rock-a-bye ethiopain

at the end of coffee dad looks at me and says, "I know you are working with our children but they are not the problem,
we are.
We have problems.
I am sorry for the long talk without feeding you breakfast.
We can't do that right now.
Next time will will have our coffee ceremony for you."

he sat there with three 20 something year old suburban white girls on his couch. he swallowed everything, including his own coffee and the obvious gulps of pride to explain why he was working at a gas station, why he wanted to feed his family, why he couldn't think of the future, why we had a better life than him . despite his most recent indigestible digestion out of thimble brittish tea cups, all he could say was

"i need courage" with a slight gesture of a fist upward.meeksmile. eyesfrowning. maybe mona lisa had something similar to hide. he said easy to get hopeless. car broke. down. told his 9 yr old daughter birthday money fix the car. 

she responded, it is your car daddy, use your own money.

"we are the problem, not our daughters."