I stepped at the gate of Addis Ababa University. I remember feeling alone and a bit frightened. I looked around. Not one familiar face.
There were many people in groups. There were people who had gone to school from first grade together. You could tell how they talked, laughed and did everything insync.
Not me. I was a foreigner. To make things worse, I didn’t speak the language very well. So I didn’t understand anything sophisticated. And the jokes escaped me completely. Sarcasm requires an additional tier of language expertise.
I went to the dorms where I was assigned. They were separate buildings for men and women. I was in a group of about 8 other girls in one room. All the other 7 were from the same school.
Slowly, I started to talk to the people around me. Though it was really tough at first, I started to figure my way around the campus.
I started to attend classes and was determined to do well. In a country like Ethiopia, your performance in school has a very direct correlation on how far you could go in life. In my case, it was important that I do something with myself. How else am I supposed to afford the life long need for insulin?