The Incredible Journey
When Hamdy Agha '17 looked out at his future from the nexus between high school and life beyond in Taiz, Yemen, he saw nothing.
He looked to his father—a man who had gone to college in Saudi Arabia, earned a degree in geology, and returned to Yemen to eventually work for the government and raise a family, but because of his country’s destitute economic, political, and social status, he could barely keep that family clothed and fed. “My father is my inspiration,” says Agha. “He is very smart and hard-working, but I saw the struggles he went through just to keep us alive and the pain he felt over the promises he could never make, knowing he would not be able to deliver on them.”
The home where Agha grew up with his parents and younger brother and sisters is an old two-story house that had belonged to his grandfather. Agha’s family lives upstairs and a relative’s family occupies the first floor. There were few amenities—a television, which regular blackouts rendered useless. “The electricity would go off for days,” says Agha. And that meant the refrigerator didn’t work either. On cool days or nights, the family used the stove to heat water for showers or baths. And without benefit of busses, school was a 45-minute walk from the house, followed by a half mile walk to the mosque where the family got its water.
After high school, Agha enrolled in a local university but found the quality of education so poor that he didn’t see any promise for personal growth and success. “I asked myself, ‘What am I going to do? How am I going to make my life better? What skills do I need to create a better future for myself and to help improve life for my family?’” he says.
The first answer that came to Agha was learn English, which then, of course, raised another important question: How?
Learning English and Looking Toward America
When Agha graduated high school in 2008, there were plenty of English-speaking tourists from the United States, Canada, South Africa, and elsewhere already in Taiz. Agha saw an opportunity, and he offered free services as a tour guide. At first he could only communicate through gestures , but he quickly picked up words and phrases and would write them down, go to the computer store some 20 minutes from his house, and look up their meaning. Before long he was fairly conversant, and he developed a local reputation for his English-speaking skills.
His biggest break came when one day, a local shop owner asked Agha to help with translation for the United States ambassador who was visiting Taiz and had come into the store with his translator. The owner didn’t speak any English and thought Agha could be helpful. During the visit, Agha, a self-proclaimed people person, struck up a conversation with the ambassador’s assistant. “I told her about myself, that I came from a very poor family and that I wanted to improve myself and help my family,” says Agha. “She suggested I apply for a scholarship through the State Department and gave me the address of the website.” Agha figured it was a long-shot, but he headed to the computer store, downloaded the application, filled it out, and sent it in. A few days later he got a call from the American Embassy inviting him to come for an interview in three days’ time in Sanaa’a, Yemen’s capital. “Sanaa is seven hours from my house, but my family didn’t have a car and no money to send me, so I didn’t know how I would get there,” Agha recalled. The next day, while taking a Russian tourist around Taiz, Agha shared his story about the scholarship opportunity, and the Russian, who was headed to Sanaa’a, offered to take Agah with him and pay his way.
The scene at the Embassy was overwhelming, and particularly because by then some thousand student applications had been accepted. Agah explained: “When I walked in, I felt like I didn’t belong there. Everybody’s English was so good. Everybody was from the same city. I was by myself.” But he drew on his strength of purpose and went forward with the interview, feeling when that when it was all over, he wouldn’t be selected, and that he had just wasted his time. But as he boarded the bus for home later that day, he received a call from the Embassy to say that he was one out of six students who had been awarded a scholarship to a college in the United States. “I was so happy, I was screaming in the bus,” says Agah.
Then, back home—another road block. Agha received a call from the Embassy. His records contained no certificate of English language proficiency. No school in the United States would accept him without that confirmation. Agha would need to go to a center in Sanaa’a or a nearby city that administered an English test, which would clear him to go if he achieved a certain score. He had a week.
The fee for the test was $100, and travel would cost another $50, which Agha’s family certainly didn’t have. He pleaded with his father that this could be his big chance—his turning point—and somehow his father came up with the money. And true to form, he took the test and made a respectable enough score to be awarded a one-year scholarship to Northampton Community College here in Bethlehem. Or as he put it, “I was on my way to America.”
Working for the Dream
Men and women everywhere—here in the United States and from countries all around the world—eye the American Dream to lift themselves out of poverty or an underprivileged existence to a comfortable lifestyle or more. And yes, Agha wants a piece of that Dream for himself, which is why he is now pursuing his bachelor’s degree here at Moravian University. But what drives his incredible journey is his family back in Yemen. “I don’t care about making a million dollars—well, sure it would be nice,” he admits, parenthetically, “I want to help my family, give them a chance for safety. I want a better future for my brother and sisters,” he says.
Yemen is a war zone. For the average citizen—for Agha’s family—everything has shut down. There is no job to go to, no electricity at home to run the few electronic appliances, no phone service, and fuel for the stove is scarce. What was once an impoverished but peaceful existence has been shattered by bombs and daily gunfire. Agha’s father risks his life every day to go out and get food for the family.
And his mother almost lost her life when a bomb exploded nearby, shook the house, and the shock of it triggered a miscarriage. Mrs. Agha bled for seven days before Hamdy—working from the U.S.--could contact friends of the family to smuggle her to a hospital in another city. “She underwent seven hours of surgery, and the doctor said that if we had waited a day longer to get her to the hospital, she wouldn’t have made it,” he shares.
Agha’s goals are to complete his education here at Moravian University, get his green card, apply for citizenship, get a job with a company, and eventually start his own business. But he also plans to bring his mother, father, brother, and sisters to the United States, and he credits Moravian University with paving the way toward that dream.
“I am indescribably grateful for this institution,” Agha says. “It has given me the key to a better future—education.” Moravian offers a great education.” The classes are small, so there is a lot of opportunity to talk with your professors. If you need help, it is easy to get help. Both the faculty and staff are very supportive and very encouraging. If they see someone who wants to do well, they guide you and push you. Everywhere I go, I am so proud to tell people I go to Moravian University.”
Today, from where he stands on the Moravian University campus, Agha, his black-brown eyes bright with optimism, looks to his future and sees so much possibility—a job in marketing perhaps, maybe a business of his own, and the chance to bring his family to a safe place where they won’t have to worry about getting blown up or shot at or having enough to eat. And most of all, a place where his brother and sisters will have an opportunity to get an education and a better life, where the dreams of his father can finally have voice.
The writer wishes to thank Hamdy Agha for sharing his story and Jane Berger PhD, assistant professor of history, for recommending it.