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July 22, 2023 33 mins
We talk with people who have overcome great adversity on the show and my guest today has had more than his share. From a remote village in Ghana, following his dreams to look for the life he wanted in America – Patrick Asare documents his trials and trail in the book: “The Boy from Boadua: One African’s Journey of Hunger and Sacrifice in Pursuit of a Dream”

Growing up in the jungles of Ghana and now thriving in suburban America, Patrick Asare defied all odds on his journey through life. In his incredible memoir, The Boy from Boadua: One African’s Journey of Hunger and Sacrifice in Pursuit of a Dream, he recounts his childhood, family, education, and the experiences that made him into the person he is today, in addition to reflecting on socio-cultural relations, race, and the social structures in the different countries that he has lived. Patrick Asare offers a new perspective as someone who has had first-hand experience in a variety of cultures, specifically within the education system.

Patrick was born and raised in Ghana. After completing secondary school, he attended university in the former Soviet Union, studying electrical engineering at Donetsk National Technical University in the then Soviet republic of Ukraine. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and also completed a certification program to become a Russian language teacher. Patrick resided in the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, during the historic perestroika era, when President Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms that ultimately led to the breakup of the Soviet Union. He traveled extensively throughout Eastern and Western Europe and became one of the few people with firsthand knowledge of ordinary life on both sides of the Iron Curtain. After graduating from Donetsk, Patrick immigrated to America, where he initially taught Russian and math in public schools in Buffalo, New York. He earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1995 and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in 2003. Patrick is a principal at UGI Energy Services, LLC, a diversified energy services firm in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where he lives with his family. He previously worked as a senior electrical engineer at Caterpillar, Inc. in Lafayette, Indiana. Patrick has written extensively on social, political, and energy policy topics. He is a Democracy and Development Fellow at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, an Accra-based think-tank. Some of Patrick's energy policy articles have received attention worldwide.

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Episode Transcript

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(00:05):
Welcome to Book Spectrum. I'm yourhost, Chris Coourdanny. This is where
we talk with authors who are notnecessarily seasoned writers, but from different occupations
outside and across the spectrum. Wetalk with people who have overcome great diversity
on this show, and my guesttoday has had more than his share.
From a remote village in Ghana followinghis dreams to look for the life he

(00:26):
wanted in America. Patrick Assari documentshis trials and trails or Trails and Trials,
you can pick whichever one In thebook The Boy from Boadwa. I
hope I pronounced that correctly. OneAfrican's journey of hunger and sacrifice in pursuit
of a Dream. Patrick Assari,Welcome to Book Spectrum. Thank you very

(00:48):
much, choys for having me.Well, I'm glad you're here. Your
story is amazing. It's it's almostthe stuff made of a fiction book in
a lot of ways, because peoplearen't going to believe of the things you've
been through. So that's why I'mglad you're here. Tell us about growing
up in Bladwa, Yes, andthank you for your kind words about about

(01:08):
my book. So I I grewup in a small dusty village in Ghana,
West Africa, and I was oneof fourteen children born to two illiterate
parents who had no formal education,and so my father worked as worked as

(01:29):
a subsistence farmer, and my motherjust was a homemaker who stayed at home
and took care of the of theof the children. And so my parents,
without any education in that village environment, were really poor and feeding fourteen
children and trying to put them throughschool was was was a challenge. To

(01:52):
say that, I was a challengewith me an understatement. So went hungry
most of the time because there wasa There was never enough food at home
to feed to feed all those months, and so the village had a small
elementary school and a middle school.And this was a place with very low

(02:14):
expectations. About ninety nine of theparents and the village were illiterates, just
my just like my parents were,and so education was never hy priority for
anyone. My children mostly did choresat home from dawn to about eight am
in the morning, and then andthen it went to the primary school to

(02:36):
get a bit of an education,and then any sp a minute we got
we worked on farms and so choresat home, carrying buckets of water from
a river which was about a mileaway from from the house and doing that
and doing farm work and all kindsof chores at home before school in the
morning. So that that was thekind of life we lived in the the

(03:00):
the the elementary school, I startedschool under a tree, really because there
were not enough classrooms in the inthe in the primary school. So my
first in kindergarten, I sat ona tree and listened to a teacher who
was on eazel out in the open. And that's that was the life,

(03:21):
basic description of life in the village. From what you're saying, it would
seem like the government of Ghana,at least at the time, almost ignored
education in remote areas. I actually, that's that's a fascinating question. Actually
the government Actually the reason I'm talkingabout the environment that way was education.

