Cultural Encounters Story

Cultural Encounters Story

Some things my character might be thinking is whether they have made the right choice by dropping everything down in your home country and take your chances in the New World. I am scared that the disease might have plagued the boat, and will spread quickly once the voyage starts where there are no second chances to get back on the dock. I am scared that the Mayflower will not have enough supplies for everyone on the ship for it is too crowded. We hope to find plenty of land, a good climate, and good health. Hopefully, there will be enough supplies there to feed everyone and make life as comfortable as possible. We also dream that we will hit gold and become rich. We all wish to just have a good life and not have wished we should have stayed in our English home. We fear that we will find very unwelcoming hosts, vicious animals, and other threats. We fear that we have saved up all our savings just to come here just to die.

We have moved hoping that we will have a better life in the New World. I am a carpenter, so many people will need houses to live in, we will need many boats for traveling, I can help build the wooden hulls for the boat. Also, we fear that we will become prey to the disease, so we will flee to the New World to escape the disease. We have lost our jobs since the population in Europe continues to rise, we need better jobs, so hopefully, we will have more work for more income in the New World. We will bring different tools for our occupations. Firstly, I need a hammer, pegs, saws, maybe a screwdriver for digging into little holes to hard to reach into, and trees for wood in the first trunk I am allowed to bring. In my second trunk, I will bring all the clothes and my belongings I need to go to the New World.

Now that we have been in the ship for a month, we are kind of desperate. Everyday, our ship rocks back and forth like a roller coaster that never stopped. Food is scarce and many are seasick. Some of us are wondering was it a smart move to go to the New World. Our resting area is dirty and unhygienic. Some people have died because of a disease. Here on the deck, it's not too comfortable. My mom stayed back in England and we haven't had any news from her, my dad died from a disease before we boarded the ship, my sister, Jasmine has come along with me to the new world. She is a good tailor and makes clothes for both of us. Most of our friends are either sick or dead, the journey to the New World wasn't easy, so we wondered if it was worth the sacrifices.

The food on board isn't very appealing and has a strange salty sea taste since we were smelling all that salty air for an entire month. The sanitation on board isn't very good and there are often many bad smells and unwanted pests. We don't want to stay on this ship much longer. We have gone through several storms, we were tossed around like pebbles in a jar. Sleeping was almost impossible and many people were seasick and puking. The ship is full of bad smells, it is indeed not a very nice trip. The storms threw us off track and made us bob up and down vigorously and repeatedly. We really hope we get to the New World soon. Our clothing is getting ripped as we are tossed around the walls. My sister has lost her needle as the storm tossed it into the seas. We can only deal with that when we get on land. We really pray that we will find land soon, as our boat really isn't in much of a good condition. We continue to fear that we are not going to find the new land and will be stranded in the sea until we starve, our boats totally rely on the wind, we are not sure the winds are going the correct way. We are lost.

For two months we have been in very grave danger and had been on the verge of dieing. We have been blown way off track but are grateful for land. The Mayflower is all battered up and is in no condition to continue the voyage. We have started to explore this new territory and carefully because we didn't know what is here, animals, hunters and other dangers we don't know about might be lurking around here. We are pretty nervous, we didn't want to come all the way to the New World to die. Many more storms hurled us off course, Jasmine and I were talking about what we would do if we ever got on land, we were in luck, on the horizon, there was a green patch. Everyone cheered and rejoiced. Some were worried. People started packing up their trunks to get back on land. The captain said that we would land the next day, we left our trunks on the deck and went into our resting areas sleeping comfortably this time. We were safe. For now.

After we had hopped off the ship, everyone were singing and dancing and planning for our new life. Some people started getting to work, I chopped a piece of wood to start a wooden fort for our shelter. My sister found a blacksmith and traded for a new needle to start working again. We were happy that we were off the ship, we would do all anything to get off it. Suddenly, we were surrounded by the fresh smell of nature. We are mostly relieved that we have reached land since the time on the ship had been long and dreadful. As we were building the fort, we were afraid that we may not be alone, some natives might be waiting behind a tree, a bush, anything could happen, I prepared my only weapon, my knife, in case anything would happen. We landed in the middle of the summer when there is a lot of rain, we want to finish our fort before fall, it will be cold and it will destroy our unfinished fort, our work will be wasted, we are working in haste. I need plenty of wood to start my work, luckily, that's just what we have. Work is coming down fast, we will be finished pretty soon and will be ready for winter and anything to come. Our colony is supposed to be very free for everyone but indentured servants and others. We will be careful for the nearby neighbors, we do not wish to be attacked. Now that we have landed, there is nothing we can do to go back, so we will make do with Plymouth. We are wondering if we are safe or in a dangerous situation.

