Salaam from Ethiopia Everyone!

            I have had 2 fantastic weeks since I started this blog. I went to an Angolan Independence Day party, visited museums, and started looking into local volunteering opportunities. I’ve decide to give you, the readers of my blog (which to my surprise, actually exist) some information about Ethiopia this week and share some of my random experiences.

            After accepting my internship offer in Ethiopia, I was really excited about coming here, especially from an anthropological perspective. I remember learning about human evolution way back in my 2nd year becoming and being human class and being absolutely fascinated by the discoveries made in Ethiopia. I was very disappointed when I googled Lucy, who is believed to have been the ‘great aunt’ of the human race (a. afarensis), and learned that she was on tour in the US. Also, the National Museum in Addis Ababa doesn’t actual ever display the real fossils, but just displays the replica due to fear of damage (then why in the world is she on tour?!). Despite all this, I still went to the National Museum to catch a glimpse of the fake Lucy… who is also referred to as Dinkenesh (you are beautiful/wonderful) in Amharic. The National Museum was interesting; however, I felt it severely lacked information regarding the displays/artifacts.

            The following weekend I went to the Ethnographic Museum located on the Addis Ababa University campus (beautiful campus btw). I enjoyed my visit to this museum, especially because I was given a personal tour. I learned a lot about the Ethiopian culture and history at this museum. It was extremely informative… pretty much the complete opposite of the National Museum… I was in information overload!

§    The origin of coffee began in Ethiopia in a nearby city of Kaffa; from where it acquired its name

§    Ethiopia is completely landlocked; the countries that border Ethiopia are Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Kenya

§    Emperor Haile Selassie I (born Ras Tafari Makonnen) is considered God incarnate by Rastarfarians

§    Ethiopia has 84 indigenous languages

§    Abebe Bikila (2 time Olympic marathon gold medalist) won his first gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics running barefoot

§  The hideous creature known as the mole rat (I will post a picture… but beware, it is not for the faint of heart) is indigenous to Ethiopia (thanks for the heads up Cathy but I still had to come here!)

 Addis… not a dessert??? 

            I remember informing some of my friends that I was coming here, and the first thing they said was something along the lines of, ‘Ethiopia… aren’t you going to be really hot in the dessert?’  So fyi… yes, Ethiopia has a warmer climate than Canada at the moment, however, Addis Ababa, is definitely not a dessert area. The capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, is actually about 2400m above sea level! Beautiful hills surround the city. (Aside: I finally got out of the central city and went to a country side farm. It was absolutely stunning… and Bhai, they had beautiful white horses! I will try to post some pictures!) Even after a month, my body has not acclimatized to the altitude… I am very breathless after climbing 5 flights of stairs every morning on my way to the ENA office.

            It also gets unbelievable cold at night… which I totally wasn’t prepared for. Thankfully, our landlady gave me a really warm blanket for the dreadfully cold nights :) 

            The Ethiopian/Ge’ez calendar has 13 months… hence the Ethiopian saying ’13 months of sunshine.’ The new year in the Ge’ez calendar began on September 11th this year… and guess what year they celebrated?? 2000! So I am re-living the Millennium! How cool is that? And I also get to celebrate Christmas twice since Ethiopians celebrate the Orthodox Christmas. Although, there are benefits to living here, it can also be confusing. Ethiopian time is a prime example. The day begins at 7 am which is 1 o’clock, and then 8 am is 2 o’clock, and so forth. So when speaking to someone here, I always need to make sure I have the correct frame of time. Just this morning I was speaking to someone on the phone and was told an event would start at 2:30. I was confused as to why it was starting so late and asked “2:30 pm?” to which the man replied ‘no, 2:30, which is 8:30 am.’ Wowsers… imagine showing up to an event 6 hours late!

            People can’t quite understand where I’m from. People will randomly yell out where they think I’m from on the streets…sometimes I get India! which makes sense… I totally look Indian… but other times, it’s China?! Germany?! Greece?! When I say I’m Canadian… I get a weird look… like ‘no way… you can’t be Canadian!’ This is especially true when I’m with my housemate, Charlotte. They look at her and think yeah, she’s Canadian… but you, you’re definitely not Canadian. I then explain that my parents immigrated to Canada from India… which may still leave them puzzled. The concept of a multicultural country does not exist in their minds.

            At other times, I’m mistaken for Ethiopian/Abesha (which by the way is a huge compliment, because Ethiopian women are gorgeous). People will start speaking to me in Amharic and expect me to understand… I only wish I could. But after about a month here, I don’t really feel like such a ferengi (foreigner) anymore. Addis feels very safe like home, which is reassuring since personal safety was one of my concerns prior to arriving here.

News Flash: I also “ran” in the Great Ethiopian Run (GER) this past Sunday with about 30 000 other people. It was a fun-errific day! The distance of the run was 10k… and as you can see I put ran in quotation marks. This is because I’m definitely not a runner… but I couldn’t pass up the great experience. [As my housemate Emily put it, “it’s the Millennium run… it only comes around every 1000 years… you may not be around for the next one.”] So I walked most for most of the distance (running uphill at this altitude leaves you gasping for air).

            The GER was sponsored by many local NGOs, including UNICEF. The funds collected from the run will go to the UNICEF Dream Campaign which supports children orphaned by and/or living with HIV/AIDS.

            As for my internship, I have been encountering some challenges along with the successes. I am the IT intern, so sometimes I feel as though they think I’m an expert, which I am not in any way. Thankfully, I have been able to troubleshoot any minor problems the staff have encountered. I have also started to complete parts of my projects, which feels great. However, things progress at a slower pace here, and it was tough to adjust at first. Now, I just let things ‘go with the flow.’ Although, I do like things more structured and organized… I’m starting to like this worry-free work style. On the other hand, I am finding myself getting bored sitting in an office all day… which is why I’m starting to look for a more ‘hands-on’ volunteer opportunity. Hopefully this will involve using some of my clinical nursing skills.

A big thank you to my friends, for letting me vent my frustrations during the difficult times and for reassuring me that the work I’m doing is helpful! :D

Ciao for now ;)


Note to my family: I went to the post office yesterday and sent out your Christmas presents... they should arrive between 7-20 days... hopefully you get the packages in time ;)