Coming to the UK

My name is Ali I was born in Afghanistan. It is a hot, desert country. When I was six years old, my family left Afghanistan and moved to England. We could not take a plane, so we went by boat. First we had to drive to Turkey in a car, and then we took the boat. The journey was dangerous and took a long time.

When we got to England, it was December and it was raining. I had no idea it could be so cold!

At that time, I didn't know how to speak English, and nobody in England speaks Farsi, my native language. It was difficult to make friends at school. Luckily, there was a boy from Iran where they also speak Farsi. He helped me a lot when I first arrived, and he's still my best friend. His name is Bahar.