SHREVEPORT
RUSTON
A while back I received a letter via email, it began with… “What could a regular young man from Cameroon have to do with airplanes, apart from dreaming of boarding one to get to the USA for greener pastures?”
MONROE
ALEXANDRIA
BATON ROUGE LAKE CHARLES
LAFAYETTE
NEW ORLEANS
Moise Banga, AMT
The American Dream By Matt Ferrari
Everyone has a story, a journey that he or she has followed to get to where they are right now, at this moment in time. We all have goals, dreams, and desires. We also have obstacles, real or imagined, that seem at times, to keep us from achieving our objectives, from reaching our highest potential and achieving the highest form of ourselves. We also have inside each of us, the power to make those dreams come true. Every once in a while, I meet someone who has a certain glow, an energy that surrounds them as they move about their day, a magnetic force that draws me toward them, that says “I want to know who you are.” Moise Banga came into this world on June 24th, 1983. His life started in Douala, a coastal city located on the Gulf of Guinea in the Central African country of Cameroon. The youngest of eight children born to his mother Therese Marie Nkomideo Epsi Evina, he was the only one to survive past the age of twelve. Therese Marie, having left her marriage, set out on her own with young Moise with the determination to raise him well and the hope of one day sending him to America for a better life. While growing up, Moise found himself interested in the game of basketball. As it turns out, he was gifted with a great talent for the game and worked hard to develop his skills. He gained notice and was recruited to play on some of the best national teams in Cameroon where he became one of the top players. As Moise worked hard on his basketball, his mother worked hard never losing focus on her dream for a better life for her son. Saving all that she could and having sold most everything she owned, she raised enough to send Moise to the U.S. Having made contact with an agent who promised, for a fee, that he could arrange for a student visa to the U.S., she was told that the visa would allow Moise to continue his education and play college basketball with the hopes of going pro. She paid her money and sent her son to America. In June of 2009, Moise set out on his own. Arriving in New York full of hope and ambition for a bright future, he moved in with a family friend in Connecticut. His excitement was dampened a bit when he found that the “agent” who arranged for his student visa didn’t actually do as promised. The travel documents he provided for Moise was not a student visa and left Moise neither able to attend school nor able to legally work here. His mother worried from afar as he attempted to sort this mess out. In the meantime, he did odd jobs for cash to get by, always seeking a solution to the situation that he found himself in and looking for opportunities for a better life. During this time, he met a young lady named Cynthia.
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Ultimately unable to get his student visa, in 2011 Moise set out for Louisiana with a friend, whose family lived there, with hopes of finding work and better times. Struggling along for a couple years, he decided it would be a good idea to head back to the Northeast. In early 2013, he set off for Maryland to be near Cynthia. That seemed to work out pretty well for him, as they were married