Refugee hasn't let losing an arm slow him down, says Ashley Campbell
KEY POINTS:
There is something inspirational about the work ethic of people who grew up knowing that if they didn't take care of themselves, no one else would.
You can see it in action at the Manurewa Aquatic Centre.
Peter Akich, 37, has just landed a job
as a permanent lifeguard at the centre, having impressed management so much during a three-month contract over summer that they knew they wanted him to stay.
So what? Well, just listen to where he came from.
Born in the African country of Sudan, Peter never went to school as a child. But his country was divided by bitter fighting between the Muslim, ethnically Arabic north, and the Christian, ethnically African south.
At 15, fired up by bad treatment of his people, Peter went to Ethiopia to train as a soldier for the Sudan People's Liberation Army - the fighting force of the south.
"When I finished training, I was given a gun straight away, and I went and fought."
People in New Zealand might be horrified at the thought of a 15-year-old soldier but, as Peter says, things are different in Sudan.
"In this country it is not accepted, but in my country it is."
He continued fighting for seven years, admitting that during that time he saw some horrible things and many dead people, "some of them dying of hunger, some of them were killed".
But his fighting days came to an abrupt end. One day, during a battle on the front line, his left arm was seriously injured. Peter lay in the bush for 12 hours before he could be taken over the border to a hospital in Kenya.
Doctors gave him a choice: lose your arm or lose your life. "The best thing I could do was to save my life." His left arm was amputated.
And so, in his early 20s, he ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya, where he stayed for 12 years. But he didn't just sit around, waiting for someone to rescue him - he went to school.
Akich completed eight years of primary school and two years of secondary school in that refugee camp, and then was given the opportunity of a lifetime - he came to New Zealand on a refugee resettlement programme.
He describes the day he arrived with his older sister and her four children (his mother and two other siblings are still in Sudan) with some humour. It was Guy Fawke's day three years ago and, when night fell, fireworks started going off everywhere. All Akich could hear was explosions.
"I was surprised in New Zealand there was a lot of fighting. I was very scared."
Once he understood what was going on, he no longer was. He spent a month at the Mangere refugee centre, before moving out into the community - and again going to school to improve his English.
Next stop, a 20-week training course at the Mangere Corporate Academy Group that prepares the long-term unemployed for Manukau Leisure Centre's three-week training programme.
His attitude caught the eye of centre manager Craig Rouse straight away. "He wanted to work, he wanted a job."
And that work ethic continued when he was employed for three months over summer.
"Through the summer, you couldn't ask for a more committed staff member - to the extent that he was often in an hour early and he's still in an hour early."
You'd think his colleagues would have a word with him about that. But it's obvious from the way Akich interacts with everyone that, rather than his colleagues viewing his enthusiasm with any suspicion, he's a much-liked member of the team.
"Talk to anyone about Peter and they say he's friendly, he's there to help in any way he can," says Rouse.
And Akich likes it like that - it reminds him of the camaraderie of the military life. "In the military, if you don't work together as a team, you might not achieve your goal," he says.
As Rouse explains, Akich hasn't let his disability stop him from doing what he wants.
To gain his lifeguard qualifications, he had to, among other things, swim 200m freestyle and carry out two rescues - one simulating a heart attack in the water, the other simulating a spinal injury.
"He can swim better than some able-bodied people," says Rouse.
He's also had to master English well enough to be able to pass health and safety and customer service qualifications.
Akich likes life in New Zealand - "my life is right here" - and loves his job. "I don't think I will ever leave it, I enjoy it."
Indeed, he enjoys it so much he would only aspire to the boss's job "as long as I can work in the pool and still be a lifeguard".
One thing does perplex him about life here - the people he sees out on the street, hanging around without any work to do.
"They don't take care of themselves. They sleep on the road. I ask myself why," he says.
"New Zealand has got a lot of factories, you can go and work, but there are a lot of people who don't commit themselves to supporting themselves. Some of these people - they've got two hands.
"You can go and apply for a job and you can get a job. These kind of people - they depend on the Government."
It's the sort of independent, can-do spirit that Rouse believes many people can learn from.
"He shows that there's no such word as 'can't'. With a little bit of effort, anything's possible, no matter what your disability or position in life is."
