Sophomore Ecaterina Prodan thought that war in her home of Moldova was only a rumor.

This past summer, the 17 year old was getting ready to go out with her friends in her Eastern European country when she heard her mother call her in from another room.

“Come, you have to see,” her mother said. Motionless, they stared at the TV and watched as the news revealed what they had both feared. It wasn’t just a rumor. War was coming.

The two remained silent. They knew what this meant. It was no longer safe to stay in their country.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine was nothing new to Prodan. She had seen the signs and heard the stories. She knew that those against Russia would make their hatred evident.

“When you would go to Ukraine, take a bus or something if they would see the bus comes from Russia… they would stop and start shooting people,” Prodan said.

She remembers that as tension boiled between the countries, citizens feared for their own safety.

Because Moldova borders Ukraine, Moldovans worried that violence would spread to their own communities. Talk of war lingered among the population. Some moved out of Moldova, while many lost their jobs due to businesses closing down.

“They’re not even hiding that war is coming,” Prodan said.

The day the two decided to move, the mother spoke to Prodan’s aunt, who lived in Texas. With her help, they planned the move. Devastated that she had to leave, Prodan immediately thought of her friends. She planned to keep the news from them until after they went out together.

“I didn’t tell them that night, I couldn’t,” Prodan said. “I knew how they were going to react.”

For Prodan, her friends were like her family. She knew the hardest thing about leaving her home country would be leaving them behind.

Prodan still struggles with her homesickness. Having been an ESL teacher for 15 years, Jane Trkay can see the effect the move has had on Prodan.

“You can tell when she walks in the door, and looking at her face that she’s having a bad day or that she’s missing her friends,” Trkay said.

On her last night in Moldova, she threw a going-away party with her closest friends. While the group recalled their favorite memories together, Prodan struggled to calm herself down. Unable to ward off her feelings of anxiety, she suffered an asthma attack and was rushed to the hospital. The next morning, her friends visited her. Despite the circumstances, they joked with

Prodan, trying to remain positive.

“We were talking, and they were like, ‘Hey, we knew you were going to figure out something to stay here,’” Prodan said.

While the incident did delay her departure, leaving the country remained inevitable. This September, she was due to leave Moldova. On her flight to America, Prodan couldn’t stop thinking about home.

“The only thing I had in my mind was that I would do everything that I could to come back as early as possible,” Prodan said. “I think about it almost every day now.”

Trkay says Prodan has been open about her experiences, talking freely about her homesickness and the struggles she’s faced after moving. Prodan also openly talks about her country and the differences between America and Moldova.

“I always encourage that because I love to hear about it,” Trkay said.

Prodan misses her friends daily. Until she’s able to visit, she makes sure to keep up with them by calling them on Skype. Although they keep in touch, Prodan says it’s not the same.

“People there, they know how hard life is, and they would be there for you no matter what,” Prodan said. “I would call my friend at two a.m. and be like, ‘Hey, I need you,’ and he’s gonna be there.”

Last year, junior Carolina Guerrero Sembergman and her friends were walking together on a crowded Colombian street when a teenage boy approached her.

He pulled out his switchblade. Sembergman felt him press the sharp edge against her skin.

“Give me your phone or I’ll kill you,” the boy hissed under his breath, his face concealed by a beanie pulled forward. She refused. Frustrated, the boy threw down his knife and punched her in the face. While Sembergman threw a punch, the boy grabbed the iPhone 5S out of her pocket.

“I was thinking, what do I do, what do I do?” Sembergman said.

As the two began to fight each other, Sembergman saw something in the corner of her eye. She watched a truck halt abruptly in the middle of the road. The driver, a large middle-aged man wielding a machete, exited the car and approached them. Sembergman froze. She didn’t know if the man was going to help her or if he was coming to kill her.

To her surprise, the man turned to the boy and ordered him to give Sembergman her phone back.

“It was like a movie,” Sembergman said.

Shocked, the boy dropped her phone and ran off. The anonymous hero and a group of onlookers bolted after him, leaving Sembergman and her distressed friends behind.

***

Her family had been planning on leaving the country for years. When Sembergman’s mother and stepfather got married two years ago, they began the long process of moving to America. She said her mother was relieved, knowing Sembergman would have a better life there.

In America, being mugged in broad daylight is nearly unthinkable. In her home country, it happens on a daily basis. In America, she can walk in the street without fear of being robbed.

“[Here] you feel safe,” Sembergman said. “In Colombia, you don’t feel safe.”

After moving to America last year, she had to learn to ada­­­­­pt to the culture. This included learning English. She entered an ESL class, where she gradually learned the language with the help of teacher Jane Trkay.

Regardless, she continued to miss her country.

Last spring, her parents planned on going to London over the summer, where her step-grandfather lives. Frustrated, she argued against the decision. Sembergman said that her mother promised she was allowed to visit Colombia every summer.

“She fought her parents not to go to London, she wanted to go back to Colombia,” Trkay said. “I was like, ‘Are you crazy? Go to London.’”

After convincing her parents, Sembergman finally was allowed to visit her home country.

Once she arrived in Colombia, she made plans to meet up with an old friend in the park. While waiting on the bench, Sembergman noticed a boy sitting next to her. He glanced at Sembergman.

“He was like, ‘Can you give me the time?’” Sembergman said.

A seemingly innocent request. However, she explained that when someone in her city of Cartagena asked what time it was, they had an underlying motive. They would wait as a watch or phone was pulled into view, and examine it. They’d see what model it was, and if it had value. They’d see if it was worth taking.

“You can’t trust other people,” Sembergman said.

Knowing this, Sembergman said she couldn’t. She said her watch was broken and that she didn’t have a phone. Angry with her response, the boy smashed his glass bottle of Coca-Cola and pressed the edge to her chest.

Not again, Sembergman thought. She grabbed the boy’s wrist and slammed the bottle out of his hand, causing it to shatter on the concrete. Seeing the wallet in Sembergman’s pocket, he quickly grabbed it and sprinted away.

While Sembergman has gotten used to this type of violence in her home country, her experiences in Colombia have taught her to be more careful. After the first incident, she started to carry a pocket knife with her for protection. She learned to hide anything that someone would want to steal. If anyone saw the outline of an iPhone or a wallet in her pocket, she would be at risk of being robbed. Instead of keeping a wallet in her pocket, she learned to hide her money in the front of her pants. She remembers her stepfather’s warning every time she would leave the house.

“He told me, ‘Don’t be on your phone when you’re in the street,” Sembergman said. “‘Put your money in your pants.’”

After moving from Cartagena, Colombia to Highland Village, Texas a year ago, Sembergman had become well accustomed to America, and it shows.

“When she first got here, I was a little concerned because her English was developing very slowly,” Trkay said. “But then all of a sudden last year, it was like, boom. She was talking about everything in English.”

Once she gained confidence, Sembergman became outgoing and quick to approach new students. As the class buzzes with excited chatter following the bell, she is seen talking eagerly with her fellow classmates. She’s adapted rapidly to her new home.

“I see Carolina staying here after she graduates from high school and becomes an adult,” Trkay said.