Abdulla's (the weaver's) story really begins, in December, 2009, when he stood at the door way of the Community Center in Gara Dima, along side other men and women. This is where I met him. He arrived, like them, to take park in a carpet weaving class about to begin. The class was provided by The World Family and taught by, Bert Manriquez, a retired college teacher from Palo Alto, California. Abdulla took to weaving right away. He mastered basic weaving skills and even tutored other students during class. At the end of class, he and the other students were given tools, wool and cotton supplies, and the wooden looms, five in all, that they had helped to build. Most importantly, by the end of the workshop, he and the others now had the skill to weave woolen carpets - a saleable item that could generate family income.

But we get ahead of ourselves! Several years ago, the Weaving Center did not exist and Abdulla did not know how to weave. Abdulla was like many men in Gara Dima - a village with many needs but few opportunities like most in this region of Ethiopia. His desires are simple, much like yours and mine really but, of course, with much greater urgency. Where we are concerned with buying the latest fashion item or earning enough for the next car we want to drive, Abdulla must live day to day. Instead of planning into the distant future, subsistence-living shortens his time horizon from planning years in advance, to planning by days and weeks. He worries about how to provide for family essentials, such as food to eat, clothes for the kids and how to pay for school supplies. And heaven forbid that a serious illness should strike his wife or one of the kids because medicines, if available, require cash savings - something he doesn't have. Nor does he have a means to generate it.

So you see Abdulla was like most men in the village, with many needs but with few opportunities. Abdulla, however, is not as you might think, ground-down by poverty and without ambition. When you meet him, right away you notice a vigor and gleam in his eye, which signals both a will to somehow get-ahead and a hope in tomorrow. He is intelligent, and alert for opportunities. He is not alone in this. Most men and women in Gara Dima are just like him. All they require is an opportunity.

So, as the story continues, Abdulla completed The World Family weaver's workshop with "flying colors". He became the unofficial leader and was asked to help tutor new students. His patience and skill made him the ideal candidate for more advanced training to teach the others. In February of 2011, he was granted a training scholarship to intern for one week at the Arat Kilo Weaving Center in the capital city, Addis Ababa. Abdulla is now passing-on to his fellow weavers the newly acquired skills. Six weavers have organized to produce carpets to sell and to construct additional looms as needed. They are learning that the market is competitive, requiring new items for sale, better made and with new designs. It won't be easy but they now have more hope for the future.

This real-life story is inspiring but it isn't a complicated story. It's mostly about one man and an opportunity that was provided. It's about a man, Abdulla, who took an opportunity to learn how to weave and now has a means to generate income. How simple is that? He isn't special, really, or different from us. He is hard working, friendly and courteous, age 58, with a young wife, Girma, and several children. If you go to The World Family Weaving Center in Gara Dima (as I have), his young daughter, Musteria, can be seen watching him as he weaves.