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FRANK AND MBAGO NIGERIAN BROTHERS
Even though we were from different countries, we still should have been brothers, defending and helping each other. But like our brothers in Africa, we were making war when we should have been making peace. -
FATHER CHASTISING HIS SON
IF YOU GET EXPELLED, WHO WILL DRIVE YOU TO YOUR NEW SCHOOL? IF YOU GET EXPELLED, WHO WILL GIVE YOU A SCHOLARSHIP? DO YOU THINK THAT THEY GIVE SCHOLARSHIPS TO STUDENTS WHO GET EXPELLED FROM SCHOOL? REMEMBER THAT THIS COUNTRY RUNS ON COMPUTERS. ONCE YOU COMMIT THE SMALLEST CRIME, YOUR NAME WILL BE STAINED FOREVER. -
OUR NEW HOLIDAY-HALLOWEEN
When we came to America and heard of a strange holiday where children morphed into all manner of strange creatures, my siblings and I were puzzled. But eventually, we understood. This was their version of Hoyo Hoyo. -
TEWOLDE DEVELOPING A HEART
Around the age thirteen, he started to go thru a special transformation, an emotional maturity that my people call libee migbar, or developing heart. Before long, Tewolde would teach us all what it truly meant to develop a heart. -
TEWOLDE HEART SPOKE
Whatever the answer, Tewolde's heart spoke:" We should give him our sandwiches." I nodded my head and took the sandwiches out of my backpack. I offered them to the man. "I hope you like Aldi ham, bro." -
TEWOLDE THE BUSINESS MAN
I never saw my brother that next summer because he worked nights, cleaning the Toyota dealership with Jim, and I got a job flipping burgers and cooking fries. Jim encouraged Tewolde and taught him to build from almost nothing. So at age seventeen, my brother ventured out and started his own cleaning business. -
RIP-TEWOLDE
He never graduated from high school. A drunk driver killed him midway through his senior year. -
TEWOLDE SPREADED LOVE ABROAD
Not long after his death, I went to his room and looked through some of his papers. A single picture stopped me. It showed a dark-haired South American boy about five years old, with the warmest, brightest, most hopeful eyes, and a hint of a smile on his light-brown face. I flipped the card over and read it: "Here is your child. Thank you for sponsoring him. With your twenty dollars a month, he goes to school, receives medical care and eats healthy food." -
THE MAKING OF A MAN HAILEAB- SON OF ZEDENGEL-A ADVANCED DRESSER/DOCTOR
Although my father had not attended high school, he took the test with the other students. A vagabond among local favorites, what chance did he have. I SCORED 84. SO I EARNED THE RIGHT TO TRAIN AS AN ADVANCED DRESSER. NOT A FULL- FLEDGED DOCTOR, BUT IT DIDN'T MATTER BECAUSE THERE WERE SO FEW DOCTORS THAT AS AN ADVANCED DRESSER, I DID EVERYTHING THAT A FULL DOCTOR DID. -
WEALTH
My father grew wealthy, He had his own pharmacy, his own general store, and he ran his own clinic. He had livestock by the hundreds and was known to all in the area. -
FLEEING TO SUDAN
How will you get through the border and into Sudan, you ask. The rebel groups will not let you pass? Yes, this is true, for all of you were born in Ethiopia. Do not fear. I will mail you letters of clearance. The rebel are my friends and will let you through. -
BOONA TIME!
When three or more of my people come together in a home, the woman of the house usually ask the other adults if they wanted boona, or coffee, and they usually said no. Not the least bit fooled, the woman asks again, and the guests usually said yes. These cups are small enough to fit between your fingers, so small that one gulp could empty them. The boona reaches in and uncuffs their tongues, allowing them to discuss memories they would otherwise leave untouched. -
THE UNMAKING OF A MAN/ JANITOR WHEATON COLLEGE
He had been an advanced dresser back home in Adi, and he had done everything: stitched head wounds, birthed babies, treated snake bites and malaria. But when he came to the States, he couldn't just stroll down to Central DuPage Hospital and proclaim, "Y'ALL ARE IN LUCK. GUESS WHO JUST MOVED INTO YOUR COUNTRY - THAT'S RIGHT, THE BADDEST ALL-PURPOSE STITCHER AND BABY BIRTHER THAT THE BACKWOODS OF TIGRAY EVER DID SEE. JUST SHOW ME THE SURGERY WING AND I'LL GIVE YOU A FREE DEMONSTRATION." -
EYEING THE MOUNTAINTOP
"What are you doing going home, Mawi? You should be on the track - you were always way up there in the wind sprints." -
RIP FATHER HAILEAB
Life as a beetle had often cloaked it, but that same source of greatness still pulsated here in the States. That greatness continues to pulsate - if not in my father, then in those he helped and the stories they still tell of him. My father is not here to hear their stories. One night, while my father rode his bike near our home, a drunk driver stole his life. -
SELAMAWI ASEGEDOM-HARVARD GRADUATE
True power comes from focusing on what we can give, not just on what we can take. Of the gifts that we can give, the greatest is to see the beauty in each other-in essence, to give beauty to each other. When we give that beauty, we prepare our hearts to receive it back. So it is that I have been inspired by beetles and angels. So it is that I hope you will be, too. When you are, I hope that you will remember this story about an immigrant's dream.
