Danny

I think tonight is the night I will tell you about Danny. He is our taxi driver. How simple is that right? Why would I need to blog about a taxi driver. You will hopefully understand by the end. All Jill and I knew is that we would have a driver for our time in Ethiopia and his name was Danny. He would pick us up from the airport.

Now, If you have ever traveled for over 24 hours, arrived in a completely and total foreign land, survived customs and felt complete and total exhaustion, then you know how important it is to be met and reassured by a friendly face. We saw Danny in the crowd holding up a Bethany Christian Services sign. We saw his smiling face, we heard our names, we heard ENGLISH! At this moment, Jill and I knew that Danny was our lifeline. He carried our luggage and delivered us safely to our guest house.


As the week continued we quickly learned that Danny is a very wise, faithful and thoughtful man. He loves his work first because it helps support him and his extended family (he is not married), secondly, because he loves to meet new people and learn from them. We asked why he was not married (he is 29) and he replied it was very important for him to have a good job, in which he is not working every day for 12 to 16 hours and that he has money saved up to buy a home. He stated it is very important to meet a woman who has his same beliefs about learning, contentment and family.

Danny lives in his mother’s home with his brother, his sister-in-law and their 2 children. But Danny does not stay there, he sleeps in a back room of his brother’s pharmacy so that his brother and family can have privacy. He often gets calls in the middle of the night for work and does not want to disturb the family. He loves his little room, he washes his own clothes by hand and he cooks for himself. He smiles when he talks about his work, his family, his life, because he is so happy and content.

Danny has been our Amharic teacher. He will not let us use English if we have learned the Amharic word. Every day he teaches us new words, we have to repeat them over and over and write them down. When we write them down he looks to make sure it is correct. If we do not remember he makes us try before he gives us the word. It is amazing how much I have learned driving through the city with Danny.

Danny also wants to learn everything about English. EVERYTHING. We teach him new words as well, mostly slang. For example we taught him a lot of abbreviations which he thinks are hilarious! For example he now knows: FYI, ASAP, GDK (good to know), OOC (out of control) OMG (oh my goodness!) and a few others. When we teach him a new word he writes it on his hand and then looks it up in the dictionary later. He never forgets. You can see in quiet times in the car that he is whispering to himself. We also practicing saying “hello” in all the languages we all know together. Jill, Danny and I now can say hello in; English, Amharic, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. We think we are pretty cool. We finally gave Danny a small spiral notebook for him to write in when he is driving. He loves it!

Danny knows so much about the city and about the people. He has so much patience, laughter and contentment. He is observant and has a very good sense of humor. We laugh so much with Danny and he loves to tease others. Jill and I both decided that Danny is our Ethiopian brother. We want to see him reach his dreams, find a wonderful, caring and humble woman and raise a family. Danny has a huge heart for children and I think, if he was given the chance at an education, he would make an excellent social worker.

Danny says he would like to go to the States. I would honestly hate to see him here. He would have such a hard life and would be treated poorly as a black, foreign taxi driver. He would miss the connection that the Ethiopian people have. He would miss the slower pace of life, the overwhelming acceptance of all people living, and Addis Ababa.

Ohdahalo Danny!