Episode 83, 30 min listen
In this episode, we'll meet Andrew Assuah, a teacher from Ghana who has come to Greenville to teach French in our public school system. In our discussion, Andrew will share about his dreams for himself and his family as well as the principles he lives by. He'll also give us a glimpse into the differences between how American children and Ghanaian children view their education.
Welcome to this very special series, New Roots, New Voices: Listening to Our Immigrant Neighbors, where we will listen to and lift up the voices and stories of local immigrants here in Greenville, South Carolina.
AUDIO PLAYER
You can access this episode wherever you listen to podcasts via our pod.link.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
This immigration series is done in partnership and collaboration with:
- Village Engage
- Greenville Immigration and Faith Coalition
FULL TRANSCRIPT
-Introduction
Ame Sanders 00:10
This is the State of Inclusion Podcast, and I'm Ame Sanders.
There is a lot in the news every day about immigrants, and a lot of it is negative. What if we went beyond the news? What if we opened our hearts and our minds to better understand the reality of immigrants in our own community? Over the next several weeks, we will listen to and lift up the voices and stories of local immigrants here in Greenville, South Carolina. Along the way, we will meet neighbors, families, friends, local icons, and legends. We will come to understand some of the challenges our immigrant neighbors face and how we can become better allies. Welcome to this very special series, New Roots, New Voices: Listening to Our Immigrant Neighbors.
You will hear many people say, with some pride, that Greenville has become an increasingly international community. But have you ever thought about what that means and exactly how that happens?
One way that it happens is through welcoming immigrants. As you've heard in our series, immigrants come to the US for 1000s of different reasons, but one of the reasons immigrants come is to work.
In this episode, we will hear from Andrew Assuah, someone who has come to Greenville to work and teach French in our public school system. To give us and our community's children a little more international flavor and connection through language. Welcome, Andrew. Would you tell us a little bit about yourself?
-About Andrew
Andrew Assuah 01:49
I was born in October, 1981, I’m from Ghana. I lived in Cote d'Ivoire, that’s the Ivory Coast. My father is an Ivorian. My mom took me there to be living with my dad. I school a little bit in Cote d'Ivoire, and then my mom had to take me back to my grandpa in Ghana. I have to live there with my grandpa. Continued my education, and I rose through the ranks from elementary to university in Ghana, and I had a chance to travel to the United States to come and work as a teacher. I did almost all my studies in French, so I am a French teacher. I love to speak French, and so it's been, it's been great time. Yes, I have four kids, married with a wife. We are hopefully living here in Greenville, within our struggles to make life meaningful for us. My mom is late. She died when I was 23 years old, and my dad is now getting older. Now I have a lot of siblings, but I'm the only child for my mom and dad. My mom's side. I got siblings. My daddy's side, I got siblings.
-Principles
I'm a very principled man. I live by my principles. The call of my principle is truth and honesty. That's what feeds me. I can't do anything without them. So I'm a hard dad. Love my kids really well, but I don't compromise on their friends, on their discipline. I love them, but I have to put them, put them on track. So poverty has been a very strong enemy, always snatching from me what seems to be good. It has actually taken a meaningful part of my principle, because even when I have, I know my principle guides me to do the right, poverty weighs to the other side. It's been a really tough battle, struggling with poverty to match my principles, but I still go with them.
I'm not a fully happy person because I think that I haven't achieved what I'm supposed to have in life, so it's making me walk very cautiously and making sure that I can walk quietly and one day achieve my dreams. So having really celebrated any joy in my life, I've always kept it cool, quiet, and hoping that things will change for me and for my kids. So that's basically me. The call in me is, like I said, it's honesty, that's what makes me up. I'm a Christian, a Seventh Day Adventist. I understand the Bible. I read. I understand and I believe in the presence of God, but I equally respect everybody, whatever they believe in. I believe that the world is made of left and right. Definitely you don't have everybody going right. Some people have to go to the left. So that's what makes the world. So that's fine. We leave the ultimate judge to God. We believe that He created us, and so we believe that he has the answer to whatever people are doing. So we gotta do our best, and then we move on. I love people. I am one person that really loves to help. Again, like I said, poverty has kept me off that track, because when I see that I want to help, my heart breaks because I don't have enough to help. But I've tried my best, in my lovely way, to do that, even in my poverty, I've tried to help people to get out of their mess. So I keep going on. I still have hope. As long as I have life. I always believe that one day God will take me there, where I have to be like what I've I've dreamed to have, dreamed to have. So I keep it keeps me alive. It keeps me going, and that's what gives a little bit of smile on my face. I take joy in helping people. I love reading, I love studying. I love teaching, because it helps me to learn. And so that's one passion. I love kids too. I love the funny part of kids. I always want to be with them, and I'm not surprised that I'm an elementary teacher, loving them, being with them, always playing around them, having fun. So these are a few things that make me happy in life. I have a good wife, so I have peace at home. She takes good care of me and my kids, and we all be doing great. I feel bad for her because I don't have money. That's for all the good things she's doing. I wish I had enough to give her everything that she needs. And so these are a few worries. But you know, we good. We keep on praising God and worshiping Him, reading Bible, teaching my kids how to walk in the ways of God, to expect God's blessings that we've always been waiting for. So there's a few things that I think I can say about me.
