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The Beginning
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"The Camp"
"We crossed the Sudanese border and arrived at a city called Awad. The refugee camp in Umsagata, a small dusty village of straw-and-mud adobes from 1980 to 1983." -
Coming to America
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A new Life
The kids started school and found it hard to fit in with the other students because of their background. -
"We begged. We pleaded. We reasoned."
Tewolde and Mawi were bullied and beaten everyday at school. Although their parents knew the condition, they were told to not stand up and fight back. It seemed like they weren't safe at school or at home. -
Longfellow Elementary School
Their parents hammered into their minds the importance of excelling in school. It was a rough start because they had their enemies but soon started to make a few friends. -
7 years
Mawi and his brother didn't want their parents to struggle and wanted to be able to help them some day. So they both worked really hard and after 7 years they graduated from the ESL program and entered regular classes full time. -
"Good Kids"
Although Mawi and Tewolde got into a lot of mischief they soon grew out of it and didn't take the opportunities they had for granted. They were in a school district that had outstanding teachers. They missed fewer then 10 days of school combined over the past 10 years. -
Computers run this country
Tewolde and Mawi started working cash jobs then found other opportunities. -
"Proclean: No one Cleans better."
When my brother Tewolde was 17, he started his own cleaning business. Tewolde was ambitious and smart. He worked hard for his business and knew that God intended for him to thrive. Although he was ambitious, he didn't graduate high school. A drunk driver killed him midway through his senior year. -
Compassion International
After 8 years, he is still remembered as a sweet boy who was smart, ambitious and very helpful. One day Mawi was going through some papers and found a photo. He turned it around and it read on the back, "Here is your child. Thank you for sponsoring him." Mawi wondered how his brother donated this little boy money when he so little money to spare. -
"Boona"
It was a tradition to get together, drink boona and reflect on stories back in the motherland. -
"The unmaking of a man"
Mawi's father was a doctor, mentor, and friend in his homeland. He always gave what he could to the poor. He got a job at Wheaton College to be a janitor. As time went by, he started to lose his sight which lead to his job letting him go. He went into a depression and became obsessed and paranoid. His health started to go downhill which changed him. -
His Generousity knew now bounds.
Mawi ran in to an old childhood friend, Berhe. They sat together and talked of old times. Then Berhe started to talk about Mawis father. He went back to their homeland, Tigray and many of his fathers old friends started to tell him stories of deeds that he had done and the people that he had helped. -
I am poor man, I am disability
Mawi's father came up with a plan to burn his neighbors leaves. He believed he was helping them. The fire men came and the police gave him a warning. It was in that moment that he believed that he was living in treacherous world. Sometimes you try to do something good and you end up getting punished for it. -
Harvard
Mawi's brother Tewolde inspired him to be the best that he can be.
