The Fikadeña’s

The Fikadeña’s

By T. S. Sellout

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Haile Fikadeña is a father of four and husband to the very accomplished Lucy Fikadeña. Lucy Fikadeña is actually Lucy Endeshaw, but accepted the family name in order to integrate into American lifestyle. The Fikadenya’s came to the United States of America from Ethiopia as voluntaries.

Voluntaries like the Fikadeña’s live in small, rural towns in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Other parts of the U.S. are too dangerous for voluntaries. Some taught social studies, biology, and ethics at middle and high school. Some were given finance and engineering apprenticeships at Fortune 500 companies, in which they would telecommute 70-80 hours a week. Salam Gwad, the organization, sends the entire family with the voluntary. These rural townspeople usually have never lived near a black family before, so it is very exciting for them.

At Deerfield Preparatory School in New Hampshire, there was only one section of social studies. Lucy taught it. She also started many clubs teaching the importance of mental health and how to not become a heroine addict. This is desperately needed in these rural New England towns, but isn’t addressed by the local population.

While Lucy teaches her classes and clubs, Haile drives to the local hospital to work. He is contractually allowed to come and go as he pleases, but to help when asked. A typical day for Haile involves 4 hours of entering billing sheets into a computer and then going into town to play pool and drink coffee or whiskey with the locals. For their four kids, every day at school is a half day.

 

Haile and Lucy receive a modest stipend for living expenses. It is enough for rent, groceries, and the occasional car trip into Boston to eat Ethiopian food. This amounts to roughly $112,000 per year per person, or $224,000 for their family plus additional per diem and travel allowances for quarterly conferences in Boston and medical care. Salam Gwad uses the same formula as Peace Corps Ethiopia in paying their voluntaries 4.1 times the median per capita income level of the country in which they serve.

Despite the minimal investment and lack of direction provided by Salam Gwad, The Fikadeña’s have been able to teach the community about many things: Ethiopia, Ethiopian culture, and how to relax and ‘techewwat’, and how to be overall less of a tight ass all the time. They take plenty of selfies with white babies. Yes, sure there have been some hiccups. Haile’s neighbors asked him not to yell-read his Bible at 5 am on random holidays. Also, the kids took time to learn not to throw rocks at the neighbor’s dog. All in all, it’s a great cultural exchange. These heroic voluntaries ought to be celebrated for their self-sacrifice and commitment to serving others. God Bless You, Fikadeña’s!