Mulugeta Wodajo

Alright. We're recording again. Welcome back. It's, today, Sunday, April 11th. I think we missed 1 week, I think.

But, anyway, it's great to have you back, dad, and, look forward to hearing more about, the trip to the US. Yeah. We missed 1 week because it was Easter. Oh, yes. Okay.

I knew I knew there was a good reason. Yes. So both European and Ethiopian is stuck together. So Yes. So we're actually we're actually together, but, not not doing this.

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So this is session 6, as you said, and, we're we're covering, my travel to America, having finished UCA, in 1956. We were 17 in that graduating 18.

Sorry. 18 of us graduated from, UCLA in 1956, and 17 of us were awarded government scholarships fully paid by the government. No foreign money this time. This is only later on that USAID and the British and the other ones came to give the scholarships. You know, with us, it was entirely funded by the Ethiopian government.

So 17 of sorry? I said that's a lot of money from That's a lot of money indeed. Yeah. 17 of us went to different colleges in America, but all of us know well. Most of us went to US.

Let's see. 2 or 3 went to Canada, McGill. Otherwise, we're all in the US, but different universities. Mhmm. Mostly in the Midwest, but I myself went to Harvard.

We were 4 of us at Harvard. I think I mentioned it in one of our sessions. But the interesting point is before we left, there were 2 things that happened. 1 was that, we were all given free clothing, free 2 suits were bought for us. Wow.

Four suits were by the government, including an overcoat, underwear, pajamas, hats, and umbrella, shirts, necktie, everything. Wow. So we're fully attired. And, the funny thing, maybe I'll have it just to to say it there without saying it now anyways. You can imagine all these Ethiopians walking the streets of Cairo and and Athens and and and 2 suits and the and the necktie.

Yeah. Umbrella and the hat. That will And proudly. Very proud. Yeah.

Yeah. We are not used to it, obviously. So my hat and my umbrella were lost in Cairo, between the airport and hotel. I lived in the hotel and the and the airlines. So that was the end of it, and then my replacement.

Yes. But anyway, that was a there was an office in the Ministry of Education in the procurement office of the Ministry of Education that handled, these practices. There was an officer, a former priest, whose job was precisely to go around with, I think he took 2 of us at a time. 2 of our 2 2 of these graduates at a time on a shopping spree, and we were free to so now it's it's funny, but at that time, we didn't think it was funny. It was so that was one thing that happened.

The other thing was we were given an orientation on proper table manners. Oh my god. And his orientation. And your pencils? Yeah.

How to use smoke and knife and and, and we were told many times over that we shouldn't eat from our neighbor's plate. We we would do it in Ethiopia. And these orientations are given by staff wives, and also embassy wives that came to the region. Yeah. I mean, the 4 the foreign embassy wives are recruited.

Well, the, yeah, the staff wives will bring 1 or 2 foreign, embassy wives and, you know, one day, they will talk about the various wines or which fork to use for what, you know, that kind of so what crust to use for what? Anyway, yeah. So we were given all that. And and except for that, we were left much to ourselves in terms of booking our flights to America. We didn't know a thing about bookings.

We had never been out of the country. This is the first time we left the country. Yeah. But, luckily, there was only one airline. I don't know.

That sounds like your number. So the Ethiopian Airlines, staff there who do the bookings were very helpful. And being the first trip, we made sure that we stopped at every possible opportunity. So we were not in a hurry to get to America. In my case, well, the Ethiopian Airlines went at that time, I think, only to Cairo.

It didn't go beyond Cairo. But before it reached it reached Cairo, it stopped in, Asmara. So I stopped in Asmara and stayed there at night. Went to Khartoum, stayed there at night. And, and then, and, Cairo stayed there a couple of nights.

Wow. Yes. And then we took foreign, TWA because Ethiopian Airlines was associated with TWA. Yeah. TWA doesn't exist.

Doesn't exist anymore. Yeah. Yeah. They did the bookings for, the, on the, following trips, I mean, to Greece, Athens, and and over and and across the ocean. My god.

We were given $200 in cash, each of us, in US currency as pocket money. And believe it or not, it was enough with all those stops to bring us to Ethiopia to America, from Ethiopia to America. You you must I think we should remember that this was barely about 10 years after the end of World War 2. So Europe was in a was, you know, was a poor Yeah. It wasn't what it was.

It is it was not what it is now. Yeah. In in Athens, for instance, the, housekeepers, you know, the hotelkeepers, the maids would beg you for cigarettes. Mhmm. Yeah.

1, Ethiopian burr, you could you could exchange in in in in in Athens as if it was a hard currency Wow. For about a a 150 drachmas. I mean, money there was I mean, you know, we were talking about 1,000. 1 US dollars would be like, I don't know how many thousands of drachmas or how many 1,000 lire. So it's it was a different world then than now Europe was.

