What do you do in your home country and what do you hope to do upon your return? In particular, with the integration of your experiences here?

I am an economist and I work for the County Government of Isiolo in the economic planning and budgeting dept. At the community level, I work with young boys mostly in an academic setting where the boys come in partnership with student organizations. We hold soccer tournaments for them and the community comes out and works with the boys, as well as professional who grew up in the community, the give the boys motivational talks on the importance of education and showing them the success of others. Also, the violent extremist groups are an issue in Isiolo, and I work with an NGO through the country government on a project called Countering Violent Extremism that works to strengthen relationships between the youth and the police to help with the violent extremism.

I think that the experience here has been an eye opener. I have seen many comparisons that have made me reconsider that the problems that we face back home are everywhere and are not special to my country. This has only enforced my belief that education can address a lot of these problems. Because of this, when I get home I want to focus even more on education and also to start a community library.

What is your favorite thing about your home country? How about Philadelphia?

My favorite thing about my home country is the nature. Tourism of nature is very important and good for revenue. We have beautiful parks and good weather all throughout the year.

My favorite thing about Philadelphia is the baseball match that we went to as a group. It shows the culture here of how people come together for events like that, passions that they share, because there were so many people at the game.

Do you have any hobbies or an interesting fact you wish to share about yourself?

I played soccer for a while when I was growing up. I coach soccer when I can in my free time and am part of a group pf professional scholars who play together as well. I also like swimming and traveling.

If I were to come to your home country, what is the first thing I should eat?

Camel milk and meat. You have it with Ogali, or sifted corn.