The KIPP students who graduated from college were not the academic stars but the workhorses, the ones who plugged away at problems and resolved to do better.
Somehow, the stories of their ancestors and relatives, how they overcame obstacles and endured hardship, seem to infuse children with confidence and courage and grit.
For those who supported the national government, there were good reasons to hope for success. The country had great natural resources. And its people were honest and hard-working.
The frame of the white man, judging by such parts as were not concealed by his clothes, was like that of one who had known hardships and exertion from his earliest youth.