Doug Clark: Yemeni dentist and WSU grad on a journey to help his country

On the second day of June in 2011, a young man named Walid Al-Soneidar huddled inside his home in the Yemen city of Sanaa as bombs fell and bullets flew. With him were his parents and his sister.

Amid the tumult and terror, Walid, a fresh graduate from dental school, had one of those “aha” moments that can change the course of a life and perhaps even an entire country.

“When you are that close to death you know that you made it for a reason,” he said. “I know that life carries a higher meaning.”

Walid, 28, spoke those words to me a few days ago over coffee in a South Hill restaurant.

A reader, Pam Medley, thought I would enjoy meeting such a remarkable man, and she was right. From the minute we began talking it felt like getting together with an old friend.

Maybe it’s because Walid picked up much of his English by watching American TV shows like “Friends,” “How I Met Your Mother” and “House.”

“I’m now more sarcastic than ever,” said Walid with a wink about how his television choices have affected him.

He should patent the method. Walid’s English is impeccable, with just enough of a Middle Eastern trace to season it like a good stew.

The epiphany he had five years ago eventually brought him to Spokane, where he has earned a master’s degree in health policy and administration.

On Friday afternoon, the Fulbright scholar delivered a commencement speech to his fellow graduates of Washington State University’s Riverpoint campus.

“Coming from a country torn by war,” he told them at the Spokane Convention Center, “I find people’s love of life and their resilience quite astounding.

“Despite all that is happening, young men and women still celebrate success, fall in love, get married and hope for a better future for their children.

“Needless to say, as humans and despite our different attitudes, economic interests, political and/or religious views, we share our love of peace, justice and freedom.”

What Walid realized back when danger and death were so near was that he had a calling to help the greater good of Yemen.

While dentistry is a noble service, he explained to me during our coffee, it still largely amounts to helping one person at a time.

But “when you are involved in making public health decisions,” he added, “you can affect millions.”

Yemen is crying out for a man with such vision.

Once branded the land of milk and honey by the sons of Noah, the Yemen of today is a place of tribal strife, civil war and mass misery.

Ten million Yemeni children are in need of humanitarian aid, he said, adding that his country’s life expectancy is only 63.

“And that,” he said with a dash of that TV sarcasm, “is actually up from 20 years ago.”

Yemen has high rates of poverty and illiteracy. The fighting has displaced 2.4 million Yemenis.

Over here, however, most people would be hard-pressed to locate Yemen on a map.

“Many Uber drivers think Yemen is in Africa,” noted Walid with another chuckle.

It’s not. Yemen, 25 percent larger than California, is in the Arabian Peninsula, bordered to the north by Saudi Arabia, to the east by Oman, to the west by the Red Sea and the south by the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.

“I’m very hopeful that the next generation will make things better there,” he said.

At the end of the month, Walid will travel to North Carolina. He will begin his quest for a doctoral degree, which could take four to five years.

Meanwhile, Walid’s wife, Ahlam, and their 5-year-old daughter, Jena, wait patiently at home, some 8,000 miles away.

Such is the sacrifice of Walid Al-Soneidar.

“The human nature of resolve allows you to overcome challenges,” he said, adding with a laugh, “or as Spider-Man would say: ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ ”

Doug Clark is a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. He can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or by email at dougc@spokesman.com.