Earlier today I found out through Facebook’s birthday notification that it was my friend Boakai’s birthday. I went to his wall and was shocked to find out that he is no longer with us. So I really want to take a few minutes to write a few things about my old pal. Most of the friends I met in Shanghai means a lot to me, especially the ones who have been a friend of mine right from the beginning. I met Boakai at the Beijing train station headed to Shanghai. I didn’t know him well at the time, but I did figure out that he was extremely short-tempered, especially with the staring Chinese locals.
There were 6 of us who made that trip. 5 of us from Africa, and then Jagaa from Mongolia. I lost touch with the 2 other guys: Luc who taught me how to say “daxue” (university) in Mandarin, and another guy who didn’t even care to socialize…he was suffering from serious depression I think. Hasina from Madagascar ended up in the same school as me, but because she was a francophone who couldn’t speak much English and my French is horrible we eventually found other friends to hang out with and our friendship faded away. Although language barriers weren’t strong enough to separate Jagaa and I who eventually started speaking Mandarin to each other. Over the years, it was just Jagaa, Boakai from Liberia and I. Jagaa and Boakai’s university was very close (Jagaa being at Fudan and Boakai being at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics).
During the first year, we all just stayed in touch through MSN and then mobile. We were all trying to adapt to the foreign environment that was Shanghai so we were all making other friends. After the first year, Boakai finally came by to pay me a visit at my university. We kept in touch and during one phone conversation we actually had an argument that kept us from speaking to each other for about a year. That must have been some time around 2006 I think. Eventually, we became friends again, and we continued this friendship even until he went back to his country in 2008. I honestly can’t remember the last time I met Boakai. The last time I remember hanging out with him was when we went clubbing with a few of my Chinese friends. Jagaa was there too. After that he had his masters’ thesis to complete so we didn’t want to disturb him.
Boakai was hilarious. Sometimes I didn’t get his sense of humour, but when I did it was funny. It’s heart breaking in way because he spoke of his family back home, people who were number one in his life and as if they haven’t spent enough time apart, he had to be taken away from them yet again. RIP Boakai…and just for today, happy birthday. 
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WYSIWYG! I'm a simple person trying to live the simplest life possible - it seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve! I'm an internet enthusiast and I've been a webmaster since early 2007. I like: blogging, developing sites using open source software, social media, computer games, '80s music, comedy & horror, animals, crunching on M&Ms peanut and Smarties!
