Rachel describes her family tree, her village, and its local history. She talks at length about the tradition of hospitality in her parents’ house. She relates that each New Year her father used to travel to Gondar to give out food to the needy.

When she was eight, Rachel was sent to study in the school in Wolleka. She lived with her mother’s uncle. During the year she stayed there, Rachel lost weight due to homesickness. Finally, her father brought her home. Her father refused to give up on her education, and sent her to live with her aunt who lived near another school. Rachel talks about her studies and her social life during these years. She notes that in this school they only taught Hebrew. She describes the difference between life in the village and in the town near the school.

After two years, her father removed her from the school and sent her to study and live with her older sister in Enthunis. She studied in a Jewish school for the first year. She then moved to a Christian school, where she studied from third to eighth grade. Rachel explains how the school solved the problem of overcrowding in the classrooms: they studied in two shifts. Her schedule varied every two weeks between studying in the mornings or evenings. She describes the various subjects and notes that from seventh grade onward all the classes were in English. She talks at length about discipline in the school.

Rachel and the other Jewish students concealed their Jewishness to avoid harassment, because Jews were considered inferior. Rachel and her friends adopted Christian jargon and tried to imitate the Christians as much as possible, but over time their secret was revealed.

In her first year in Enthunis, her teacher wanted to arrange for Rachel to marry her son. Rachel tells the story of the match. Her father agreed to the match on the condition that she would not marry until she completed her studies. The couple waited seven years. When the waves of immigration to Israel began, it was decided to make the wedding earlier to enable the couple to immigrate together. Because the entire community planned to immigrate to Israel, it was decided that the last wedding in the village should be especially large. Moreover, Rachel and her fiancée wanted to bring city wedding customs to the village, and make it a wedding the likes of which had never been seen in her village. A week after the wedding celebrations, Rachel immigrated to Israel with her husband.