Travels Part I: Ethiopia

By Leah

In the past month, I've traveled to Ethiopia, Uganda, and Ghana for work. I'll write a post on each.

Ethiopia

In late September, Steve and I spent a week in Ethiopia, attending the same microfinance conference where I was speaking and he was making deals.

Ethiopia is really poor, much more than I expected. I haven't seen so many people sleeping in the streets (including the medians of busy roads) outside of India. And so many things reminded me of Haiti- women crouching, selling fruits and vegetables atop straw mats laid on mud and sewage; makeshift shelters placed randomly around the city (photo below); people selling unmarked medicines at stoplights; and beggars at every turn.

The country is home to more than 90 million people, and has the 6th highest birth rate in the world. Addis Ababa (where we were) is the country's only major city, and most people live in the countryside, which I hear is quite beautiful.

The culture in Ethiopia is still very traditional, and so fascinating. Coffee is part of the national ethos, and I had what I call the "hands-down-the-best-cup-of-coffee-in-my-life-by-far-no-contest." There's no other way to describe it and I have my husband to thank for taking me to a shabby little restaurant where the coffee cups didn't match the saucers and they didn't have any of the food that was listed on the menu, but where the coffee was sublime.

In heaven with my second cup.

After coffee, Ethiopian food and traditional dance dominated our cultural experience. The food was very rich, very spicy and absolutely fantastic. We ate most meals with our fingers, using the spongy injera flatbread to scoop up piles of stewed meat, lentils, and vegetables. As for the dancing, it's easily the strangest, most fascinating style I've seen, and it's best enjoyed with a meal eaten from a straw stool in a dimly lit den. (In the video below, notice the Nigerian man who is taking liberty to stand in front of the stage to get his photos. What you don't see in the video is his later decision to get up on stage, start dancing with the women and sticking paper money to their foreheads. I was completely appalled but a colleague assured me that this was common practice in Nigeria).

Out to dinner

Steve and I took an afternoon off work and did some sightseeing around town. We visited Lucy, the oldest human ancestor every unearthed. In Houston, in 2008, you would have paid $20 to get into the Lucy exhibit. Steve and I each paid $1.50 to get into Ethiopia's three-story, 3,000 square foot, house-turned-museum where we found Lucy sequestered to a dark corner in the basement. A piece of laminated computer paper explained how the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was her namesake.

Steve and Lucy

It was unsettling how crummy the little museum was, despite holding a major archeological treasure. I've found that even very poor countries will usually invest in their national museum and similar public buildings. I took the dilapidated museum as a sad indicator of the country's financial state.

Goat herding in the city

Steve and I did our part to contribute to the local economy. We shopped the silver jewelry stores (a local speciality) and bought some neat pieces. And we brought home six large bags of coffee...which will last us approximately two months.