Coming to Ethiopia?

If you are planning a visit to Ethiopia or if you are coming for a longer time then hopefully this page wil give you some useful information. If you have any more specific questions, please email us and we'll put a FAQ section in. Well it will probably be an AAQ (any asked questions) section.

Things everyone should be prepared for

Hassle

Regardless of where you are from (unless you are Ethiopian) or where you go within the country you will undoubtably get a lot of attention. Most of the time it will be out of curiosity. Kids may want to hold your hand or touch your hair. They may follow you for around for a long time. You are probably the most intersting thing these kids have seen all day if not all week - they really don't have anything better to do. If the kids are savvy enough this attention will likely be accompanied by pleas for something, which takes me on to the next paragraph.

A lot of the time you will get people begging, and kids asking for money, exercise books, pens or sweets. How you react to this probably depends on how you react to begging at home. Whatever you say, if you are a ferenj, people will think you are rich - and in comparison you probably are. However I personnally don't think it's a good idea to hand out money or even pens or sweets willy nilly to every group of kids who ask. For onr thing it enhances the idea that ferenj are money/pen/sweet factories with limitless supplies. It also can encourage people to become dependant on begging. I realise that a lot of people have no choice and only beg because they are desperate but there are also a lot of people (kids too) that make a living from being a professional beggar. Finally on this matter it's also very tiresome when every day, every other person you pass in the street asks you for something espeially whenyou don't earn any more money than an Ethiopian teacher. This behaviour apparently came about because of missionaries encouraging people to join their church by giving out such things. If you ask me they have a lot to answer for.

Some of the time you will get shouted at in the street. The extent to which this happens seems to depend where you are. For example in Addis it doesn't happen that often, in Awassa it happens all the time. I think that most of the shouting stems form two things. 1) the shouter is bored (as mentioned above, they really don't have anything better to do) or 2) the shouter is trying to practise or show off their ability to speak English. This latter point I think was the case when a wee boy shouted "exercise book" at me as I cycled past! As with all of this hassle how you deal with it is up to you and will probably depend on what kind of a mood you're in. If you're just on holiday for a couple for weeks then it's probably fairly easy to play along safe in the knowledge it will soon be just an amusing memory in a few weeks. If you are living here it can drive you almost to insanity and at times makes me hate living here. I think my biggest problem is I take it personally which I am trying hard not to do, but I do tend to take things personally anyway. If I'm feeling grumpy I just try my best to ignore everything. When I'm in a good mood sometimes you can play along with kids by shouting things back in Amharic which usually results in the recipient first being gobsmacked that a ferenj spoke Amharic and then collapsing into fits of giggles. Some of my favourite retorts (and there meanings) are listed below.

The Weather

You'd expect the weather to be hot. In many places it is. It gets up to 50°C in low-lying places such as Gambella. However you will probably be very suprised by how varied the weather can be across the country and how cold it gets in the rainy season. The main reason for the variation is the rift valley. Addis Ababa is at an altitude of about 2500 m and rarely gets uncomfortably hot. However like many capital cities there is more traffic than other places and there is a lot of pollution from cars/buses etc which can make it a bit stifling. When we arrived in Awassa (in February) it was just about the hottest time of year and was about 35°C most days. Awassa has an altitude of about 1700 m so places higher will likely be cooler and vice versa.

During the rainy season (mid June to September) the temperature drops quite dramatically. You definatley need a jumper and waterproofs wouldn't be a bad idea either because when it rains it tends to absolutley tank it down. It's kind of like an English summer really! In the mountains it can be cold at night even during the dry season - it can even get below freezing.

Clothing

One of the biggest decisions I had to make when packing for two years into the stingy 25 kg baggage allowance that BA give you was which clothes should I pack. My main concern was having enough smartish clothes to wear for work so I didn't give much thought to the clothes I wear when I'm not working. I did bring my favourite jeans and wear them a lot in the evenings. If you like going out dancing or drinking or wahtever then there's no harm in bringing a few things to "go out" in. Although I'd suggest avoiding short skirts and skimpy tops unless you want to draw even more attention to yourself - unless you're staying in Addis and there it's pretty much anything goes. Vest tops are probably okay and I wear them occasionally if I'm feeling brave.

