Articles tagged with: Ethiopia
030 – Special People
The Ethiopian premiere of “Endurance” turned out to be interesting in ways that I didn’t anticipate, but which I think Abiy did. He seemed to have misgivings from the first and it had nothing to do with the 150-birr ticket price as I’d thought. His fears that he did not belong at this event seemed justified right at the first. In fact it was pretty …
028 – A Blessing In Disguise
The more time I had to mull over the wallet-snatching incident the more it seemed like a blessing in disguise. It told me more about the country in a moment than I might have learned in months. It became a touchstone in helping me interpret what was going on around me
It laid bare the reality of the place and the fundamental absurdity (from a certain …
025 – “You Like Fucking Priest”
I woke up early again to the banging-crashing-radio blaring-shouting-floor sweeping waking up sounds of the hotel and family. Of all the sounds it is the sweeping that I’ll associate with this place. The sweeping went on eternal, harsh straw against old wood. Endless. It never seemed to move, but stayed in one place till I imagined they would grind a hole right through the floor.
It …
024 – Asa Belobelo – Eat Fish
Zebachew invited me to go with him to an azmari beat or traditional Ethiopian music house. I knew even before I came to Ethiopia that one night would find me at an azmari beat. It’s one of those traditional things that is mentioned in every book. For that reason I wasn’t exactly excited about it. I suspected that it might be at one extreme a …
021 – Bira effellegallo
Most nights I was extremely tired and not good for much so I went to bed early. I liked the early nights. It meant I got a good night’s sleep and I was woken gently by the sun peeping through the cracks of the shutters, shutters which, again for reasons unclear, Zebachew insisted I close tightly each night. I never knew if these things on …
020 – Giving and Accepting
I’d taken all the photographs assuming that I’d give them to the family, but now that it came down to it I didn’t know how to go about distributing them. There were pictures of two or three people together so to whom should I give it? There were pictures of adults with children. Should the picture be given to the adult or the mother of …
016 – Too Black
On Sunday, Sisay, the 17-year-old cousin of Zebachew, took me to Lion Park and the National Museum. The first was his idea, the second mine. To get there we took one of the truck taxis. Forty-five cents each. It wasn’t crowded and the streets were almost empty. Ethiopians take their days off seriously.
Running one of those taxis takes coordination not just between the driver and …
015 – Abiy and Dereje
Beside the hotel was another small building containing two billiard tables. When I discovered them by peering through the open window, the roomit was crowded with men playing a game I’d never seen before. Five small pins sat in the centre of each table, one red and four white. They did not use cues but threw their balls by hand. The object was to strike …