Of Beetles and Angels: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard

Mawi’s story begins by recalling fragmented memories of his family fleeing their home in Adi Wahla, Ethiopia. Without a more efficient means of transportation, the family is forced to leave their home on foot: “We had no choice, either. We—my mother, my five-year old brother, my baby sister, and I at age three—kept walking hoping that we would make it to Sudan and find my father” (2). Though the reader does not yet know why, Mawi’s father, Haileab, is already in Sudan, so Mawi’s mother and the children must travel from Ethiopia to Sudan by themselves. 

Making their way on foot from Ethiopia to Sudan is no easy feat, and takes both physical and psychological tolls on the family. Mawi recalls a woman who travelled alongside his family on this long journey. The woman’s feet became so wounded after having walked such a great distance that she was forced to crawl for the latter part of their journey out of Ethiopia. The woman’s feet became “bloody, red flesh, mixed with brownish sand and dirt,” but nonetheless she persisted because “what choice does a refugee have?” (2)

The chapter ends with Mawi personifying the