At the Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA located a mere two blocks away from ASU’s Downtown campus, the story of a man who came to America to start a better life and earn an education is hidden.
On the surface, Johannes Katoko is a 29-year-old YMCA employee who supervises kids, drives the shuttle bus that brings intramural teams to and from events, and leads the teen center as a mediator and facilitator. Most people just know him simply as “Kay,” the cool, foreign guy who works at the YMCA and plays pickup basketball games in the gym. However, there is much more to his story.
After being asked to point out his homeland of Namibia on the map, Kay enthusiastically described how the young country used to be part of South Africa until gaining independence in 1990.
One can see the love and respect for his country in his eyes. That love becomes more and more obvious the more he shares his story.
Kay left his home, his job and his lucrative investments in Namibia to come to America three years ago. As hard as it was to leave home, Kay said the advantages of coming to the United States were too numerous to ignore.
“I was looking for a better life. There are more opportunities here than back home, all you need to be successful is right there for you,” he said. “People mostly mind their own business here, and as long as you’re happy and as long as you’re not hurting anybody, you’re cool.”
Moving from a country halfway across the world has posed challenges for Kay, too. Learning a new language, Kay said, has been no easy task.
“I started learning English a long time ago, but I never really started using it until I came here,” he said. “I’m always scared of saying something inappropriate because sometimes I say something mean and I don’t know it, and then I seem even meaner because I’m so enthusiastic about it.”
After living in Namibia for 26 years, where the unemployment rate is more than 50 percent, one would think that Kay’s attitude would be much more negative. Add in the fact that Kay said he enjoyed life back home more than life in the United States and Kay’s evident joy and fervor for life makes even less sense.
In Namibia, Kay had a job with Johns Hopkins University as a regional coordinator, a job he says paid about five times what he is making working for the YMCA.
“Life back home was good,” he said. “I went to school, I had a great job, I lived with my cousin, I played basketball and soccer with my friends, and I was into my life and my community there. Life was a lot better back home, but this is where the opportunities are.”
Kay said the belief that education can make a difference might be one root of his happiness. As a student at Phoenix College, Kay is working toward earning his bachelor’s degree in economics within the next two years so that he can return to Namibia, get a good job and help his hometown.
“If you are good at understanding the economy, you will be able to find a good job back home,” Kay said. “My main mission is to go back home. They need my services there more than here. Here is way far away from the rest of everything I know, but back home, you will see dogs and people in the streets. I hate seeing homelessness, whether it’s people, or a dog or a cat or whatever; I want to help them all but there’s no way that I can. It disturbs me and I don’t like it.”
Kay completed an education in business back home, which did not transfer to the United States. Kay said without an American component to his education, he will be hard-pressed to find a job back home since unemployment is so high.
“Getting a job in my country is not easy,” he said. “You can get your qualifications and your education, but who’s going to hire you? I have money back home so I can go there and still be making money, but I want to help people there.”
For now, Kay is balancing earning his degree and working at the YMCA, where he said he enjoys the benefits of being able to play basketball every day.
“I miss soccer, I was better at that, but here I can play basketball every single day,” Kay said. “As a mediator, the kids I’m watching will go up there and play, and I’ll go up just to make sure they’re playing nice and I’ll end up playing. It makes me feel like I can come here and do what I like and get paid for it. I love it.”
Kay said his goal of going back home is not his number one priority, but that completing the objectives in front of him now will get him there.
“I miss my old life, but there are more important things that come first now,” Kay said. “As I’m growing, I’m realizing that soccer and other things that used to be a big part of my life are not for me anymore. School comes first now because I know I can still have fun, and I know that concentrating on school will get me to where I want to be.”
Contact the reporter at gbourgue@asu.edu
