非洲男孩的太空夢

At age seven， Gideon Gidori knew exactly what he wanted to be： a spaceship pilot.

The only thing was， he was living in a tiny Tanzanian village where schools only went through grade six and books about space were scarce.

But that didnt stop him. Now 15， Gidori is determined to become Tanzanias very first astronaut.

Gidori has always been fascinated with the stars and spent his boyhood nights staring at the clear skies above his hometown. “I think there is much more up there than there is down here， and I want to know what that is，” he says. When he becomes an astronaut， he hopes his first stop will be the moon—one of Jupiters moons， that is.

“They say that on Europa， theres life，”he says. “I want to be part of the crew that investigates it.”

With the help of Epic Change， his dream isnt just wishful thinking. The nonprofit， which raises money for education and technology， gave him a scholarship to study in the U.S. This May， Gidori completed his first year of flight-training school at Florida Air Academy.

To finance his next school year， hes using the allure of potato salad. Tanzanian astronaut potato salad， to be exact.

Inspired by the entrepreneur who raised more than $60，000 to make potato salad on Kickstarter， Gidori and his host family—Epic Change co-founders Sanjay Patel and Stacey Monk—are using the online platform to raise $35，000 to cover tuition and fees for next year. On their Kickstarter page， the trio has promised to throw the “greatest potato salad party in Tanzanian history” the day Gidori lifts off into space for the first time.

And the Tanzanian teen means it； he already has an experimental recipe in the works. As of July 22nd， a little more than $12，000 has been raised on Kickstarter and Rally.org.

Patel says Gidori was a precocious kid， even when they first met in 2007.

He did well at school， despite limited resources. Because there was only one textbook for the entire class， lessons often consisted of copying notes from the board and memorizing them. Outside of school， Gidori says he went from library to library， reading the few books they had on space， science and astronauts.

He also learned how to be resourceful. Take soccer， for example. “Back at home， if you didnt have a ball， you would literally take plastic bags， paper and socks to make one，” he says. “Nothing would stop them from playing.”

And nothing will stop him from pursuing his goal. “Just watching him grow， I have no doubt in my mind that thats what hes going to be，” Patel says.

Last summer， Monk pulled Gidori out of class and delivered the piece of news that put him a giant leap closer to Jupiters moon. Florida Air Academy had accepted him， and Epic Change had awarded him a scholarship to cover part of his costs.

“It was so amazing that I couldnt believe it for a second，” Gidori says. “But it was real.”

Without a visa， he wouldnt be able to go. And he only had a month to get one. He rode a bus for eight hours to reach the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam. “We got his visa maybe two or three days before he had to report to school，” Monk says.

Money was another issue； Patel and Monk still had to figure out a way to cover the rest of the tuition. In the end， the pair used what would have been their own salary to pay Gidoris school fees.

By fall， Gidori had left a world where textbooks were rare and entered an environment where every student had to have an iPad—and expectations were high.

His limited English meant he had to keep his iPad and notebook nearby， looking up words he didnt know and writing down the definitions.

Gidori learned the hard way that there were no more easy As. In Tanzania， 81 was a top grade. He got a 79 on a biology test at the academy and was told that wasnt good enough. When Monk told him he needed at least a 90， he insisted he couldnt do it.

“He would say， ‘I cant read a novel. Thats a lot of English. Ive never done that before，” says Monk， “or， ‘I cant get an A on my biology test.”

But sure enough， Gidori earned straight As by the end of the year. When he felt discouraged， hed think of those whove supported him： “My country， my continent， my family and friends—I dont want to disappoint them. I want to make them proud.”

And Gidori is serious about potato salad. He was reluctant to say what was in his recipe， but after a little prodding， he gave up one secret ingredient—a special spice made from Tanzanian ginger. If youre as curious as I am about the taste， hes willing to trade his experimental recipe for a bit of support.

