Ethiopian Restaurant

That's how it is called... the ethiopian restaurant in Halifax I mean. Yesterday was my third time I had been there and my, I sure enjoyed my injera! There seems to be only two African restaurants in Halifax, and the Ethiopian Restaurant is one of them. My uncle who took me and my sister there told me there was another ethiopian eat-out along the same road but guess that didn't surivive long enough.

The Ethiopian Restaurant is really a very small place, got about 8 to 10 tables around. By the time we were half-way through, it was crowded and the waitress told us she had to send a few people away coz there were no seats. I have very little choice coz I am a vegetarian, but my sister and my uncle had choices and they decided to go with yesiga wot. "wot" in Amharic means sauce and "siga" means meat. The usual serving of the meal is having the yesiga wot poured over a spread out injera on a big platter. Injera is like a fluffed out pancake, or a really thinly spread out dosai. My serving of ethiopian-style cooked vegetables was also spread on a medium-sized platter of injera. It tasted wonderful. The usual injera is very sour because they ferment the injera dough for atleast 7 days. But here at the Ethiopian Restaurant in Halifax, it wasn't sour. Guess they made it compatible to foreign tummies. We always finish off with Ethiopian coffee, or "buna", and that is what we did this time! We had fresh buna off the "gebanah", or the coffee pot. That's the gebanah there in the pic.

Usually, people start off with an appetizer, the "sambusa". Its a triangular pastry with a stuffing, usually lentils or chicken. Its similar to the Indian "samosa", except that the spices are different and there are usually no potatoes inside the stuffing. Apart from the yesiga wot, there are options of "kai wot", a red sauce with lots of onions and a little spice, and maybe with chicken or lamb meat, "tibs", a simple meat preparation which is supposedly very good, "shiro wot", a sauce of shiro or chickpea powder, "alicha", another meat or lamb preparation which is saucy and less spicy. There is a side of "salatta", or a lettuce salad if you want it. There are more meat preparations, and since I am a vegetarian, I don't remember much. Always, always finishing off with buna indicates the completion of an ideal ethiopian meal... so it means to me! There are also options of normal tea or ginger tea too, if you are not a coffee person. Though I should mention, to me, having some ethiopian coffee is an experience in itself.

{I feel like I have written a restaurant review, though frankly, when I started writing this article, that wasn't my intention at all. Thought I should mention that... :) }

My sis's last day of school

Long time no c.... Sorry had been busy with life that I didn't get much time to blog, and time flew by and my sis finished off with teaching at the school. Anyway, for most part of the story, it was quite uneventful in that she didn't write much about it. I am just gonna give a jist of her experiences...which are more for the laughs than anything else.

Most of the time, she played with the children... which was the best part I think. The school is just a small primary school, and on an average, there are only about 8 to 10 students in each class. She handled three classes, grade 1, 2 and 4. She seemed to think the first graders were cute, the fourth graders were smart, and the second graders were dumb. Ofcourse there was the language barrier initially, but sign language did help her a lot. The best part of teaching students at that age is that it is easier to pick up the language from them... I mean learing to speak Amharic. I bet Rose can speak much better now, maybe better than me, but not more than Mom. Mom speaks like she is a natural...

She said it was fun to teach for them. She is very creative and she got a chance to do lots of fun stuff with the kids. She taught them a bit of craft, how to make a paper boat and the likes of it. She gave them assignments... didn't exactly ask what it was but I bet it would have been something appropriate for that age-group. She obviously lost patience with them because on any normal day, kids of that age in all parts of the world are difficult to control.

She finished off with teaching last week. Said she taught the kids to dance to an indian song (from the movie Dil Chahata Hai). She is a south indian classical dancer (bharatnatyam dancer) but doesn't necessarily stick to the rules of the dance...in that she moves as she wishes, which is pretty ok to watch. She said the kids really picked up the dance... ofcourse they would. Their own different Ethiopian dances are so graceful and nice. Almost every Ethiopian is a natural dancer.

