohol addiction, everything was a disaster. Because I had no support I tried to handle it alone. I learned and I started my own business. And because I was not satisfied with what I had, I made loans to banks to extend the business. But at some point everything started to go crazy, things not going so well and I could no longer afford to pay my debts. Thus, the bank took everything I had and I became poor. Now I try to survive from day to day at the passersby mercy. I hope that the authorities will help me find a job and a home.

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  16. Hello dear readers. In the future lines you will read a story that wasn't happy from the begging, it god just a bit better at the middle but crashed terribly in the end.
    My name is Lavinia Roman. I was born in a little city called Solovastruon the date of 18.12.1985. Tomorrow it's my 25th birthday.. What a joy.. or at least it could of been if the situation wouldn't of turned out that bad..
    The story begins when I almost turned 19. I finished school so I needed to find something to work because my parent's did not have that much money as to support me, they barely could do this while I was still in school.
    One day an ex-boyfriend (with which things turned out pretty bad when we broke up) just came back from his hollyday in Spain and we meet accidentely on the way home. He kept bragging all the way about how easy life is there and how easy it was for him to find a job and make money.
    With the problems becoming more difficult at home I decided it was time to try something that would hopefully make life a little easier for me and my parents so I accepted his invitation to go with him to Spain. Big mistake.
    When we got there for a few days it was okay, but after he said that I have to start finding something to work and I didn't hesitate. But he had other plans for me.. What I didn't know is that he offered himself to take me there and let me stay at his place because that's what he does - he convinces girls to come with him promissing them a better life and when they get there.. they are forced to prostitute. The same thing would of happened to me but I decided tht's not an option so when he was careless I ran away from his house.
    I thought that this would be a good ideea but I didn't know how difficult life was living on the streets. It was really hard to find a shelter for the night and food was a rarity.
    The only thing that kept me alive was the will to carry on and sometime go back in my country and see my parents. The picture tho, can tell you everything about how life is on the streets. I just hope that after reading this you will be more carefull with what choices you make in life.
    Thank you for listening to my story.

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  17. Hello everyone! My name is Jhon McIntyre, I was born in Greece. I`m 46 years old and I had a wonderfull life a long time ago. Now... I have, nothing! I had a good job at a big company as an Assistant Manager with a good payment. I can say that my family was perfect: a beautifull and understanding wife and two handsome boys.
    With the begining of the Economic Crisis, I have lost my job and because of my age I couldn`t find a new one. In time, I started to drink a lot and because of my weakness my family left me. Without job and money I couldn`t pay my debts so, now, I live in the streets and my family is homeless.

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  18. I am Gheorghe Ioan, I was born in Ploiesti. I used to be a 51 years old engineer at the Rompetrol. One day, I remember, that I read some news in the newspaper that our company will be sold to an Austrian consortium. First I laughed, but few days later we were called in a meeting where my boss told that some of us had to leave the company. I was very disturbed. At first time I didn’t realize what it meant . Meanwhile , I started to seek for a job. At the beginning something similar, after two months of knocking at every door I knew,I realized that I would never be able to get a decent work what about a similar one. My economies were lost, my wife asked me to divorce so I arrived in the street. The apartment was mortgaged so I received a few thousand RON from my wife after the divorce was pronounced. I left for Spain, where a friend of mine got me a job. Journeyman of course. It was ok. He even took me with him at home. But when he left home in Romania for good I had to sleep on streets. I have no place to go, I can’t get a job, I don’t speak the language and I live from others' pity. Now I think that there are many just like me, who were kicked out from their country by their government.

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  19. My name is Julia ! And this is my story.
    My life didn't worked out the way I dream about it! Somewhere I lost control.It all started when my father lost the home that we had.I was 6 years old.We started to move from house to house every year. I promised myself as the years past that I will be different.That I will build my life differently.Hearing all the arguing between my parents every single day it was awful, and always because of the money.
    So I grow up... worked my whole life, I got married to a wonderful man had two children . Everything was perfect. I had a home a beautiful family great career . I was a psychologist .Until that terrible day. A car accident happened . I was the single survivor. Everything broke inside me.I had no reason to live. Started to drink, I was on drugs . I tried to forget who I was . Why am I living. Lost everything. Didn't care about anything.And that's how I ended up like this, and that's my story.

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  20. I am Jeff Muse and I'm homeless.I was born in Paterson, New Jersey, USA I used to be an actor but now I am living the day scared about tomorrow. i am 47 years old and I used to have a family, until I made the wrongest decision in my life to cheat on her. He find out and he throw me on this streets that you see in the picture. If I could i would turn back time and do the things right for me and my family.

