COVID-19 has impacted a lot of people in many ways, and mine is not an exception. I am from Angola and was working in the USA from 2014 to 2020. In March 2020, I lost my job as an aerospace engineer due to COVID-19 and did not have enough money in my savings. Then suddenly all the borders had to be closed including the USA and Angola borders which meant that I had no way to come back home.

Since I had no funds to cover my expenses (housing, food, transportation, etc), as an expat living in the USA, with an aerospace engineering career, you can imagine that my life started to get really tough. Borders had to be closed because of COVID-19, which meant that a lot of airplanes had to be grounded, and a lot of employees in the aerospace engineering field lost their jobs. This meant that my chances of getting a job as an aerospace engineer, plus being an international, were very slim.

Since a lot of people started working from home, the demand for online services went up. So, my solution was to move to New York and find jobs to cover my basic expenses (food and shelter mainly). So, there I was in New York, an aerospace engineer, working as a full-time food delivery driver, and bartender at nights.

On November 17th, 2020, after the borders reopened I came back home -Angola- with no job. Since online services are still emerging in Angola, I started an online business to keep myself up while I look for a job in the engineering field.