Written 9.24.2007
Life in Ethiopia continues to surprise us on a daily basis, while it simultaneously continues to become more and more familiar and routine. I won’t use the word normal just yet, because nothing about this place is normal in the sense that we know it in America. With that said, however, we are rapidly getting used to the modes of transportation, the Ethiopian concept of time and accomplishment, and the constant stares we receive every time we step foot out of our compound.
Life is good here.
Just to highlight a bit of our daily life, let me paint you a picture of an average day with average events for us in Addis Ababa before delving into some of the more major events that have happened in the past week. Our day starts with a brisk walk to school, which is a 20-minute jaunt along the side streets and major roadways. Most often, we are surrounded by groups of children who wish to greet us, or smile shyly behind their hands, or grasp our own hands tightly as we walk along, often with little or no communication, as they are not old enough to have learned English beyond simple greetings and our Amharic is progressing very slowly. No matter how many times we walk this route, there are always new people and new sights, and since we continue to be a novelty for the curious eyes, we provide entertainment and wonder for almost every person we come across.
Once we get to school, we usually head straight for our very own office, which is truly a wonderful space for us to have as a home-base at school. But we don’t stay in our office for long, because we have made many new friends among the teachers and faculty, and so we drop our belongings in the office and then make the rounds around the campus to connect with these dear people here and to continue to familiarize ourselves with the campus. Most often, at least in this past week, we created a list for ourselves that we needed to accomplish by the end of the day, and then we usually would complete the list in just a couple of hours. This would bring us to lunchtime, and so we would join whomever we happened to be with at the time for a lunch of traditional Ethiopian food—injera and wot. Imagine a large pancake about the size of a serving platter that tastes like sourdough bread with an extremely spicy stew made of lentils or ground beef, and that’s what Ethiopians eat every day, almost three meals a day. And then imagine that you have no utensils or even a plate of your own—injera and wot are served family style on a large platter, and everyone simply digs in. The best part about eating in Ethiopia is the tradition called gursha in which you are able to show your friendship and love for your fellow eaters by creating a wrap of spicy food in your fingers and then feeding it to them—all without the use of napkins or silverware. Our dear friend Pastor Mattewos likes to tell us that he shows us how much he cares for us by the size of the food he presents to our mouths, and even though we appreciate the gesture, we have had to explain to him many times that our stomachs just aren’t as sturdy as his own. We probably won’t get to the point where we can eat this exotic food every day, but it is wonderful to be a part of the culture in this way.
Most often after lunch we would spend a little time looking over some of the curriculum books that we tracked down through many different sources and attempt to create some sort of plan from these materials. This wouldn’t take very long, because we were still pretty unsure of what the Ethiopian teachers were expecting from us. Since our academic responsibilities during the day were left mainly up to us, then, we would change our tactics to a more personal level and invite Pastor Mattewos out for a coffee break, which is one of the most-often practiced customs here in Ethiopia. Coffee is known to have originated here, and it is one of the most prized possessions and passions of the people. And Ethiopians know how to do coffee. Ethiopian coffee, or bunna in Amharic, is probably as far unlike American coffee as anything you could think of. Although there are many variations, the basic is straight-up coffee, which is actually very similar to espresso shots. And the size of the drink is very important—each bunna is approximately 3 oz., and although this seems small, it is the perfect amount every single time. Besides bunna, then, the other two main staples are macchiatos, which are coffee with a little bit of steamed milk, or wettet ba bunna, which is steamed milk with a little bit of coffee. And for those who aren’t such a fan of coffee, there is always shai, or Addis black tea. Every drink is served with a healthy (or extreme) dose of sugar, and every drink is satisfying due to the quality of both the beverage and the company we keep. Although we dearly love the café-style coffee and tea, we continue to look forward to being able to experience a traditional coffee ceremony, of which you’ll hear about once we have been indoctrinated into this custom.
After this wonderful afternoon break, we would take an excursion to the local 7/11, which is where we bought most everything to set up our house (it’s more like a miniscule Walgreen’s than a slurpee dive). We have still been in the process of creating a home here, and continue to find items that living in our own house necessitate (mop, extra dish towels, rugs, etc.). Since the store isn’t incredibly close, we have learned to take the public transportation system, which is in the form of 15 passenger mini-buses. In order to catch the right taxi, you have to pay attention to the caller hanging out of the side window who shouts the bus’ destination as the driver pulls up to the curb. When you hear the place to which you are going, you squeeze into the bus which is filled with Ethiopians (we have yet to see another farenji, or foreigner, ride in this Ethiopian fashion), and pay anywhere from 65 cents to 1 birr 20 cents (USD $0.07-$0.14) to get to your destination. We have learned how to tell them where we want to get off (woraj alleu) if we don’t want to go to the end of the prescribed route. All in all, it is an exhilarating experience every single time.
Once we return from said excursion, we wind down by working out, making dinner (as similar to American meals as we can create here), and entertaining ourselves through games and the occasional dvd. We have all become experts at several versions of cards, (even to the point of creating an entire notebook dedicated to keeping our scores) and our competitive nature stays healthfully active.
So, that’s been a typical day for us, but as of this week, that will change to a more routine schedule, and it will start to focus less on us and more on the people whom we’ve come to serve. But before I explain that, let me tell you about what we understand of our responsibilities at the school.
(cont. in part 2)