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  21. My name is not important any more. I used to be someone. I had a big house, a very big life but it all crumbled away.
    No, I am not sad because I am homeless, I am sad because my dog just died.
    You see, he was my best friend, my every-thing. Even when my wife left me, when my house and business got taken away, he always had a happy tail for me.
    It is not important what had happened to me or why, I just think of it as bad luck. Oh, and trust me I tried to rebuild something, or to get a job, but you see, who would ever want to hire a 40 year old executive manager that has lived on the streets. That would bring a bad reputation to their company. All in all a very sad story one might say. But if it was my fault I have to say yes, so many things spiraled out of control in my life that I started to first ignore them and then I had no control over it. If granted the chance to do it all over again I would change some things about me but the rest, I’d do it all the same. Because you see, it is not about the life you lead, it is all about the choices that you take because if who you are and what your belief are.

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  22. Hi Martika,
    that's a sad story, actually all such stories are sad - when life didn't WORK out they way we imagined.
    You also gave details about feelings!

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  23. Marian,
    was it a he or a she whom you cheated??

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  24. Oana Nelica,
    I appreciate your narration. It seemed as if it was really told by a person in the photo!

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  25. My name is John Marston. I used to be a doctor, i had a house, a car, a family and money, but one day an accident happened during an operation and my patient died. His family sued me and i had to sell my house, my car and everything i had in order to pay them. My wife left me, and now i live in the sewer system with some other people. You really don`t know what the faith has for you.

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  26. Hy!My name is Carlos Ramirez,I had 30 years old and I am from Los Angeles,USA.I am an immigrant but I obtained the working permit and now I am a citizen of USA.This was a big part of my life.I was very happy cause I managed to realise my dream to come in USA.I lived in Mexico in a poor side of it with a lot of violence and gang wars.My parents gave me a good education and I appreciate that.In L.A. I used to work at the local store from my neighbourhood.I had my own family to feed.The money wasn't enough and I wanted to bring more so I can pay my invoices and the other necessities.We didn't have where to borrow money and we had a growing number of debt.In that situation I decided to go on streets to make money so I started to sell drugs and do bad things like I used to do in Mexico.My wife didn't know anything in that time.She heardfrom our neighbours that I was arested by the police.I was sentenced to 10 years in prison.My wife didn't say a word for me and I have never seen her since that day.When I went outside the prison after 10 years I realised that I did not have anybody around me.Now I have 40 years and I am trying to survive on streets every day.It is routine.I had left the gang side an the dirty things that I had done and now I am trying to rehabilitate myself and to go in the good direction.I want to be happy like I was when I arrived in USA.I hope I can do this one more time.

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  27. Hello. My name is Adi and I am homeless. I was born in Romania. Since a very young age I am an orphan. I used to go to school until my parents death, but after they died I didn't knew what to do and I started to drink and now I am a homeless, poor man. So everything that the alchool did for me was to ruine my hole life.

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  28. My name is Norman.I came into Division of Youth and Family Services when I was 2 years old. My mother, she got caught with robbery trying to take care of us. I’ve been in over 60 places; in foster homes, group homes, hospitals, it’s just been hard.I was physically abused. I was a young child being beat like a grown man. I was skinny and I was being beat like I was nothing. I told my case worker every time and they eventually took me out of the homes but there were some instances where I wanted to stay in the home so I kinda took the abuse a little bit.
    From home to home, hospital-to-hospital, group home to group home, it was always the same.
    My dream is to find my family. I know my mother is in Clinton State Prison, my father just got on parole. They say I have 26 relatives but I don’t know where any of them are.
    It was actually one of my fears to be homeless like this.It feels bad I feel like I’m at my lowest point. I feel angry, I feel lost, I feel helpless ,I don’t know, I feel really bad. It’s not a good feeling at all.
    DYFS plays a role on me being homeless. Most of it ,is my fault but they play a part.

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  29. My name is Vasile Ionescu. I am 25 years now. When I was young, people said that I was the future of Romania's football team. I started playing football here in Romania but at the age of 10 I was spotted by a scouter from the italian team AS Roma. At the age of 16 I started making money from football and supported my family. I thought that everything was going to be great when I moved to my new team, and so it was for a period of time. After a while tho, I was introduced to some new people by a colegue. Those people were not as good as I thought. They invited us the next day to a club to have some fun.. little did I know that the "fun" they ment involved drugs. Without even realising it I was high and I didn't realize what I did then. Some papparazzi got some pictures of me back then which got to the team's leaders. Hearing the news, without even a blink, I was fired from the team and suspended from football for 5 years. This litteraly ended my career as a football player. No team would accept me because of my mistake. Now I am still in Italy, you can find me on the streets along with the other common beggers who live their lives from the mercy of others..

    STAY AWAY FROM DRUGS! they can ruin your life in less than a second

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  30. Razvan,
    are you a football fan? As far as you know, are football and drugs connected in this way? Did you have something real in mind?

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