Narrative of my experience discovering my topic, how it affects the country I chose, and what makes the issue so interesting to me.
When I found out we had to choose a country to research, and evaluate a topic concerning that country, I knew exactly which one I was going to pick. Ethiopia is an independent but very advanced country, and it's history was what made me want to research the country and learn even more. Another reason for my topic being about the country Ethiopia, is that I have already had some knowledge of Africa from my family. My Aunt, Uncle, and cousins on my mom's side of the family used to live in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. My Uncle helped to set up a Lutheran seminary in Senegal. Having family that lives in another country across the world from you makes it hard, but it also sparks new interests in what it's like to be somewhere new and I always kept up with their daily lives and had contact with with them on all of Africa's current events. Since my Uncle is a missionary, Africa is just one of the places that him and his family have lived, and visited. I also saw it as taking a risk with a place I didn't know much about there is a lot of pressure to do the country justice, and represent it the best way possible. Before I even started researching Ethiopia, my first thought was it has to be a small country, mainly because I have never heard of its history. Little did I know that Ethiopia is the most populated African nation, with a history of being a very advanced country, involved in anything technology to better the country. When I started to research, I faced a little bit of trouble trying to find the most important current event, or topic discussed often. I came upon the involvement of space technology in Ethiopia. I have always had an interest in space ever since I visited NASA. I never expected a country in Africa being so far from the U.S., could be just as advanced in space technology and able to influence other small countries with the same hopes and dreams. My original hypothesis is that the involvement in space technology wouldn't really bring a change to Ethiopia, but once I finished my research and fully developed my thesis, I soon found out that the economy, military, and country's communications would be affected by these new events. I knew that I picked the right country and I knew that their accomplishments set an example to the whole world, which is very important and powerful in Ethiopian history.