HENOK SPACIAL DENTAL CLINIC

Are they going to see your teeth in the moon?

Today going around in Addis I have found out this very big advertisement. Here sometimes is very funny to read the advertisements. I know English is not our language and also we use other alphabets that I spoke about before. I think that the main problem is that we need to transliterate many times from and to English and sometimes we lose something in the middle.

I would like people check the spelling before to make this kind of big advertisements!

THE GAME OF THE STONES

There is a game that one or more children play in etiopia. The requirements are very simple: to have from six to eight small stones.

In the beginning there are all stones on the ground and one of them in the hand. The player throw the stone in the air and pick up a stone from the ground and also the one he throw before it touch the ground. Every time have to repeat the same until all the  stones of the ground are in the hand. If she or he  makes a mistake has to start again or if they are more the turn changes.

Now you have a new thing to try, enjoy yourself!

GUITARS

As I told in about me I’m learning guitar. This year I got the chance to start in a good school and I’m so happy about that.

I had the very great luck that someone carried me a guitar from abroad (thank you!) and I’m OK, but some of the other students are dreaming to get a guitar.

Here in Ethiopia the guitars are so fake and so expensive the most of the times. I would like to ask if there is someone coming here to help us. We DO NOT WANT to get a guitar for free, we just would like to be able to buy a guitar abroad (it means cheaper price and best quality). But we need someone to carry the guitar and to advance the payment. After, once we meet here, we can give the price of the guitar in birr.

If there is someone willing to help please contact me at natidread@gmail.com

Thanks!!

PLACE WORDS

All is continuously moving and we need to indicate where the things are. It can be useful to know some words of placement!

EZIH                           Here

EZAH                         There

LAY                            On

WEST                         Inside

WECHI                       Outside

HUALA                      Behind

FIT                              In fromt

TACH                         Under

GRA                           Left

KEGN                         Right

Idea: you could play with the children asking YET ALLE… where is… and answering with this words.

ENKUTATASH

The 11st of September is in Ethiopia the 1st of Meskerem, the firs Ethiopian month. The people normally make wishes and fix their goals for the New Year.

Normally children (males) make draws of flowers or saints and go door to door offering them. People use to give them some money. With that money they use to buy something special to eat or may be material for the school that will start in a short time.

The girls instead the last day of the year use to carry a kebero, a kind of drum and they go door to door singing traditional songs for Enkutatash and also the people of the houses give them bread or some money.

So,  happy new year, MELKAM ADDIS AMET!!

TRADITIONAL FRIGE

In many countryes people is used to have electric power everywhere, even there is people used to have a sort of fridge in the car.

Here in Ethiopia is not that easy but sometimes is even more effective.

In this picture you can see those bottles that have around a rope. This rope is not a casual thing, is just a way to get cold water. May be it sounds estrange but is true. If someone wet the rope with water and put the item under the sun the evaporation of the water in the rope makes the water inside the bottle cold.

There is the simplest version introducing a small bottle in a wet sock. Put it under the hottest sun and you will get fresh water!

ADVENTURE TRAILS

Now is rainy season and all Addis Ababa is under construction. It means that one have to know which streets are open and which one are not, where is possible to pass and where is not any more.

In addition to this one have to know that there is mud everywhere and is difficult to keep clean before enter in the school or in the working place. Is also a good moment for the shoe shiners because most of the people need a cleaning of the shoes.

The other day I was walking somewhere, the street was nearly closed also for the pedestrians, and the only way to pass was throw a bridge made of wood entering in a building under construction to exit in another side of it. Old women were scared to pass there but there was not any alternative and they did.

REALLY ADVENTURE TRAILS!!

OTHER DAILY WORDS

OTHER DAILY WORDS

Let me teach you some useful expressions that you can use with your child in the beginning to understand each other.

If there is a bar between the first word is for male, the second is for female.

DEKEMEH/DEKEMESH?                                          are you tired?

ERBOHAL/ERBOSHAL?                                            Are you hungry?

ENKELF YMETAL?                                                    Are you falling asleep?

MECHAWET TEFELEGALEH/TEFELEGIYALESH? Do you want to play?

TEWEDALEH/ TEWEDJALESH?                              Do you like it?

ATWEDEM/ ATWEDJIM?                                         Don’t you like it?

Anyway if you have more suggestions or questions about words, I’ll be happy to translate for you!

HALF A HOUSE

HALF A HOUSE

In this moment In Addis Abeba a lot of places are under construction or demolition. Some places the government is demolishing huge areas to construct new buildings and houses for the people. Other places they are making the roads larger or now it is under construction the city train in many parts of the city.

