Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Fesaha Gebrehiwot.
Hi Dr. Gebrehiwot, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story starts in a small village in a country called Eritrea, East Africa. The son of a traditional farmer, one of 9 children. My parents lived in a little mountainous village. Traditionally villages were set up strategically on a plateau by early settlers so that they can see their enemies coming uphill, and also, they like to reserve the flat land for agriculture. As my grandmother tells the story, the villages were full of milk and honey (the terminology used to describe a well-being or richness was measured with how much milk and honey). She shares many beautiful memories in their early life in the villages. Back in their times as farmers, they farmed different kinds of crops and vegetables such as legumes, vegetables, corn, wheat, and chickpeas they also owned hundreds of cows and goats. By the village’s standards, my grandparents were rich, with plenty of milk and meat to share. Unfortunately, continuous drought rocked East Africa repeatedly for decades all the beautiful stories told by my grandmother were just a story. In addition to the devastating climate change, Eritrea was immersed into a heavy war with Ethiopia for independence. Most of Eritrea became a battleground and most of the vegetation was cleared, by the the enemy forces, for making trenches and any vegetation that was suspected of enemy hiding was burned and destroyed purposely by the soldiers. In the late eighties, the war escalated to the highest level causing a big disruption to our way life. When we were growing up farming and continuing the village’s traditional lifestyle became almost impossible to sustain. In fact, East Africa was devasted in the early eighties with drought. As a kid I witnessed all the water streams dry up and all the fruit-bearing wild trees cleared, all the wild cherry tomatoes we used to indulge as kids almost disappeared in a period of few years. Clean drinking water was almost impossible to get. I remember as kids we used to walk for 2-3 miles and carry some “Jerry cans” of water for the entire family. It is at these changing times my father had to make a conscious decision to send my brother and I to school while the older sibling did not get the opportunity because they were already participating and helping at the farming. My older brother and I were set to start school, given that the nearest school to us was several miles away. Our everyday routine was we wake early, fetch water for the family (probably about 2 miles away from home) and then we head to school (14kms walk daily) and help out with whatever is needed at home. School was usually one shift, morning or afternoon, and the other shift we are doing farm work. We had no complaints because that was the life we knew, and we were happy with it. Luckily, I got a break when I won a Diversity Visa Lottery, a green card, in 1997 to come to the United States. Little that I knew about the challenges ahead, I was super excited to win the lottery, and my older brother borrowed from several people to pay for my air ticket. After arriving to the US, leaving my entire family behind thousands of miles and no easy way to get a hold of them except occasional handwritten letters to check up on the family.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Well, I would say that my journey has been interesting at the least.
My life is a combination of desire and luck, I landed in the United States at age 20, no family. I had no expectations of how my life will turn out, I didn’t see far enough all I was looking was taking just baby steps hoping that next is the right step. I landed in Chicago because my sponsor was there, and I stayed there few weeks until I received my green card. My sponsor took me to search for jobs, and we applied at McDonald’s, and some grocery stores I had no way of communicating so I did not get the job. The diversity visa process took almost a year from the date I received the congratulations letter to arrival to the US, during the process I met who later became my friend same age same situation coming to the US he had no family either. So, after some frustrations in Chicago, I called my friend and he advised me to move to Phoenix because that’s where he landed. and we agreed for me to move to phoenix so can be roommates. I told my sponsor that I was moving to phoenix he bought me a one-way ticket flew to phoenix. I remember clearly, I landed in Phoenix at 10:00 am, and I told my friend to take me to the airport to apply for a job by 2:00 pm I got the job at Sky Chefs food handling, I was employed and happy.
