Adopted child

Black, crew cut

Dark brown. He is blind, but, oddly enough, his eyes only have the slightest white color to them. His eyes are pretty clear, though they are unfocused because of his blindness.

Anything simple such as jeans and a tee shirt. He isn't picky about what he wears because he is blind.

Being with friends, playing Showdown (blind version of ping-pong, the ball is full of beads), pets, dogs, cats (though he's allergic to them), when people are accepting of him, writing poems (he says them into an audio recorder), listening to any kind of music

Being teased/rejected because he's blind, being teased/rejected because he's black, being treated like he's helpless, being called Rudolph

Rudo is one of the absolute sweetest guys ever. He is extremely kind and is never mean to anyone. Even when he is teased because he is black, or because he is blind, he will not say anything rude back. He silently takes all that is thrown at him, though it does make him very depressed and it shows. He is mistreated by many, and misunderstood. Unlike many blind people, he is very embarrassed that he is blind, but that is only because people tease him about it. He is proud of being black and African.

Rudo is often called by his middle name, Zuberi, by his friends. He has few friends, but he has an uncanny ability to know if someone is a good friend or not just by talking to them. He is someone that you cannot lie to, because he will know. He sees everyone for who they truly are, and loves the saying "somethings you can't see with your eyes, only your heart."

Though he is kind and caring, he is skeptical of everyone. He just assumes that everyone is going to tease him or be mean to him, because most do and are. Once he sees that you are a friend instead of a foe, he will be extremely loyal and helpful and never let you down.

He has only been in a relationship with two girls, who both turned out to be jerks, so the relationships were short lived. He is undying loyal to any girl he loves.

He is also very intelligent, but others seem to think he's stupid.

Rudo was born bind in Uganda Africa, and lived there for quite a while. His parents both died of AIDS when he was only two. He, along with his four year older brother, was taken to an orphanage. The two were there for five years, until the shelter was closed down when the owners were killed by a random murder.

The two boys lived out on the streets. The 11 year old brother of Rudo, Tendaji, cared for his seven year old little brother. He went to work for a local farmer, doing many hard chores. Rudo helped as much as he could too. Together, they earned enough money to buy enough food to survive, but only hardly. They had only one set of clothes each, no home, and were both very thin.

Rudo was no longer able to help a few months later, as he came down with malaria. At first, it wasn't too bad, as many children in Uganda can survive alright without treatment, since they are somewhat immune to it. The disease got worse, and soon Rudo was deathly ill. Tendaji worked ever harder to try and get money for something, anything, that would help. He was told there wasn't much he could do unless he could afford medicine.

The poor 11 year old worked almost constantly, and was able to avoid more food and a single thin blanket for his brother. He ate even less than he had before so that Rudo could have more.

Some how, by what many would call a miracle, due to how close to death Rudo was, he pulled through it. He wasn't getting better, but wasn't really getting worse. A doctor who had an extremely kind heart took the child to his small practice and gave him medicines to help. Little Tendaji gave the doctor all the money he had left in payment, but the doctor refused to take it. Tendaji insisted, so the doctor took it. To make up for taking the poor boys' money, the doctor gave the two a place to stay and took care of them as if they were his own children. The doctor was pretty poor as well, but he had enough that they could get through. Tendaji continued to work at the farm and gave the money to the doctor in payment.

Not more than a few weeks after Rudo's recovery, the doctor was killed in a random bombing. Again, the two children lived on their streets.

When Rudo was 11, his brother being 15, another tragedy happened. Tendaji was kidnapped, leaving Rudo to live alone, blind, poor, and only a child. He survived mostly on garbage that the rich threw out, insects, and creek water.

The first piece of good news came when the boy was 15. An American couple came over to Uganda and saw the poor boy lying on the hard, dusty, cold ground in nothing but a ragged pair of shorts, asleep. They gently woke him and discovered that he was also blind. Having pity on him, they adopted him and got permission from the US government to take him back to USA after he was given a check up for diseases.

The couple knew they weren't really fit to care for him, since they traveled around, due to the husband being in the military. So, they took him to an orphanage. Though he never received an education in Uganda, the orphanage coached him and he quickly caught up to the grade he would be age-wise. They found he was extremely intelligent.

No one paid Rudo any attention at the orphanage it seemed. When he was 16 (shortly before he turned 17), he was finally noticed and adopted by another family. They soon found it was too hard for them to take care of a blind teen, and took him back to the orphanage. In another two weeks time, the Martin family adopted him, and he has been with them now for about three months. He doesn't seem to be happy with his family only because he's afraid that they don't like him and that he won't be with them long. Because of that, he doesn't trust them and is cold to them.

None, but he wants a seeing eye dog

He has a thick accent, and can speak Zulu, Shona, Swahili, and English.

Not needed

None