ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- The walls are crumbling plaster. The roof is canvas and mud. A plastic washtub, half full of grimy water, sits under a rickety rack of shelves. It is four paces one way, five paces the next, over benches and beds and a small stack of beat-up books. It is dark and dirty and smells of the chickens and cows that trot about in the courtyard next door.
But for Taye Eshetu Alagaw, this was home. And it might as well have been a castle.