Zayeda Tesfaye

Zayeda Tesfaye
Zayeda Tesfaye
ዛይዳ ተስፋዬ
Born	4 March 1987 (age 37); Gorgora, Gojjam Province, People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Nationality	Ethiopian
Occupation(s)	Sailor, boat captain

Zayeda Tesfaye (Tigrinya: ዛይዳ ተስፋዬ; born: 4 March 1987) is a Nile crocodile from Ethiopia. She is a sailor and boat captain working for Trans-Carib STC currently based in Saint Titus and Cyril.

Biography

Zayeda was born to a Trigrayan family of fishermen in the town of Gorgora, Ethiopia in 1987. Her father, Kiros, is an ex-soldier of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) between 1981 and 1991, while her mother, Aheza was a nurse. The youngest of three children, she spent much of her childhood in poverty. To make ends meet, Kiros used his connections through the TPLF to siphon financial and food aid from international charity organisations to feed the family, while also buying weapons and ammunition. Zayeda had little formal schooling. Instead, she balanced subsistence fishing with her uncle while receiving informal tutelage from a Chinese aid worker and teacher between 1992 to 1996. In 1997, at the age of 9, Zayeda moved to Bahir Dar when her father and established a small but successful ferry business with the aid of Chinese investment.

In 2004, Kiros suffered a stroke, rendering him unable to operate his business. Against his will, Aheza sold his business for a lump sum of cash to a Chinese mercantile firm willing to pay a premium. The additional cash allowed Zayeda to further her education, and in 2005, she enrolled in Bahir Dar University studying maritime business and seamanship. After obtaining her diploma in 2008, she joined her brother, Gebre, in Jizan, Saudi Arabia (who converted to Islam back in 2004 and married a Saudi woman the same year) as a fisherwoman and fishing boat operator. In the summer of 2013, Zayeda became a maritime pilot for passenger ferries operated by Arab Bridge Maritime.

In 2016, during a routine ferry trip between Aqaba, Jordan to Hurghada, Egypt, Zayeda met Thana, a corvid intermediary from Lebanon. Acting on behalf of the Saint Titus and Cyril government's pro-immigration policy, Thana offered Zayeda the opportunity to become a boat captain of passenger ferry services Trans-Carib STC, an offer which the crocodile accepted. In 2017, Zayeda moved to Draketown, Saint Titus and Cyril, where she became captain of The Glitter, a passenger ferry that would operate numerous routes between STC, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat and Guadeloupe.

Personal life

Zayeda casts a serious and intimidating, yet extroverted figure. Shaped by her difficult upbringing, she is rarely kind to people, and expresses herself more with action than words.

Since 2018, Zayeda has been an active member of the STC MMA Association. Her signature move is called The Snap, which involves clamping down her jaws on an opponent's testicles. She is also a regular patron of GerVal Sports Centre, and is a frequent participant of fight nights on Saturdays. Zayeda is close friends of Irda, whom she panders to the dragoness's instigative nature. Likewise with Pivari, the two often get along, frequently starting fights with GerVal Sports Centre's strongest men for thrills. In addition to her MMA, Zayeda enjoys spearfishing and cooking.

Zayeda lives alone in a duplex house in the town of Pickerington on the island of Saint Titus. She is fond of her Ethiopian heritage, and frequently attends habesha gatherings in Cobble Point. She is raised Ethiopian Orthodox, but rarely practices her faith. She speaks four languages with varying degrees of fluency. They are Tigrinya, Amharic, English and Arabic.