The sanitation in this new country, it is clean and easy to move around, there is plenty of space in this world so it is easy for us to get around. Our wooden fort was easy to build and gave us a little protection, it was a little crowded, but it was better than a castle. Wheat does not grow well in this territory. The food here does not seem so appealing, the corn that grows in this place, we do not know how it tastes, we don't want to eat bad food. It is easy to get a job here but the hardest thing is about our neighbors, the Natives, they will attack now and then and it is not very easy to work with the arrows shooting down from the sky, we have already had several wars, we are not in good shape to fight, but did our best and managed to escape the battlefield. If this keeps on going, we will need to go back to Europe when the next boat comes. The sanitation here is OK but not great, our fort provides protection, but only fine in sanitation, it is not as clean as a town, but Spanish raids have almost destroyed all our defenses. The wooden walls are pretty easy to build and will provide more protection than a town. We will make do with what we have and be happy with it.

Spanish raid had been a problem, as well as the Natives. Work is hard, we have to build everything ourselves instead of being there for us. We also need more food for the winter, we do not know how to fish. And we have not hit any gold yet, we will maintain like this until work becomes easier and when we have settled more comfortably, then we will continue our jobs in peace. My work is very good, as there is plenty of wood in this country, I work on the wooden hulls on the ship and on the wooden fort. Business in the New World is going on fine, the only thing that stands in the way is that there were attacks from the Natives and Spanish, we can hold them back, but not forever, I will just continue my work. If I leave them alone, they will leave me alone in return.

We have finally settled down and have been going pretty good on business. It has been pretty rough throughout the last 2 weeks. We have gotten our jobs easily and are grateful for our income, we will continue life in the New World, it is full of surprises. I would rather be staying here in the colony. It is much easier to continue life here and is more exciting, although, I am slightly homesick already, I will visit now and then, I am wondering what my old village has turned into and it's condition, I had always felt safe in it. We have been lacking food for these two weeks and will need to trade with the Natives, it will not so easy and we will have to wait until the next ship comes, I do not think we can hold on that long, we will be dead unless our farmers find a way to harvest much more amount of food, the fur-traders might have to go full time on hunting only to stop and rest, we need to survive.

The Natives have been rather cranky and are always just trampling over our land, they do not believe in owning land, they claim that the land was free to be owned, we have injured the Natives that have dared to enter our walls without permission, they will probably have their revenge soon. So we will prepare for war. The fur-traders will have a hard time learning from the Natives from what we did, like everyone knows, there are consequences for every single act we make. My sister is healthy and energetic, me myself have been slightly lazy but not ill. I haven't been so enthusiastic about carpentering ever since I accidentally cut my hand. I haven't heard from my mother in a long time, I wonder how shes doing.

In the past half-year, the colony conditions have changed, the natives have been slightly more easy to cooperate with now that we have been here for a while, but our friendship between the two tribes continues to be unsteady. We have made a few laws and rules. Though not many changes have been made. The natives have been coming over pretty often now to teach fur-traders new tactics and how to hunt. We are always prepared for everything that might happen, surprise attacks are pretty often. We will be alert whenever they are around. You can never be too careful.

Every day, we wake up and go do our chores. Some of my sister's jobs in the morning are washing our clothes, and going out to trade for food, on most days, I have to go out to chop some wood for my shop, I might also have to go out to trade for more thread for my sister. It is easier to work for each other than to get stuck forgetting your own chores. I have found plenty of success in my occupation since many people are moving here and need more houses. My sister has been very busy since many people need more clean clothes. We have been traded many different things, although we are not sure if it is enough to go through the winter. In our colony, our rules say that only laborers and indentured servants should work. It is a good rule to the people of noble birth but terrible for the servants and laborers who have to get their hands dirty because they could not get enough to make a living in England. There are other rules that are totally unfair and should be abolished. There are not bad rules for me and my sister since we have just moved here for our occupations.