Yeah. But also also you were motivated. I mean, you knew that they couldn't, you know, call home to get more money. So No. No.

No. You you were gonna make it last. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

And, we wouldn't, I mean, in every city, we went with the first thing we do, at least in Europe and also in Cairo was to, do the salts. There were touring buses, so we joined the various tours, the various tourists, and then visited the pyramids and and the the other historical places in, in Greece or in in Athens or Rome. So we didn't have, we didn't steer away to or anything. Yeah. If we did, it was very, very modest.

Yeah. In Asman, I just in terms of personal experience, I I I stayed in a hotel that was off, off to the where it happens or not allowed or are not allowed during the Italian occupation. Albergos something or other. I forget his name. And that was my now the the only reason I'm mentioning it is that this was the first dilemma I made in in my overseas trip, because the waiter was a Ferengi, Italian.

And the question of whether to tip a Ferengi or not was a big question for me. It was no no experience. Yeah. But the guy who was sitting with me was a major in the Ethiopian army, now who had fought in Korea and had traveled before. So he knew, you know, he's been out of the country.

So he encouraged me to do that. I mean, he said there's no no nothing wrong. I mean, you'll be doing it more and more as you go to America. He was being up he was appointed to us education no. Ministry attache in in Washington.

So, this was just a part. We just have this was a You ran into a chance meeting. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

And we became friends later on. I mean, he after we returned and he took them in the seventies and and late sixties, he was the head of the secret service or the security. His name was, Colonel What's his name? I've listened to someone here. I can't it doesn't matter.

So I became good friends. Anyway, that was an interesting, theme of that. Was was there any I didn't know that they I mean, so Italians are excluding locals, you know, just during their occupation, you know. And so was there was there much stigma still there or I mean, it wasn't that far before. Right?

I mean, let me let me put it a different way. When you go to Nairobi and you go to, you know, some of the hotels in the in the eighties. I mean, it's it still felt uncomfortable being dark colored. Mhmm. Was that was it like that?

I didn't feel it that way. No. I mean, that place was off limit for, blacks during the Italian occupation. But then there were so many also similar places in Addis that were often used to Ethiopians. Mhmm.

In the Piazza, I think I mentioned that, you know, they established a market, Mercato Indigino. You know, the present Mercato Yeah. Yeah. Was for the Ethiopians, and the Piazza was for the whites. No.

I didn't feel it that way, but it it's just a remnant of the Italian occupation. And, and and in Ethiopia, the Italians, there there are no Italian waiters. I mean, you know, they they were mostly mechanics and worked for the electric company and telephone company, and they were self employed, basically. Yeah. And and if you had a restaurant, there were a few Italian restaurants, but they were the owners or, or managers, but not regular waiters.

So the question of tipping, Nialler, Wightman was didn't rise it when I was in Ethiopia. I know. Either way, you'd get bad service. So Yeah. So then you made it all the way to to, America as 17, or you guys already started to split up?

No. No. No. No. We were, we each one met his own, separate bookings.

Uh-huh. But sometimes we would meet in Europe. Uh-huh. Like in Rome, I met the shaman, and we visited the Vatican and other places, the various, tourist sites with the shaman. I remember him I remember him arguing with the with the some Catholic Catholic nuns in the Vatican.

How could you argue with a nun in Rome? I mean, it's In in in the Vatican. That, our church was the was more correct than their church, but, he didn't carry too far. Oh, good. But we we meet once in a while with you know, in in in in Paris, I'm I run into Fikre, my cousin, and Abraham.

So we once in a while, we would just meet. And then we also before we left, we knew who would be where at with whom and when. So we would look for each other. But, no, we didn't go altogether. We were, like, 2 or 3 in in each in each trip.

Mhmm. Yeah. Were were you scared? Do you remember being scared at all? No.

That in fact, that's a point I wanted to make. I we didn't think, I mean, you you remember we we talked last week, last session, how self confident we were at UCA. Yeah. That self confidence continued until we reached America. Wow.

We were, no. We had no, inferiority conflicts when we didn't care. I mean, we we we simply didn't feel any of this color. You know, we didn't have any chips on our shoulder. We just mingled with the Europeans as if they were not any different from us.

You know? Or or or for that matter, even the Americans. Wow. So that, sort of confidence continued for a long time. That's that's a gift.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, impressions. Cairo, I we were very, very hot, crowded. It it was July.

Noisy, unattractive, uncomfortable. And I stiffed those prejudices, Shari, if I can call them that. I mean, you know, those impressions, this persisted until the end. I very seldom, stopped in Cairo during any my my many, many trips either at the World Bank or even when I was at the university, when I was working for the university and traveled all over the world, very seldom did I stopped in in Cairo, I guess. I had that bad experience from the in 19 summer of 1956.

