Introducing a few new friends

Making friends with people that live in a developing country comes with many challenges. Calling them using the best financial ways available includes a one second delay between talking. Add in the language difference and it can be very challenging. Ethiopia is a culture where most people still check their email once a week or so- so emailing doesn't have the response time we are use to here either.

So- when you've just left the country and are missing people terribly- it's actually quite challenging to reach out and have the same in-depth conversations that you have with them while you are in country.

Here is a snapshot of 3 of the people who not only became some of my best friends in life (in such a short time) but really took the time away from their lives to help me learn the culture, and with much persistence kept me on a path of learning what different aspects of life in Ethiopia are life.

Since I'm certain many of my stories will include these individuals I thought a good place to start is to introduce them to you.

From Left to Right-

Aron- is a purchaser, import and export trader and part owner of a bar and travel company. He spent a lot of time teaching me how business works (or how to make one work) and introduced me to many people (friends and professional) in the Addis. He also taught me a lot about the social life in Ethiopia.

Eldana is an amazing history teacher. She majored in Political Science and is now finishing her History Degree. With 8 years of teaching under her belt- and the daughter of the school's owner I was teaching at- she was an invaluable resource to me as I learned to become a teacher and work through lesson planning. Eldana became like a sister to me and my life is forever altered because of our introduction. She introduced me to the diverse and complicated political situation in Ethiopia and explained much of the countries history to me. With out Eldana my trip would have been much less valuable.

Yonas (Yoni) is a high school teacher in the public school system and is going to school to become a lawyer. Yoni kept me grounded and reminded me of the cultural difference I was dealing with. I learned a lot about the struggles and strengths of large families and a ton about Ethiopian humor and openness.

Our relationship was really strengthened when we spent 12 days strait traveling to the north of the country. Something I'll write about in depth in the future.