-Dreams
Ame Sanders 07:29
So thank you for sharing that, Andrew. It makes me want to ask you several questions to come on from that. One is, you talk about your dreams. What is it that you dream for yourself and for your children?
Andrew Assuah 07:43
My biggest dream has been to go to the UN to work at United Nations. That has been my dream. It keeps me wake up. It doesn't make me sleep because I always have to think about it. But again, poverty is keeping me, taking me off that track. Really, it makes me feel bad, but I'm so edging on so even though I have the pain because it's almost like it's getting late, I still push on to see if that dream will come to pass. I want to see myself one day working at the UN.
Ame Sanders 08:22
As a translator?
Andrew Assuah 08:23
No, basically whichever post, but I'm looking at UNICEF, where they help, they love the kids. I have that passion for helping kids. I can't see kids suffering. I hate it, so I think that part will be great for me, and I also have the dream for my family. The first one is they see their dad as a UN representative for my country or whatever, or working at the UN. And then, also see my second boy, who also loves football. I won't see him playing. We've talked about his dream, but again, daddy doesn't have money, so Daddy is stuck. And I look at him, and I feel pain in my eyes. I feel really bad because I don't have money to push him. At this point, he wants to play in any Academy, but I don't have money because he has to do a lot of money. So these are few things that make me feel bad, but I keep on encouraging him. Let's see which door God will open next. So we keep our arms fold and see how it's going to be.
Ame Sanders 09:30
So you've been teaching now for a while. How long have you been in Greenville?
Andrew Assuah 09:35
I've been, it's, this is my, I mean, my fourth year. Now, I came in here in 2022, July. It was 27 July. Yeah, 27 July. So heading towards my fourth year, I could say I've done three years and a month in Greenville,
-Roots
Ame Sanders 09:53
When you think about your roots, it sounds like you moved a little bit when you were a kid. How do you see your roots?
Andrew Assuah 10:01
It's been it's been rough. It's been rough. So it all started when I was in Cote d'Ivoire with my parents, my mom. Um, you know, she's the one person that kind of broke my heart, and she died because I had to cry for 10 years. Even when she died, I still was crying for her, until I gave birth to my second daughter, Rose. I named after my mom. I use it to console myself a little bit, but it wasn't enough, because sometime a lot of time I have to dream and think about my mom and cry. So it was in Cote d'Ivoire I studied, and then my mom thought that I have to go to my grandpa to continue my school over there. So I left at the age of 15. I left Cote d'Ivoire to stay with my grandpa in Ghana. So I started from [unclear], and I grew up from there. And then it was really hard. It was hard at the point I felt that I had to go back. But I said, No, if I go back, I lose everything, so I'm going to still keep on moving. And then I stayed with my uncle because my grandpa died. I stayed with my uncle, and then continue from there to senior high school, and then grew from senior high to university. From senior high, I went to the training college to do French. I came back to teach, and then I saw people, students around me who needed help, and I didn't help, and I felt bad. So I needed to establish a lot of contact, a lot of help, to see how best I can help these, these young ones. So I had to take the challenge to go back to the university so that I could see if I could build contact with people, and I went to the University, and poverty was around. It was really hard because I was doing everything by myself, and I was taking care of my family at the same time. And then from there, I was posted to a school to teach. So that was where the struggle became real, because I saw life facing me. I really needed to move on. I knew I had so much opportunities. I knew I had all that it takes to make it in life, but I didn't have money to make them turn around, so I had to cry within me, pray, cry almost every time, until one day, I believe that I heard the voice of God say, I have to give my tithe. Because at a point, because of poverty, I stopped giving the tithe, and I kept on asking God, when is he going to open that door? And so one day I heard that, that quiet voice said, Well, you want to travel. You start to give your tithe and I responded as if somebody was right there talking to me. I said, Okay, I'm going to do that. And right there I started. And within a few weeks, the