This post was written by Justin Guiffre, a Hatchet columnist.

This  semester, in my desparate attempt for money, I began to work at a restaurant out in Georgetown. Interestingly enough, I’ve gotten more than paychecks out of the experience.

On any given night, the staff will collectively have conversations in about seven languages, whether between themselves or with customers. Most of these are languages native to or largely spoken in Africa, since close to a majority of the restaurant’s employees are from there. Some of these people are the most fascinating I have ever met.

On Monday night the restaurant was slow, probably due to wallets hurting after the Thanksgiving weekend. I ended up working with Rahel, one of the nicest people I have ever encountered. Rahel was born in Ethiopia and moved to Washington D.C. to raise a family. Before Monday I had talked little to Rahel and hadn’t given much thought to her background. But as we laughed over my lame attempts to speak Amharic (Ethiopia’s official language) she began to tell me about her aspirations.

Unknown to me at the time, Rahel holds a B.A. in business administration and has a profound love of economics. So when she asked me about studying international affairs and my economics classes, I was amazed at her obvious understanding of these things. She then explained that she hoped for a Master’s degree in development studies so that she could return to Ethiopia and help to cultivate its economy.

It reminded me of the efforts now underway with the student group BANAA, which this year brought the first of hopefully many Sudanese students to GW’s campus. The goal is to provide a full scholarship to students affected by the crisis in Sudan under the condition that they return to their home country to work for its development.

I doubt that the condition is very necessary, in that many of these people seem more concerned about seeing their country prosper than themselves. It is an inspiring thing to know that people like Rahel are out there and often in the last place you would expect to find them.