Well, I mean, is this 1956? I would imagine Cairo has gotten more hot and more crowded. Yeah. But, hopefully, it's a little bit more ordered, but I don't know. I I you know?

Same with Khartoum. 2. It was very hot, unbelievably hot. Remember, there is an air conditioning in those areas. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So it was only a fan, in in in fact, in in in in in Khartoum. I don't think I slept all night. You know?

It was so hot and so humid. It was terrible. Yeah. And you're and you're coming from Athens. I mean, a mile high.

Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. That was in, Athens where I think I told you we we took the tours and saw those historic places. Same with Rome.

Mhmm. In Rome, that was where I had my first Coke, Coca Cola. You were kidding. Yeah. In fact, at the Vatican, while the show was arguing those nuns, I was having my Coke.

Wow. I had never seen a Coca Cola or, you know, didn't know the thing. You know, there was none. That's like that's that's a that's a famous movie about the South African natives where the Coke bottle fell from the sky. Oh, yeah.

You didn't have seen that movie. Yeah. You're one of them. Yeah. Except you had a suit.

Yeah. Our main problem in all these trips was how to order our meals because we didn't know the European food. In in Rome, we were okay because it was, you know, Italian food, and we had, it's an Italian food and had this spaghetti and and, pastel for no and so forth and so on. So that that was okay. But when we're in Rome or when we're in Cairo or when we're in Athens, you know, very difficult.

It got worse when we go to London in the sense that Well, there's nothing good anyway. Right? Yeah. Exactly. Well, also, in London, the first breakfast we had, they gave us cornflakes.

And we've never seen cornflakes. So we didn't know whether it was to be eaten dry, whether it was to be eaten with a fork and that. We just didn't know what to do with it. So so, it wasn't just me, but a couple of others as well. So that good Abashas, we didn't want to embarrass ourselves, so we just left it alone.

We didn't do anything with it. It wasn't part of the it wasn't part of the etiquette lessons that you'd gotten. So They didn't tell us about the the I guess they assumed we knew that one. Yeah. Yeah.

From Rome, we okay. I think I mentioned, Cairo, Athens, Rome, Paris, London. We stayed Oh my god. A couple of yeah. I mean, you could you could have stopped anymore if you're taking a train.

But No. Exactly. And from, London, we flew, to New York. Mhmm. But this was mind the the pre pre jet era.

Mhmm. So the flight took 18 hours to cross the ocean. Really? Yeah. 18 hours.

Yeah. It stopped in 2 places, for refueling. And, what the plane they called it at the time was the newest, plane that TW had, you know, flying, transatlantic from London to New York. You can imagine it. It was the most modern, and they were making big fuss out of it.

It was called the super g constellation. You know, all kinds of advertisements about the super g constellation. I guess it was one of those pre jet, turbine. I don't know what it is. I I Yeah.

I think no. I think I've seen it. Yeah. No. I think I've seen it.

It's like, you know, there's these things you see on the news reels. You know? Airplane travel. Now bringing the people together. You know?

And then they showed the thing with the big four propellers on it. Exactly. Yeah. So it took, it stopped in Newfoundland. It stopped, in Northern Ireland for twice stopped for refueling.

Yeah. And finally, we reached New York. Thankfully, I did not enter Manhattan. There was I mean, thankfully, in the sense that there was no culture shock with all those skyscrapers. We direct from the airport, we went to Washington.

Yeah. From Washington, I don't know, took taxi, those are shipped those days, to the Ethiopian embassy. That was our point of contact for anything. Either the Ethiopian embassy yeah. It's a Penn Embassy, really.

It's a it's a Penn Embassy or we met in in in Washington, there was an educational attache. So he was our host kind of thing. You know? He met us and he didn't meet us at the airport, but we went he was the first one we meet. He would give us a briefing where we were going, how we were going.

He would give us our troubled money, our allowances, and so forth. So, but in Washington, we also met the Ethiopian ambassador, Lijilma, who he was a one of the most educated to one of the, prewar educated Ethiopian ministers. He was killed by the Derg. He was minister of finance, very well, liked person from Molagha. And, he was educated in England.

So when he actually and I went to the embassy there together, and he he was not happy because, he thought we should have been sent to you to to England for education. You know what? He's in America. He was he was an anglophile. Yeah.

Anglophile. Well, did everybody go to the embassy, or how do they arrange it? That's what yeah. It's it's the Washington embassy. We all had to go there.

Mhmm. But that was where we would be given our, fares to go to the various destinations. Yeah. Where we would be given our allowances. I should say something about our allowances.

