food and names...

Not surprisingly, the best part about Ethiopia is all the Ethiopian food! I had injera 3 times today!! For those that don’t know, this is not a joke. Ethiopian food really is one of the best cuisines on this planet (and I do consider myself somewhat of an expert). I did discover something new, however. I discovered that I can drink coffee! Those who know me well will be surprised since everyone knows that Steve does NOT like hot drinks, and never has coffee. However, it is such an important part of the culture here that I decided to give it a go. After-all, it was a sunny but cool morning on the café terrace and the machiato only cost 17cents. It was really tasty and smooth. I wouldn’t consider myself a coffee addict, just yet, but I will probably have another. (Do you think that Starbucks will give me anything for 17 cents?)

I always find it interesting, the names they have for white people in different places. In Thailand, people pointed and whispered about the “Falang” as I walked past. In Benin, the children would run behind me shouting Yovo, Yovo, making any attempts to be low-key impossible. In Cote d’Ivoire, people would loudly shout Le Blanc, or Blofwé as they greeted me. But in Addis, I hadn’t heard anything. When I asked how they referred to white people here, I got a good laugh. They do have a word, although it doesn’t come out very often. The word is Ferenge, not very differentiable from the race in Star-Trek, Ferengi. When I was asked what was so funny, I explained that if anyone ever used that word near me, I would immediately picture a short, fat alien with big ears and pointy teeth!

(Interestingly, a quick look into Wikipedia reveals that Star-Trek’s “Ferengi civilization was built on the ideals of free enterprise, where all other goals are subjugated to the pursuit of profit” …and … "Like most of their culture, their religion is also based on principles of capitalism: they offer prayers and monetary offerings to a Blessed Exchequer in hopes of entering the Divine Treasury upon death". Perhaps the linguistic proximity of Ferenge and Ferengi is not quite accidental. I think that describes our culture quite well.

This afternoon, we visited the museum in Haile Selasie’s palace. I was impressed. It was really well done and I learned a ton about Ethiopian culture. In the evening, I met Tanya’s Ethiopian friend, Hewit. She is a fireball of energy and a lot of fun. Together, we all went out to a beautiful restaurant called Habesha. Wow. The food was to die for. So much for learning something about gluttony. I couldn’t stop myself. And a traditional Ethiopian Mead was the perfect complement. How do these people stay so skinny? Answer: They dance. The Habesha had live music playing all evening and towards the end, dancers came out to show the traditional dance. Wow. I had no idea that the human body could move that way. “So you think you can dance” is a long way off what these people can do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA4_nvFlbhA&feature=related

This will give you an idea, although, our dancers were WAY better. The shoulder movement is just phenomenal!

By the way, Habesha, it turns out, is the word that Ethiopians use to describe their own skin colour, not really white, but much lighter than that of most Africans. They say when God was creating people, he had to bake them all. Europeans came out of the oven too early. The Sudanese got left in too long, but the Habesha were baked to perfection!