Moving in with the Family

After my week’s induction, today I moved in with the family who I’ll be staying with for my immersion training. The plan is that I live and breath Amharic solidly for three weeks: Four hours of Amharic lessons a day at Addis Ababa university, afternoons spent talking to Ethiopians in the street and market, and then evenings with my family. A hell of an experience and a great opportunity to learn about the country and language.

The family live some way out of town, in what seems to be a fairly nice neighborhood - at least by Addis standards. There are loads of street stalls and shops, and on the main road, a good selection of bars. I even walked passed a dry cleaners. The family live off a main room, down a street that has so many potholes in that I thought our tax was going to sink when we got stuck in one. Apparently taxis don’t go down this road, horse and cart is the better option (no joke - I went in one).

The family are wonderful. The head of the family is the dad, Dawit. He teaches Amharic in many Embassies across Addis. He’s a real gent and seems really keen for me to learn. He and his wife have twins, who are awesomely cute. They run around the living room all the time, falling over and never crying. And the little boy keeps farting, to my (and his family’s) amusement. There is also a grandmother, sister, aunt, brother and three cousins here. It’s a big house, but I feel uncomfortable: While they are sharing rooms, and even beds, me, the big western demander, has a double bed in my own private en-suite bedroom. There isn’t any hot water so I guess it’s not quite the Ritz, but still, they are really looking after me. My first impression is that the family, like in many cultures, seem to take great pride in looking after quests.

I sneaked out this afternoon to find a pub to watch the South Korea-Urangry match. I ended up befriending a group of Ethiopians lads, who seemed to be pretty impressed with my Amharic. I felt pretty chuffed - we had a proper conversation about English football and why Liverpool are a spent force. Heading back there tomorrow for the all important England-Germany game. I’ve promised that I’ll buy beers for everyone in the bar if England win tomorrow. It won’t be expensive, a pint (“jumbo”) is 20 pence. Roll on the good times.

After the match, had bolognese with the family. Damm nice. And then the hour long coffee ceremony where coffee is roasted in front of you (I never knew coffee beans were actually green). Ethiopian coffee tastes so good, real bitter-sweet stuff. Just I know that, lying here on my big double bed, listening to the dogs, mosques and mosquitos of semi-rural Addis Ababa, I’m not going to be sleeping for a few hours.

26 June 2010