opportunity really opened. Where I had one job in France to teach English, and another had? I had another job in in USA to teach French, but then I had to decide again. I didn't know which one to go. I love France. I want to be I want to be live in France. I want to work in France. But I didn't know it was the right time to go. So I had to open my arms again and pray to God. I had, I took both interviews French and the United States. The school where I'm working right now, both of them agreed that I was, I was good to work with them. And lastly, ahead of ways that I have to go to have to come to the United States again. I believe that it was the voice of God. I didn't know anything. I just heard that voice. I said, Well, I think that God has shown me the direction, let me go there. And I think that it was the right choice, because it was when I got here, I realized that I could be with my family, because I can be without my family. When I came in the first year, it was really hard. I almost went back because I almost cried every night when I saw my daughter, my mom, Chloe Rose, because I knew her from my mom, and anytime I made a video, she said, Daddy, I want to be where you are, and I've my heart felt really bad, as if my heart was tearing apart. But like I said, I heard a voice said, I have to be in the United States. And it was the right call, because I know someone who is in France, one of my student, who actually opened that opportunity for me. He has a daughter until they I think it's about five years now, he's not been able to send his daughter to France. I can't imagine what will happen to me if I went to France without my family. So when I came here and my family was able to come, I saw that it was the right call, but I saw you need to go to France. So I knew that opportunity is still knocking, I’m still knocking on that door to see when that is going to come. So it was a bit rough, but my family came in and it was okay. We've lived happily, even though we don't have enough, we're still managing to see when the next door is going to open. So that's how the journey has been.
Ame Sanders 15:10
How do you think about home, given all of the different versions of home that you've had and where you find yourself now? How do you think of home?
-Home
Andrew Assuah 15:21
So this the reality is that the people at home miss me, but they want me to stay here and work because I send them money and they are okay. I when I completed University in 2018 I could never send money to my dad because I didn't even have enough. But when I get I go to in the United States, there has not been a single two weeks that I haven't sent money to my dad. So my dad is happy, and he's been praying for me, because he knew that right now, he knows that I could send him money. He has a lot of kids, but he doesn't have any work right now, so he benefit from my traveling here. Everybody at home misses me, but they want me to stay so I can help for the bills, the school bills pay, or the school fees, all this stuff, help family, those who are sick, the lucky that I get, try to put some of them so I could miss a home. But it really doesn't give me the edge to go, because the people going to they're going to feel that God has disappointed them. If I go back, they may not have the I've now become the source of income, the source of some kind of money, to where they can easily solve some, some of their basic problems, or major problems. So they Okay. Home is not really a problem. I'm good now.
Ame Sanders 16:41
And so you still think of home as Ghana, and that you're visiting here more than thinking of the US as home now.
Andrew Assuah 16:49
So I think of home because the one thing, that one weakness that I had was I, it was like almost I always sought to kind of help when I see the larger people suffering. So that was, that's what makes me think of home. How best can I help? But again, it doesn't push me to go, because I need to stay and help. If I go home though I won't be able to help. So in as much as I think of home, I think that the home people will agree with me that I need to work and give them something to solve some problems, too much problems, and if we don't have the means to solve them, we are stuck. So once we have somebody trying to help, every now and then, we feel that it's okay. So, you know, I think I've won, but because the need of the people, I'm not pushed to go back.
-Teaching in Ghana vs US
Ame Sanders 17:42
You taught children when you were in Ghana, yeah, and you teach children here now. I'd love to hear your thoughts about, is it the same to teach kids in different parts of the world, or is it very different?
