Home in Ethiopia
by Arlene Thies
Born and raised in Alva, Oklahoma, Arlene Thies, in Home in Ethiopia an Oklahoma Family Story journeys through her extraordinary experiences that placed her, and family, half-way around the world to Africa-Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda. In the early 1960s, Arlene, a young mother of three children, and her husband, Zeke, an agronomist, accepted an Oklahoma State University (then called A&M)/government assignment to train Ethiopian farmers. That decision began the discovery of dramatic cultural contrast. Arlene portrays the trip preparation that started in Bozeman, Montana, where her husband was employed at Montana State College-flights to Washington D.C., Rome, Athens, and arrival in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She describes confrontation with the land, language, daily living, native customs that were so different, sometimes shocking, then the values she was raised with in rural, Northwest Oklahoma, and her encounters with the Emperor's family. Now, 86 years old, Arlene appreciates her experience in Ethiopia that enriched her as a human being and where she made lifelong friends. Arlene tells her story in intimate narration and many photographs. She now lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
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Author Biography
Arlene (Wiersig) Thies was born in a farmhouse on a cold and windy day, March 5, 1931, in Alva, Oklahoma, with doctor Daniel Ensor in attendance. She lived with the fun of an icebox, a cistern, and an outhouse, but blessed to have had electricity. She attended a two-room parochial grade school for eight years which taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. 4-H club was introduced where she learned cooking, gardening, canning, sewing, and healthy living. Arlene graduated from Alva High School in 1948. Then she graduated from St. John's two-year college in Winfield Kansas. Her attendance at St. John's was a highlight time for her where she learned to have fun, laugh, and play. She taught four grades with thirty-four children in a two-room parochial school in Freeman South Dakota, earning one-hundred-fifty dollars a month. Also, taught in Perryville, Missouri, and Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Married, she lived in Sidney and Bozeman, Montana, before going to Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Iran. Arlene moved back to Oklahoma in 1975 so that her four children could attend stateside schools and experience the American life. She divorced in 1978. After working at many different jobs, Arlene settled at Oklahoma Gas and Electric and retired from there in year 2000 and now lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
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