The Amazing Kusse Family

Ato Kusse, me, and his former HS English teacher, Ato Anto, who is now a PhD candidate in Netherlands. What a great conversation this was!

At the Kusse family home: breakfast on the kids’ couch/mattress

Kusse’s precious fist born child (he got the news of her birth at university in Addis Ababa–the same day he got his first ever mobile phone. Talk about good fortune!)

Kusse and his family laugh and represent their home region of Konso so well– a fertile region ner the Kenyan border known for the incredible ingenuity and work ethic of its people. Kusse is no exception. This was part of a family portrait session he asked me for weeks to come take.

Because there is only one, or sometimes two copies, of each textbook ot the university and not enough copying facilities to copy large sections of them, some strong teachers make course materials from scratch. Here Kusse recreates a section from his MSac physics text, incorporating internet sources to make handouts for his students. Wow, talk about work that shouldn’t have to be done!

Kusse and his lovely wife. She had never been to a university graduation before today. Since 12th grade, she had been a wife and mom, at home and up to her neck in work. It’s hard to see unless you see her often– she not a big smiler and so relatively this was a big one–she was ecstatic.

~ by Jillian & Adam on March 28, 2010.