A Grand Welcome

I’ve written before about Ethiopian hospitality and how it’s unrivaled, but even after living here for so long it still knocks me off my feet sometimes.  I’m a fairly hard person to surprise. I see things coming, read into foreshadowing, and pick up on subtle signs. But this incredible hospitality often gets past my radar and surprises me more that anything.

The morning after my friend from home, Chris, arrived in Ethiopia I made him board a bus at 5am heading north to Dangila.  This ride is something I’ve become used to enduring by now, although it never can end soon enough.  Around 3pm we finally arrived in Dangila, exhausted from the journey.  We loaded our luggage into a bajaj taxi and were taken straight to my house.  As I opened the gate to my compound, waiting patiently inside was my student/friend Aregach.  As we got all our belongings inside I realized she went back outside and was bringing in a pot and basket, filled with the special holiday food duro wat and injera.

I later found out that Aregach, who had been fasting from meat for two weeks (as were all Orthodox Christians), postponed her holiday celebration by several days just so she would have duro wat (chicken stew) for our arrival.  She also came over to my house over two hours before we arrived by bus and waited patiently for us to show up!

 My new friend/neighbor Taish came over to join the celebration as well.  The four of us ate the delicious food and hung out for a couple hours which was more than anything I could have asked for. Aregach is such a wonderful friend and she teaches me new things every day about loving and giving. It was a great welcome back to Dangila.

During Chris’s week-long visit in Ethiopia we only stayed in Dangila for a couple days, which meant we had a LOT of coffee and food invitations to squeeze into a short amount of time.  And Chris had only been in Ethiopia for less than 24 hours when we got to my town, meaning his experience with, and acquired taste for injera was minimal.  He was a great sport to eat whatever happened to be put in front of him.

After we went to my final class of my summer English club, one of my students invited us over for coffee and lunch.  We enjoyed listening to American music (from the CD I’d given my perfect attendance students as a prize), drinking the three rounds of delicious coffee, and stuffing ourselves with yet another meal of injera and wat.  I think by this point Chris was finally getting the hang of what my life is like here!

Then finally, on our last day in town, we stopped in my neighbor’s house to say “hi” and found ourselves leaving several hours later, stuffed to the brim.  It was not altogether unexpected since I often spend hours at a time laughing and eating in their house, but it surely was nothing less than an adventure with Chris there.  We sat for the longest time just drinking the rounds of coffee as I played translator between the family and Chris.  We were all set to leave when the mother insisted on making something for us to eat (since she had promised me the week before that she’d make something special when my friend arrived), so we got comfortable knowing there is no turning down such a generous invite.  Luckily we saw Taish walk passed their house and called him in to eat with us, adding another stomach to divide the food between.

Dangila is full of surprises and every time one of them hits me, it makes me want to stay until I discover them all.  With the end of my time here in sight I really am trying to live every day to the fullest, and sometimes that is referring to the state of my stomach.  The culture I’ve experienced here of entertaining neighbors and guests is something I hope to carry with me throughout life.  It is beautiful, selfless and loving. I think we can all learn something from a culture like that.  On that note, I’m here for five more months and very open to more visitors… any takers?

The Culture of Hospitality

Every time I come back from being out of town I receive the warmest “welcome back!” from the society as a whole.  Almost every day now I receive some sort of invitation for lunch or coffee at a friend or neighbor’s house.  Ethiopians are truly the kindest people who embody the idea of a culture of hospitality.  But there was one thing I didn’t experience until just now, how this culture treats you when you’re sick.

I have to say that I am very blessed not to have been really ill at all during the past 17 months, in fact this past weekend was the first time I’ve ever even had a fever.  I felt achy enough to call in sick for the day, knowing I wouldn’t want to get anyone else sick in case it turned into something worse.  The phone call went something like this:
“I know I mentioned I felt like I was getting sick, and today I feel worse, so I’m going to stay home today.”

“Oh, Jennifer! I will come to visit.”

The notion that when you’re sick you’d rather be alone, sleeping, is completely foreign here (literally).  Ethiopian culture is that when you get sick, everyone visits.  I understand that sometimes it is nice to have a friend stop by to see if she could bring you something, but here it is cultural for everyone to stop by, just to make you feel better!  I kindly refused most self-invitations, insisting that I would be fine to just sleep, but politely not mentioning that having my entire office and other co-workers come to my home while I’m under-the-weather wouldn’t exactly help.  Imagine in America your boss showing up at your house 20 minutes after you’ve called in sick!

On top of my co-workers’ sympathy, word of my sickness spread like wildfire around my compound and neighbors all stemming from the 8-year-old daughter of my landlord.  She’s the only person I told I was sick when she knocked on my door wanting to play, and from then on every person on my compound (there are 8 others) needed to hear it for themselves.  I also realized that I don’t know the Amharic vocabulary for things such as fever, tonsils, and congestion.  Always an opportunity to learn!

Happy to report that 48-hours later I’m back to normal.  Luckily it was just a minor bug because I think the neighbors would have gone crazy in anticipation of me feeling better! I do love this culture though; everyone is always looking out for you!

Welcome To Dangila

This past month I had the privilege of hosting my mom, dad and brother in Dangila for three days.  When I was planning our Ethiopia-section of their time in Africa, I thought about all the historical places I wanted them to see- Lalibela, Gondar, Bahir Dar.  But when it really came down to booking how many days I wanted to spend in each place, I immediately knew I wanted them to spend the most time in Dangila.  Not only did I want them to experience my home, and way-of-life, but I wanted them to meet all my friends and drink more coffee than they could handle, just as I did when I first arrived!

Our time spent in Lalibela, Gondar, and Bahir Dar was fabulous.  The sites in Ethiopia are spectacular and one-of-a-kind, but my favorite part of having them here was the hospitality received in Dangila.  I knew I had some wonderful friends here, but the warm welcome they gave my family was so special and unrivaled.  The first night in Dangila, we were invited over to Ali and Billie’s house.

They used to live in my compound, but moved out a few months ago into a bigger house nearby.  We all sat in their living room and spoke in broken English, while I translated the rest of the details back and forth.  They served us a plateful of injera and wat; some of the best I’ve had in Ethiopia!  I was a little nervous about having my family taste Ethiopian food in a restaurant the first time, but at least there, you can openly say something doesn’t taste great.  At a friend’s home, it is a bit harder to reject the food!  Luckily, the food was well received by my family.  Thanks for being troopers family.   Then, as we were putting our plates down, satisfied by the delicious food, another round of plates came out!  That’s right, another plateful, but this time it was western food! Spaghetti, tomato sauce (with burbere spices of course) and bread; we all looked at each other with wide eyes.  We graciously accepted the second dinner and followed it by a coffee ceremony, although there was quite a bit of food left over.

The next night we had yet another two-course meal, featuring almost all the same foods! It was amazingly thoughtful how all my Ethiopian friends catered to our needs and welcomed us into their homes.  My favorite part of coming to my town was the night we first arrived, after the first marathon meal, my friends Tigist and Tewelde awaited us back near my house.  They were so excited about meeting my family, and they came bearing gifts.

They had an “Ethiopian” beaded bracelet for each of them, freshly made local bread, local-made potato chips, and Christmas cards for us!  It was the nicest thing.  Then they escorted my family back to their hotel on the main road.

It truly brought tears to my eyes.  The hospitality here and love I receive from all my Ethiopian friends is truly the reason I am still here.  They teach me something new every day about selflessness and generosity.