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Abdi Nor Iftin currently lives in Portland, Maine, where he works as an interpreter for Somalis who have immigrated to the state. Abdi was accepted to the University of Southern Maine, where he will be studying political science.
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How old were you when the civil war started in Somalia, and how did it change your life?
I was six when the civil war erupted; it felt like a doomsday. It spread all over the city very fast and destroyed everything. It was excruciating to see how much damage the guns could do to an entire city. My dad's years of building a beautiful life for our family were destroyed within a day. His basketball trophies and earnings were looted at gunpoint. The house where I was born was reduced to ashes. The war split my family apart; our father ran for his life and disappeared. My siblings, my mother and I wandered in the wilderness, barefoot, without knowing where we were going, and later stayed on the streets with dogs while dodging bullets. We lived everyday like it was our last. It was almost impossible to survive as a child because the war had also brought malnutrition and disease. Every day that passed felt like a year of hell fire. We all prayed for death, but death refused to come to me.
You write about your teacher at the madrassa, Macalin Basbaas, and the "education" offered through his school. What did he and his school represent to you?
Koran is the highest education that one can attain in Somalia. ...
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