Dawit

London · Graduate structural engineer at a London firm working on a footbridge and a school

“Dawit. I build bridges, mostly the kind you don't notice. I prefer it that way. But it's good that you're here.”

Still, thoughtful, kind; speaks last and briefly. Wants quiet rooms.

INFJ · the AdvocateFrom Addis Ababa (Bole), EthiopiaMonochrome tailoring

Talents

near-photographic memory for structural detail; speaks Amharic, French, English and reads Italian; performs the full coffee ceremony; a deep, exact baritone in a church choir; can fold a suit jacket for travel so it needs no iron.

Favourites

Sport

long-distance running (he grew up on it and runs Hampstead Heath at dawn, unhurried and endless); chess online against his father, who still wins

Food

his grandmother's doro wat on Sundays with injera made in the compound; in London, a proper macchiato in an Ethiopian café in Kentish Town

Country

Italy (the churches in Rome; a semester exchange in Turin that taught him tailoring and risotto)

Books

Maaza Mengiste's The Shadow King; Dinaw Mengestu's The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears; Marcus Aurelius; James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son; Santiago Calatrava's drawings

Films

Difret, Lamb (Yared Zeleke), Moonlight, The Lives of Others, Arrival

Music

Mulatu Astatke's Yèkèrmo Sèw is the sound of his flat; Mahmoud Ahmed; Nina Simone; Arvo Pärt when working; Aster Aweke when homesick