Andrew Assuah 17:59
So every situation is amazing, and they have their own situation. I think that it's different. It's different because the Ghanaian child believes in education, turning their lives around. It doesn't look like the same thing here in United States. So the United States system is saying that the kids also be in school, and they understand they are in school to keep probably themselves busy for parent to have some time to work. I know indirectly, the parent are nurturing them, giving them the path where they have to be. But the kids haven't realized that yet. But a Ghanaian kid realizes that it's the school that changes their life. So the approaches are not the same. They the Ghanaian kids stays really quiet in class and wants to pay attention so they don't miss not a single, a single note from the teacher. Then another state, it's a bit different. You have, I have brilliant kids in the class, kids who engage with the teacher everything. But it doesn't look the same like in Ghana, where they take education so much serious. I think the United States kids look make education look like it's part of them. It's a normal thing for them, but the Ghanaian kids take it a little bit higher, too serious, because they feel they fail in life. So they have to make it in education. So those are the two different things. So in the classroom, you see a Ghanaian kid sitting quietly and paying attention and listening. They don't miss anything the United States. They normal. I mean, they can. They're talking and stuff. They feel everything is fine. Even at a kid’s level, it's all the same. It's the kind of thing we put in the minds of the kids back in Ghana. We tell them education is alive, in that is, I don't know if parents told them the same, but they are okay with it. So every suggestion is different, but it's great to see both of them.
-Race
Ame Sanders 20:00
Wow - That’s a pair of powerful insights and also reflects on your own journey a bit as well, in terms of how important education has been for you and for as you already told us, being able to help your family back home and help support others and care for others, in addition to your own family. So I have another question, and I have to admit it's just curiosity for me, so hopefully it won't offend you, but I wonder how it is, or how you find it to be a an African black man in the South compared to a black African American, as we think of folks who have a legacy here and who perhaps their heritage comes from slavery. How is it your experience? Do you think it's similar or different? Or do you think about it at all?
Andrew Assuah 20:52
I would say it's different. It's different because of how the upbringing in Ghana is different from the upbringing here in the United States. We can all, we could all be black, but the upbringing is makes the difference. So Black American and Black from Africa, like I said, we all have the same skin, but they bring the upbringing, the moral upbringing, I should say, the education, the different thing, the best, the how we perceive life. It's a different thing. So they two different stuff. I don't bother myself thinking about them that much, because it wouldn't change me much. I see people same black like me. It's almost like the same way. I see people in Ghana also Black, with different mentality and everything. So life continues in the same world.
-Feeling Welcome
Ame Sanders 21:45
Do you feel like the community has welcomed you and made you feel safe and comfortable here?
Andrew Assuah 21:52
Yeah - Because I always say that, yeah, people have their own issues. Everything that happens here happens in Ghana, too. When people talk about racism, racism happens in Ghana, even between blacks. It's not a new thing. So, I mean, I could go to Ghana, some places people want to look down on you because you don't speak their language. Yeah. So if I come in here in American people want to look at me because I'm not of the same, the same from the same place. I shouldn't feel bad about it, the same thing. So it's really not too different to say I feel this about in Ghana. I feel this is different. So I don't really pay attention to those things. I mean, I've said that it's people who help people, and so for me, as long as we all live as people, that's why everybody in their own life, and that's it. I don't, I don't want to criticize people, because that's the way of life. I don't. I don't want to do that, because if I do it, I'm going to tend to be hypocrite in my backyard, in my home back in Ghana, people do same thing. It's not America, it's Ghana, but they do that. I know a lot of them, so it's really not a problem. I don't really take that for life continues. It's a normal thing, and if people want to bother themselves with it be a probably they didn't pay attention to what happens back home. But once I know that everything is fine, we all move on. It's just another it's another group of people, another type of person you've seen, and that's it. We move on.
Ame Sanders 23:22
Thank you for answering that. I know that was not an easy question and maybe a little insensitive, but I just wondered how it felt to be here, coming with a different background and different perspective. So I know I've asked you a lot of questions already, something about your story that we haven't talked about, that you'd like to share, or you'd to…or you’d like for me to ask you about.
Andrew Assuah 23:49
Something my story, unless you ask me, because I have a lot of stories to share. I mean, the most interesting one for me is my life and that of my family. The journey to get to our dream, that's been the most interesting thing. If I have to think of anything, I always think about how we could edge on to to achieve our objective, our aim in life, and then how we can help people. So it's basically that, unless you ask me questions that you want to, but that's basically my life. That's all that I think mostly about.
