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Marvie – Conversation Lesson

Hello?

Hey, how’s it going, it’s me.

Who is “me”?

Who do you think is “me”? It’s Joe.

Hey, Joe, how’s it going?

It’s good, how are you doing?

Pretty good.

What’s going on? What ‘cha been doing today?

Just getting ready for our trip.

Oh cool, cool. I just got off the phone with Marvie.

Oh yeah? How’s he doing?

He’s doing okay. He was just cramming for one of his exams at school so he said he had to pull an all-nighter. He seemed pretty tired.

Oh, I bet.

Yeah, I’m not surprised either. But he’s doing well. His classes are going well and I’m very thankful for that. You know he switched schools, right?

No, I thought he switched programs.

No, no, the school that he was attending actually closed so when we actually contributed some money for him to pay his education fees, his tuition…excuse me…that was because he had to go to a new school. He switched schools because the old school shut down due to lack of funding.

Oh, I think I do remember you telling me that now, actually.

Yeah. Well, he’s really come a long way since he moved from Liberia to Bamako in Mali. I just, I can’t believe everything that’s happened to him in his life.

Yeah, I know. It was a pretty amazing story when we took him to dinner that time and he laid everything out for us as to what had happened to him just from when he was a small child, a small child, what like 6 years old?

Yeah, yeah, if you recall, what happened was his father was working for the immigration offices which was a government position. And they’re from Liberia so they lived in Liberia at the time when war was ravaging that country… because he’s only in his early 20s right now.

He’s like 25, I think.

Yeah. So that means during the, y’know, during the time when there was all that war and fighting over diamonds and the diamond mines… that happened when he was a small child. And his father was working for the government at the time. I don’t know if you were at the table when he told me about what happened with his father.

I don’t remember. I don’t know, refresh my memory, maybe I wasn’t.

Yeah, well he told me that…well, let me start from the beginning. I asked him if he sees his family anymore and where they lived. And he said that the only family he has at this point in time is his one sister. He used to have two sisters. He has one sister. And the reason for that is because most of his family members had died when all the violence was happening in Liberia. Like for example, his father worked for the government and one day when Marvie was very little, he was 6 years old, he was in school and his father came to the school and he told him that he had to leave.

And apparently what had happened was the rebels had informed the government that in two days or three days from that time they were going to be coming and attacking in the capitol city of Liberia, Monroville, or Monrovia.

Monrovia, yeah.

Yeah. So his father went back to his office where he worked at to gather his belongings and the rebels actually had lied. They actually came and attacked that day.

So they came into the government buildings, including the immigration offices, and they killed all the adults that they found. Marvie actually saw his father assassinated in front of his very eyes.

Jeez.

Yeah, and he was 6 years old.

So he was obviously in a great deal of shock and the cook for the offices came and saw him and she took him home with them. And she asked him then where do you live. And Marvie was only 6 years old. He couldn’t tell her where he lived.

No.

So he lived with this woman who was so kind and so generous, he lived with her for six months.

And then people were taking their children to the US Embassy to try and reunite children who had been separated from their parents. And Marvie’s mom eventually found him. It’s an amazing story.

But it was about a year after the incident at the school where his father had been killed. So then he went and lived with his mother but then they had to flee the country and go live in a refugee camp. I think it was in Guinea; because there was so much violence. So they lived there for a while and then the government of Liberia told them they could move back because it was safe.

And they moved back but then the violence started again and his mother went to the store one day and she never came home. She ended up being taken by the rebels and killed. And then his sister faced the same fate. She was kidnapped by the rebels and also later died. So Marvie was then, he was taking care of himself and his sister. And they fled again to Guinea and lived in refugee camp for years. So the most amazing thing about Marvie is he’s such a nice guy.

Do you remember when we were at the hotel how helpful he was to us, being the only English speaker at the hotel we stayed at in Bamako?

Oh yeah, Yeah.

He would do anything. He basically would bend over backwards to help us.

It was amazing. And, so he was taking care of his sister and all the time that he was in the refugee camp he just kept thinking to himself, “Things will get better. I’m going to do my best to try and educate myself.” And he participated in a lot of programs that the United Nations were sponsoring at the refugee camp.

Yeah, I remember him talking about that.

Yeah, so remember one of them was conflict resolution. So he participated in a lot of the programs that related to conflict resolution; because they wanted the people who were still in Liberia to actually be able to live peacefully. And then he actually participated in running these programs for the children of the refugee camps. So he would coach their sports teams. Like they played football or they played other sports. And Marvie would actually be the coach in the athletic league. And he was such an inspiring person. I remember one thing he kept saying was, “I just want them to have a sense of normalcy.”

Well, I think that with like what he’s gone through, one of the truly amazing things to me is that some people would maybe have a hard time letting go of their past and being able to move forward. And he totally seemed like he was able to let go of everything and just think about the future and what he could do for himself and other people.

Well, he was really fortunate. He met this woman who was involved with the United Nations and after hearing his story she was very impressed with Marvie. And she told him, “When you finish your secondary school, I want to sponsor you to come to Mali and you can live with me and I will sponsor you to go to the University there.” So that’s what he has been doing. He was going to the University in Bamako studying electrical engineering but the school ended. Did he tell you why he wants to learn electrical engineering?

Yeah, well, no not specifically. Well, no, I guess no.

Oh, he didn’t? I thought he told you.

Oh, well what I remember is he wants to move back to Liberia and help rebuild his country. I remember him saying that. But specifically why he wanted to learn electrical engineering, no, I don’t know.

No that…

I don’t remember.

That is correct. He wants to move back there and help to redevelop his nation.

Okay.

As he said, these are my brothers and sisters and I want to live in my own country and help to rebuild it.

I think it’s extremely admirable.

Yeah.

He is the most laid back, nice, caring guy you will ever meet.

I just remember. I tried to give him some money to say thank you when he would help us. And he would tell me, “No, Joe, I really like you and Kristin. I don’t want your money. I’m…I’m doing this because I just want to help you.”

And he was just the nicest guy. I was so glad that we were able to help sponsor him for his education. If anyone deserves help, he does. And I think that it gives me more happiness when I help him than he actually gets in receiving the help. And he told me that when he gets out of school, he’s going to try and sponsor someone’s education so he can actually help them just like we helped him.

And I think that’s really important.

Yeah, that’s great.

That’s just the type of person he is.

Y’know, when you meet this guy, it’s really hard to imagine all the things that he went through, all the adversity that he faced. And to see where he is now and what a…just a fine young man that he is, it’s just really impressive. And it just really speaks to his moral, y’know, character.

Yep, yeah, I agree.

Well, it’s getting late and I think that I need to start packing for our trip back to Pennsylvania to see my mom and dad.

Okay, well I’ll talk to you later.

Okay, bye.

Bye.