Living in America

Yesterday during lunch, the center coordinator and I spoke about more
than just movies. One thing he said was that he has two brothers and two
sisters living in America near Washington D.C. Most people probably
don't realize how many Ethiopian immigrants there are in America.
According to the 2000 census, the number was 72,000, although the number
is mostly much, much higher, possibly around 1.2 million. According to
my Ethiopian coworker, Amharic is the 5th language of the U.S. capital.
He admitted that many Ethiopians go to America on student visas to
study, many of them end up working 12-hour days doing manual labor, he
said that his brother has a degree in economics from Ireland and now
works at a U.S. bank. Both of his brothers are married and have children
now, and although his sisters are still single, they all live nearby one
another. One can only hope that the current recession won't affect his
siblings too badly.