It was a 175 no. $170 a month. Wow. And this was this was to cover everything except tuition, clothing Wow. Food, room, entertainment, everything.

The only thing the government paid directly was the tuition fees. Wow. Everything else, we had to pay it out of this, 170. And the 170 was all for the eastern, like, Harvard and, like, Boston, New York, the Eastern Coast, basically. Midwest like Kieferli was in Wisconsin.

Mhmm. And it's a short the carling was in the north of Illinois. They were given only a 135 because that's less expensive. And while we were okay with time wise in terms of budgeting time and organizing ourselves, we were lousy with how to use money. You know, we we we were just not used to handling money.

Mhmm. So the our friends used to joke us to joke about us saying that the Ethiopians either what's the what's the what what what what the the they either starve or, what's the opposite of starve? Well, I mean, they were flushed. I mean, they're they're they're they treated everybody. Yeah.

So, anyway, that's how we we manage. Yeah. The first stop, part of call was the embassy and and the educational attache was a person, we heard about, and he was very nice. He gave us a briefing and, what kind of life to expect. And, generally, he made our transition to America smooth.

We didn't stay long in in America in in Washington. Those years, Washington was also a colored time, you know. Mhmm. It was a colored bar. So he kind of hurried us to leave that city and go to our respective destinations.

Yeah. Was it so, I mean, that was the fifties. That made the Midwest would be the same. And what, I mean, New York was different New York and Boston were different? Well, there were I mean, Washington was a virtually southern city.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of southern, customs were prevalent here. Mhmm. There were places that were off limits for blacks in restaurants in Washington as late as 1958 to 60.

Even 60, 1960, we've been we've been told to leave a place because of our color in 1960, but we'll get to that maybe another time. Yeah. But I don't think I've experienced anything like that. I mean, there may be there may be prejudice, but not outside. Not not not outright expansion of, blacks in in Boston.

I haven't seen any. Or New York, for that New York, especially. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Did the did you guys, communicate with the embassy frequently or infrequently? I mean, how did, I mean, your your most of your individuals I mean, you're alone in one city and the nearest connection was the ambassador or the embassy. Right? I mean Yeah. Yeah.

The education. Yeah. Whereas we corresponded in the sense that our money would run out. You know? Yeah.

Our money would run out. Yeah. And we we would be sending, messages and and grumblings and so forth and so on. Yeah. That was our main problem, really, when there were many we had.

Uh-huh. That that mostly or at least half and half half because we didn't know how to make good take good care of money and with no budgeting and that kind of thing where we just didn't have the experience. And also, it wasn't just quite enough for Yeah. I was gonna say. Yeah.

I mean, it's not I don't think the problem is your budget. There's a problem with the amount. Yeah. Yeah. So in that sense, we, yeah, we did have contact with him.

But, he had very little say because he gets his own money from Ethiopia, and he doesn't get it on time either. Yeah. Later on later on towards my when I was about to return to Ethiopia, another educational attache replaced him, the one we had at the time. And he was more creative in the sense that, he used the embassy's prerogative or the embassy's influence to get a credit line from local banks, from American banks. Wow.

Okay. So even if he didn't get his money from Ethiopia, he would still be able to send us money on time. So it was it was okay. Yeah. But it that was too late for us.

We were about to leave for Ethiopia. By that time, he, ironed the the ironed out the problem. Yeah. Wow. From from Washington, many many of our friends, many of my colleagues took the train door.

They took the trains to their respective destinations, but somehow, I I I I took the, the the plane. The educational arranged for me to take American Airlines. I don't know whether it was good or bad, but I took the American Airlines to Boston and stayed at a hotel across the street, immediately across the street from, the South Station if you if you know if you know Boston. I don't know. Yeah.

You don't know how you and when I I I I stayed there at night. So in the early in the morning, I went to the station to the receptionist and asked, how to get to Harvard. Because I thought Harvard was another long or long ways away. I had to take a train or a plane or a train. I didn't know whether it was just across the river.

Yeah. So she laughed. The young lady, they laughed and told me just take the subway. You know? So that's easy at that.

So we went to to Harvard. At Harvard, our transition was made much easy, easier by the foreign students office. Mhmm. It was like a home class. I see.

Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Later, it was it was renamed not only at Harvard, but elsewhere as well, international students office.

But at that, it was called the foreign students office. And he was virtually like, our foster parent kind of, the foreign student adviser. And and he he was very helpful in terms of, giving us advice on how to search for rooms, how to meet other friends on general orientation about the university registration, campus life, the cafeteria, all those things. He you you know, they had printed materials, and he spent time with us really. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's it's Well, they have they have the they have the experience. I mean, I'm sure people have been coming to Harvard from from everywhere. Yeah.