Her episode of teaching finished off. Maybe I should get my Mom to contribute to some articles here. She has been there for almost two years, and will be there for the next two years so I should probably get her to write about her teaching experiences. I will...maybe my next post will be that. Until then.... farewell.

My sis's first day at school

My sister started her new career as a primary school teacher today. She sent me an email at the end of the day which I have pasted here...[Pardon the spelling mistakes... I didn't edit it because I wanted it to be authentic, and also gives an idea about what my sister is - her crappy typing, her more-crappy spelling etc etc].

Excerpts from Rose Ann Rajaretnam's email:

"u know today's my first day at school.

mom's treating me like iam t student

hughughug

anyway i met the director today

all t students were gigglin at me

i was introduced to all

the teachers however didn't like me i think

anyway

i am takin conversaation and environmental science for grade 1 2 4

the grade two guys r a little not to smart

i tried tellin them cindrella all they told me was

yes yes yes no no no

ah

grade four guys and i became friends
they r highly intelligent (I am actually surprised she got the spelling of this word right)

all 8 of tehm r gud in english they gave me t answer before i could explain them

or did i ask them the stuffs they knew

i don't know

....
i really went like a baby today

i wore pista green flowery sweter

and baby bata shoes

anyway

sope my day is over

hey alll t grade 2 students kissed me after i took class

and the grade4 students advertised they love me

i thought(taught) them to mmake paper boats today ha aha"

I am really sorry again about the spelling mistakes. As such, she takes a hell of a time to type, so she doesnt waste more on correcting her spelling. I do think the overall idea is conveyed. Her first day at school went well. Its a good thing she handles a small population of students. I guess she can personally concentrate on all of them. We both never had thought about a teaching career, so this is a totally new experience for us. My teaching was limited to one month, that too with Grade 12 students. I wouldn't say we make great teachers. I agree we would have passed off better as playmates. She can't play much though, she is getting a salary so has to be more responsible than I was. So much for a first day... More to come as and when I get her emails.

Teaching...

I am really happy to see some good reviews of this blog from Ethiopians. Sorry I am not very sentimental on any country so some of my views may tend to seem too harsh on your country and your people. I write from a total stranger's viewpoint, based on a ten-month stay experience, which is not much, but which does give me lots of ideas to write about. My sister went there last month to begin her as-yet-duration-unknown vacation, and she has got a job in a private primary school as an environmental science school teacher. She will be starting to teach from tomorrow. I will be hearing from her soon so will post her experiences once I get her emails.

I taught in the community school there for a month. This school is run by Jimma University and most of the teachers are students of the university, who work part time at the school. I volunteered to teach Mathematics for Grade 12 students for a month. This is really some experience that I can never forget in my life. Let me give a vague scenario at the school there. The students I taught are the first batch of students to appear for Grade 12 board exams. They were totally 15 of them. Most of them liked me a lot, especially the girls because they did not have a female teacher before and they welcomed the idea of having me around. My classes were very interesting. In the beginning, I had a little problem, coz my language was too fast and the students couldn't understand me. The math teacher there with whom I collaborated suggested I try to slow down, if not, quit. The students later admitted they didn't like me in the beginning coz I was too fast in teaching. I slowed down, then they started liking me.

I was strict only when the subject was taught; the rest of the time, we freaked! To the extent that the teachers from next class popped in to tell us to maintain silence. We had a nice interactive session during class hours. I told them about India, they told me about Ethiopia. They sang their national anthem to me, I sang the Indian one to them. We talked movies, music, food and a lot of other stuff. The batch I handled were really mature students and very brilliant, and quite naughty too. They gave me a farewell party where we met up in a cafe, and they presented me with a card with a thank-you note. It was really enjoyable and refreshing to interact with them. I also discovered that I could teach, a profession that is reserved as a last resort. Guess its in the blood...got three generations of teachers in the family.

