old photos

My Mom and Dad, wearing the traditional Ethiopian clothing. We are back in Finland in this photo, in my Aunt Hillka's garden. We kids look as glum as we do because we have been fighting over whose turn it is to play with our second cousin's doll and toy stroller. It's about 1960.

Me and my Mom, all dressed up. This photo must have been taken on the sabbath.

Here I am with the twins, my Mom and an Ethiopian girl. I don't remember anything about the girl. My parents often hired a student, usually a boy, as help. Doubtless the boys were more ambitious to learn western ways. I believe women, being the keepers of family and cultural ties, are less willing to throw the baby out with the bath water and adopt western ways, unless it really, really makes sense to them. They are more likely to see things more globally, intuitively seeing all the consequences.

Here's my family as it was, in Ethiopia, in about 1958, I think. I'm the one shading her eyes from the sun with both hands!