So you're lucky. I mean, that may not have been the same experience for Illinois or something, though. I mean, they might have had a harder time. A harder time probably there. So between the foreign students office and there are also, luckily, 2 Ethiopians at Harvard at the time Oh, okay.

Who had been there already a year. One was my former classmate, She graduated from UCA in 1955. In fact, I that's the class I would have I should have graduated with if I hadn't lost a year. Mhmm. So we knew we knew her.

She's half Ethiopian, half Italian, but spoke on Amharic, and her father himself was a a lawyer. Yeah. So he spoke excellent Amharic. So she was there. And then So there was a I didn't know this.

So there was a woman in the first graduating class? Even that's interesting. Yes. Yeah. In, in the class of 1950 yes.

There was a yeah. Femita who was there. What's her name? Fiamita. It's a common Italian name.

Okay. Fiamita Yeah. Rota, p r o t p r o t a. Uh-huh. Prita was w m and w t.

Okay. You're right. You may we need we need Oh, she's now her. You go ahead. You have you have just an interesting name.

Yeah. No. No. I mean, yeah. She's, yeah.

She got married while we're at Harvard to an an Armenian Ethiopian, also a half cast, half Armenian, half Ethiopian. I get it. And you know what? I mean, you know, we're digressing. I know, but it was interesting to recall.

Yeah. Yeah. The fa the guy who gave her our our way as a father was the dean of the faculty of education. He had become so close to us, and he had become so friendly to us. His name was Francis Kepel, k e p p e l.

Mhmm. And later, you know, he joined the, Kennedy John Kennedy's administration as secretary of education. Secretary of education. In the cabinet? That's what I'm saying.

60 63. Sorry. When when did Kennedy go to get to 61. 61. Yeah.

Yeah. 61. So but he was because this was He was he was the dean of the school of at at Harvard? Yeah. He was the dean of the faculty of educate the school of education at Harvard.

Okay. Who gave her away? But obviously, said her father. He gave her away while she was at Harvard. Yeah.

Okay. But he wasn't her father? No. No. No.

Her father was in Ethiopia. Yeah. Yeah. But the her husband came her, fiancee Yeah. Came from Ethiopia Yeah.

To, to get married. And they got married in Cambridge. Yeah. And with the and, they were they Francis Keppel, Dean Keppel was the one who, who gave her away as us. And we were the Ethiopian community were there doing this and Wonderful.

That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So the foreign students office plus the 2 Ethiopians who are already there, you know, when we joined the university.

They they also smoothened helped us with the transition, with getting to know the place and, with orientation and so forth. Well, I don't know how much, to say about, the first I mean, you know, I could say a little bit more about my impressions. You know? What impressed me the most, when we went to the first to our classes at Harvard was the informality. There are things that are so informal.

The students and the staff, you could hardly distinguish 1 from the other. You know? And in fact, one day going into a class in psychology, I found a teacher sitting on the teacher's desk, and he was facing us. You know? And I thought he was a student.

He was and we were just waiting for the teacher to come. Because normally, when a teacher comes, he would stand up even at UCA. Yeah. And, there are a lot of, difference between students and staff. There there, it was, you know, just first name basis almost.

And the other thing was there were large number of women students, very emancipated women Yeah. Who's talked and, you know, just like as much and as often as the, the boys. And that was quite something unusual for us so that to, impress me in in a way. I remember it. This is the same thing I tell people my first impression, and and it and it's it it never makes sense to anybody here but I vividly remember my first day walking into elementary school, you know Yeah.

1975. And it was the same thing. I couldn't believe people were getting up from their chairs walking around, running around the hallway. Exactly. And the and the sheer volume of the of the noise.

I I I thought it was chaos. I thought it was a zoo. Yeah. Exactly. That was exactly the same thing.

More importantly, the difference between the university here and the UCAI was we had a very, very flexible schedule. I mean, we had choices of classes, and it was a matter of choosing and picking, you know, our classes and plenty of free time to roam around and to go to the library to read. Yeah. And so we went wild, you know, with with what we did. But luckily, we had this just a bit background of, of of the of self discipline and so forth.

So that helped us quite a bit. But we as I I said a little earlier, you know, we didn't care about there was no, color bar that we felt. You know, we just felt like just anybody else. So we intermingled, with the with the group without any problem. And many were surprised that we spoke good English because they thought we we came from Africa and from Ethiopia for other that that we, you know, could barely express ourselves.

Because there was some Japanese and other foreigners who could barely speak English. Yeah. So they were very surprised. So when we tell them that we learned our English in in Ethiopia, they just couldn't believe us. So we had no chips on our shoulder.