Something to ponder on

I was going through an article at AAMI regarding a flying eye hospital. Went into their website and came upon something that might highlight a tale I am about to tell. The article is about an Ethiopian woman who undergoes a cataract surgery aboard the flying eye hospital. The article quoted:

"The available eye care personnel in Ethiopia are: 76 ophthalmologists, four cataract surgeons, 93 ophthalmic nurses and ophthalmic medical assistants and 258 eye care workers."

Four cataract surgeons?????????? This is not just a situation in Ethiopia alone. It is likely many other African countries are facing a similar sort of difficulty.

I chose Ethiopia because it is the only African country I have lived in and I can somehow relate to common things there, like in a rural environment. This particular article is a prelude to what I am going to write here - another reality bite.

The university at Jimma employs many part-time students who work in the university at different departments in the mornings and attend evening college. We met a boy who was doing some course to become an electrician, and so he was working under the electrical maintenance department to gain more experience. We once had him to do some repair at home - to fix a socket. He had difficulty in screwing the socket to the wall; he was peering so close to the wall to look at the spot where he had to screw in the nail. Mom asked him if he had a bad sight. He said his sight was failing, that he did not have enough money to get a check-up done and get some spectacles, that he would continue to work because he needed the money for his daily bread, that he would only stop when he is completely blind, and when the time comes and he turns blind, he would go back to the place of his family, and live there as a blind person, doing nothing. Mom was puzzled. The boy was intelligent, he was only about 18-19 years old. The way his sight was suggested he may go completely blind in two to three years. And then what? His life had no hope. He was stranded. He couldn't do anything and neither could his family, because they were living in more worse conditions than he was. That is how they live their life - they give it up easily to fate and await what is to come upon them. When it does, they surrender to it and live in starvation and misery till their death. The boy was eager to study, didn't have the means to do so. His only concern had become his daily bread, his injera. If ever he had a better chance of living and some money in his pocket, I bet he would have become a somebody in this world, not just rotting away to dust. Is this life?

Chat and the ceremony

When we say 'chat', we generally mean an internet chat [chat as in talking], or having a chat [again, as in talking] with people regarding anything that bothers the world. Watch out, for in Ethiopia, it means something else. In Ethiopia, chat is something that is eaten. Pronounced as khat, qat or chat, it originated in Ethiopia and spread to all of Eastern Africa and the Middle East and to many more countries. It is banned in some places, it is legal in some. In Ethiopia, it is banned in Addis Ababa but freely available elsewhere in the country. Wonder why....

Well, chat as is known in Ethiopia, is a leafy shrub of a plant, whose tender leaves are chewed by almost all the population of the country. It is a natural stimulant, and is considered an illegal drug in the civilised part of the world. Let me narrate the scenario that happens everyday in almost every nook and corner of Ethiopia, maybe not in the jungles.

Chat is sold in small plastic bundles which cost more than a bottle of beer. The people who live in nearby villages and forests bring in abundant supply of this stimulant. By the time they arrive into a town or village, it will be past noon time because the people have to walk from where they cultivate the plant. The time they usually show up is 2pm. People who take chat on a regular basis disappear after 2pm. They buy chat as soon as it arrives. Its a 'sight' to see people crowding at every point where chat is sold, which is at the bus station and small shops. They pick their bundle and go home and start chewing. They chew and chew and chew, and then their day is over and they go to sleep. It seems chewing chat keeps them awake, but not necessarily active. They go into this state of blissful eternity from which they are likely to come back only the next day. It is a common sight to see shop keepers chewing chat after 2pm in the afternoon. If we go to buy anything and ask them the price, they give you this look that says it all - eyes out of focus, the body limp and idle, and the mouth green from chewing; imagine a goat.