(03:45):
The government was in a in thecapital Acra, and the village of Bordia
was never on any map in Ghanawhen I was growing up there. So
it's like you you lived in thecountry, but nobody, nobody knew you
were there because a tiny village withyou know, everyone being a farmer basically,

(04:10):
and so the government didn't really knowwe existed, and in theory education
was mandated, but because the governmentdidn't know where we lived and who was
there, it was basically no supervisionfrom anyone, So it was it was
almost like an optional thing for mostparents. I mean they could, they

(04:30):
could send your kids to school orput them on to work on their farms,
and that's that's what most people did, and you had to survive anyway.
All countries have disadvantaged communities, aproblem that we in the West are
still trying to resolve in many differentways. We look at them, or
at least our media looks at disadvantagedurban areas and doesn't pay much attention to

(04:54):
disadvantaged rural areas. We have those, but in Ghana, yours are very
disadvantaged or your a village is extremelydisadvantage at the time, talk about the
gap between the advantage and disadvantaged communitiesand the challenges they faced in Ghana and
still face. Yes, so theas I describe the villages, really most

(05:17):
of them were not on the onthe national map, and unlike America where
most I would say most children bornin this country have at least birth certificate,
and you assigned a social screedy numberand all kinds of identification. So
in most parts of America, youlive hea and even in their rural areas,

(05:43):
I mean you are still you arestill counted. But that wasn't the
case in Ghana when I was growingup there. I mean, there were
most thousands of people growing up inthe kind of village I grew up in,
who no one knew existed in thecountry, and so you were out
there on your own, uh,you know, talking about disadvantage. I
mean, people like my parents werereally fending for themselves. I mean there

(06:08):
was a government, but the governmenthad very little involvement in in anyone's life
in that kind of environment. Andso you you, you it was almost
like you lived in a deep junglesomewhere, um primitive sort of population that
survived on scraps in the in thein the jungle, and that that was

(06:32):
the life that we lived. Andso yeah, that was the life with
me. Is Patrick A Sorry.He's the author of The Boy from Bantoa,
one African's journey of hunger and sacrificein pursuit of a dream. Patrick,
In your situation, it had tobe tough, but the options were

(06:53):
venture out of the village and dosomething different with your life, or stay
live with family, create your ownand farm. Yes, when was it
you decided you desire to leave thevillage and get an education. Yes,
so so in all the years Iwas growing up in this village, studying

(07:14):
kindergarten and going to the primary schooland middle school, in all the years
I was growing up, a lotof kids went through that same process,
and I didn't see anyone go anywhere. So as I started saying, no,
nothing was expected of any child bornthere. So you got the primary

(07:36):
education, and most people didn't evenmost children didn't even make it to the
middle school. So you ended upjust falling back and working on the farm.
And so that was the expectation.What changed for me was I was
about when I was about eight orninety years old, I realized that even

(07:57):
in that environment, I realized thatI love to read, I mean things
written on paper. So and thiswas a village with no library, no
books in the schools, and sothat love of reading at an early age,
I don't really have anything to satisfythat appetite, and I cannot really
explain what gave me that reading appetite. So what happened was I was walking

(08:22):
around the village one morning and vendorswho sold food food had foodstands by the
in the in the village. Imean they used to wrap the food they
sold in newspaper l newspaper papers,and so people will finish eating their food

(08:43):
and they will just discard the scrapsof paper. So I was working around
the village and came upon one ofthese scraps of paper one morning, and
I picked it up and I startedreading it, and I read something on
that paper that just blew my mind. And that is what eventually took me

