Mentors & Teachers

It was 1969, and man was about to land on the moon. My uncle lived in a small village, and he was my inspiration for the entire space dream. He had 11 brothers and sisters, and he gave up going to school because his destiny was to become a farmer. A British man was hitchhiking through the village and encountered my uncle, who was 14 years old at the time. They had an exchange. They did not speak the same language, but they connected human to human. As a departing gift, my uncle was given a transistor radio. On the day of the moon landing, his radio broke. The only way to fix it was to ride a donkey to the nearest town and exchange his watch to have the radio repaired. The man fixed the radio, and my uncle describes being on the donkey while listening to the moon landing. He was so struck and moved by the event that he decided to return to school. His dream became going to America, doing great things, and giving back to his family. When my brother and I heard that story, we thought if my uncle did it, we could do it too. He paved the path for a new possibility because he looked like us and spoke like us.