From gringo to faranji

Addis Ababa, Debre Zeit, Jimma, ETHIOPIA: 11 - 16 Jan. 2011

On arrival in Addis Ababa, I met Síle (who moved to Ethiopia in September for a two year VSO volunteer placement), James (who was at the end of his Christmas holiday to visit Síle), and Tom (who I had been introduced to in Dublin over Christmas and who was passing through Addis on his way up from Kenya) - it was bizarre but nice to arrive into a place like Ethiopia and to have three friends to have a drink with within an hour of landing.

Next morning I headed with Síle and James an hour and a half outside Addis to the crater lakes of Debre Zeit.
It was here that I first encountered some things that would become major features of my month in Ethiopia:

• eating the staple food of Ethiopia, injera: It is made from a grain called teff and looks like a flattened foam sponge pancake. It is served on one big plate and everyone at the table shares it, using their handes to wrap pieces of injera around whatever you get served on top, which is often a vegetable or meat wot (stew). Luckily I liked injera, but once (as opposed to three times) a day was enough for me.
• getting encouraging reactions when I tried to speak Amharic or Oromiffa: Ethiopia has over 70 languages and thanks to Síle (whose language skills impressed me greatly) I picked a few phrases in Amharic (the official language) and Oromiffa (the language spoken in the region where Sile lives). The joy and merriment caused by us trying to speak these languages made me feel like a stand-up comedian and it was great encouragement.
• being called a faranji: After 15 months in Latin America being called a gringo, here I was a faranji (that is not a big eared, money-loving alien from Star Trek but rather what Ethiopians call foreigners). Everywhere we went, people called us (and often shouted at us) the word faranji. This was especially the case the following week in Jimma where Síle and I took part in a 7km race (this was supposed to be only 5km, but a few minutes before it started they announced that it would actually be 2km longer!) that was part of the "Great Ethiopian Run" during which people in the crowd lining the city's streets encouraged me throughout the run.

The race was a fun experience and a highlight of my trip.