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

Despite their youthful mischief-making, Mawi and his brother are considered good kids, morally speaking. When Tewolde turns thirteen years old, he begins to “go through a special transformation, an emotional maturity that my [habesha] people call libee migbar, or developing a heart” (63). As Mawi notes with this passage about libee migbar, Tewolde begins to show an exceptional level of empathy and kindness in his adolescence.

This chapter is devoted to the life and tragic death of Mawi’s older brother, Tewolde. Tewolde, as Mawi notes, is incredibly generous. In one act of kindness, Tewolde befriends a homeless man outside of the Wheaton Public Library, and during the course of their year-long relationship, Tewolde helps the man secure housing and a job. 

Tewolde is also unusually industrious and resourceful. Mawi tells an anecdote about how, when he was in high school, Tewolde and Mawi were working menial jobs when Tewolde decides to help support the family by starting his own cleaning services business, called ProClean. Tewolde is motivated to make ProClean a success: “His [Tewolde’s] new heart had been inspired by his faith in God, and he believed that God wanted him to try ‘impossible’ things” (69). Tragically, Tewolde’s life is cut short when, as a senior in high school, he is struck by a drunk driver and killed. Mawi, his family, and the entire habesha community are devastated. 

Soon after Tewolde’s death, Mawi discovers a picture of a South American boy from a company called Compassion International among Tewolde’s possessions. It turns out that Tewolde had signed up to sponsor this impoverished South American boy, even though Tewolde had little very money himself: “I wondered how my brother had donated $240 a year to Compassion International when he had so little money to spare. He was trying to save money for college and was trying to help his family, too” (71).  

The narrative skips slightly backward in time in Chapter 9, to a period before Tewolde’s death. In this chapter, Mawi talks about howhis parents are not particularly forthright about their pasts. So, instead of through direct conversation, Mawi and his siblings would learn about their parents’ lives through “the coffee tales” (76). “Coffee tales” refer to the conversations that would occur when a group of habesha would gather at someone’s home to drink a special kind of Ethiopian coffee, called boona. 

During one such “coffee tale,” Mawi’s mother, Tsege, tells the story of how the Asgedom family became refugees, and what exactly happened when they initially fled their home in Ethiopia. She begins by saying that before the Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam began waging war against the rebel groups, her husband Haileab had been a successful doctor and healer in their community. Because of his willingness to treat any patient regardless of their political affiliation, Haileab had reason to fear that he would be abducted by one of the warring factions. To this end, Haileab had no choice but to flee for Sudan alone, leaving Tsege to look after the children. 

From Sudan, Haileab sends word to Tsege urging her to join him there, even though the journey will be long and treacherous, especially with multiple children in tow. However, when Mawi contracts an illness called niphoyoo, Tsege decides she has had enough: As soon as Mawi returns to health, she and the children begin the long journey to Sudan on foot. Though all three of the children contract a nearly-lethal illness called tekh-tekh-ta while en route, the family makes it safely to Sudan and are reunited with Haileab in Awad.