When the Sky is Limited

31 oktober 2020 - North Shewa, Ethiopië

A couple days ago, we had the opportunity to visit a new international school that is being build here in Debre Berhan. In this school, the selected students can literally find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Right away they will be supplied with an IPad, they get to learn according to a modern curriculum based on collaboration and skill development, instead of rote learning. Once they successfully complete the four years, they get to go to a university in America. Whether they stay there after graduation, that doesn’t matter. According to the lady in charge, they will be the kind of students that want to make a difference in Ethiopia. ‘Anyways, no one would wanna live in a country that was ruled by Trump’, she stated. Let’s hope that the students will come back. Let’s hope that students selected, the ones with the highest scores of the whole country, would want to return to their unstable homeland, where inflation rules and corruption is king. Let’s hope this beautiful initiative doesn’t just take away the brightest of the brightest to the land of freedom.

You see, for most Ethiopians, the sky is only to look at, to admire. They praise the God who made it, and curse the rain when it pours down, but they know chances are slim they can ever leave it. Most Ethiopians do not have a passport, do not know their birth date, which, by the way, consequently results in the facts that most Ethiopians are born on the first of January. When they call ‘China, China’ to foreigners, it’s because they don’t know that Chinese are usually characterized by squinty eyes, which you won’t find in Europe. They see these beautiful, powerful birds roar through the sky and might realize these fellows will explore more land than they will ever get the chance to in their lives. And yet, when the sky is the limit, it won’t guarantee more happiness, more joy. When I stare out of my window, I see guys hugging, people relaxing and I hear ‘denna, dex Xavier temesgun’, which means: Thanks to God, I’m good.

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