E's Story

E is one of those personalities that epitomizes the phrase “full of life.” His optimistic spirit and joy shines through in an utterly unself-conscious way. He wears a perpetual smile and is in constant motion, his words animating his whole body in casual conversation making you feel as though he is totally present and completely listening to you. He is a youthful 25 years old.

E’s mother died when he was young and his father (a member of the Liberian government) was killed as the Liberian war broke out, when E was just a teenager. During the war, he was separated from his 5 siblings and walked for 2 weeks to cross the border into Sierra Leone with an aunt and uncle; finally finding is way to the camp without his brothers. For years he simply assumed they had died. He describes his early years in this camp as “very hard” and much different from today, washing with and drinking dirty water (he was treated for Cholera) and fearing the frequent violence. After 4 years of living like this, a man from his church approached him commenting that he looked very much like a man he had met in Northern Ghana and asked him if he had any brothers. E knew his brothers were either in Liberia or dead and he thought little of the comment. But a few weeks later he returned to church and was given a letter with the picture of the look-alike man and a letter from the man attached. It turned out that the look-alike living in Northern Ghana was in fact his brother, had communicated through the church middle-man, discovered that E was in fact alive and living in the camp and had a actually visited the camp the week before! He was unable to find E, but left the picture and letter. E told me about this letter with wide unbelieving eyes and an unrestrained smile, pantomiming holding the precious thing and clutching his heart. He described his happiness at hearing the news of his brother, and I can only imagine those emotions.

The two ultimately reunited, and his brother, seeing the camp conditions, took E to Northern Ghana where they lived together and caught up on lost time. However, ultimately his brother won the coveted prize of sponsorship by an American university and left Ghana for the U.S. E, far from feeling abandoned, is overjoyed for his brother. It’s hard to know whether this is yet another manifestation of E’s optimistic spirit or a reflection of a society in which people literally pray daily to escape their world for the greener pastures of the Western world. I’m just relieved and a bit amazed at the resilience of E and even the human spirit to cope with such loss and continue to hope and find such joy in life. I’m constantly overwhelmed and humbled by people’s stories.