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I grew up in southern Sudan, one of nine children. Our life was simple but very happy.

I grew up in Sudan and Kenya, and lived in both the rural and urban centers of both countries throughout my life.

I grew up in a small town in Sudan. There weren't many cars, so we did things in the countryside near where we lived.

I have an amazing family. I was raised in a wonderful mid-west family.

From 1971 to 1993, my family lived in a number of African countries, including Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Nigeria, as well as Uganda itself.

Leaving southern Sudan as a child was terrifying. It was 1985, and my family and I were trying to escape to Khartoum, the capital in the North, to safety.

When I was young, I grew up in a family of working-class people. Not just my parents, but my extended family, as well.

I left Sudan when I was 25 or 26 years old. If I had stayed, I would never have ended up being an entrepreneur. You can have the qualities, but if you don't have the environment, you just wither away. It's like a fish: take it out of water, it will not survive.

I was not from a middle-class family at all. I did not have middle-class possessions and what have you. But I had middle-class parents who gave me what was needed to survive in society.