(09:05):
out of the village. That thediscovery I met on this piece of paper
is what took me out of thevillage on this journey that eventually took me
to the Soviet Union and ultimately toAmerica. So that was the out of
the sixty kids, I mean,I was one of sixty children that I
started primary school in the village,and at the end of the middle school,

(09:26):
I was the only one that wasable to leave the village, which
was the first one in a veryvery long time. Leaving the village to
go to school is a lot differentfrom most countries where you can take a
drive for your parents or somebody bringsyou over to another college, you apply
over the mail, that sort ofthing. It was a bit harder for
you. I want to put allthis in perspective. Let's just go to

(09:48):
your college years in the US,yes, or at least how you got
to college and how you had topay for it. In the US,
we have students who go to collegefor four to seven years. Parties take
useless curriculum, whatever PC studies theydo. Not all people do this,
Not all students do this, butmany do. And those are the ones
we're demanding that student loans be paidoff for them by the taxpayers. Yes,

(10:11):
let's put as I said this inperspective, Patrick, you went through
a lot, including the dangerous worklike taking your vacations and working in a
jungle farm and with dangerous insects andsnakes, having to do loads of chores,
heavy heavy duty chores and things likethat. Yes, not lack of
sleep, not eating enough. Youwant to go through all that to pay

(10:35):
for your education? Yes? Yes? So so the so talking about paying
for education. So I had thisdream of attending the most exclusive secondary school
in Ghana, which here can be. It's the equivalent of high school in

(11:00):
America. So when I say Ipicked up this scrap of newspaper and read
something on it, what I readwas I discovered the most exclusive secondary school
in Ghana and standing in the middleof that dusty village. I don't know
why it occurred to me that itwas a completely ridiculous idea. I mean,

(11:20):
to occur to a nine year oldthat he wanted to go to the
most elite school in the in thecountry from this village. I mean,
this was a school that was setup by the colonial governors when Ghana was
a colony of England, and sothat's the school educated a children of diplomats

(11:43):
and ministers, university professors and thingslike that. So so you're talking about
a nine year old son of twoilliterate parents who you're studying in the middle
of this village, and this ideaoccurs to me. So I start on
this journey to you gain admission tothe school, and surprisingly I was able
to get into that school. Butrealized at that point that I, as

(12:09):
a child, I didn't I knewthat I was hungry all the time,
but poverty, the word poverty waswhat's not in my vocabulary. So it
was at that point that I realizedthat my parents couldn't remotely you know,
it wasn't even remotely possible for themto pay the tuition in this place.

(12:31):
So what saved me was so Ihad to give up that opportunity and then
the next year I retook the entranceexam and that is when this fortune came
in the government used to run ascholarship for coco farmers. My father was

(12:52):
a coco farmer. He cultivated cococrops and so he because of that,
I qualified for the scholarship, andthat is what enabled me to go to
secondary school. And other than that, I would have been I would have
been walking. I will still bewalking around the village today. So so

(13:13):
I went to uh secondary school onscholarship, and that is what got me
that education that then took me tocollege in the Soviet Union. So what
made you go to college in theSoviet Union. We now know, or
we've all known that it's a ratheroppressive government. But what made you say,
Hey, I think I'll go tothe Soviet Union go to college.

(13:35):
Yeah, yeah, So so myidea, my idea actually coming back to
the scrap of newspaper. What reallyimpressed me, what what what? What
I read on us paper was thiselite school in Ghana that educated the children
of the elite in Ghana. Itwas sort of a school from which students

(14:03):
went from from there to Oxford andCambridge universities in England. So so so
growing up in all of a middleschool, I I that was my goal
to go to one day end upin England and study at either Cambridge at
Oxford. So when I eventually realizedhow poor my family was and how you

(14:28):
know, unrealistic that the whole ideagoal was, I I just reset my
expectations and just went through the secondaryschool system. And so when I graduated
from secondary school, I actually gotadmission to the university in Ghana. And
at that point the financial issue camein again and so I couldn't I couldn't

(14:52):
go to university in Ghana. SoI bounced around the village for another couple
of so years and at that that'swhen I discovered this scholarship that the Soviet
government used to offer students from Thirdworld countries. This was nineteen the early

