|
Memories of Keren
Enlarge
Raj Rajan and Indira
Rajan
We were the first
teachers to come to Keren from
India
. We came in August 1966. That
batch of teachers included Mr.Khanna, Mr. Verma and Mr Gurmit Singh. The
others came later. When we came there were 5 Peace Corps teachers.
We
have vague memories of the first batch of students. Among the names which
we remember are the 12th grade students. There were the
following: Arhat, Zeinab and Fathma. There was also one Idris. He suddenly
disappeared and was rumored to have gone to Nakfa to join the ELF. This
was probably in early 1967. Sometime that year or early 1968, we returned
from a weekend trip to
Asmara
by bus. As we got down at the circle, we saw about 10 or 12 bodies laid
down on the side of the road. We heard that these were the rebels who had
been killed by the commandos. We don't know when the bodies were removed
but that was the last time such an incident happened. The authorities must
have realized that it was not good publicity when there were so many
foreigners around.
|
Those
two years were reasonably quiet. There was no curfew. Very soon, the
American teachers were gone. More teachers came from
India
and then we had teachers from
Sri Lanka
and the
Philippines
. Our second son was born in 1968 at the Keren hospital. The school had a
new building. Around that time, Emperor Haile Selassie visited the school
and renamed it
Atzie
Dawit
Secondary School
. We even got him to autograph a picture of him which had with us. He was
gracious enough to do it.
Very
soon, there were many changes. Ato Mahmoud got transferred. All of the
Indian teachers from the first batch got transferred to
Asmara
. I was the Director for a short time before I too moved to
Haile
Selassie
Secondary School
in
Asmara
in 1971. We lived there for a year. After finishing our contract, we left
Ethiopia
in 1972 and came to the
United States
. We started teaching with the
Philadelphia
School District
in 1973.
We
have fond memories of Keren. Those were, without any doubt, the best six
years of our lives.
By Raj Rajan and Indira Rajan
|
