About Ethiopia
This blog is gonna be about my experiences in Ethiopia. I was there for about 10 months, from November 22, 2004 until October 12, 2005. I had gone for a short vacation and it turned out to be a long one.
I lived in a place called Jimma. Its about 337 kilometers away from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Its supposed to be one of the best coffee areas in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is known for its coffee produce and export. I was actually surprised to see coffee from Ethiopia being sold in the Co-op markets and also at other cafes. I did ask the salesperson if the coffee was really from Ethiopia! They mostly sell stuff from Harar-thats another so-called city in Ethiopia. I havent been there yet so I dont know if it is a city or a town or a village.
Addis Ababa is a very big city. Its very modern and is very developed when compared to the rest of the cities and towns in Ethiopia. An uncle of mine says that this happens to be a scenario with all African countries- the capital cities are very developed while the rest of the country is not. Addis Ababa means "New Flower" in Amharic. Amharic is the national language of the country. There are other languages as well, according to each region; about 45 languages and 80 or more dialects. Amharic is the language of the Amhara people - the royal people.
Addis Ababa has the biggest markato in Africa. Markato is the Amharic word for "Market". The markato is a maze, a very big maze of a place. Any one can easily get lost there. There are so many many shops of all kinds of stuff; from spices to clothes to shoes to traditional clothes to vegetables to hardware to gold to sliver to carpets to luggage to photo studios to plastic to what not. Addis Ababa also has the biggest airport in all Africa, Bole International Airport. They are building the airport with some foreign help and it is expanding and now has a lot of facilities inside, something that was not there when I first came to Ethiopia.
I lived in a place called Jimma. Its about 337 kilometers away from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Its supposed to be one of the best coffee areas in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is known for its coffee produce and export. I was actually surprised to see coffee from Ethiopia being sold in the Co-op markets and also at other cafes. I did ask the salesperson if the coffee was really from Ethiopia! They mostly sell stuff from Harar-thats another so-called city in Ethiopia. I havent been there yet so I dont know if it is a city or a town or a village.
Addis Ababa is a very big city. Its very modern and is very developed when compared to the rest of the cities and towns in Ethiopia. An uncle of mine says that this happens to be a scenario with all African countries- the capital cities are very developed while the rest of the country is not. Addis Ababa means "New Flower" in Amharic. Amharic is the national language of the country. There are other languages as well, according to each region; about 45 languages and 80 or more dialects. Amharic is the language of the Amhara people - the royal people.
Addis Ababa has the biggest markato in Africa. Markato is the Amharic word for "Market". The markato is a maze, a very big maze of a place. Any one can easily get lost there. There are so many many shops of all kinds of stuff; from spices to clothes to shoes to traditional clothes to vegetables to hardware to gold to sliver to carpets to luggage to photo studios to plastic to what not. Addis Ababa also has the biggest airport in all Africa, Bole International Airport. They are building the airport with some foreign help and it is expanding and now has a lot of facilities inside, something that was not there when I first came to Ethiopia.
posted by Grace at 9:07 AM
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