29 May, 2014

Eye opening book

Here's a book I've read recently. It is the story of a refugee from Burundi who, by the generosity of friends, made his way to the US where he knew no one. 

He must be a very winsome bloke, because he made the most amazing collection of friends there, after spending his early months homeless. Through the support of friends and by a lot of hard work he managed to get his medical degree. 

He'd been a medical student before he left his home country in the midst of a terrible genocide that was linked to the genocide in Rwanda. The story finishes up with him, by now a US citizen, working hard to build a hospital in his parents' village. 

I've read few biographical books about Africans or even refugees. I'd heard of the genocide in that region, but not much. I've even met a political refugee from there who's settled in Japan. Her children were at our son's Japanese kindergarten. But I didn't know her very well. So I learnt quite a bit from this book. A good read if you ever come across it (it's in the CAJ library, if you have access to that). 

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