New Year's Eve in Ethiopia

The majority of Ethiopians belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian church, which goes back to the 4th century A.D. They utilize the Julian calender, which was later dropped for the Gregorian calender in the Western world. As it turns out, according to the Julian calender, the year 2000 began last year and on Sept. 11th of this year it became 2001. Therefore, on our drive back from Awassa on Sept. 10th, Getahun and Alemu were wanting to buy a couple sheep, some chickens, grass, sticks and charcoal. When Alemu told me we were going to be bringing goats and chickens back in the car with us, I thought he was pulling my leg again. He thought my disbelief was pretty amusing and sure enough, the morning of the 10th he and Getahun drove up with a couple sheep in the back. I was left at the hotel because, as Alemu put it, "If you are there we will pay five times as much." As Alemu explained, for any celebration in Ethiopia it is tradition to slaughter a sheep and/or chickens for the feast the day of the celebration. Grass is scattered on the floor (apparently symbolic of green harvests and plentiful bounty) and sticks are burned the night before. The charcoal is for roasting the meat. In the pictures above you see grass being sold along the road, Getahun negotiating a price for a chicken (we stopped at least 7 or 8 times before they got the price for the chickens they wanted), and a few curious children who had fun seeing their picture on my digital camera. Below that is a photo outside a place we stopped at for lunch. In the photo Getahun is tying down the charcoal on the roof and on the left are the two sheep we took along. In the rear is an open door which is the local restroom, which is used by both men and women.

On the way back to Addis we also stopped by a Rastafarian commune comprised nearly entirely of converted Jamaicans (e.g., Bob Marley, the most famous Rastafarian). Rastafarians, to put it simply, believe Haile Salassie is the returned Savior (Haile Salassie was the last Emperor of Ethiopia and believed by most to have been killed by the Derg, a Communist group that overthrew the royal government and was later overthrown by the current group in power). I read about this commune and so Alemu was gracious enough to stop by. The gentlemen I met at a local restaurant were very friendly and spoke great English, albeit with a groovy Jamaican accent. The gentleman on my left in the photo just loved telling me about their community. I told him I wanted to buy a hat like his, so off goes a friend of theirs and brings back a hat made by the man's mother (named Diamond he tells me). So now I too have a groovy Jamaican Rastafarian hat.

In Addis we saw more markets where grass, sheep and chickens were being sold. As the night came the air became increasingly smokey from the burning of the sticks and cooking of dinner throughout the city. In one of the photos above is a picture at a stop light that is the new center of Addis-- just to give you an idea of the newest part of the city.

That evening Alemu and I burned sticks and had Ethiopian beer (called Tala) and coffee and Dorowat. Up to midnight we went to a local hotel that had traditional Ethiopian dance and food and celebrated to bring in the New Year (2001).

The next day we went to Alemu's parents in law home (they are now deceased, but the family continues to celebrate there to "honor the house", as Alemu puts it) with his sister, brother in law and nephews. I promised not to include family photos, but they are an adorable family. His brother in law was imprisoned for a year and a half by the current Ethiopian government for purported "terrorist acts". He was released six months ago as part of a plea deal with other political detainees. He was never charged (as my commentary, this is why putting people in jail without charge or trial is dangerous in any country that calls itself a free democracy and one of the many reasons why the last eight years in the US have set a horrible precedent for abuse of power. I hope to God we as a country make a good choice this November). Another brother in law came by the home dressed in black. It turns out his son was killed by a bomb, about 6 months earlier, that exploded outside a market in the Marcado area in Addis. Many believe the government is responsible for this and a few other bombings that have killed civilians-- which have been blamed by the government on terrorist groups-- in order to create a condition of fear and a justification to maintain a military presence in the communities. Strangely this governmental fear mongering to divert attention from the social/economic problems just reminded me so much of home. Anyway, it was easy to talk politics in Ethiopia because as you may have guessed, I am no fan of W. Bush politics and do support B. Obama-- as do the vast majority of people in Ethiopia as well. My Obama T-shirt was a popular item, which I later gave to Alemu with a bunch of Obama bumper stickers I found in my luggage. To give you an idea of how popular Obama is in Ethiopia, we ate at a restaurant named Obama in Bahir Dar with his picture on the sign and we occasionally saw cars or trucks with the name Obama painted on the back.