After leaving Jamaica for a weeklong vacation in the ‘land of the free’ in 2012, Mary Jane* decided to take advice from her friend and run off.

The life that she thought would be a bed of roses turned out to be a bed of thorns.

“After she boost mi up and mi follow har and go up there, she abandon me,” she said.

“Bwoi, to how mi see it, never tek boost up from people because afta a month and she see seh mi cya get no job, she put mi out. Mi seh to har seh: ‘Look how you mek mi come up here and you know mi nuh have nowhere to go and you a do this to me’, and she seh mi need fi fend for myself,” she said.

Since then, she has been on the street or ‘kotching’ with co-workers.

Jane said she didn’t return to Jamaica immediately because she wanted to try and make things work since she was already there.

NO SOCIAL SECURITY

“Mi did wah try mi luck but it better mi did go a mi yaad. Mi stay a one man yaad and him nearly rape mi. Mi go a home weh mi get robbed and mi stay pan the street where mi even affi bus a tidy inna a bathroom,” she said.

Five years later, things are no easier or better for Jane, who said she is frustrated and wants to come home.

“Yuh see because the people dem at the place where mi work know mi nuh have no social security and mi cya complain, the people dem pay mi what dem want and when dem want, and mi cya bada no more. As bad as Jamaica be, mi nah get treated so,” she said.

Not having an interest in marrying to get citizen status, Jane said she is coming home even if she loses her visa.

“Mi a come home man. If dem tek mi visa a so because this is no place to be. Mi learn mi lesson and no friend cya boost mi up fi do nothing again,” she said.

Jane said she wouldn’t encourage anyone to run off to the US.

“Mi wouldn’t tell nobady fi run weh a baxide. Up yah too hard,” she said.

* NAME CHANGED