七歲的時候，吉迪恩·吉多里就已經知道自己日后的職業：成為一名太空船飛行員。

唯一的問題是，他生活在坦桑尼亞的一個小村子里，學校只能上到六年級，而且關于太空的書籍十分缺乏。

但這些都無法阻礙他。現在已經15歲的吉多里決心要成為坦桑尼亞的第一名宇航員。

吉多里一直對星星很著迷。童年時，他每晚都會看著家鄉上空那片清澈的星空。“我想，天上的東西比地上的多得多，我想知道它們是什么，”他說。等他成為宇航員以后，他希望自己的第一站是衛星——木星的其中一顆衛星。

“他們說在木衛二上存在生命，”他說。“我想成為研究木衛二的成員之一。”

在“巨變”這個為教育和技術提供籌款的非營利機構的幫助下，他的夢想并非癡心妄想。該機構為他提供了一筆到美國學習的獎學金。今年5月，吉多里在佛羅里達空軍學校完成了飛行訓練學校的第一年學習。

為了籌集下一年的學費，他使出了土豆沙拉的誘惑。確切地說，是坦桑尼亞宇航員做的土豆沙拉。

Kickstarter網站上某企業家以制作土豆沙拉的名義籌得超過6萬美元，受此啟發，吉多里和他的寄宿家庭——“巨變”的聯合創辦人桑杰·帕特爾和史黛絲·蒙克——正在用網上平臺籌集3.5萬美元，用以支付明年的學雜費。在他們的Kickstarter網頁上，三人承諾，在吉多里第一次飛進太空的那天，他們將舉行“坦桑尼亞歷史上最大型的土豆沙拉派對”。

這位坦桑尼亞少年可不是鬧著玩的；他已經在準備一份試驗配方。截至7月22日，Kickstarter和Rally.org網站上的捐款已經超過1.2萬美元。

帕特爾說，早在他們2007年第一次見面的時候，他就知道吉多里少年老成。

盡管資源有限，但他在學校的成績不錯。由于整個班只有一本課本，課程往往只是抄黑板上的筆記，以及背下它們。在學校以外，吉多里說他走遍了各個圖書館，閱讀僅有的關于太空、科學和宇航員方面的書籍。

他也學會了如何充分利用資源。以足球為例，“在家鄉，如果沒有球，你真的會用膠袋、紙和襪子做一個，”他說。“沒有什么可以阻止他們玩樂。”

同樣，沒有什么可以阻止他追求自己的目標。“看著他成長，我堅信他會成功的，”帕特爾說。

去年夏天，蒙克將吉多里從教室里拉了出來，帶給他那則大幅拉近他與木星衛星距離的消息：佛羅里達空軍學校錄取了他，“巨變”則獎給他一筆獎學金，讓他得以支付一部分開銷。

“真是太棒了，我一開始都不敢相信，”吉多里說。“然而那是真的。”

沒有簽證，他無法去美國，而他只有一個月時間去獲得簽證。他坐了8小時的公交車到達位于（首都）達累斯薩拉姆的美國大使館。“我們可能是在距離其學校最后報到日的前兩三天才拿到他的簽證的，”蒙克說。

資金是另一個問題；帕特爾和蒙克還要想辦法籌集余下的學費。最后，兩人用了原本作為自己工資的那筆錢為吉多里支付了學費。

到了秋季，吉多里已經離開了那個課本匱乏的世界，進入了每個學生都必須有一臺iPad的環境——而且人們對學生的要求也相當高。

吉多里有限的英語意味著他不得不把iPad和筆記本帶在身邊，隨時查找不懂的生詞，并記下詞意。

吉多里經過一番艱辛才了解到，現在要拿到A不再那么容易了。在坦桑尼亞，81分已經是高分。他在（美國）學校的一次生物測驗中得了79分，卻被告知不夠好。當蒙克說他至少要拿一個90分時，吉多里堅持說自己無法做到。

“他會說：‘我讀不了小說，太多英文了，我之前從未做過，”蒙克說，“或者（他會說）‘我無法在生物測驗中考到A。”

然而不出所料，吉多里在學年末拿了全A。感到氣餒時，他會想到那些曾經支持自己的人：“我的祖國，我的大陸，我的親朋好友——我不想令他們失望，我想讓他們為我感到自豪。”

而吉多里對土豆沙拉也是認真的。他不太想談論自己的配方，但在一番催促之下，他終于透漏了一個秘密配料——一種由坦桑尼亞生姜制成的特制辛香料。如果你和我一樣對這個沙拉的味道很好奇，吉多里很愿意用他的試驗配方換取一點支持。