Brokaw interviewed Ndhlovu at a gala for Maloto, a not-for-profit organization based in Nyack, Rockland County. The group helps educate orphaned and impoverished children in Malawi, one of the smallest and poorest countries in Africa. Brokaw's wife, Meredith Brokaw, is a former board member of the group.
In 2015, Maloto helped Ndhlovu attend Taft School, a prep school in Watertown, Conn. After graduating, he chose Union because of its engineering program and picturesque campus. He was the first Malawian student at both Taft and Union. A Maloto donor covered his tuition at both schools.
He offers a saying about his improbable path in his native Chichewa language: Dziliko nkulinga utatosako. "It's there if you try to look for it."
Ndhlovu, 21, is a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering at Union. His father, Herbert Ndhlovu, died of an undiagnosed disease when the boy was 3 years old. His mother raised seven children by selling snack foods along the roadside. They settled in Mzuzu, a city of 130,000, and squatted in the shell of a home before a relative gave them a small parcel of land. They built a two-room, mud-brick hut by hand. Their mother cooks meals over an open fire. They roll out thin sleeping mats on the dirt floor at night. Their small hut has no electricity or indoor plumbing.
When it rains, the thatched roof leaks and wind drives rainwater through open windows, covered only with curtains.
The kids fetched water from a well and collected sticks for firewood. They washed clothes in a nearby river. When he turned 12, Walani joined his older brothers picking corn, known as maize. They toiled for 12-hour shifts under a broiling sun for the equivalent of $2 or $3. It was a hard life with few opportunities.
But Ndhlovu was exceptionally smart, especially in math and science. Local educators noticed his brilliant mind and tapped him for enrollment at the private Mzuzu International Academy, funded by Maloto — which means "dream" in Chichewa. He made the most of his chance.
"I was top of my class every year," he said.
Maloto also provides meals to children orphaned by Malawi's high rate of HIV/AIDS, which has driven life expectancy below 60 years old. An estimated 1 million of the country's 18 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. Malawi had the lowest gross national income per capita, about $250, according to a 2015 World Bank report.
At Union, Ndhlovu spends eight hours a week as a work-study student, doing computer work in the facilities department. He earns $9.50 per hour and sends the money home to his mother. It is enough for the family to live on and she was able to stop selling roadside snacks. His pay is more than his two sisters earn as school teachers in Mzuzu.
He calls his mother each Sunday on her solar-powered cellphone. "She misses me a lot," he said. With his first paycheck, he bought corrugated tin sheets to cover the thatched roof. He next plans to purchase windows for his family's hut.
"I try to make my family proud," he said.
More than a decade ago, photographer Steve Jacobs and I traveled to Malawi for a special report covering the impact of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, published in the Times Union in 2003. We saw many youths playing soccer with balls fashioned with tightly wound rags, of the sort Ndhlovu described from his childhood. We spoke with teens sitting on overturned soda cases. They opened bottles of orange soda and cola with their teeth because they didn't own a bottle opener. "I can open bottles with my teeth, too," Ndhlovu said.
His keen intellect and ambition forged a path out of Malawi's poverty. He plans to go back home after graduating from Union. His dream is to construct and operate a renewable energy power plant in Malawi. "My country has been struggling for a long time," he said. "I want to make it better. A lot of people have helped me along the way. I feel obligated to give back."
Paul Grondahl is the director of the New York State Writers Institute and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpaul@gmail.com.