Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Bijoux spent her childhood in DRC and in Burundi, where her mother’s family lived. She spoke Swahili and French, but when the English teacher came to school, she would leave early. “When he speak, it’s like music to me. I’m not understanding anything!” she says.

In 2008, due to war in DRC, Bijoux’s family fled to Malawi, where they lived in a refugee camp. Bijoux was 22 at the time and married to her former French teacher. They spent the next eight years in refugee camps in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia.

In 2016, Bijoux, her husband, and their four children came to the US, where they had two more children. Everything is different in the US, Bijoux says. “Different is too much. Africa and USA is not the same. You know, a kid from Africa is growing a little bit. But here, grow faster, faster. I’m happy because I see my family’s growing faster, faster. Alabama is good. I like it. I like the weather in Mobile. My kids are going good to school. They come home with no problems, no trouble.”

But she misses her family in Congo, especially her mother, who is getting older. She thinks of her constantly and they talk by video often. Bijoux hopes to bring her to the US. “I miss miss her too much,” she says. In Mobile, Bijoux keeps a big garden, like her mother taught her, growing corn, beans and cassava. “I’m going to my garden, I remember my country,” she says. “I’m cooking, I think about my country. I like to cook. Every day I cook.”