Photo By Master Sgt. Michael Matkin | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Ingram Onwodi, 724th Logistics Readiness Flight, vehicle...... read more read more
Subscribe
AIR BASE 201, Niger – “It got to a point in my life where I hit a low, and I felt like I needed to do something good, not for me, but for them,” said Staff Sgt. Ingram Onwodi, 724th Logistics Readiness Flight, vehicle maintenance technician. “I was getting ready to go to a bar one night. I came downstairs and I see my mom, [step] dad and this guy we know from church, an ex-Marine, Mr. Dale.”
They asked where he was going and asked him to sit down for a minute. Mr. Dale started asking Onwodi questions about how was school going and about his job, of which he was recently fired from. Finally, he asked if Onwodi ever thought about joining the Army.
“I thought, oh this is what this is about,” Onwodi said. “You guys want me to join the Army because you think my life is messed up. I told them ‘No, thank you.’ and got up and left.”
Onwodi was born in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. When he was very young his mother and father separated, and his mother moved to the U.S. He and his brother and sister went to live with his aunt and uncle in Owerri, Nigeria, a small suburban town. In 1995, his mother visited and told him and his siblings she loved them and she was trying to plan for a home for them in America. When she left, she said she’d be back to bring them to the U.S.
“In Nigeria we we worried about our lives” said Onwodi. “There were riots and you would find out your friend died the next day. That’s why my mom wanted to get us out.”
Two years later, in 1997, she came back to move them to Chicago. This was also the first time Onwodi met his new baby sister.
“My first big experience in America was snow at O’Hare Airport,” said Onwodi. “My step-dad brought us these puffy jackets, but I had never seen anything like it before – it looked like a spacesuit. My brother and I were given the same exact jacket and we asked what they were for. He said, ‘Don’t worry. You will see.’. Once we opened the door, it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. It looked just like what I had seen in the movies. I remember telling my mom, it looks like the freezer out here.”
Onwodi soon learned the snow wasn’t the only “cool” thing in his new home town of Chicago.
“The first day of school this kid kept looking back at me on the school bus,” said Onwodi. “He just kept looking back and forth, back and forth and finally said ‘You’re so cool’. I got offended because everyone’s cool, It’s cold outside, and I’m not the only one that’s cool.”
He went home and told his mom a kid was making fun of him saying he was cool. She started laughing. She said, “No, cool means they like you. Cool means you’re awesome in America.”
He said he thought the kids at his school were “cool” too. He said he thought it was neat to be able to interact with Americans, with white people, which he had always seen on TV. He got to experience this “American dream” he had always heard about. He said his classmates thought he was more interesting than them because he was the only black kid and was from Africa.
“They would ask me questions like, ‘Did you ride a cheetah? Do you have an elephant?’,” said Onwodi. “I had no idea where they got that from. I told my mom and she showed me the Discovery Channel. She said, ‘This is what they think, because this is what they see on TV. They think, you know, you lived like, that.’ I had to explain to them I had never seen a cheetah.”
He said this made it really easy to make friends at school because everyone thought he was cool because he was from Africa. Even today he said, when he tells people he’s from Africa, they’re like, “Wow! That’s awesome.”.
Although the lingo in America is different than Nigerian lingo, the languages are the same, due to Nigeria being a former English colony.
“In Nigeria, we spoke English, but it’s a different type,” said Onwodi. “We get our words from the British. For example, pants to us is underwear. I had to switch up what I thought pants were. We called shorts knickers.”
He also had to adjust to American food, which he said he thought was weird. He said his mom would have them try stuff like cereal, which he thought looked like baby food and thought it was really weird that Americans drink milk.
“Who drinks milk?,” said Onwodi. “It comes out of a cow! That was weird for me. I didn’t like cheese, I thought hotdogs were weird, but I liked pizza.”
Learning to adjust to new food, new lingo and a new life in the U.S. has made Onwodi appreciate what he has and has influenced his outlook on life.
“Being in America, in my house, I felt rich,” said Onwodi. “We were middle class, but compared to how we were living in Africa, I felt like I had made it to heaven. My siblings and I appreciate everything, because my mom and [step] dad brought us to America. They put in a lot of hard work and it has made us want to work hard too. It’s the biggest opportunity. I can’t think of where we’d be right now if we didn’t get the opportunity to come to America. It makes you appreciate the little things. It makes you want to work harder. It makes you want to become something”
Onwodi said joining the military was his way to pay his family back for everything they’ve ever done for him. Especially, because at that point in his life, his family was worried about his future.
After leaving his house the evening his family confronted him about his life choices, he saw an old friend, TJ, who he hadn’t seen since high school. He asked TJ where he’d been and TJ explained that he had joined the Air Force and was living in England. TJ told him about Air Force life and the different places overseas people can get stationed. By the end of the conversation Onwodi wanted to join the Air Force and TJ had given him a recruiter’s card.
“I came home that evening and told my mom sorry,” said Onwodi. “I told her I want to join the Air Force. I went to the see the recruiter and here I am.”
Onwodi’s journey from Africa, to America, to joining the U.S. Air Force has provided him a different outlook on life. He said it helps him get through every day.
“I share my experiences with Airman, with everyone,” said Onwodi. “Those experiences have made me more appreciative of what we have. I appreciate the little things - the things people look over - like air conditioning. I try to use that to impact people.”
US Airmen - Giants of Africa
This is the second of a three-part series from AB 201 of the experiences of U.S. Airmen serving in Niger who spent time in their youth living in Nigeria. Nigeria is often referred to as the “Giant of Africa”.
| Date Taken: | 12.14.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.14.2022 04:47 |
| Story ID: | 435143 |
| Location: | NE |
| Web Views: | 223 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Everyone’s cool. In America, you’re awesome, by MSgt Michael Matkin, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