Some things you might want to know If you're going to live here

Bike stuff

Some towns in Ethiopia are udoubtedly 'bike towns'. By this I mean that a large proportion of the population get around on bikes. In Awassa this is due to the unavailability of alternative forms of transport except for the ubiquitous gari (horse drawn cart). If you are going to be in a bike town then you might want to think about bringing the following items; puncture repair kit, pump, cycling shorts, set of allen keys. If you're particularly serious then a crank extractor and chain splitter wouldn't go amiss. Spanners are available here, but you might what to put them in your pack if you have some space.

Unless you bring one yourself, bikes come in two varieties (1) The Phoenix moutain bike [Birr1000] (2) The Phoenix cast iron behemoth [less than previous]. You can take your pick.

Cooking stuff

We do our cooking on two kerosene stoves which are easy to use and very cheap to run. We also have an electric ring which we ususally use to boil water. You can buy pots, pans, frying pans etc. in most places. In Addis you can buy pretty much anything, the only thing we haven't been able to find is a potato masher but we are surviving without one. We did bring a small pepper grinder which has been great coz I love black pepper on my food. The other thing that seems to be hard to get hold of is big china mugs for tea etc. If you're keen on cooking maybe you should bring a good quality sharp knife with you. Also in our house we had plenty of forks and spoons but no knives and it's very difficult to buy them seperately. You can get forks and spoons seperately no problem but only sharp knives are sold individually. Basically you can get most things here so unless you really love a certain utensil I wouldn't bother wasting your precious luggage space with cooking stuff. Even the things mentioned above you can find in Addis.

Food

Now this is our favourite subject. In every conversation we have eventually the topic comes back to food. Especially if somebody is going back to the UK or Canada. My favourite question to ask is "What's the first thing you're going to eat?". I really like Ethiopian food but it's not very varied and the choice you have depends a lot on where you live.

^A - You'd be lucky to find this outside of Addis
^B - Only available in big towns
^L - Towns with lakes!
*Lomi is a small green fruit whih is somewhere between a lemon and a lime
** Actually these are apparently grown in very small areas of the country but I've still yet to see one outside the Sheraton Hotel
^£ Expensive - especially on VSO salary
⁺ Must be boiled before you use it

The national food of Ethiopia is injera served with wot. Injera is the staple food and is made from a grain called Teff. It's difficult to describe. The batter is poured onto a large flat injera oven (hotplate) and cooked in a similar way to a crepe. The result is a large (about 50 cm in diameter) pancake shaped injera. It is thicker than a pancake - more like a Scotch pancake and has the texture of a crumpet. The flavour however is nothing like any of these foods which it bears a physical resemlance too. The batter is fermented before it is cooked so it has a slightly sour flavour. Personally on it's own I think it tastes pretty horrible but with wot it is the perfect accompaniament. Although there are a few ferenj who never acquire a taste for it, even though it's difficult to avoid eating it. Wot is a generic term for the sauces that are served with injera.Often the injera is spread out on a large tray and the wot is poured over the middle. You then tear off pieces of injera round the edge and use it to scoop up the wot in the middle. It's common to share the same dish with your fellow diners. Wot is usually spicy and can contain all sorts of things. Kay wot is hot and spicy with meat (Kay means red), Alichya wot is yellow coloured and much less spicy and can come with or without meat. Then there is wot made with lentils, potatoes, or shiro wot is kind of a thick soup made from pea flour. The main meat eaten here is goat or beef either in wot or fried over charcoal and called Tibs. Also on special occasoins dorro (chicken) wot is served. In places with lakes you can often get a spicy fish goulash with injera too.

If you are vegetarian then the best days to eat out are wednesdays and fridays. These are fasting days for the Orthodox Christians they fast until 12 or 3 pm (depending on how devout they are I suppose) and then eat no animals or animal products for the rest of the day. The traditional fasting food is called Bayanetu and is injera served with a variety of toppings dolloped on top. They vary enormously depending on where you get them. They always have various lentil wots on them and then usually some veggies like potatoes, beetroot, spinach or something. During the 55 days before Easter, the Orthodox Chrstians fast as on Wednesdays and Friday. This is great if you're veggie as you can always get something but if you are a meat-lover you might want to avoid the smaller towns where it's not unusual for butchers and dairies to shut up shop for the whole of lent. There are also several other shorter periods throughout the year where there is fasting too. It's not hard to see why most Ethiopians love meat with all these periods of self denial. Some favourite dishes centre around raw meat or ever-so-slightly cooked meat either gnawed straight off the bone or minced up into kitfo. It can be hard to get vegetarian food in restaurants on non-fasting days and for four weeks after Easter when there is no fasting. Several VSOs who were veggie when they arrived have now started eating meat. It depends to a certain extent on where you live and how much fresh veg is available. Of course, there are also several veggies who have remained veggie too.

