A friendly chat with Iskafan led to this article. Thank you _
In 2012, I told my family I didn’t want to study in Nigeria, after 3 attempts at getting in, I was tired. It was a lot, family was divided because, going abroad is something every family wishes for their kids, but not something every family can afford for their kids, and we didn’t have the amount it will cost me plus feeding for that duration, but I had faith and held onto hope. Nah, I was stubborn and determined.
In 2013, February, I had enrolled in a computer training program and had a web presentation to give, while waiting my turn, I saw a pop-up on my laptop and clicked on it (not something I'll do now), as I have been searching for cheaper schools generally. The pop-up was for a school in Thailand having intakes in 4 months' time, and without telling my parents, I applied and in one week, I was offered admission. It was a bittersweet feeling because I thought I wasn’t going due to stringent finance we had, but they took it well this time and preparations began.
A New Beginning
Fast forward, October 7th, 2013, I left Nigeria for my new dispensation in Thailand, alone with no friends, except the lady from Uni who’s been guiding me through my application. She promised to take me around. I convinced my parents to let me go 3 weeks earlier so I can get acquainted with the environment, food, maybe pick up on the language as well. Rent was the first kicker I got, $150 a month for a self-contain seemed like a lot for me, and we weren’t allowed to work as it was illegal. I was so scared, mainly because it’ll be my family supporting me the whole way and I wouldn’t be able to help, something I had planned in private.
The school runs a scholarship program that is hidden. You must talk to the right person or that information may never see the light of day. I found out about it in my 8th semester, and I would’ve been eligible from my 2nd semester to my 9th semester, as all you had to do was be a part of a group and keep an average Cgpa of 3.0/4.0 every semester and I stayed above 3.2 every semester until the end. I was broken thinking about the amount I could’ve saved my folks.
Adjusting
The school began in November, and I had my first wave of racism by December when in a group of 25 mixed Nationals, I was the only black African singled out to be searched and questioned. A Swiss guy stepped in and asked the officer to ask each one of them the same thing, demanding to know why I was singled out, it created a scene that saw other officers’ approach to calm the situation. I was scared, embarrassed, and pissed, because I was treated a lot different than the other kids from Europe and Asia, and no one prepared me for something like this. I was only 19 at the time, all I had was faith in humanity. I was very wrong.
The racism never ended, went on for the duration of my stay, even getting harassed at my apartment because my passport wasn’t handy and made to sit by the road like a criminal while they go ask my building security if indeed I lived there and attended said school before I was let go. This was something I had to learn to put up with, as it was a constant struggle as a Black African student in Thailand, for some reason, the Black Americans had little to no issues, or so I heard.
In 2016, there was a financial crisis in Nigeria and the Naira got devalued by 80% and the dollar rate went from N180/$ to N320/$ which meant that my tuition cost doubled, and rent doubled, and my monthly allowance was worth half in the local currency Thai Baht. (For context, I was getting a monthly allowance of N100k, which converts to B20k, you need about B15k to get by, food and rent, and with the devaluation, that N100k was now worth B9k). It got worse as time passed.
The weeks following were the toughest for me, I could no longer afford rent and my family practically pulled the plug on me about being unable to afford my tuition, 24th September 2016. It was a tearless feeling, couldn’t cry, couldn’t wail, I was lost. I couldn’t blame them, I only later found out they had lost enormously in the MMM Ponzi scam. Still haven’t recovered from that one.
I put a call to my landlord and explained my situation and how I was going to be late on rent and I need to move out as I can no longer afford his place and he said, “we all need help sometimes, promise me you’ll pay within 60 days and remember to pay it forward” and I cried and said yes.
Wherever you are Mr. Peter, you changed my life, I am doing better now, plus I have been paying it forward since, over 20 people directly and 100 indirectly.
What Mr. Peter never knew was, when I moved out of his place, I had nowhere to stay. I was practically homeless. A friend put me up for a few days as I bounced off friends’ houses for a week, managed to liquidate some things for cash, (TV, Microwave), and was able to find a smaller apartment within my budget.
That experience changed my life entirely, from how I see money, spend money, and save money. It is an experience I promised never to go through again and so my discipline in financial management increased by a lot, maybe too much because I stopped taking care of myself. I became conscious of my finances from then on, it was an experience I’ll never wish my enemy.
