Said was born in Eritrea. At the age of 6, his family migrated to Al Qadarif, Sudan, an important trade center not far from the borders of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Said describes his childhood as normal. He went to school. He remembers playing soccer and cards with the kids in his neighborhood, and another game called korsheba, which involved catching sticks with one hand. At thirteen he started work at a construction site, mixing cement and assisting bricklayers.
When he was 24, Said decided to leave Sudan and try to get to Europe. He traveled through the Chad desert for a week in a large pick-up truck with 32 others to get to Libya. He never made it across the Mediterranean to Europe, so after two years he moved to Tunisia where he lived in a camp for five years. He arrived in the US as a refugee on March 7th of this year.
Said is grateful to be here. He says he loves it and is excited about building a future for himself and for his family back in Sudan. He’s open to anything for work. For fun he likes bowling and billiards. He’s determined to keep learning English and hopes to buy a car soon to make it easier to get to work.
