HUFFINGTON
08.26.12
SMART START?
advanced beyond high school and
college and ultimately graduated
from medical school as a surgeon.
She succeeded by the sweat of her
efforts, and also because she was
born with certain advantages.
Her grandfather, she said, was
an unusual man, “a dreamer.” He
died when she was a child, but
she had heard stories about him—
about how he grew up in a poor
village on the Nile and moved from
there to a suburb of Khartoum, a
place so new and quiet, she said,
that if you stood in the middle of
the neighborhood, you could hear
the train on one side and the lion
in the zoo on the other. Afel assumed her grandfather must have
taken this bold step in the hope
of providing his children with an
education. If so, his efforts paid
off. His son, Afel’s father, became
a teacher, and taught elementary
school, and then primary school
and then a college for teachers.
Her sisters all earned masters’
degrees, and her mother, who had
left school after the fourth grade,
resumed her formal education at
the age of 30.
Afel says she hoped to become
a doctor in the United States,
but things did not go according
to plan following her arrival. She
couldn’t afford the books and fees
required to get a license here, and
her husband, a cab driver, grew
depressed and distant. One day
this summer he moved away. Ms.
Sabrena said Nawal cried for days.
Afel says Nawal still sometimes
asks when her dad will be coming
home from work.
One day in August, Afel took
a seat in Nawal’s classroom and
waited for her daughter and the
other children to come in from the
hall. About 15 parents sat on either
side of her. The children filed in.
They wore caps and gowns. They
sat down in a neat, quiet row, facing
the parents. Ms. Sabrena addressed
them. She said she hoped this
would be the first of many graduations. Then the director, Ms. Sabrena’s mother, read a speech, which
boiled down to a list of guidelines
for future success: “Remember to
use your ‘listening ears’,” “Always
do your homework.”
The children rose. Over the past
few days, Ms. Sabrena had taught
them to stand as a group and deliver a message on cue. Now she gave
the signal, and the children cried
out, in unison, “Thank you mom
and dad, I love you.” Nawal said
the words—all of them. Afel and
the other parents watched and applauded. There were a lot of smiles,
and a lot of cameras. Ms. Sabrena
turned on the music, and the kids