For the second episode of my ‘Uprooting Passions’ series, I had the pleasure of interviewing my good friend and colleague, Elisa “Eli” Aceri. Eli and I met last year when I interned under her during my study abroad in Rome. Many of the skills and career paths I chose today were sparked by my experience working with Eli. I am so excited to share the story of her Ethiopian roots and how this past influenced her passion for travel.
Do you want to start by giving a little bit of background about you and your family?
I am Italian-Ethiopian so I was born in Italy, but raised in Ethiopia. When I was two, my parents decided to move back to Ethiopia so that’s where I was raised. I attended an Italian school in Ethiopia and then after graduation, I moved to Italy in 2009.
So you went to an Italian school in Ethiopia, I didn’t know that.
Yeah, there are a bunch of Italian schools all over the world and actually, I think the one in Ethiopia is the largest Italian school outside of Italy. It’s an actual Italian school that follows the Italian program and most of the teachers, if not all of them, are actually sent from Italy. I think it was in the 1950s when they were asked to integrate the Amharic language classes so that Ethiopian kids would be able to learn things that they’re supposed to in Ethiopian schools as well. But I would say like 95% of the curriculum is almost identical to Italian schools so I have an Italian diploma basically.
Are one or both of your parents Ethiopian or Italian?
Both of my parents are mixed. My mom’s mom was Ethiopian and my mom’s dad was Italian, so my mom is mixed 50/50. My dad’s dad was Italian Eritrean and his mom was full Eritrean. My parents were both in Ethiopia, except my dad was born in Eritrea, which at the time was still part of Ethiopia. My sisters were born in Ethiopia, I am the only person in my immediate family who was born outside of Ethiopia just because my parents met while they were living in Italy. My dad moved to Italy to go to University and my mom moved there for other reasons. That’s where they met through mutual friends and they were living there at the time when I was born. Like I said, after I turned two they decided to move back so I was raised in Ethiopia. My memories start in Ethiopia, that’s all I knew until I was seven or eight when my parents and I came to Italy for a vacation in the summer.
What was it like growing up there?
It was amazing, I think I had a great childhood. I’m so thankful to my parents for deciding to move to Ethiopia and raising me there. I don’t know if it was because it was the 90s or the fact it was Ethiopia, but it was very nice. I remember being outdoors all the time playing. One of my favorite memories is with my sister, we would just play with the mud and make cakes decorated with flowers. It was kind of a different type of childhood, but I really enjoyed it. Whenever we had school breaks and things like that, we would go to the lake and be in contact with nature. We were outdoors as much as we could, everything I think was simple with no internet or cell phones. There’s a million different things that I could talk about, but it was great.
After you graduated high school then you came to Rome?
Yes, but it wasn’t really a straight line. When I left Ethiopia, my idea was to go to London for university. But when I moved to Italy, I found that I had to be a resident of Italy and at the time I was a resident of Ethiopia so I would have been considered an international student. As an international student, my tuition would have been so much higher so I had to become a resident of Italy. I was in Torino at the time because that’s where my uncle lives and he took me the same day I arrived to the comune where you get these things sorted. While I was waiting for my documents I decided I would hang out in Rome since I had friends here. I obviously fell in love with it, and I was already thinking about staying here so it helped that my documents never arrived. It took months and when you ask to become a resident they need to come to your home to check you’re actually there and as luck would have it, the time I was visiting in Rome was when they came to check out the house. By the end of it, I decided I really liked Rome, it’s a nice place, and I might as well just stay here for university.
What do you miss the most about Ethiopia?
The food, my friends, and the places. There are some places where I left pieces of my heart. Especially this place called Langano, it’s a lake where we would go every time we had a break from school. I used to go there as a kid with my family and then when I became a teenager and was allowed to go on vacation by myself, I would go with my friends. I remember we would spend weeks at a time in that place during summer break and go to the city when we ran out of food and money and then go back. It was a very simple and natural life because we would just go fishing, swimming, and just walk. It wasn’t a fancy vacation but it was a nice time, we enjoyed our friendship by making bonfires on the beach, having some drinks, and just talk.
How do you see your upbringing in your life today?
I feel like it made me a humble person in a sense because I don’t need fancy things to be happy. I also think growing up with these two cultures between Italian and Ethiopian culture gave me this open-mindedness that really helps me whenever I travel for example or meet new people. My parents always emphasized the importance of helping others. We are very lucky to have a job and a house, and so we should help others whenever you can. To be kind, that is the most important thing. It doesn’t have to be crazy displays of kindness or respect, but it can just be a smile to the person who sells magazines in the piazza or stopping to talk to people who you see several times or helping an older lady carry her grocery bags. But also to not judge whenever you meet someone who comes from a different background or culture and rather be open to learn more because I think in the end there’s always a learning opportunity.
As you know, I like to travel as much as I can. That also helps to kind of go with the flow, meet the locals and not expect fancy things. I just grab my backpack and walk, explore the places, and meet the people. I think my upbringing shaped me in lots of ways that I guess I never really considered. I think that if I had grown up here in Italy or just a different culture, it would have been different maybe.
I guess in some ways the more flexible you are in life, I think the more opportunities you can have, or more learning experiences you can have.
Exactly. I usually travel by myself and people always ask how I am not scared but, why do I have to be scared? People are generally nice and obviously, you need to be careful and aware of your surroundings but if you just be yourself, people are always very welcoming and there’s not much to be scared about.
It sounds like traveling is such a passion of yours. Would you agree?
Definitely. I got this from my dad because he loved to travel and he was a real traveler, not like a tourist. He would walk all over and meet people to connect with the locals, he did pass this passion on to me. I remember the last few vacations we did together, me and him would be together all the time because we’d like to do the same things. We would walk, explore places, and meet people at bars or different places like that. We were very much into traveling and connecting with the culture which influenced me. I absolutely love it, If I could live by traveling I would be the happiest person on earth. All I need is a place to sleep, a backpack, and the ability to travel all over. My dream would be to be able to visit all the countries in the world.
What do you hope to experience or accomplish in the future?
I try not to set specific goals or big goals. I usually prefer to have a bunch of smaller goals. I think that works better for me but in general, I would like to travel more. I would like to have more time for myself because as much as I love my job, it is very time-consuming so I always end up not having much time for myself and my passions. I did learn recently to just make time for me and the things I want to do, as you know I’ve started doing CrossFit about a year ago. I’d like to maybe try to carve more time for other passions as well. Ideally my very long-term goal would be able to work without needing to and rather working because I want to. I’d like to continue learning, challenging myself, and improving.
My last question is what’s one bit of advice you can give to people looking to connect with their roots?
Talk to people, talk to your relatives, do your research. I think that especially talking to relatives or older people in your family really helps you expand your knowledge about your roots. If you have a different cultural background, try to travel to the place where you or your family are originally from. And again, talk to people. I think that’s actually fundamental to talk, it can be with anyone. There’s this one saying I read somewhere that we have two ears and one mouth because we’re supposed to listen more and talk less. You do learn so much just by communicating so my advise would be to talk and be open also. I think being open is essential because if you are not open to learning new things, there’s not much you can learn. You need to be open and accepting so if you do go looking for things, you’ll find them eventually. And again, most important, talk to people.
