Living the American dream

Now that the barbecued meats have become leftovers, the fireworks have become litter and the sale prices have jacked themselves back up, let us pause to consider the spirit of the holiday we have just celebrated.

Let us do that through Gouedan Halley, a gangly young man with halting speech and fire in his eyes.

"Sometimes," he said in all seriousness, "I just cannot believe I'm here."

Here is not just the 1,400-square-foot, three-bedroom home near Nellis Air Force Base that he shares with his mom. It is not just Las Vegas, this place unlike any other.

It is America.

Halley is 21 and if you looked at him, you might guess he is from Africa. He has dark skin, pronounced cheek bones, a thin body that stretches 6 feet 2 inches from the ground.

But he is more than that. Look at his bedroom: pictures of famous athletes, his high school graduation gown and tassel pinned to the wall, a Playstation, a TV and a pile of clothes shoved into a closet with a door that won't close because of the mess.

Halley is like any other young man in America, except that he is not.

He was born and raised mostly in Togo, a West African country of nearly 6 million people where French is the official language.

To hear him and his mother tell it, life there was like a cliché about Africa: war, lousy schooling, extreme poverty, a dictatorial government bent on eliminating dissent.

"Over there," said Halley's mother, Claudine Amedemegnah, "people cannot talk about nothing."

She said what pushed her out happened a few years ago when her house was shot up and burned down during a political dust-up.

She arrived here in 2002, intent on bringing her children one day.

"Here," she said, "we have freedom."

Nearly four years passed before Halley arrived aboard a plane via Morocco and New York. He stepped into this new world July 19, 2006.

He was intent on this: learning English and enrolling in school.

"Sometimes," he said of schools in his native country, "you go to school but it's like it doesn't matter. You go, but the teachers will go on strike when they don't get paid. So you go home."

He said that could mean days, weeks, even months away from school. Once, it lasted an entire year.

"It's crazy," he said.

And so, he sought to attend school here. He tried to enroll at Centennial High School, but he didn't speak a word of English. So Clark County School District officials channeled him to Global Community High School, a place designed for people like him, those from foreign countries who haven't mastered English yet.

He thrived.

"He is absolutely a spectacular young man," said the school's principal, Mike Piccininni.

But aren't there lots of spectacular students? What made Halley stand out?

"Gouedan really just exemplifies hard work," Piccininni said. "He really dedicated himself to not just learning the language, but to acclimating to the culture."

Halley says he spent his after-school hours studying English. He bought a French-English translation dictionary and studied that at home. He listened to his teachers.

"I said to myself, 'I can't live here if I can't speak,'" he said.

Within months, he could speak well enough to get along. He did well in school. He kept learning English, little by little.

He said he avoided social troubles, even avoided dating to focus on his studies.

"That's not my thing right now because I am focused on something," he said. "I have to focus on my school. I have to learn English."

When plans for this year's graduation were being made, he was asked to give the commencement speech. Inspire others with your story, he was told.

He hesitated at first but soon dedicated himself to getting that speech just right.

He wrote it, rejected it, wrote it again, rejected it again.

He went through five drafts until he got it just the way he wanted it.

"Today is a great day for me because one of my dreams has come true," he said during graduation last month.

Indeed, they are still coming true.

Halley is now preparing for his freshman year at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He tried out for the soccer team, got great reviews, and once he gets his paperwork cleared with the NCAA, Halley plans to play in the fall.

But despite his lifelong love of soccer, academics will dominate, he said. He will study engineering because he has always wanted to. Back in Togo, he wasn't sure whether it would ever happen.

"That was my dream, you know?" he said. "I was keeping it. I didn't know I was going to come here and make it happen."

Elena Fabunan, the counselor at Global Community High School, says she has stressed college to the school's students since she arrived last year.

Halley stood out.

"He was very willing to do whatever he had to," she said. In a few years, "I expect him to be working as an engineer."

Halley said he has his green card, and one day hopes to become a U.S. citizen.

"You look at somebody like him," Piccininni said, "and you say, 'Yeah. This is what this country was built for.'"

One more American dream, realized.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.