Day 355 - Nasser's Plans

Highly motivated and experienced secondary level teacher seeks opportunity to obtain PhD in curriculum development for visually impaired students in inclusion programs with goal of establishing a computer training center for the blind in Eritrea to improve educational, vocational, and professional opportunities in the increasingly technically advanced world.

Nasser

That is the lead paragraph in Nasser's resume - to introduce himself to those he hoped would help make his dream come true. He had succeeded in getting his Masters Degree in Curriculum Development for Special Needs, a necessary step in his long-term dream of establishing a program that would provide Eritrean children who were deaf, blind, and disabled in other ways with a solid education. He was dedicated to the idea of providing an education to all children in the same classroom, not segregating children based on their physical challenges. As a teacher, his classes were all inclusive, his term for mainstreamed. As a student, he had experienced both and he preferred inclusion.

Before I left Asmara, he asked if he could contact me for help in the future. I agreed. He had already impressed me with his determination. He had impressed the boys who agreed that I should communicate with them through Nasser. And he had impressed several people at the U.S. embassy who tried to help him as they could.

Nasser was able to meet with Melissa, the Community Liaison Office Coordinator at the embassy, to discuss possible ways to ensure support would continue for the boys. Nasser reported that the boys were able to get their team registered with the Denden Secondary School program. So long as Melissa was still in Asmara, she was my liaison with Nasser and the boys as I sent them books on soccer as well as simple English. That may not have been the best choice on my part, however, given the tension between the Eritrean government and ours. At one point not long after I left, Habtom, the team's coach, complained to the organizers of the Denden program that Nasser was keeping for himself what I had sent to help the team. Before they left, one of the team of inspectors who had been in Asmara for three weeks gave me an envelope with his spare nakfa and asked that I give it to the boys. I had a few other small items that I didn't think I could bring back to the U.S., such as a bracelet made from zebu horn, and Melissa gave those things for me to Nasser. In addition, I sent Nasser money through Western Union for his family. In order to clarify Habtom's complaint, Nasser had to provide a list of everything he received from Melissa - the nakfa, the bracelet, the books, and some DVDs on soccer - to the organizers. The result was that anything Melissa had for Nasser had to be turned over to this organizing group instead of being handed directly to Nasser. Not surprisingly, the team decided they needed a different coach.

I had expected to be in Nigeria for the three years after I left Eritrea and that offered the promise of my being able to get back to Eritrea now and then. But when the assignment to Nigeria was canceled, it was clear I would not get back to Eritrea. My attention then turned more toward providing support to Nasser and his family. One reason I was willing to provide him with support was that I learned so much from him. The other is that his requests were never for handouts. When he requested help, it was for a specific plan that he hoped would get his family into a better situation financially.

Tekelu and Nasser's children

The most important lesson I learned from Nasser is that sometimes it is better to ask for help than to continue trying to get something done on my own. Nasser had - and still has - big dreams. He knows that his dreams are more likely to come true if he is not the only person working on them. And I have learned through him that sometimes I could have gotten more done more quickly and better if I had just taken the time to ask for help.

An equally important lesson was the one he lived by never letting disappointments define him. When one approach failed to produce the result he hoped for, he took another approach. This was a lesson that I should have considered more when my plans to travel to Nigeria ended. I didn't bounce back quite the way I always saw Nasser do. I had to go through a short woe-is-me phase as I tried to figure out how to recover from the loss of what had been such a promising opportunity. But I hadn't known Nasser long enough to have seen that side of him then.

The first time Nasser asked for help, it was so he could buy goats for Tekelu and the other children to take care of. The family would get the milk to make cheese from the goats and eventually they would have the meat to eat. They bought the goats, but instead of having the children take care of them, Nasser and the children brought the goats to Nasser's family who lived outside of Asmara for them to take care of the animals. Months later, Nasser reported that the animals were doing what animals do - reproducing - so his family was able to bring one back now and then to get fresh milk and meat for holidays.

Next Nasser asked if I could send money so that Tekelu could buy items to resell to earn money for school supplies. I'm not sure how well that idea worked, but it was a plan, not just a request for money.

For the next three years, I continued to hear from Nasser by e-mail. He continued looking for ways to implement his dream and I did what I could to try to find an appropriate university program in the United States for him to explore possibilities. I even attended an open day at Catholic University in Washington, DC, on his behalf to learn more about their program. It was a struggle to get people to understand that a blind man wanted to obtain a degree specializing in teaching others with special needs. Programs seemed geared towards providing assistance to students with special needs to compete in other programs or for students without special needs to compete in programs designed to address special needs. But I continued to do research for him and to contact people to explain his goals. Perhaps Nasser put too much faith in me. But no matter what I did or couldn't do on his behalf, he never gave up on me, on himself, or on the future.

So maybe my calling to Africa was really for Nasser.