(15:13):
nineteen eighties and sort of the heightof the Cold War and as you record,
the US and the Soviets were goingaround the world jockey and for influence.
So Africa, Latin America saw theseAsia places, all those places.
So so the Soviet government at theinstitute, at the scholarship program where they

(15:37):
invited qualified students from most of Africancountries and other third world places to go
to the Soviet Union. And Ihad run out of options. I finished
secondary school and walking around in thepillage for about two years. I didn't
have any options, and so andso I heard about the scholarship and I
want to apply for it, andfortunately one one and that was that was

(16:02):
my only choice I had. SoI went to the Soviets Nion and I
went to college there. That's that'show I that's how that happened. PATRICKA.
Sarry is with me on book Spectrum. Check out his book The Boy
from Bodo Baudois, One African's journeyof hunger and sacrifice in pursuit of a
dream. You came to America lateron, what were you were expecting when

(16:26):
you got here? Because you woundup teaching in an inner city school district
in Buffalo, New York. Whatwere you expecting to see? Considering you
were on the other set of theworld for so long and heard so probably
heard so many different things while inGhana and of course in the Soviet Union.
Yes, and what was different fromwhat you were expecting when accepting that
job teaching in this in the Buffalosystem. Yes. So so when I

(16:51):
when I came to America in earlynineteen ninety two, I had majored in
electrical engineering in college in the SovietUnion, and while studying, I think
it was my third or fourth year, I found out about this option all
foreign students. This option was opento all foreign students, so regardless of

(17:15):
what you're majoring in the you hadan opportunity to take a certification program study
program to qualify to teach Russian whenyou went back to your home country.
So I, at the beginning,I thought it was a useless proposition because
I was an engineer and I hadno idea I would ever teach anyway.

(17:37):
But but eventually I got into thisprogram, and so I got my electrical
engineering diploma, and in addition tothat, I got this teaching certificate.
So when I came to America,the I went to live with a friend
in Buffalo, New York, andthere were a couple of Magnet schools that
I had just started offering Russian,teaching Russian to kindergarteners about fourth grade,

(18:03):
so that they were looking for Russianteacher. So I showed up on the
Board of Education office and applied fortheir job. And they thought I was
ridiculous, a black guy. Ablack guy, A black guy walking around
in Buffalo thinking he knows enough Russianto actually teach it. So it must
perplexed people over there. Oh yes, yes, so I was. I

(18:26):
was like, they looked at melike I was some UF four something.
I guess you had to really provethat, yeah, Russian exactly. So
fortunately I had carried my teaching certificateand my passport to identify myself, so
they looked at it and they realizedthat I was the real deal. So

(18:47):
they so they offered me the jobon the spot. And and then within
a week or two I started teachingthat the UH the Russian classes. I
was teaching a little kids kindergarten toabout fourth grade, so very eager to
learn and model students all around.And then the Board of Education also learned

(19:12):
that I m I was an engineeringUH student. I had been an engineering
student, and I was an engineer, so uh, they asked me to
teach math and science in addition tothe Russian. So the math was in
middle and high schools. And sowhen I first went into my math class,

(19:36):
that was quite a revelation. Iwalked into the math classroom and it
was it was pandemonium, total chaos, with throwing absolutely and uh so so
I I as as someone who hadgrown up in Ghana, our schools were

(19:59):
very a friend. Uh this wasthese were schools where discipline was the order
of the day. And uh,you know all the liquor classrooms. Our
teachers had a lot of authority,and us as students were always terrified of
our teachers. I mean it wascorporal punishment, and uh, you were
punished for the slightest thing. Imean, no no kid would ever,

(20:21):
you know, think about disrespecting ateacher or disobeying any any instructions. The
opposite here, I suppose exactly.So so that that was that was quite
a surprise. And um and soand so that first math class, I
mean, I I walk into theclass and uh found this this uh uh

(20:45):
scene and and I was I wasflabbergasted. So I stood for several minutes,
just uh watching what I was,what I was looking at, and
and so that was that was uhquite unintroduce action to America for me.
And so so all the all thedisciplinary problems, the dysfunction we read about