We intermingle freely. In fact, we were quite popular, and we were very popular guests. Thanksgivings and Christmases for these, foreign, American homes. They would take us there to take us to their churches, invite us to their homes, and and we would talk to the to their YMCAs and to churches. So Wow.

Yeah. We were a curiosity point of curiosity. I think we still are in a way. I mean, I think you're different still sort of have you know, we're still exotic even though there's thousands of us. I mean Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. The, light load, like, you know, 15 hours a week is the all the classes we had. It's like what we did in one day at UCA. Wow.

Yeah. If you remember from the last session. Yeah. So we had lots of time in the at our disposal. So if it weren't for our, you know, the strict upbring we got from the Jesuits at TMS and UCA, I think it would have been lost.

Yeah. Yeah. Would have been lost. So, in spite of, I mean, you know, the 2 things that were rare commodities at UCA Yeah. Time, time, and flexibility choosing courses.

Yeah. These were in great abundance at, at Harvard. So this this was very impressive. I mean, we just couldn't get over it. And, And that's interesting because you go you ask the you know, my friend Phil, you know, he's he he says the same thing except in reverse.

He can't he can't believe how structured, college education in the US is compared to England. Oh. I mean, in England, you're basically on your own. I mean, you show up and you're expected to learn a lot, and then you're supposed to graduate. I mean, everything in between is basically up to you.

That's right. That's right. Yeah. But, compared to Ethiopia or the, you know, developing countries, this is this is something else. Yeah.

When I I'm sorry. I took cost courses mostly, well, I I was majoring in what they called at that time, the social and philosophical foundations of education or comparative education. In other words, they're trying to see, why, for instance, just to take an example, why schools in France or US is are so centralized whereas those in England were are decentralized and are run by the communities or Yeah. Yeah. By municipalities.

And they would they would go into their social and historical backgrounds of those two countries and see what it is that determined the system to be 1 or another. So there was a lot of socials sociology, philosophy, and history in in in the kind of major that I had. Yeah. So I was free to take courses. No.

No. Not free. I had to take a number of courses outside the school of education at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences on the main campus, I mean, across the street. Sounds great. Yeah.

I was I was looking at that since Yeah. I mean, some of my professors, they're just to mention the 2 that I remember the most was, both one was yeah. Both were his. One one was historian. The other one was a philosopher.

Israel Scheffler. I I think he retired well, he he surely retired by now if he's still alive. Yeah. Israel Scheffler was the philosophy professor, and and we thought we knew philosophy. Remember I told you that?

Yeah. Yeah. But with with with Israel Scheffler, professor Scheffler, that's when we discovered that we didn't know history. We didn't know philosophy because his approach was so different. It was comparative philosophy.

You had to read all kinds of philosophers in different contexts. And, you know, it was an eye opener. Yeah. It was an eye opener in the sense that what was good for us from the old days was the manner in which we were taught the discipline and so forth, but not necessarily the content of what we learned in philosophy. You know?

Yeah. Yeah. And and, Ulrich, professor, Ulrich was a German, very heavily accented German. In fact, he was the minister of education in one of the German states during the Weimar Republic. He remember the Weimar Republic Yeah.

In the 1st and second world world wars. So, he spoke with great accent and his great, belief was in humanism humanist philosophy. And, in fact, he encouraged me to join the Harvard Humanist Society, and I joined the Harvard Humanist Society and attended all the debates and classes. I mean, discussions. Yeah.

So that he was one of my one of the teacher that impressed me the most or I learned the most from. Wow. I think I told already that our greatest problem was the was the budget, but Yeah. That statement that I I I I now remember. These these Europeans either feast or fast or fast.

Feast or famine? Yeah. So sometime, as soon as our money comes, you know, with parties, beers, everything. And then a week later, it's all gone and we would. So that that's really probably better.

Yeah. Yeah. That's actually Do you remember, like, your expenses? Like, how much was rent? How much did you I mean, how did you make a 135 doll a $173 last?

Yes. I yes. I remember my room. We we only had a room. Yeah.

My room at Harvard. First, I was staying at Kirkland. No. At first, at Garden Street. 26 Garden Street.

And then and then, oh, a few months later, I moved closer to the school of education to, Kirkland Street, Street, 44 Kirkland Street. Every time I go to Cambridge, I make it the point to go go look at that place. Yeah. The I was paying $9 a week. Oh my god.

Good. $9 a week. And, of course, all the furnishings are supplied. Yeah. We didn't we didn't we thought to worry about heat or anything.

There was no talk about telephone. There's just nobody have telephone. Only the pay pay phones in the hallway. Uh-huh. Food was, well, at a harbor cafeteria.

