From Refugee Child to Global Citizen

Billy Ndizeye
Returning to South Africa in 2025 at age 26.

Early Journeys
I knew what international travel was before I could truly understand it. By the age of seven, I had crossed continents more times than I could count, moving from Mozambique to South Africa and then beyond. But returning to my birthplace after twenty-two years revealed that my American identity isn't separate from my international roots but fundamentally enriched by them—showing that true global citizenship emerges not from observing different cultures, but from the deep personal transformations that occur when we fully immerse ourselves in them.

As I spent those days exploring the city with my father, I began to see the subtle ways that community and connection formed the foundation of everyday life. It wasn't just about family history; it was about how trust and relationships were woven into the fabric of daily routines.

Market as Classroom
One particular morning in Pretoria brought this into sharp focus. I followed my father through the predawn markets as he stocked up for his restaurant. While in America, the idea of entrepreneurship often symbolizes individual ambition, here I witnessed business ownership deeply woven into community responsibility.

What struck me wasn't just the scale of the work—sixty bags of potatoes before sunrise—but the way he moved through that space like a conductor. He shifted seamlessly between Kinshasa Lingala, Swahili, and Kinyarwandan, greeting vendors in the language that best honored their connection.

It looked ordinary, but to me it wasn't. Each exchange carried history, trust, and the unspoken knowledge that survival had always been a collective act. In watching him, I realized how differently Americans are taught to think about systems: efficiency as speed, independence as virtue, transactions as impersonal. But in this market, efficiency meant trust; independence meant belonging to a network that held you accountable; and every transaction was a relationship.

American Identity, Expanded
That morning reframed my American identity. To return home from a place like this is to see America differently—not as a finished product, but as one answer among many. When you've seen other ways of organizing work, family, and governance, you stop treating your own systems as inevitable. You start asking harder questions: How could democracy be more participatory? How could community be less transactional? How could efficiency include dignity?

Not everyone will return to their birthplace after twenty-two years, but every student who steps into another culture has the chance to be changed in the same way—to learn that their own country is not the world, that their way is not the only way. Programs like Chaalo don't make people less American. They make them more thoughtful Americans—citizens capable of bringing global lessons back into local life.

The Foundation of Responsibility
This experience shifted my perspective on two levels. On a personal level, it showed me that trust and relationship-building are the heart of any true community. My father wasn't just running a business; he was a pillar of a network where everyone had a role and everyone mattered. On a broader level, it made me see that global citizenship is about understanding how interconnected we all are. It's about recognizing that in many parts of the world, life and work are inseparable from community and family, and that relationships are the foundation of how people thrive together.

Beyond Tourism
I never considered travel optional. It was survival, then rediscovery. But the result is the same as it can be for anyone who truly engages with the world: a more expansive identity, rooted in home but enriched by elsewhere.

This journey back to South Africa taught me that being a global citizen isn't just about understanding different cultures from a distance; it's about immersing yourself in them and letting those experiences reshape how you see your own role in the world. It's about realizing that every place has something to teach us about being better, more engaged citizens of a shared planet.

That's the education international travel provides: not escape from responsibility, but deeper engagement with it. Because when you travel with purpose, you don’t just come back with photos, you come back with frameworks for building a more thoughtful America, and a more connected world.