While college students are packing up and heading home for the holidays, one Mercer University sophomore is staying put.

Samukai Sarnor is from Liberia, and while the Ebola outbreak may have faded from the headlines in the United States, it remains a grim reality for Sarnor and his family.

His family urged him to stay in Macon for his own protection said Sarnor.

Sarnor said “it’s kind of more saddening when you’re not there and like all your friends and people die.”

Sarnor said a high school classmate of his contracted Ebola and died on October 1st.

The news of his classmate hit home and gave him a terrible thought.

“Maybe your whole family might die,” said Sarnor, leaving him the only one left alive.

As of December 1, the World Health Organization reported more than 6,500 Ebola deaths in West Africa, with almost half of those being in Liberia.

Sarnor talked about the hardship his country is going through and how it is affecting his people.

“An average person (lives) on a dollar twenty-five cent per day and then (they are) not going to school, they're not working to get food,” said Sarnor.

Sarnor continued to talk about how the culture of Liberia has also been affected. He said that, “part of the culture back home in Liberia is shaking hands. You shake your hands and snap it. And that has bring like a stop to it.”

Staying in Georgia is the safest thing to do for Sarnor during this holiday season. He said, “I talk to my family every time and…yeah they don’t want me to go back to but I really wish I could go back.”

In the meantime, Sarnor has to figure out where he’s staying due to the closing of Mercer dorms over Winter Break.

He says he’s made meaningful relationships at school, and is confident that someone will take him in.

But for now, Sarnor said he is “just praying and hoping that things will get better pretty soon.”

Tags: Ebola, Liberia, Mercer, Macon, student, Samukai Sarnor, world health organization