A few more conversations

Posted by Heather Ross for Helen via email

We have met so many Ethiopians who have relatives in the United States it gives you a sense of the brain drain that must be happening in the this country. We’ve been befriended by a woman, Maese, who has two sisters in the United States; one has a husband who is a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic another is a PhD engineer working in Maryland. This country needs people with high level skills so badly. We talked to an Ethiopian in State College who spoke about how many of his countrymen had left Ethiopia and how badly they were needed back home. Here’s one real example. Maese and her husband have stayed here. He runs and engineering company, she’s an accountant.

We spent some time with the Librarian at the UN ECA today. More about the visit later but the part of the conversation that struck me was her perspective on Addis Ababa. She’s new to the city—here about 4 months, having transferred from UN Regional Offices in Santiago, Chile. She commented on the huge disparity between the rich and the poor in Addis, particularly noting how different life is for those in the international community in Addis compared to locals. She said she pays more in rent here, as an international employee, than she pays for her mortgage on her house in Kansas. When we told her that we had been to Makelle she also commented on how different that city was from Addis and that there was actually a middle class there that you didn’t see in Addis. On some level it was nice to have my own reactions affirmed.

And then, there have been the conversations our guide. I haven’t decided quite what to make of him. I’m grateful for all the help he’s given us. It’s allowed me to see parts of Ethiopia that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. But he’s always looking for an angle, a way to make a little extra money off his interactions with us. On one level, I can’t say I blame him. We are a job for him and he has a family. You have to hustle to make a living in this country. But I don’t get the feeling when I’ve talked with him that I have gotten to know him and his family. He talks about wanting to set up a business but can’t give any clear idea of what that business is. He says he needs someone to sponsor his two young boys (age 3 and 4) in school. But I can’t really get a feel for his family. What is the truth? I’d like to help but I'm not sure how the money would get used. Right now I think I will probably go back home without making any promises And, I feel a little guilty about 2 little boys who might not get the education they deserve.