I was born in Ethiopia, in a peasant family.
My family were illiterate.
I’m grateful that they sent me to school.
My school was a long way from home.
I had to walk seven kilometres to get there.
And then walk home too. Not everyone my age went to school.
My parents sent me to school. Up until third or forth grade
we lived under a monarchy, then in 1974 there was a revolution.
We became a socialist country. At the time there was a lot I didn’t understand,
but I certainly can’t say that socialism is rubbish, I can’t say that.
I’m thankful that we had socialism. It was how I got the chance to study.
Back then, we were able to send 70 people to the GDR
and 1000 people to the USSR, almost 1000 to Cuba,
and five people to India.
We knew that education was good in the GDR.
There were also people from the GDR who taught in the faculty of medicine,
as well as in the faculty of agriculture.
We saw the opportunity for five of us to come here together.
And it worked out. It was based purely on merit.
I had no idea about the party.
At the time, we also didn’t know the difference between East and West. Germany is Germany.
We were hoping to get a good education. And we did.
We’re more than satisfied, the ones who studied here.
We wanted a good education, so we could return back home and serve our country.