It seems chewing chat is a traditional ceremony too. One of the professors working at the university was invited to one and he later told me what it was like. People gather at the venue at about 5pm in the evening. The venue is more like a circular room with grass spread around the floor (an Ethiopian traditional thing - spreading grass on the floor for any ceremony). The host serves you chat, along with tea. People always have an accompaniment when chewing chat. It has a bitter taste, a little bit like how a neem leaf will taste, tasted yucky to me anyway. Bet people have an acquired liking to it. They either use sugar or a soft drink or tea to go with it. Once people start chewing, they get the high within minutes and after that everything is handed to oblivion.

I first thought only the men chew chat because I saw only them buying that thing. Thought the women would have had a hard time with their husbands turning into a log of wood after noon. But I was wrong. Women also chew chat in Ethiopia. It seems Somalia also produces and exports chat in large quantities. Yemen is also one country which harps on chat as an export product. The scene in all those countries is likely to be the same as in Ethiopia.

I remember the first time I landed in Ethiopia, and we made the biggest mistake of taking a bus from Addis Ababa to Jimma. At the border of Addis, there was a police check to see if people had chat or not. The bus stopped at the only place that had restaurants on the way, about four hours from Addis. People in the bus hurried off to get the leaves. Ofcourse I didn't know what it was at that time, and Mom shooed away vendors trying to sell this to us. We got into the bus and were on our way. Something happened during the next four-hour travel to Jimma. There was a man who was sitting in the seat opposite and infront of us. He had a plastic bag of chat hung from the seat infront of him and something with some sugar in it. He dug into the bag, took a few leaves, chewed it, and used some sugar as well, and he kept on doing this all the time we travelled till we reached Jimma. It was non-stop - he dug into the bag, got some leaves to chew, and used a pinch of sugar. I was amazed at how he could go on and on and not worry about anything else. That is what they mean when people told me it makes them happy, it would coz they get to have no idea of what is happening to them, none whatsoever.

Shoe cleaning...gives you profit

Ethiopians are very concious about the way they dress and general appearance, more specifically, how their shoes look. The place where I lived can be called a rural area. There are only a few roads that are tar ones, the rest are mud ones. When its summer, it gets very hot and very dry, the humidity level is low. What with a lot of taxis and university vehicles about, they really kick up the dust which is so fine that it neatly settles on you, on your clothes, on your shoes. People are more concerned about shoes though, coz it is the only place where the dust shows more prominently. When its winter, its rain time. And with rains, the roads can get really muddy. The mud there is the kind of mud that likes to stick to your shoes. So, people need shoe cleaners and shoe polish all the time to keep their shoes shiny and neat and free from dust or wet mud.

I should say that cleaning shoes in Ethiopia is a profitable business. I would have tried it if it weren't for too many cleaners in the job already. Everywhere you go, you can see a corner where there are a line of cleaners waiting for customers, polish and brush at the ready. The way they clean it can be considered an "art". I say this because they do funny stuff with your shoes. Let me explain. When you want a real cleaning of your dirty shoes, you are given one. They wipe your shoes first, with water and a rag, then apply butter! They say butter keeps the leather good...they say butter is good for a lot of things, like they apply butter on the head coz they think its good for the hair (except that it stinks!). Weird to me, but butter it is that is used to clean the shoe. They apply it all over, then start cleaning the shoe. They make it real shiny, then they do a layer of polish to give it the final touch. On a busy day, when you just want them to take the dirt away, they don't do the butter thing. They just wash away the dirt, and wipe it nice and polish it a little and it is as good as new!

After a rainy day, the cleaners are really delighted coz they get good business. Their busiest times are in the mornings when people go to work and stop by a shoe cleaner to get their shoes cleaned before they walk into their offices. As far as I know, I am the only person who used to walk around with dirty boots and not give a damn. That did raise a lot of eyebrows. People even asked me why I torture my boots by not cleaning them at all. Having clean shoes is such an important thing to Ethiopians, even if they didn't clean themselves.