Interpersonal Communication Analysis

“Thak you Axumawit for my friend”. It was scribbled and ripped off from her notebook, and next to the message were two stick figures holding their arms together, “Axu” and “Mariam” were written at the top of their oval heads.

In the summer of my junior year, I was able to volunteer at an hospital that was near my mom’s hometown in Ethiopia. Mariam was my “buddy” for the next three months and she grew to be someone that I considered to be a little sister. Mariam hardly spoke English, while I barely spoke Tigryina, missing a common language, our only option was to utilize everything else- facial expressions, body language, and strange sounds- in order to communicate with each other. Throughout the next three months, she detected my love, and I sensed her appreciation.

I began to understand how important communication was, it was more than a system and this was through my relationship with Mariam. Slowly, it clicked to me that when communicating it’s not only a one-way system conveying information, instead it’s sharing mutual understanding that includes shared experience.

ESA began a program where they would send school supplies to orphanages in northern Ethiopia. Wanting to share the true story of Ethiopia to my group, I asked Kidane Merhet representative to Skype us about the organization. Right away, I promoted on social media, asking friends to help sell items, and setting an information tables. I finally decided to create an Ethiopian Night at Century college to help raise money. I recall depositing tons of flyers to the students and to the faculty member mailboxes, hoping that it will somehow impact one person to