Meeting Aster Aweke

I was speaking to a friend of mine, Dawit, about meeting the extraordinary songstress Aster Aweke. It inspired me to write about my encounter with her. It must have been about ten years ago. I had no idea how popular she was.

At that time her manager was an uncle of my husband. She had a concert in Atlanta, the same time as the Ethiopian Soccer event. Of course, we got in free, scouted out our front row area for our dancing and listening pleasure. The hall was beautiful but empty. Earlier, we went to the soccer event and stayed for hours enjoying the food, vendors, and the game.

As we waited, out came my husband's uncle and a very beautiful woman who I assumed was Aster. Sure enough she came to meet us as his uncle told her we were eager to meet her. She is the kindest person and soft spoken. We shook hands and made small talk. She was very gracious and seemed to almost bare an angelic, quiet spirit.

The concert started at 11:30pm. Only my husband and I was on the dance floor for about an hour. I started getting nervous for Aster as there was almost no one in the hall except a hand full of people. She sang powerfully and we kept dancing. I felt she was singing for just me so I kept dancing ; ) People started trickling in about 12:30am and the hall was jammed packed. Everyone was doing the eskista and we joined in.

YES, I am pretty good at dancing the eskista. I have had a lot of practice from all the weddings over the decade. lol. Anyway, Aster took a break and addressed the crowd. She said,(my husband translated) "I was waiting for you and thought you had forgotten about me due to the soccer game." The crowd went wild and said "Nooo. Aster, Aster." They started jumping up and the energy was electric. The band started playing and she sang again.

We danced until 4 in the morning. I found a couch downstairs near the ladies room and fell asleep. My husband and his uncle played catch up while checking on me. The music went on until 5:30am. I was too tired to go home to my bed. On our trip back I bragged about what a great time I had and how I had met THE Aster Aweke.

All That Jazz-Ethiopian Style

The DC Tutoring Program

As I have mentioned in the past, we are part of a tutoring program located in DC and the children are simply wonderful. Every now and then all the tutors take the children on trips and that makes all the difference in the world.

They really worked hard this semester. And this is just the Science room. They took breaks

for a quick game of Soccer. Then once we headed out to the Planetarium at

Montgomery College in Maryland. They were so attentive like little Scholars.

We also went hiking on the Potomac River but there are too few pictures as it was quite a challenge and we were exhausted from the 5 hour climb, but we had lots of laughs along the journey.

This is our end of the year picnic and they are playing their favorite game again. This time with the adults. We also played softball and an interactive team bonding game.

But this was the highlight for the day. You could not get them out. It was a great day to be in nature. At the end, the children decided that the next summer event would be at Ocean City in Maryland and they will call all the adults to give them the details. Are these not true leaders?

Brain Drain vs. Paradigm Shift

Last time I posted on Ethiopia as a Tiger Economy but where has all the scholars and professionals gone? Where are the movers and shakers of Ethiopia? It is a common theme in most developing countries, you'll find many of its young people traveling abroad and getting their degrees within the STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), yet fail to return to build up their country. Life abroad draws them in, providing comfort, security and safety, in which many would like to enjoy in their native land.

Young and bright eyed, they travel alone or brought by family, they grow up knowing home as two places; an emotional bond of heritage and a future stake in a land of "opportunity". I quote opportunity as everyone's opinion of progress and being productive varies. Here there is both a false sense of "opportunity" as well as the reality of survival. Both a delicate balance on the the teeter totter of a "First World" balance scale.

Ethiopia is no different. The economy is growing but like other places in the world their professional resources are dieing out as the migration is unevenly favoring a one sided slant. There needs to be a "Paradigm Shift" in the other direction for true success as a thriving country. This is the fragile point of interest. People leave, travel and settle abroad for many different reasons. We have to consider age, purpose, trauma, exodus, timing, unemployment, children, education, relationships, deaths, community, health, trends and more.

During my time of residency in college, I knew of two young men who won visas from their respective countries to study in their field of engineering and architecture, on one stipulation. Every summer they must travel to their home country to work and build up its economy and infrastructure. After receiving their degree they had a choice of returning or living abroad. One chose to return and the other chose to live in New York where he found a lucrative job and sent money home. Honestly, in my opinion, they both made good choices.

So this is the fork in the road that we have come to. I decided to write about a much needed "Paradigm Shift" due to an article sent to me and a few other family members by a sweetheart aunt, named Elalu. This article was very impressive and I thought I would share it with all of you. The title of the article is "10 Countries Facing the Biggest Brain Drain", of which Ethiopia is first on the list and experiencing the worst Brain Drain of any other country. Be sure to read "Worst Brain Drain" through Reversal (within the Ethiopia section) written by David Shinn of George Washington University, which was presented to The Ethiopian North America Health Professionals Association. What are your thoughts?

"10 Countries Facing the Biggest Brain Drain"