With Whom am I to be vexed?!!!!

Na so God take internship bless me dis summer after I don pray tire. For those who don't know, that means that I have to register my internship as a class as the American government will not allow me to work. I mean at 23, still requiring pocket money is grounds for all sorts of disrespect. E remain small, I almost comot my aunty pikin head when e ask me when I go pack comot from im mama apartment go my own; afterall, all the other women wey im sabi get am for car and house. me I just dey dey watch tv all day.

So anyways, back to my internship story. I now rallied around and generated the $500+ to register the course( i mean I have to pay to work) and went to almost five buildings (one of them does not count cos it is a renovated container/trailer) just to get signatures, documents, stamps, u-name-ity so that my immigration documents will show that I am allowed to work. The firm sef don tell me say, I gats to get it all done by Friday if I want to get paid so I was flying up and down in the bastard hot sun. At the final stage, the international students services office, as I awaited the advisor to put me in the SEVIS system. one of my guys from Trinidad and Tobago was commenting that I it might be a better idea to walk around with a bucket instead of a handkerchief, because it was like I swam into the office in my own sweat. Na im I laugh kon tell the guy say "My broda, dis country is precious o". We come begin laugh all the many "interesting" things Yankee gets to offer international students.

Apparently the exec assistant (or something like that was listening; she is American). Na im she come ask me if university dey my country? I look the woman, I look my friend.
"Pardon?"
"I was just curious to know if y'all got colleges back in your own country." she open mouth explain herself. I blink once, where she dey carry dis one go?
"Yes," My friend too answer. Im even talk say for im own country,university is now free. ( I see pple hopping to the Trini embassy in Lagos now)
Na im dis woman come slap me and my friend without lifting her hand.
"I mean, for all of you who choose to come here for an education," na she dey talk am dey go o, "and y'all complain so much, why don't you stay back in your country? I mean if America is so bad, why don't you stay in your own home?"

Ladies and gentlemen, has anyone ever talked true (excuse d english but I am writing my thoughts verbatim) and the thing pain u to the point way tears form but shame no gree make dem fall? Na so the woman's words come be like dat kin dirty water wey pepper sellers dey throw-way for market. I mean, she is goddamn right!

Why should I be relegated to a numerical identity all because I seek an education and an environment that rewards my efforts accordingly, allows me to explore all my talents and become the best I can be? Why, if not that the alternative is an invigilator refusing me my exam papers after my parents had spent thousands on a private tutor and I, many sleepless nights preparing for my JAMB, all because I refused to "settle" like everyone else in the class? Why should I have to flee my father's land cos as an outspoken woman, I might say something to offend someone in a cult and he/she/they will organise to have what limbs I escaped Igbobi with? Why did I have to flee to a country whose currency's exchange rate to the naira was once 2:1? Why did I have to be up at 4 am to make the 6 am line at the embassy bearing documents endorsing all my family's property; property which on average, their pple cannot boast off? Why do Americans have the misconception that upon discovering that I am Nigerian, i must be wealthy/ Afterall, most of the others they have met, live large, don't work and are the offspring of government officials.

I was very embarrassed by the woman's question and I could not tell her that in as much that she, her government and her fellow citizens seek ways to humiliate me and my people everyday we remain on their land, it is not as bad as the degradation my people face each day at the hands of their own motherland blood. Even as each day passes and graduation becomes less of an illusion and more of a glaring reality, I ask myself, will there be a place for me at home when I return? If there is, will I be able to be a productive and effective member of society? If there isn't, then with whom am I to be vexed?!!!!