Another tradition is the Coffee Ceremony. This is a really nice part of Ethiopian culture but can take up a lot of your time. It can last up to 3 hours! It starts with the toasting of raw coffee beans (did you know they're green!) over charcoal. Apparently to roast all the beans evenly without burning them is a very difficult skill. The beans are then transferred into a large wooden bowl and pounded with a big stick to grind them - rather like a very large pestle and mortar. Water is then poured into a traditional coffee pot with some ground coffee and the pot is put on the charcoal stove to boil. After boiling the pot is placed on a ring-shaped holder at an angle to let the grains settle. After the correct length of time, the coffee, or boona, is poured into small teacups and usually drunk with 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. At a coffee ceremony you will get very tasty but very strong coffee and will usually be expected to drink at least three cups! Best avoided just before bedtime.

If you are going to live outside of the capital it might be an idea to stock up on herbs and spices while you are in Addis. You can buy some spices in big towns like berberry which is kind of like chilli powder and some seeds like black cumin and mustard seeds. However all seeds that you buy need to be washed, dried and then ground. In Addis I think you can get pretty much anything but it might be difficult to get Garam Masala and fresh herbs - we had seeds sent over and are growing some in our garden.

Religion

Religion is a big thing in Ethiopia, divided into a few harmonious camps. Othodox Christian, Muslim, Protestant (different to UK), Seventh Day Eventist and Catholics are all represented.

Language

The official language of Ethiopia is Amharic although there are hundreds of other languages spoken in various regions. Amharic is a Semitic language and is written in a script called Fidel. At first glance it looks completely impossible to grasp but with a bit of studying most of it actually makes a lot of sense. There is a "letter" for each consonant sound and a small alteration to this tells you which vowel sound to use with it. We have had some language training and this has been a great help, we can now tell the difference between our laslassa's and our sibsebba's.

Security

Personal security is really a case of common sense. In most places that you are likely to go there is only petty theft to worry about - pickpockets are ubiquitous in places like markets, but in our experience it's not a huge problem if you are aware of the possibility.

If you are living here then you almost certainly will have a zebagna (a guard). Really they are just there to give out a message to petty criminals and the most taxing duty they will probably have to undertake is paying the water bill.

There are parts of the country which should be regarded as no-go areas, but problems are reasonably local to these hotspots.

Computer/Internet access

There are internet cafes in the larger towns. As long as the electricity is on you usually get a reasonable connection. It is reasonably priced at between 30 - 50 cents per minute, though this does start to add up if you have to wait half an hour to download one Meg of data.

If you have a laptop with a modem then all you need is a phone line to get connected. The phone lines are generally of a high enough standard to give a reliable connection. However, the (only) ISP is frequently overloaded meaning that you can't get connected - and the connection is never very fast anyway, so that downloading/e-mailing big files can be frustrating. Cost is presently 11 cents per minute from the service provider (telecom.net.et) plus the call charges which I understand to be less than ten cents per minute.

Money

Ethiopia has an almost exclusively cash economy. It is possible to use credit cards in Addis Ababa in the international hotels and Ethiopian Airlines. I suppose that there are a few other places too. Outside of Addis it's cash only. Money is moved around the country either by having a bank account or by Western Union. My understanding is that you can't move money between bank accounts held at different banks. You should bring a credit card if you have one, so you can buy stuff/flights in Addis and stuff over the internet.

Other Stuff you might want to bring with you

Conditioner - apparently this is available but you won't be able to get much variety e.g. for blonde hair! so you might want to bring your favourite with you.
Cold sore cream - Blisteze
Poly pockets
Stationary stuff - available but expensive
Tampons - only available in Addis
Swimming costumes - can buy them but v. expensive and only small sizes available
Books - again you can buy them in Addis, sometimes for cheaper than at home. If you are a VSO then you wil usually be able to swap books with other VSOs in your town or via the small library in the VSO office.