I decided to attend Phoenix community college taking English for Second Language speakers (ESL). I would attend class in the morning and work the 2nd shift. My friend and I bought one old car (Toyota Tercel 2-dr for $800 shared, to get us around we shared it for few months but later it didn’t work out because of different classes and work schedules
The first full tax year my earning was $28,900, $5.25-6.50/hour (you do the math, I worked 12 hours day, 7 days a week, holidays, Christmas, thanksgiving you name it) that year I did not take a single day off. My goal was to save enough money so that I can go full-time to school. I limited my expenses to the very minimum. We rented 4 people in a two-bedroom apartment in the not-nice part of town. As a result, I saved almost half of my earnings. The following year my focus was school
The most difficult part was being away from my family, I grew up in a small village with 8 siblings, uncles, aunties, cousins and so. Our community growing up was the entire village is your family (it takes a village to raise a child was real) our entire village raised us. So, coming here to a place I knew no one was very difficult. At times I felt lonely. I couldn’t call home, my family lived not in the city, and there were times when I didn’t talk to my family for over a year. Some days I wished my family was around to understand what I was going through, sometimes I felt my family would be proud of me who I am becoming. One of the most difficulties was there is no one I can learn from as a role model or I can get advice from, I didn’t know the rules of the game I was playing. I could’ve easily end up in the wrong place at the wrong time at that young age but luckily my grandmother’s prayers were always my guarding angel. I didn’t have the luxury of eating the food I am accustomed eating all my life these where all challenges food was probably the most challenging part, I didn’t like any food here it took me several years to get used to the taste of food here. I was 130 lbs. and not being able to eat any kind of food for the first couple of years I was very skinny unhealthy skinny.
We’ve been impressed with Trusted Dental Care, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Trusted Dental Care is a Complete Care Dentistry with Restorative General Dentistry (Cosmtetically driven dentistry , Implant Dentistry, Veneers, Oral Surgery, Root Canal Treatment, Periodontal treatment options, and different kinds of laser dentistry. Laser dentistry with the latest technology to treat gum disease
How did the first few years of your arrival in the US unfold?
The first few years I was juggling working, adopting the new life with all its challenges, taking on classes and so on. After completing the basic sciences at Phoenix community college, what I found was that I did better in Maths, Physics Chemistry anything that requires no English. Communication, business was out of the question because I had no confidence that my communication skills will get me anywhere so engineering was kind of a safe hiding place. I thought if I can do the job, I don’t necessarily would have to communicate that well, I would go see an adviser and they tell me, yeah engineering looks like a good path for you and this was in 1999 so career-wise engineering was healthy. All I can think was me coming from nothing to be making $50,000/year as an engineer was like a dream so went ahead and studied engineering. At the school level, I was a good engineering student, I landed in the US August of 1997, I graduated from engineering school in December 2002. I had all kinds of challenges, coming face to face with a computer for the first time was frightening, never touched or seen a computer before. I am learning language, learning Microsoft office, I am learning keyboard to type you name it. I didn’t take any summer off. I just took whatever class was available.
The first five years of my existence in the US, I fought many fronts that defined the next decade. After graduation I was lucky enough to start a job with Motorola as an engineer, it was an amazing feeling. To have a business card of my own that said, engineer, it was such a joy and I was very proud of myself. I used handed my business card to strangers because I was so damn proud of myself for what I have accomplished. It is at this time that working for such a company I had health and dental insurance for the first time in my life. This is where my dental journey started. I visited a dentist for the first time and I was overwhelmed by what my Oral health condition was, I had poor Oral health, bleeding, and cavities, it was quite an experience. Luckily, I listened to the hygienist her name was Holly, she really cared and educated me how if I don’t do certain things, I would lose my teeth it took a while for the information to sink in, but once it did, I followed through I see quite in improvement on self-esteem, and started to smile with confidence. This same experience also led me to reflect back, growing up in our community toothache is the worst nightmare without any kind of help, people experience it and suck it up. A couple of years went by after this experience, where I was working at Motorola. The engineering jobs were going through changes, most manufacturing was being transferred to China and India there were also many layoffs, and a lot of the senior engineers were not very happy and they would advise us the young engineers to consider something else. At this time, I considered dentistry just in the back of my mind but I never taken a single biology class in my life before so I almost ruled it out. My dentistry curiosity increased but again I tell myself I don’t have the background for it finally I decided to take some biology classes in the evenings just to test the waters, and I actually liked the biology and decided to take all the pre-requisite for dentistry. And the rest is history at age 32 I started dental school I was the oldest in my class.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@trusteddentalcare.com
- Website: https://trusteddentalcare.com/
- Instagram: @dr.Gebrehiwot
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrustedDentalCare/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73sO7YpVMvu_pzFfbAVsUw
Image Credits
Danny Fulgencio
