Walking the Nile in his shoes

A daughter reflects on the emotional and challenging journey her father, an Ethiopian refugee, made in order to save his life and pursue his dreams.

RadioActive’s Eliham Mohammed has this story about her dad.

[RadioActive Youth Media is KUOW’s radio journalism and audio storytelling program for young people. This story was entirely youth-produced, from the writing to the audio editing.]

I

n two years, I'm going to be 19. I picture myself entering my first year of college in a dorm of my choice, having a lot of fun (but balancing it out with my studies), and not having a care in the world. That's how I want my life to be when I'm 19.

But when my dad was 19, he was escaping a war.

My dad never had a chance to have a fun college life because he was too busy thinking one thing: "Will I make it to tomorrow?"

"When I left my country when I was in high school — that time when the guerilla fighter in the civil war with the government — all my cities burn out. I don't have any choice," my dad remembered.

My dad, Mohammed Mohammed, is now in his 50s. He grew up in Ethiopia with a single mother and a whole team of older sisters.

"I grew up, very nice mom. She make good money in farm area," he said. "So I grew up in the farm area, small village."

As a kid, my dad loved school and was a good student.

"I got a good result, I got a college result," he said.

But he didn't finish college because of the war.

"I didn't get a chance because there was no peace," he said.

When the war started, my dad had to leave Ethiopia because men were being recruited to join the army.

I asked him what it felt like to leave his family at such a young age, but I couldn't get it out of him.

He didn’t elaborate, and he would talk only about the journey — not the way he felt.

"I left my country. I escaped to the border country in Sudan," he said.

My dad said he walked there. He walked for three days with some friends to get to Sudan, where he lived in a refugee camp for three years.

Being in Sudan was hard.

"I stay over there. No hope, no anything," he said. "So I go to another place in Egypt. 1988, I left. Go to Egypt. I followed the Nile River. After 65 days, I arrived in Cairo."

But Cairo wasn’t any easier.

"When I was in Cairo, I go to a refugee camp. I stayed another three years," he said.

In total, my dad was a refugee for six years.

College was, at this point, a distant memory. But learning wasn’t.

"When I was in the refugee camp, I talk with the different people that came from different country," he said.

Away from the classroom, the people my dad met along the way became his teachers. They exposed him to different cultures and languages which helped him strengthen his English, and reminded him to not give up on the dream of a good education. The U.S. helped him make that dream a reality.

"The American government they give me political asylum," he said.

In June of 1992, my dad landed in San Diego, California, and a new chapter of his life began.

I can’t imagine all that my dad went through at such a young age. He experienced years of hardship and a war that unjustly took everything away from him.

Yet, I hope to have the same strength and grace as him when I’m in my 50s.

This story was produced in a RadioActive Youth Media introductory workshop for high school-age youth. Production assistance by Abigail Lee. Story edited by Diana Opong. Prepared for the web by Kelsey Kupferer. Music is "Pink Gradient" by Podington Bear.

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