(21:10):
every day in urban school district,I saw. I saw all of that
on that first day, and inthe subsequent two years I taught them that
school district, and so that thatreally became another source of education for me.
By I really wanted to understand thatwhat was um, what was the

(21:33):
the the the factors that were drivingthat picture I saw, And so I
talked to colleagues and they started,you know, telling me about some of
those factors poverty, broken homes,parental absenteeism and uh and all of that.
And people aren't allowed to talk aboutthat now. So if you can't
do that, no one's going tosolve the problem. Yes, and it

(21:56):
will make things worse the generation later. It's not helping anybody just dancing around
and trying to be politically correct.You have to help the people, these
kids that are that are growing upnow and help their kids. Yes,
yes, and education is important inthat and yeah, I believe it sounds
it seems like, and I've readthis in your book, it seems like
you have tried to take an initiativeto help these kids maybe move forward,

(22:19):
using your own experiences to do so. Yes, yes, so exactly exactly
right. So so and what you'resaying about the way we talk about these
problems, UM's itself a problem.So um so So I I realized quickly
the uh sort of the sensitive natureof of all these topics. I had

(22:45):
just come into into the country.And as an African, I had learned
about uh, slavery and um,you know, the whole history, so
we had learned about it and inschools and um, but but I knew,
I knew that slavery had long ended. So so before I came to

(23:06):
America in nineteen ninety two, II my idea of America was a place
where um, you know, peoplelived harmoniously and and and and and there
weren't you know, the level ofpoverty and then the dysfunction you know,
I came to see so that thatwas that was a big surprise, I
mean to me to come to Americaand see and see all of that.

(23:30):
And so as as I started talkingto colleagues in those first a few weeks
when I when I uh came tothis realization that there was there was a
lot more to America than I hadenvisaged. And listening to how my teach
colleagues were describing the issue, andthen watching debates on television and stuff like

(23:52):
that, I I quickly realized,I mean, how how sensitive some of
those things were. And so asan immigrant, I I went on this
other, uh you know, twentyyear journey or so, and UH started
reading about books about the education systemand all the problems, especially in the

(24:19):
urban areas, the cultural factors,you know, the poverty, the racism,
and uh everything that is associated withwith the with the dysfunction and and
and it became it became sort of, uh an educational journey for me because

(24:41):
I am a black male and thatwas one of the reasons I was actually
asked to teach math and science.UM as a black male who was highly
educated. The school principle and someof the teachers wanted me as a role
model. And some of these schoolsI was teaching, and and as I
observed the the the the the schoolsand the and the people in it and

(25:06):
and everything associated with that. II realized how complicated the the issue was
and uh and so it was itwas for me, it was sort of
untangling, Uh, this this mazeof issues that combined to create a dysfunction.

(25:29):
And you know, even as asa blackmail it became difficult for me
to you know, talk about itwithout sounding either naive or insensitive. So
I write in the prolog of thebook that that's one of the reasons I
waited, uh, about twenty yearsto start writing the book. I really

(25:52):
wanted to make sure that I understood, um, understood the the the the
the the shoes and so. Butthe longer I read it, I mean,
the more I realized that I hadto put pen to paper because I
had some perspectives as an outside whowould come in and seeing this picture.

(26:15):
I mean, I thought I hadsome perspectives to share. And so that's
what I that's what I tried todo in the book. As people read
the book, and that's the boyfrom Boudoir, the One African's journey of
hunger and sacrifice in pursuit of adream. Patrick Astori is my guest,
he's the author. As people readit, they will see you traveled not
only around the world, but havelived and worked with people of various cultures

(26:38):
many parts of the globe, frommany parts of the globe, that is,
and from many different backgrounds. Today'smedia and politicians in the US,
as your brother, you've noticed,tend to emphasize and take advantage of our
differences. Your book is also refreshingas you do offer us your observations of
what we all have in common.So let's talk about some of the yes.

