I am sitting next to a miracle. His name is William Kamkwamba. He is sixteen years old. He is the embodiment of the future I long for at night, and thought was naught but a distant dream. All of the qualities I want to find in myself can be found in this young man: creativity, persistence, self confidence, and humility. I want to shout, loud enough that everyone in this cramped cage of an airplane will turn and look, “I’m sitting next to William Kamkwamba! He built his own windmill! He’s going to help fix this broken Earth!” That’s not who I am, though. My father raised me to be kind, respectful, quiet. But now I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start back at the beginning, both of my life, and of the path of coincidences that would lead to my sitting next to a miracle.
I was born in Malawi. To most of the world, and most of the people in Malawi, that’s not a good thing. …show more content…
I was always encouraged to work hard to improve my prospects for the future. I went to the local public primary school instead of a fancy private school because my dad wanted to save money for my college education. He was determined I would get a degree, unlike him. Primary school was easy for the most part, especially with my dad helping. He would read my textbooks while I was going to sleep, so he would know the content to help me the next day. My excellent test scores admitted me into one of the better secondary schools. In Malawi, schools vary widely in quality. At the end of primary school, all students take aptitude tests. Those students who score well get enrolled in high quality secondary schools; poor scores mean bad schools. I suppose the government would say it doesn’t want to “waste” limited resources on “sub-par students.” It’s a very biased system, though, since most children of farmers are frequently too busy in the fields to study, leading to poor scores, leading to a poor education