-Becoming Better Allies
Ame Sanders 24:31
You're very forward-thinking and very service-oriented in your thinking, obviously very generous. What do you wish that people who are listening to this might know about people who have immigrated to the US, and how we could be better allies and make life easier for folks who are here as immigrants?
Andrew Assuah 24:52
Well, I think that life in the United States, it's great, it has its own challenges. It's basically the similar things in Ghana, because we people migrate from Ghana or from Africa. It's all a matter of struggle. They get here, and they have to just that. The struggles are different level over here, you could see some struggle yield in some result. Back in Africa, it's almost like the struggle, and it doesn't, it doesn't really get on. You have to do it for a long time. So somebody is hearing, I mean, it's just they have to receive people back from Africa, other places give them warm welcome. A lot of people back home have dreams, and it's almost like impossible to have those, to have those dreams achieved back in Africa, and a lot of them too, because of how we brought up. We have good how to help people, yeah, so once we are received warmly, we have the thinking of keep on and helping people. Yes, sometimes people don't even know how to manage it. They help people, and then they end up becoming, excuse my language, losers. Because they help and then some people feel that the help is benefiting them. Fail to retain whatever they have to give them in return. But I just want to appeal to anybody here in the United States and anybody listening, welcome them. Give them a warm welcome. Give them the edge to keep on working, and then help back home. When I when I was coming, I think that was my first time getting to the national capital. I cast my eyes, and I saw these people, and I had tears in my eyes, and I told myself, definitely not all the not even 1% of these people will get here in the United States. How did they get a help? So the few people who come when we have a place to stay, where we have people receiving us, we have the strength to help people back home. Generally, Africans are not selfish. You will have wicked ones, definitely. But they are not selfish. They love to help, because we make our name through help. One day you go back home, they say yes. When he was in he was in Europe, when he was in America, he did this. He did that. That's we take pride in that. And so when we are not received, how do we help? It becomes really hard. So if anybody listening to me, my appeal is, welcome them. Give them shelter, give them all the support they need. They need work. They need work so they can help people back home. Because not everybody that can come. We don't need everybody to come. The few ones have come, they want to work and send money back home to support, and that we would really appreciate it. I think so far, it's been great. I've met great people, white, Black. I mean, great, great, great people. I've loved them. It's all human settlement, right? All human settlement. And so we have to all work together to make the world a great place for all of us to live in.
Ame Sanders 28:15
Well, Andrew, I think that's probably a perfect note to end this discussion on. Thank you so much for sharing your story, a little bit about your dreams, and your family. I'm really grateful that you took the time to talk with me.
Andrew Assuah 28:29
Thank you. Thank you so much.
-Conclusion
Ame Sanders 28:34
For me, there was a lot of wisdom and inspiration in this episode. Andrew is someone who told us very clearly that he lives by his principles of truth and honesty, yet he painted a picture for us of a very real struggle to remain true to those principles in the face of overwhelming poverty. Still, he inspired us with his grit and determination to, as he said, edge forward every day towards his dreams. But he never stops giving back, reaching back to his country to lift up his family there helping others despite whatever challenges he and his family may face, all while holding fast to his ambitions and dreams through it all, you heard the strong voice of a father, a family man, Andrew also reminded us of how precious education can be, how Ghanian children cherish every moment of their education and hold fast to the belief that it can turn their lives around, just as it did for Andrew, what a wonderful gift for our community's young children to have a teacher for whom education has personally meant so much in the end, Andrew's advice to those of us who wish to be better allies echoed that of Ziad’s from an earlier interview. He reminded us of the importance of giving immigrants a warm welcome of encouraging them. So many are here to work to advance their own dreams, but also to give back, give back here in Greenville, but also to send support back to their extended families at home, and by doing so, make the world a stronger and better place as well.
This has been the State of Inclusion Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, the best compliment for our work is your willingness to share the podcast or discuss these ideas with others. Also, feel free to leave us a review or reach out. We love to hear from you and join us for the next episode in this very special series, New Roots, New Voices: Listening to Our Immigrant Neighbors.
CONTRIBUTORS
Guest: Andrew Assuah
Host: Ame Sanders
Social Media and Marketing Coordinator: Kayla Nelson
Podcast Coordinator: Emma Winiski
Sound: Uros Nikolic