I think the most expensive item, if I can remember, well, was, roast beef for 90¢. Wow. Otherwise, it was 40¢ here. 35 there. When we, were starving, we would eat liver and onions, and that was something like under under 50¢.

Wow. Oh my god. And I mean, the whole meal. I mean, like, the whole entree. A whole a a good deal of mashed potato with it.

Yeah. You would, that was the cheapest item. So so you have so $36 a month for, board. Let's say you could eat for what would that be? 9 90¢.

Let's say a dollar 50 plus a dollar 2.50 plus maybe 50¢, $3 a day times 30 would be $90 a month plus 36146. You have $30 left over to entertain and buy clothes. Yeah. Yeah. We we didn't buy much clothes.

I'll tell you that. Only the winter clothes we had to buy, we had no choice. But, maybe this is as good a time as any. After we had completed 1 year at Harvard, we were told to return to Ethiopia. Mhmm.

Because at that time, the government policy was that they would pay for you for your first degree. And then if you want to continue on to for higher degree, you know, PhD or whatever, you would have to come back, work in the in the government services for a year, 2 years, whatever. For every year of scholarship, 2 years of, government service was the general requirement. Wow. Interesting.

Yeah. But, we wanted to go straight to our, PhDs. So we refused to return. I mean, we refused in the sense that we said, if you don't pay for us, we'll we'll go we'll we'll, pay it. You know?

Well we'll we'll make money. I mean, we'll work and and pay for ourselves. But little did we know that with the kind of visa we had, we couldn't do that. With the student visa, you couldn't work for them. So this, brought a lot of problem for us.

So we went to the usual place to the foreign student office and explained to, the foreign student adviser that our government is stopping our stipends. We have no more money, but we wanted to continue on for our PhD. So what to do? And he gave us the advice, which was very good, that why don't you apply for a green card? A what?

We don't know what a green card is. What is what's what's a green card? Yeah. Well, with a green card, you can work, any number of hours a week. No problem.

And you can stay at any number of months. You can you know, you're you're a resident. Interesting. So we immediately applied, all 4 of us, right in his office. He had the forms.

Wow. And and 4 weeks later, we 4 of us got the green card. 4 weeks later? 4 weeks later, we got the green card. So we got the jobs.

Oh my god. Yeah. And, different jobs. I went to work for a well, I had 3 different places. You know?

The longest one I worked was in a Venetian blind factory. This was done in an assembly line. There were there was one group who do the frames, you know, the plastic flames. My role was to make the slides, you know, how to call them, the shades. Okay.

And then another one would do the clamps and then off it goes. It would go to the sales office and they would, you know, see it. And, there was inbuilt incentive. Because if you do in a day over so many square feet, I forget how many it was, or then you you would get a bonus. So we would so you can imagine how fast we would we would do all those slides in in you know?

That that that I worked about 4 months. Wow. But previously, I had worked for just one day. I just couldn't cope with it. I mean, I I just gave up.

Was in a cafeteria in downtown Boston. It was a a very, very busy cafeteria, not far from Boston Gardens. Mhmm. It existed until quite a while. It it doesn't exist anymore.

And it was so, frustrating because, you know, I was not I was, how do you call it? A bus boy. Okay. Yeah. That's that's that's classic.

Yeah. I would clean the table, and I would clean the front of the cafeteria. It was clean, neat. And then when I come back, it's all dirty again. You know?

People come go and people come in, but it was a busy downturn. So after one day, I just gave up. You know, it wasn't it wasn't my, cup of tea, so I left that place. Wow. The and previous to that or was it I forget the rang.

The the Venetian brand was the last one. I think the no. The first one was the cafeteria. Exactly. First so I left it one day.

Yeah. Then I went to got another job with at Mass General Hospital. Oh, you got it. I was and, yes, you know, I had uniform, cocky uniform. I was carrying a hail of water and, and, how do you call it?

Mops. And, cleaned the corridors and the hallways and the bathrooms. As a janitor. A janitor. Oh, janitor.

And I remember, once, you know, there was this elevator. You know, in GHG has several floors. Every time the elevator came those days, you know, they were not self operated. They they were operator, elevator operators. So I would say, please, thank you.

And this guy was surprised that the janitor will say please and and and thank you. So he asked me. He was a black man also. What is it that you always say please and thank you? Nobody says that.

So I told him, you know, those students from Harvard, and and I'm trying to earn some money and and continue my studies. Oh, that explains it. Yeah. So at Harvard, the nurses were very cruel to me. I mean, they would call me whenever there was something spilled on yeah.

By the patients. I would love to come and clean and, oh, and the most difficult thing to maneuver was the buffing machines, you know, the long corridors you had they had to shine after you seen them. There was this machine with a brush that you have to run it. And a little touch, I need to go from 1 from left to right. So so I have to wait until the whole hallway was free so that I wouldn't break somebody's legs.