(27:03):
Yeah, so that that is thatis a critical point. And uh,
that was one of my main objectives, um because after after closely observing
American society for for the last thirtyyears, I've been in this country thirty
one years now, and especially latelywith all the tensions and everything that we're

(27:30):
going through as a country, andand I've become a naturalized American citizen,
and so everything that's going on hereis some h it's something that entrusts me
as a citizen. And so havingtraveled around and I like to um tell
people that I feel like I've meteveryone from everyone in the world. In

(27:55):
the Soviet Union, I was,as I just gribe, it was mostly
people from the global South, andso you met people from everywhere in Africa,
everywhere in Latin America, everywhere inSoutheast Asia, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
And then I came to America andsome of the schools I have studied

(28:17):
in. I went to Purdue Universityfor my Masters in engineering, and then
later on I went to Dartmouth andU and these two places. You go
there and you meet everyone else fromthe global North and so Western Europe,
Australia, Japan, Canada, youname it. So so you put those
two together, I mean I feellike I have. I have met people
from every culture, every every placeon this planet. And the one thing

(28:42):
I have realized that regardless of wheresomeone comes from, I mean what culture
they come from, what religion theypractice, what language they speak, there
are something There are some very fundamentalthings that we all as humans, I

(29:02):
believe and cherish. So the firstone is love of family and close friends.
UM. People, you know,wherever they're from. I mean,
when they have children, their siblings, the love they have for them doesn't
change. It is the same whetheryou are you're black, brown, white,
um that it is the same.And we all have this innate desire

(29:29):
to be treated with dignity and uhand and fairly so fairness, dignity,
love of family, close friends.Uh, those are human qualities that that
there is there is nothing white,black, brown about any of those and
so that that is uh. Um. I tell people that the best education

(29:55):
I got in the Soviet Union wasliving with my Soviet roommate for one year
in Key. I went to theSoviet Union with um uh, you know,
fearing that the the KGB was goingto spy on me incessantly, because
that is what I've been told bypeople, and so and so I went.

(30:15):
I went into the country and rightoff the bat started suspecting everyone I
met. And in in the dormitorieswe lived in, we we we the
foreign students were paired with Soviets,and right away I I thought, huh,
this is the this is the spyingthat I heard about. But living

(30:37):
with my Soviet you know, hisname was Dmitry, lived with them for
one year and uh. By themiddle of that year, I realized that
he was he was the best soul, human soul I had I had,
you know, met up to upto that point in my life. And
so and so today we we weread about uh Russians and Ukrainians. What

(31:02):
is going on over there and thereand so and so when I look at
that conflict, I um and incidentallywhere the where the war is raging.
I lived in Kiev for one year, that's where I went to language school,
and then I lived in Herkiv forthe second end that I went to
Doniek for four years. And somy entire success in the Soviets, you

(31:26):
know, I lived in Ukraine andso eastern Ukraine, and so I had
a lot of interaction with Ukrainians andRussians, and I know these people well,
I know the landscape and so andso today, looking at what is
going on and everything around it,the global reaction to it for someone like

(31:48):
me is very disappointing because, asI say, regardless of who we are
and what of our backgrounds are wewe are all, you know, humans
whom aspire to be treated with dignityand respect and fairly and so so that
that's my view on that. PatrickA. Sorry, thank you very much

(32:09):
for joining us on book Spectrum.Thank you so much, Grace for having
me. This has been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Well,
once again, the book is theBoy from a bontois one Africans journey of
hunger and sacrifice in pursuit of adream and find it on Amazon. You
can find it on anywhere you getyour digital books or the paperback. You

(32:30):
can pull that through Amazon and anywhereelse as well. Patrick, Where can
our listeners find you on the internet, So the you can find me on
my website. At my website isPatrick dot com. You can find me
there, and I'm on Twitter.My Twitter handle is p O k W

(32:52):
A s I. That's my Twitterhandle, and I'm on Facebook Patrick A.
Sari and LinkedIn you can find meunder Patrick Assari, so you can
find me in multiple platforms and primarilyon my website you can and I have
a blog on my website as well, so you can you can find me
that Patrick Assari, author dot com. Patrick Asari, thank you again for

(33:15):
being with us on books. Benjamin, Thank you all for listening.
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Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

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