2006年VOA标准英语-Victims Of African Migration Include Abandoned

By Nico Colombant
Dakar
01 December 2006

Victims of African migration¹ are not only young people who go on reckless trips trying to get to Europe. They also include those affected² by economic migration within the continent. Among these are wives left behind by their husbands in unfamiliar³ places. In the final part of a series on migration issues, VOA's Nico Colombant profiles Veronica Lefuka, a Zambian woman abandoned by her husband in a small Senegalese village.

 
Veronica Lefuka preparing a Senegalese dish
Veronica Lefuka seems well acclimated⁴ to cooking Senegalese food.

"What I am doing at this time, I am cooking some Senegalese food," she explains. "I am cooking Thiep Djem, it is rice and fish, and oil, tomatoes and cube Maggi, and onions and everything like that."

She was taught by the wife of her husband's brother.

She met her husband in Zambia's copper⁵ belt, in a mining town where he used to work. Everything was nice in Zambia, she says, but then he took her back to Senegal.

"We have two daughters and one son," she explains. "My husband decided⁶ to bring the kids in Senegal, so we brought the kids. My husband took me to the village."

Her husband left soon after to seek work again - never to reappear.

"My husband, he left us here in Senegal. He went back to Zambia," she says. "Now it has been 10 years he never came [back to] Senegal. I have been here now for 14 years, alone with the children."

Her two daughters were forced to marry as teenagers in her husband's village, 400 kilometers east of Dakar. After that, she says she felt increasingly trapped.

Lefuka decided to head to the capital with her son, so he could get more of an education. She says she is a born-again Christian⁷ and gets help from different churches to survive and pay for his studies.

"The truth is I am not working. People are giving me money, that is the truth," she says. "I did not work for all these years I stayed in Senegal. I am a born-again Christian. The Pentecostal church, the Catholic church, they try to help me sometimes."

Her son is now in second year of university, studying English. She has sacrificed so much for him and now Lefuka says she would like something better for her own life.

 
Veronica Lefuka says she feels like "somebody's ship in the ocean"
"I do not do anything. I am like somebody's ship in the ocean. I do not know what I am doing," she says. "I have got no power. I have nobody to help me. I have nothing."

She says all she has as documentation is an expired Zambian passport and an expired driver's license⁸. She says she is not sure if she should stay in Senegal, where she has never felt at home, or try a perilous⁹ and costly¹⁰ trip back to Zambia.

She says when she married an enterprising migrant man, she had no idea this is how her life would turn out - so lost and so lonely.

1 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

4 acclimated   

v.使适应新环境，使服水土服水土，适应( acclimate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The rice has been acclimated in this area. 水稻已能适应这一地区的环境。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Have you become acclimated to Taiwan yet? 你已适应台湾的环境了吗？ 来自辞典例句

5 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

8 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

9 perilous   

adj.危险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• The journey through the jungle was perilous.穿过丛林的旅行充满了危险。
• We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis.历经一连串危机，我们如今已安然无恙。

10 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。