Since my family gave me the sad news, I figured I had to find a way to earn a living without breaking any laws or risking deportation. So, I used what I had, to get what I wanted, for the remaining 2 semesters I had left. Fortunately, I was smart in school, I was the guy who looked out for others, assignments, papers, tests. I began to charge a fee to write a paper, do an assignment or complete a project, a few people felt different about the change, but I explained that asking you for rent or feeding money was not possible, so do the easier thing to just pay me for the service I rendered, eventually, they got on board.
I began studying for courses and attending lessons that weren’t in my field of study, so I can complete clients’ papers. I began earning enough to survive, but it was still miles away from my tuition so I asked the school for an extension, and I was granted. It hurt me to charge my cohorts for their papers, but I had to survive. What I didn’t realize was that I became fully focused on making money to pay rent and tuition, I forgot about my own courses. It was the worst semester I ever had and the sole reason I didn’t graduate with a First Class. I managed the rest of the way and completed my degree in February 2017. I ended up with a Distinction and I was elated to have achieved that, even though I knew I could’ve worked harder for a first-class.
In March, a friend, Jones, called me and said he’s seen my struggles and would like to help, he wanted me to work for him and get paid per job done. He took me to a company that sold gold brass pellets and showed me the ropes. This job was within the legal scope as all I did was buy a product and ship it out, so it wasn’t a salary-based job and thus, I was comfortable I wasn’t breaking any laws. I shipped out 5-30kgs of the products every month for 3 months and raised enough capital to start my master’s degree. We’re still very good friends and I’ll forever be indebted to him.
I began making a living and was saving up every dime I could get and some of the older cohorts who I had done papers in the past for that sometimes gave me extra funds began asking for some loans, and look, I knew how deep their pockets ran and I trusted easily. I ended up lending over $2000 that I have since been unable to reclaim. I was distraught as I had hoped to use the funds for tuition. It didn’t stop me from giving loans over the next 3 years and losing a cumulative $18k to people, friends, and family.
Between 2017 and 2019 November when I did my master’s degree, I was job hunting and sent out applications to 400+ companies, got some interviews, and when they saw I was African, they’ll tell me the famous “thank you for taking an interest in our company, we will get back to you within 2 weeks” None ever did. My most painful experience was when my interest in cryptocurrency was fresh, I had applied for a Thailand version of LocalBitcoins, a P2P company, and they invited me for an interview and I was elated to join their young vibrant team. They mentioned their issues surrounding my visa application as I would’ve been their first international hire that needed a visa to work. The interview went well, and they said, they usually have 3 months probation period, but seeing how well I performed, they’ll give me 1 month and we can go from there. The salary wasn’t my focus as I just needed somewhere to belong. They ghosted me for 6 weeks before I realized I wasn’t going to get hired. When your professors tip you to be amongst the most successful students and you are the only one in the country without a job. I guess the universe had other plans
In April 2018, I had saved some money and decided to start a business to sustain myself as I foresaw the other one coming to a close since my friend moved to the United States, and it did. I began researching for a product that was cheap, easily sourced, and could be used by everyone, so, I found a company that produces T-shirts, and with faith and some calls, I sent down my first shipment and my high school mate sold off 70% worth and made away with the money, I managed to recover goods worth 30%. I cried my eyes out because the distance meant I had no one to fight these battles for me. It was then I learned a valuable lesson, “Only you can fight for what is yours”.
The betrayal got to me so badly I went to therapy for a year. Luckily the school had an in-house therapist and I saw him every Friday for a whole year, it was so sad, he aided me to request a tuition payment extension for 3 weeks and promised to pay if I missed the date. No idea why he did that but, I was so grateful to him and I made sure he knew it.
I managed to pick myself up and did the business up until Nov 2019. It grew 5 times the original capital, but again I had incurred a bad debt of 60% of my company net and I had to shut down as the distance meant I couldn’t handle the business the way I’d have loved and no one to help recover these debts.
My stint in Thailand ended in January 2020 and I traveled to Cambodia before making my way home in March 2020 amid the news of the Covid19.
It was truly, an amazing 6+ years, I like to think I am a better human because of my journey, and since coming back, I miss the cheap and fast internet, stable electricity, less starchy food, and fair security. However, if given the opportunity to return, I won’t take it.
I know this is long and all, but I hope you had fun reading it.
Special shoutout to my friend Tante, who encouraged me to finish this. Stay Amazing
