Somalian-born Ashland Middle School youth advocate, AHS coach delivered speech to Ashland High School’s Class of 2023

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

As a nomadic goat herder growing up in Somalia, Abdiaziz “Abdi” Guled and his brothers would protect their animals from prowling lions.

After herding animals while growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia, in East Africa, Abdi, as he is known to most, now guides and advocates for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students at Ashland Middle School (AMS). He aims to meet them where they are and address their own obstacles, a role he’s served in since 1997. 

Abdi, who students also know as Bubba, was the keynote speaker for the Ashland High School graduation ceremony on June 9. It was his second time making the speech since 1999.  

The 6-feet-5 advocate and coach exudes optimism and youthfulness.

“My job’s just empowering my kids wherever I can to help them out,” he told Ashland.news  while seated in the brightly colored “Cubs Corner”  outside his office on June 19.

Abdi said speaking to the class of 2023 was particularly special because he’s seen the students through much of their younger years, in sports and school.

“These kids, I’ve known them since they were 10 years old,” he said. “I know their parents and their relatives.”

And they know him, hearing many of the stories he’s shared about his journey navigating desert towns in Africa as a goat herder.

From the time he started working for Ashland School District, Abdi has wanted to spread a hopeful message to help every kid have a good day. Part of that is through sharing his own story.

Despite the tragedies he faced as a young child, including losing both his mother and father at a young age, he now hopes to inspire youth facing challenges of their own.

One of nine children, Abdi and his siblings were raised by their older brother, a police officer, who also took him to a school where he learned Italian from nuns. He still draws inspiration from it.

“Whatever you put in your head, it’s doable,” he said. 

Before he went off to school, Abdi recalls being a goat herder with his other brothers. They lived in the desert, milking goats, camels and cows. It was a landscape where, he said, “you can see what’s coming.”

“That’s the nomadic life that I lived,” Abdi said.

He tells the kids at AMS that kids growing up where he did in Somalia are never bored.

“Over there, you have to be watching your back all the time,” Abdi said. 

He slept on the floor or the ground. There was no bed.

“You walk all day, you never know if you’re going to get water,” Abdi said.

“When you run out of grass (for the goats) you go somewhere else,” he said. “You live with those animals.”

He recalls one time when he and his brothers had moved into an area where, unbeknownst to them, lions made their home.

“When the sun went down, we heard the lions roar,” he said. 

He slept in between two of his brothers that night and, as expected, lions moved in after they all fell asleep.

They awoke to find one of their goats had been taken and lion-sized footprints not far where Abdi had been sleeping.

Abdi also described a time when, as a young boy, he got separated from his brothers and became lost. Another tribe found him and gave him milk to drink. There was no way to locate his family, so he thought.

A man soon walked by and told the family he was missing a camel.

The family asked him to look at Abdi to see if he could identify him as anyone he knew. And it was a good thing, too, because the individual was Abdi’s brother.

“A lot of close calls for me,” Abdi said.

Being a goat herder taught him many lessons.

Ultimately, he tells the kids, “Be yourself all the time.” He emphasizes living life to the fullest.

When his oldest brother took him to go to school in a bigger city, it was a pathway to a better life — but first, it was simply his first car ride, and what a thrill it was for him.

“The car moved so fast I thought the trees were running,” Abdi said.

Due to his work, Abdi’s brother was often transferred to different towns, taking the siblings in tow. Abdi remembers Jilib in particular as a memorable place to attend school. 

Elephants were prevalent in the town. One day, when he thinks he was in third grade, Abdi said he and his fellow classmates returned to school to find it had been destroyed by an elephant who had tried to scratch his back and, in so doing, destroyed their classroom.

He tells AMS kids, they might have “snow days,” but he had days where elephants ended school for several days until a new classroom could be built.

“I’m just trying to show them … just what’s out there,” he said.

For more than 25 years now, Abdi has been a motivational figure at AMS. Students know they can come to him with any issues.

He urges them to be the best they can be, no matter if they are playing basketball or living an ordinary day.

“If you’re a goat herder, be the best goat herder you can,” he said. “The future has so (many) unpredictable things. You have to do your best and look forward to what comes next, because you don’t know. I never thought I’d be here and playing basketball and talking with you guys, but that’s how it goes.”

Sports are a big way he engages the kids as well, and it’s something that was key for him in his own life. He coaches soccer at Ashland High School as well as basketball at AMS, and hurdles.

Abdi started to play sports in his youth, especially soccer (he played goalkeeper) and basketball (center), which ended up becoming a path to a better life.

Abdi played on the Somali National Basketball team. He described the opportunity to travel to the country of Jordan, his first time on a plane and, eventually, his first time on an escalator.

“They had to turn off the dang thing so we could use the stairs,” he said.

While playing abroad, Abdi came into contact with former Southern Oregon University basketball coach Pete Barry.

Barry agreed to find a way to pay his tuition if Abdi could pay for his ticket and come play at SOU. Abdi agreed.

After Abdi spent a couple days in New York City, which he desperately wanted to see, Barry picked him up from what is now the Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport. It was Abdi’s first time on the West Coast.

The city immediately seemed too big for him, but after seeing Ashland’s Grizzly Peak and the cows in a nearby pasture, he knew he was home. The agriculture in the region reminded him of Somalia.

He stayed in the dorms at Forrest Hall and played for the Raiders under coach Barry.

He tells how, while his driver’s license may say he is 62 years old, he had no official birth certificate in Somalia.

“The first time I had to deal with the date was coming to America,” he said.

He chose Dec. 31, 1960, got a passport and a work permit and kept on moving forward.

He later met his wife, Mary, in longtime Ashland school district teacher Candy Gregos’ sixth grade classroom. 

The ties between Ashland and Somalia were already strong for Mary before meeting Abdi. 

Her grandfather was a civil engineer in Somalia. So when it came time for Mary’s daughter to do a report on an African country, Somalia was an easy pick. At that time, Gregos connected Mary’s daughter with Abdi, who interviewed him and eventually brought him to the classroom for the report.

Mary attended. Abdi and Mary married in 1992.

“This life —  it has so many amazing things happening,” Abdi said. “Open up and just see where it takes you.”

In an interview with Ashland.news, Gregos recalled the chance meeting and how much she admires Abdi and what he’s brought to Ashland School District.

“If he had not (emigrated) to the U.S., and he had not been allowed in, it would have been a huge loss because he has offered so much to the community,” Gregos said.

As a student leadership advisor, advocate and coach, sharing his story of trials and tribulations growing up in Somalia and the triumph of emigrating to the United States with students helps them realize they, too, can realize their own potential. 

But much of his role is to “be someone they can count on,” especially when the students face ever-increasing obstacles, such as bullying, judgment and all kinds of issues related to their phones and technology.

“All I do, I’m not kidding, it’s like goat herding,” he said. “Meet their needs, see what they want, and take care of them.

“If you always put a smile on your face, and you always try to help them up, they will not forget that.”

Always wearing a smile himself, Abdi talked joyfully with a reporter and photographer as he walked out to the parking lot of the school.

Once in his car while driving past, he said with a laugh, “The trees are still running!”

Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news.

June 26 update: Spelling of Abdi’s given name was Guleid, but he changed it to Guled in 1992, the year he married his wife, Mary.