By Doris Wedge
They arrived in Norman in September 1990, speaking little English but knowing that they were on their road to a better life than they had found in Sudan. Gebregziabher and Alemtsehai Giday Woldu welcomed the opportunity to make their way in a new country.
To see them now, a family that includes three children, it is hard to believe all that has been accomplished in the last 20 years. Fluency in English. Citizenship. GED certificate. Degrees from OU. Owning their own home. Owning and operating their own business. It has been an odyssey that included setting big goals and working hard to achieve them.
The journey to America was the culmination of ambition for the young man who had fled his native Ethiopia to avoid conscription into military service. A civil war was underway in his homeland "and they were going house to house at night and taking the young men away for military service," he recalls. A young teenager, his family sent him to Sudan to find safety.
He was on his own in Sudan and soon found work as a security guard. Raised a Christian, he says "I always liked to go to school," and tells of attending a Catholic mission school while working as a security guard. He completed most of the curriculum they could provide at the mission "but there was no chance that I could go to college there."
To get the opportunity to come to the United States, they had to take tests, he says, of his wife, Alemtsehai Giday, also a refugee in Sudan.
"We passed the tests," he says, and the wait began. It was another nearly three years before they were approved for travel. He had lived and worked in Sudan for nine years, many of those enduring dangerous situations of civil unrest. Of those days, he remembers "moving from one place to another, always scary."
With little contact with their families in Ethiopia, the Woldus felt the warmth of friendship here. "We feel like we have a family here," he says, of the encouragement and support of new acquaintances in Norman, particularly friends from the First Christian Church which had sponsored their immigration through a program of Church World Service.
Their life today reflects their own determination and hard work. He worked full time in food service at OU most of those years, and earned a degree in African studies. He is nearing completion of a master's degree in human relations.
After their third child was born, she went to work, driving to Baptist Hospital for a year in order to get experience in the housekeeping department before she was employed at Norman Regional Hospital.
So determined to succeed on their own terms, the Woldus have not used many social service and government resources that would have been available to them. However it was Habitat for Humanity that presented them the opportunity to own their own home, one they have occupied since 2001.
Now, they even own their own business, having purchased a franchise with the commercial cleaning business JaniKing. Both of them work full-time in the business and employ four others. "We are hoping it (the business) will grow," Woldu says.
With a Master's Degree in hand, he hopes to have yet another business some day, perhaps in the area of human resources.
Of the day the Woldus knew they had passed the exam for citizenship, he has only these words. "Happy. Happy." Encouraging them and assisting them in their preparation for citizenship were their friends, Dr. Ed and Suzanne Corr, who were among those greeting them upon their arrival in Norman and who have sheperded them through the paperwork of citizenship, travel and bringing her mother here for extended visits.
Corr, a former diplomat in several South American countries, says "they are courageous people who escaped a violent situation. He has an upward drive to achieve ... consumed with the idea that education is the way to succeed and wants that for himself and for his children."
Of Mrs. Woldu, Corr says "she is a silent rock, hard working and full of capability. Together they have raised three fine children. Our country is much enriched by them."
While the family enjoys the comforts of life in the United States, and their three children are decidedly "Americanized," they haven't forgotten their roots in Ethiopia, where his mother continues to live on the farm land his family once owned but has been taken by the government. The small farm produces wheat and sorghum.
Woldu took their son, Solomon, and oldest daughter, Rahwa, to Ethiopia a year ago, so they could meet family members and absorb their heritage. Both found that they like and admire the culture of their parents' homeland.
"It is so different from here," says Solomon, who is attending Midwest Christian University, choosing that school over another because he was offered a track scholarship and the chance to continue competing in cross country. "I like their dancing, the clothing, I like the culture."
Rahwa adds "it is laid back. People walk everywhere," noting that they found the people in Ethiopia to have more interaction with other each day, largely the result of the lack of transportation and conveniences.
"They don't sit around and watch TV," Solomon says, pointing out that they don't have TV sets or even have electricity consistently. It has given the teen-agers a better perspective on their lives here. "It seems like here, that the more we have stuff, the more we complain," Solomon says.
While their homeland is always in their hearts, Woldu expresses appreciation for the welcome they received here and the opportunities that they have been afforded. "We say 'thank you.' We feel like we have family here."
