House-mates

NAME: Yacob
NATIONALITY: Ethiopian
MOTHER TONGUE: Ankaran
FAMILY: six children, 1 of 9 siblings, thousands in extended family
ROLE AT VFC: Consultant, helping them lower their PAR, training


NAME: Antonina
NATIONALITY: Russian/Belgian
MOTHER TONGUE: Russian
FAMILY: Married
ROLE AT VFC: Mobile Banking

Our current living situation sounds like a sitcom pilot, a classic fish-out-of-water story with lots of crazy stereotypes and personalities to exploit. Aside from Yacob's crazy stories about 30 m pythons eating buffalo (seriously. He grew up in the bush, his father was a missionary) and Antonina's love of beets and vodka (just kidding), they're fairly normal people. There's also the very interesting political discussions that we're able to have. Both of them are very well informed on global and American politics and issues, so we've had some lively talks.

All in all, they're lovely people, and I've been blessed to get to know them so far. Yacob has just gone home to Ethiopia, but will return to VFC shortly after I leave.