March Madness: for the love of the game

JASON RADKA ASST.SPORTS EDITOR JNR722@CABRINI EDU

happening it makes me scared.”

“There are a lot of crimes, I heard, and I’m afraid to go back. They might kidnap me,” Tursack said.

Tursack left all of her family in Haiti to come to America with people she never met before. She had been moved around a lot in her life. She lived with her mother, then her father and lastly her grandparents. When she was older, she did not live with her parents and decided to join an organization that helped children like her. There, she met her new father who was visiting Haiti as part of his missionary work. She now lives with an American family of a mother, father, two brothers and a chocolate lab.

“I miss my country. I wish that I would bein my country and be happy. I don’t like to come to a new country and learn new stuff and get used to a new culture, but I’m glad that I was adopted,” Tursack said.

Lourdia Tursack,adopted from Haiti,accustomed herself to the American way after moving to the U.S.at 16 years of age.Although her native country is in turmoil,she misses certain aspects of Haiti,yet feels lucky to haveopportunities in America.

NIKKI SABELLA ASST.SPORTS EDITOR NS722@CABRINI EDU

Double tall, nonfat, no foam, extra hot, with whip, mocha latte. Lourdia turns away from the customer, grabs a cup and tries not to panic.

She takes the master drink manual and flips to the page that shows the directions to making a correct mocha. She panics again.

For any barista, the first months of work are hard, memorizing the long list of how to make lattes, frappuccinos, americanos and macchiatos. It just takes getting used to the language of Starbucks.

Imagine trying to understand this language if only four years ago Creole was the predominate language in the country, and no one in the town ever stepped inside of a Starbucks before.

For Lourdia Tursack, this is how her life has changed.

When Lourdia was 16 years old, the Tursack family from Glenmoore, Pa., adopted her from her country, Haiti. Ever since then, she has been trying to reconstruct her new life from scratch.

The country of Haiti has been under many different leaders over recent years. Presidents are elected, and the country is considered a presidential republic, but many feel that it is an authoritarian government.

There has been a constant change of presidents between Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Boniface Alexandre and René Préval, some coming into presidency more than once. In between presidents there are a lot of riots and much insurgence in the country.

That is why Tursack is afraid.

Tursack has hopes to go back to her country, but only if it becomes stable. She is fearful to go back when there is no president because there is no rule on the people and tons of chaos. “I don’t know what the situation is like in Haiti because I don’t listen to the news. I always cry sometimes because when I hear all of this bad stuff

Tursack hopes that one day her family from Haiti will come to America. “That’s what everybody in Haiti is looking for. That’s their dream, their paradise.”

Tursack is now a citizen of the United States. She is getting married to her Haitinative boyfriend on June 10, whom of which she has been together with for four years. She hopes to start a new life with her fiancé and plans to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse shortly after. Until then, she will continue to make caramel cappuccinos as her part-time job and keep learning the ways of America.

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