Divin Nduwamahoro arrived in the United States in September. He and his family had lived in a refugee camp in Tanzania for 11 years prior to receiving approval to come to America.

The first thing Divin Nduwamahoro noticed about America was all the cars.

Meet Divin Nduwamahoro.

He enrolled at Dorman High School after arriving in Spartanburg in September and just graduated.

Nduwamahoro is like many 18-year-olds — he goes to school, has an after-school job and enjoys hanging out with a few friends. But until September 2015, Nduwamahoro was living in a refugee camp in Tanzania.

Divin’s Journey is a three-day series that tells the story of how Nduwamahoro got to where he is today. This is part one.

It’s not that cars were a rare sight in Africa, where he had spent the first 18 years of his life. He just had never been in a place where vehicles seemed to outnumber people.

It was the first of many cultural adjustments for Nduwamahoro after he arrived in the United States in September with his father and younger brother.

For 11 years, the family had lived in a refugee camp in Tanzania, where they had ended up after fleeing Burundi in 2001, when Nduwamahoro was 4. They applied for the United States Refugee Admissions Program after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees determined the family was qualified for resettlement.

Nduwamahoro said it seemed unreal when they learned last year they had finally been approved.

“When I heard I was coming to America, I said, ‘Oh, America? I don’t believe it. That’s not true,’” Nduwamahoro said. “Even the day in New York, I said, ‘I’m not sure if I’m not somewhere sleeping and dreaming. I’m not sure if this is really happening. I’ll be sure tomorrow.’ I still don’t believe it. I’ll believe it next month.”

Nduwamahoro and his family are among the 112 refugees who World Relief, an organization that resettles refugees, has helped bring to the Upstate since last May. Of the 112, 37 are children or teenagers. Nduwamahoro is the first World Relief refugee to graduate from high school, according to Jason Lee, the organization’s local director.

While refugee resettlement has been a controversial issue, Lee said the threats people are escaping are real. Nduwamahoro is a Hutu, and his family fled an ethnic conflict in Burundi that claimed an estimated 300,000 lives. Violent political clashes continue in the country, with people seeking refuge in neighboring countries such as Tanzania and Rwanda.

Nduwamahoro spent most of his childhood in the refugee camp in Tanzania. He made many friends, and spent most of his time with eight or nine other boys close to his age. Nduwamahoro said they would pass the time playing soccer, talking to each other or playing music.

Two of the boys played drums, two played the piano, two played guitar and Nduwamahoro sang. He said the boys even recorded a song.

Conversations often centered around soccer or African politics, Nduwamahoro said.

While he knew coming to the United States was “a way to make your dreams come true,” Nduwamahoro said it was tough to leave behind friends he’d known most of his life.

“I really felt bad leaving someone you’ve seen for 13 years — since you were a kid,” Nduwamahoro said. “You shared everything, and then said, ‘Hey, I’m leaving. I’m going to America.’ Somewhere he’s not expecting to come today or tomorrow, and it’s many miles away. It’s something that could make someone feel bad.”

But, he said, “I really think that if you want to get something bigger, you have to make a big sacrifice.”

Nduwamahoro’s face broke into a wide smile as he recalled his first day in America. The family landed in New York City, where they stayed for three days. Nduwamahoro was eager to get a look a city he had heard so much about. But he worried about getting lost in such a big, unfamiliar place. Then he hit upon a solution.

Before embarking on his explorations, he stopped by the hotel office and asked for two boxes of bandages. Every time he came to a crosswalk or a place where he needed to turn, he placed a bandage X on the spot, so he would be able to find his way back.

New york City

“I’m still wondering … I’m sure there is someone who saw me and said, ‘What is he doing? This young boy is putting bandages everywhere,’” Nduwamahoro said, laughing. “What I did was really, really crazy, but I had to do it and I didn’t get lost.”

After three days, Nduwamahoro and his family left for Spartanburg — a city the teenager had never heard of.

Spartanburg City

He said he had learned about cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami while he was in the refugee camp, but he’d never heard about places such as Spartanburg, Greenville or Columbia.

He was a little disappointed by his first glimpse of South Carolina.

In New York, Nduwamahoro said he was impressed by all the houses, trees and cars everywhere, but the first thing he saw in South Carolina was the industrial land around Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.

“When I was in New York, I said, ‘OK, I’m in half of heaven,’” Nduwamahoro said. “When I first arrived in Greenville, I’m seeing the opposite.”

Nduwamahoro had many other things to adjust to once he and his family settled into their apartment. Two immediate challenges were laundry and cooking. He and his younger brother both learned to use the stove, but mastering the laundry was a little more difficult.

When you wanted to do laundry in Africa, Nduwamahoro said, you took your clothes to the river to wash them or brought water back to your home to use for washing. He said a friend showed him how to use a washing machine.

Living in an apartment was also a new experience. The houses in the refugee camp were made of mud bricks, with grass roofs and no stove, Nduwamahoro said. Food and clean water were luxuries for camp residents, he said. To get clean water, people had to walk “miles and miles,” and with so many people in the camp, just getting one bucket was a big issue.

Perhaps the most vivid memory for Nduwamahoro is his first winter in Spartanburg. It was the first time Nduwamahoro had ever seen snow or experienced frigid weather. Africa got cold sometimes, he said, but he was surprised by how much colder it was here.

“I didn’t go out for the whole winter. I’m sure I didn’t go out,” Nduwamahoro said. “My young brother and another friend who lives down on the other side (of the apartment building) was taking pictures in the snow with friends and playing in the snow. But I didn’t get out.”

Nduwamahoro said he was content to look at the snow from the window of the family’s apartment.

As he looks back at his first eight months in America, Nduwamahoro said he still can’t believe everything that’s happened to him.

“When I was a kid, I one day was dreaming of someone giving me too much money,” Nduwamahoro said. “I could not even count the money. After that I woke up and didn’t see my money. That’s the image I have in mind. Maybe all of this — even right now — is a long-time dream. I’m sleeping somewhere in Africa and dreaming this.”