RPCV Owen Cylke writes: Taxi in the Rain

RPCV Owen Cylke writes: Taxi in the Rain
As I was walking across Key Bridge this morning on my way to work, it suddenly started to pour rain.  Totally unexpected.  Totally unprepared.  But a cab honked, picked me up, and, as expected, an Ethiopian driver was behind the wheel.  So I used my "fluent" 35 words to start up a conversation.

Turns out the driver was from Adigrat and was in the seventh grade there in 1965.  He had two Peace Corps teachers.  He started to cry as he told me the first time he saw his name written out up on the board.  Then he said that the teacher used his name in English exercises.  "Hagos ate breakfast this morning".  "Hagos came to school".  "Hagos plays soccer".  As a small boy, he said this identification gave a slight shy boy new status with his classmates and served to shape the man he is today.

When I tried to pay for the ride, he absolutely refused.  Forty plus years later for the both of us.

Photo: nep Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0