When Ahmad and Mustafa Abdur-Rahim -- both '04s -- were eight years old, they left a predominantly white, affluent suburb of Boston for unfamiliar territory in Jamaica.
The twins, who have never been separated for more than a week, went to join their father who had migrated to Jamaica to start his own farm -- leaving behind the American governmental system that he did not support.
Ahmad and Mustafa had relocated before within North America, but now they made their biggest move ever to a country where people speak Patwa (also known as Jamaican Creole), where travelling three miles is a tough expedition on rocky dirt roads and where personal household telephones basically do not exist.
This relocation forced them to leave behind a familiar world, as well as their mother and the majority of their 17 siblings.
Now, let's step back. Ahmad and Mustafa are Muslim and they are black. They had never been part of the majority growing up.
"Pretty much all my life, I've been a minority," Mustafa described. "It affects how I react."
Ahmad said when he was about four years old, another child in their "very racist" Texas neighborhood left a scar on his forehead while shoving mice at his face with a broom. And even in Brookline, Mass. -- the home of Michael Dukakis and a well known
liberal community -- they said they faced a lack of acceptance.
But when they moved to their father's 40-acre Jamaican farm, they found new challenges.
Most people in Jamaica looked like them -- their mother was originally from Jamaica -- but they were in the distinct religious minority in a predominantly Christian nation where ethnic differences matter more than racial ones. Also, the twins were accustomed to the American values that they had been raised on -- notably free speech and individualism.
Ahmad said one of the most obvious differences between American schools and Jamaican schools are the methods of discipline.
"They stress discipline and manners even more than education," he said of the Jamaican schools. "You get caned, strapped, beaten for the simplest things."
He said some teachers abused their authority to beat students.
"They could go overboard," he said. "Or they'd beat you for petty things or personal things."
"They were trying to beat the American out of us," Ahmad said. "But you can't do that."
But he acknowledged that the teachers were not always in the wrong -- sometimes he and his brother were disrespectful in ways that are ignored for the most part in America but that are nonetheless wrong.
"The practice of manners helps you get through life," Ahmad said.
Mustafa said he once received four beatings in one week. He said that in the beginning of his Jamaican education he thought he would fight the system -- "I'll beat them back," he said half jokingly.
"I was used to the American system," he said. "I was fresh out of America."
He said when he was open with his feelings when talking to teachers, he got into a lot of trouble.
"I was never given a chance to explain myself," he said, adding that, "You did wrong, you get caned" was the administrative thought process.
Ahmad added that he and his brother were not used to the "demeaning" way teachers treated students. Teachers would tell them, "you're being stupid," or "go sit down, stupid boy."
School was not the only big change. The geography and their way of life were distinctly different too. They tended to the farm every day -- working in 80 degree weather -- caring for goats, cows, coconuts, oranges, papayas, peanuts, pumpkins, watermelons and mangos, among others.
In addition to farming and schooling, the brothers and their father continued upholding their religion.
"It's really hard to be a perfect Muslim," Ahmad said. "But we try."
After testing into Munro College, one of the most prestigious schools in the country, the brothers shakily launched into their secondary education. At first, the discipline issue was not a big problem for Ahmad and Mustafa.
"Americans are held in high esteem," Ahmad said, explaining that many Jamaicans have an inferiority complex to Americans -- especially white Americans. He said the teachers gave them leeway in the beginning because they were Americans, but it was not too long before they received the same discipline as native Jamaicans.
From the start, the brothers had problems because they were the first Muslim students to attend Munro, which was very Christian and very conservative.
"It was as much of a shock for us as it was for them," Ahmad said.
The first year they were at Munro, Ahmad and Mustafa boarded, but for the next four years they moved back home, taking the bus for two hours in the morning when the bus was going uphill and one-and-a-half hours in the afternoon when the ride was downhill.
They had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to get to school on time. And when they arrived home, they had to pray, cook, clean and work on the farm. Ahmad described himself and Mustafa as "farmhands and housemaids."
Building from rocky beginnings at Munro, the two brothers had peaks and valleys throughout their academic, social and athletic careers. At times, they were both standouts academically and athletically.
By their third year, Ahmad said he and his brother were starting to be accepted by their peers. At first Ahmad said this new hard-fought acceptance felt good, but he said it grew old.
"I didn't want to comply with Christian rules," he said.
For a variety of reasons, the brothers left Munro during their fifth year and spent time at the farm -- planting and tending crops, building a mosque and connecting with their religion.
"I felt as though I was learning who I was," Ahmad said of this period of his life.
After this experience, the brothers flew back up to the United States for good, reuniting with the part of their large family that had remained in the States. But it was not the end of transitions for them.
At Brookline High School, they now had to readjust to the American system that they had left for seven years. They said the schoolwork was more intense academically.
"Everything seemed almost foreign again," Ahmad said. "My perception of things changed a bit."
He said he learned that teachers appreciated students who treated them with the respect that had been instilled in him and his brother while in Jamaica.
Both twins were at an athletic advantage at Brookline High, since they were coming from a highly competitive environment.
They remembered in unison that when the returned to the United States, they again began to feel the effects of racial discrimination.
Ahmad described many of the teachers and students who surrounded him in Brookline as "subtly" and "unconsciously" racist. He said many were very surprised when he and his brother met academic success, revealing that they had not expected it of them.
Mustafa and Ahmad both attributed their success at Brookline High School to their experience in Jamaica.
"It made me powerful," Mustafa said.
"It gives you that determination," Ahmad said almost at the same time.
Mustafa said he has always been a fighter -- he described how he and his brother won fifth and sixth place in an adult-dominated triathlon in Jamaica, after training themselves and running barefoot on hot roads. He said the experience "developed character."
Both brothers said they are very happy to be at Dartmouth, where they plan to run on the track team and continue with their academics.
Mustafa said when he arrived for his Dartmouth Outing Club trip, he felt like he was in the distinct minority. But he said people were open, and he tried to adapt to them, but also to teach them about himself.
"I felt so good," he said of the experience. "You can help the community to grow."