But that's Which is never in the hospital. I mean, so poor guy. Yeah. Yeah, he was never free. Okay.

But, anyway, I I worked these three places. My colleagues, we were 4, I told you, I think. Abraham Damoz, my other colleague, he worked at it was a food a wholesale food company. SSP was a famous, canned food company that, shipped food, American food to all the embassies overseas. So his his role was his his particular duty was to pack boxes, seal them, and unload them to a to a a lorry, to a truck, and then they'll be shipped to various American embassies or whoever.

Yeah. So that was so he has to do a lot of caring. My gosh. That was him. A marriage, that, the other guy, from morning to night to evening the whole day, all he did was he was working in a cafeteria, was chopping salad.

Oh. You know? God. Yeah. Chop chop chop chop chop the holy.

Yeah. He got he was the he was the most versatile of us all. Yeah. Asmarom's job was, at a clothing company. Hey.

Women's cloth. And his his place his okay. Asmarom. Asmarom. Yeah.

Asmarom. Okay. Asmarom. Asmarom. Yeah.

Asmarom was the most versatile. And he was working in a a a clothing shop, clothing factory shop kind of thing. And his duties were to label, whether a piece of clothing was nylon or whatever, a cotton, the various kinds. So he got so used to these kinds of clothing that they had. And every time we walked in the streets of Boston, he would say, oh, so and so.

This girl is wearing this. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, to to to make a long story short, after having worked there, you know, 4, 5 months, our scholarship was reinstated. Okay.

And we had lots of money because it was not only for the future, but going back. You know? Wow. Yeah. So we had lots of money.

What's the insured for it, you know, when you when you paid back order. But you're a back pay. I mean, you're just Back pay. Yeah. Up from the time it was cut off.

You know? So we had, like, 8 months of Oh my gosh. Yeah. So you know what we did? Asmarom and I together, we bought a car.

Ah. A 1957, Ford. I remember it clearly. And that Ford came in handy because a few months later, do you remember that girl, Fimitta? She got married, and she got married in that car.

Alright. So that car cost a $150. It was a 1951, Ford. But this was being, 1957. So it was only 6 years old.

So you could buy a 6 year old car for a $150. Wow. Yeah. So that was in. Anyway, as soon as our scholarship was reinstated, we decided to go different ways, and and really I'm finishing.

I stayed I went on to Colombia, to continue with my education in, PhD education in the Teachers College Columbia. Asmarom stayed on, but he changed his field to anthropology, but he stayed on at Harvard and finished his PhD and became a professor. He is still a professor. Abraham, he was my best man, you know, when I got married. Abraham Damoz, was faculty of art.

Do you know faculty of arts when I was dean of faculty of education? So, you know, our careers went in parallel. He went to UCLA and studied linguistics and study and and got his PhD in linguistics. Wow. Married my the 4th guy, went to Chicago.

He too did his PhD, but in history. Later on, he went to Portugal and studied Portuguese and wrote a book on on his on the medieval Portuguese period in Portuguese. He'll he died not too long ago. By the way, Abraham too has died. So of the 4 of us, 2 are surviving and 2 are dead.

So we'll stop here, because now we're, it's the end of 57, the beginning of 58. In January 1958, I moved to Columbia University, and I was met at the airport. Or was it a train station? I don't know by Andy. Andy, whom you know, of course.

Yeah. And, we, you know, we we were friends from Tafaromo, so a new life begun. I I I think I'm more or less finished. There may have been 1 or 2 things I could have talked about Harvard in terms of the content of the subjects I learned. But, generally, I think, we've covered it.

If if anything specific comes up, I can say it when we come when we talk about Colombia, I can always go back to the Harvard and and mention it. Okay. That was that was fantastic. That was really fascinating. I mean, it sounds like you guys left Ethiopia as teenagers.

And in 1 year, you did, a lot of growing up and, found your own feet. Yeah. That's right. Well, thank you. I enjoyed it.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, just a minute. Are you on now?

Yeah. Yeah. I think what made us, what sustained us was this combination of hard work, discipline, good use good use of time that we inherited from the Jesuits. Mhmm. Plus the opening of our eyes and ease and our thoughts and everything from these cushions and because we have so much time at Harvard who could read, you know, read endlessly, you know, day in, day out through reading.

So we we we enlarged our horizons at Harvard, and then we had this good habit or habit at at, at UCA UCLA UCA. So between the 2, you know, those two combinations are, I think, what sustained us throughout our careers is it's thrown in our lives, I think. Wow. But anyway, we'll continue in next time. And thank you.

Okay. Wonderful. Okay. Okay. Okay.