Uche Sandie Nnamoko was in a dark place, and doubted her dreams, when she heard the story of Legson Kayira that changed her life.
Today, she says she’s almost living her dreams like Legson Kayira.
https://www.facebook.com/schinedu/posts/3446252038723071
Legson Kayira was from Tumbuka, in present day Malawi. He trekked about 3,200 miles, as a teenager, from his village to Cairo because he wanted to be like his American heroes-Abraham Lincoln and Booker T. Washington.
He knew the only way to rise from his environment and make a meaning was to get first-rate education, and he made up his mind to get it in America.
Armed with just a five-day supply of food, a Bible, a copy of The Pilgrim’s Progress, an axe, and a blanket, he set out to get a degree from his remote village.
Fifteen months after he began his journey, he arrived in Kampala, Capital of Uganda, about a thousand miles from home. He spent 6 months in Kampala doing odd jobs and reading voraciously.
He wrote to the Dean of a College in Washington, who admired his determination and granted him admission, a scholarship, and a job.
He would later became a professor in Cambridge, and he wrote a book titled ” I Will Try“.
Youth of Malawi, a charitable organisation from America, built a primary school in Malawi and named it after Legson Kayira in 2014. The school is solar-powered, harvests rainwater, and has an outdoor projector for movies.
More of his story in Value: The Currency of Life.
