This conversation is always difficult for me

“C’est bon, n’est pas?” my domestique looks at me for confirmation. “I will move to America and make a lot of money as a maid. Then, I’ll come back to Benin with all my money, and I’ll buy a grand house and I’ll help my Mama, who’s sick, and I’ll put my kids in private school. C’est bon, n’est pas?”

This is not the first time I’ve had this conversation. Nor will it be the last. I come from the land where anything is possible. Here, getting to America is as simple as having the desire to go to America.

This time, I don’t want to be the person to crush her dreams. We have problems, but the problems of a developed country are quite different from those here.

I cannot be the person who has to tell her that many before and many after will want the same thing. And few will achieve this. Even in the US few will achieve it.

But for now, I will let her continue to believe that such things are possible.

I nod. “C’est bon.”