Sometimes it means that the people have to change completely the place they live, other times only a part of the house have to be demolished. In this last case in a very short period of time the inhabitants of that house or shop have to rebuild the wall and to adapt the space remaining to their necessities.

Is really surprising to see how fast the things change and how fast the people adapt themselves to a new situation. Even building with more stores change their face in very short times!

MORINGA, THE RICHNESS OF THE SOUTH

Moringa, or Shiferraw in Amharic, is a tree cultivated mainly in the south of Ethiopia. In Konso was part of the main tradition because for a man was necessary to own a certain number of moringa trees to be able to get marry. It was a way to make sure that the family was going to have enough resources to live.

The leaves of moringa tree are used as in the foreign countries are used the spinach, the difference is that in Konso , for example, people use to eat moringa daily.

Moringa can be uses also as a tea, or I guess one day it will be a nutritional complement because is really reach of nutrients, vitamins and mineral salts.

Now here in Addis is starting to be available dried and with the dried leaves is possible to make tea and to add to another food. Do not miss it if you visit Ethiopia!

A GAME FOR BABIES

All over the world the babies discover they new world with joy and a very nice game for them is the one that the adult hide the face behind a book, a fabric or whatever and after discovering the face make happy the child.

Here in Ethiopia in this game is used to say "ayehush" for a girl or "ayehuh" for a baby boy. It means "I have seen you". I am sure the babies will be joyful playing this game and you parents can learn another word in amharic!

have fun!!

QUESTION THAT IS NOT NECESSARY TO ANSWER

The majority of the adoptive parents have the question “will the biological parents want to be in touch with their child or with us?”

I don’t want to be long or to repeat myself. The answer up to now is “yes”. I have seen many families or mothers or other relatives, but all of them keep the child in their mind and they are so happy when they have news about the children.

RED AND GREEN, YELLOW AND BLUE, WHITE AND…

In Ethiopia has start a new fashioh!

In the last few weeks I have notice something funny. Some people has start to wear a new shoes fashion. Here a lot of people wear plastic shoes, and that is not new at all, but now they started to buy two pairs  and to wear one shoe green and the other for example red or yellow. May be some of the people that do this buy two pairs and use one shoe of each color, but I guess that the majority agree with a friend that have the same size to change one of the shoes.

Is it  not funny? May be you can follow the same fashion too

BOMBOLINO BISCUT AND SAMBUSSA

These three ítems are avaliable in every street and place. All of them have something in common, they are cheap, they are fried items. Bombolina has a hole in the middle and is like a donut,  Biscut is  a round fried thing without any hole and normally with a irregular shape, not filled, and sambussa is like a triangle filled with lentils or rice.

When someone is hungry with less than 3 birr can get one of these foods and also provably a tea is sold in the same place. Is a good time to have a break and to have a happy tummy!

ETHIOPIAN QENE

Qene are popular frases that people use to teach the others or to say the daily things with another words… let me make some examples

QES BE QES ENQULAL BEGRU YHEDAL - step by step the eggs run with their legs,  it means at the right time everything arrives

SIROTU YTATEKUT SIROTU YFETAL- if you do it running if you run is going to be destroyed, it means that when someone do something fast is not doing a durable work

YENE TOLO TOLO BET GIRGIDAW SEMBELET-my fast fast house the wall is not a wall. It mans who want to make the things fast is not getting good result.

YEQOTUN EWORDALEW BELA YEBETWAN TALECH-  trying to get the thing I can not get, I lose the thing I had by my side.

BEJ YAZUT WERK KEMEDABE YKOTERAL- having  gold in your hands you wish another thing. Sometimes is easier to wish the things you do not have than the precious things you have with you

THE MEANING OF THE ANIMALS

In every language, I think, the animals are used like bad or good words, in Amharic some animals have a meaning when used to speak to a person, is better to be careful using the words.

WESHA, that means dog mean something like bad person.

DMET, that means cat, normally is used to say that someone is a small person, not important.

GUNDAN, that means ant means almost as the cat.

JEB, that means hyena, normally is used for someone that eat a lot or someone that want everything for himself.

ANBESSA, that means lion, mean someone good and able to do the things well, as the school.

AHYA, that means donkey, normally is someone that don’t like to work.

ASSEST, that means chameleon, is someone you cannot trust.

ANIMALS!

Children normally love animals, if someone wants to teach them Amharic words I think that is a good starting point to make fun with the kids. After it can be performed also the animal voice!

WESHA                      dog

DMET                         cat

AHYA                          donkey

WEF                            bird

FEYEL                                    goat  

  

LAM /BERE                cow/ bull

DORO                         hen or chicken

BEG                            sheep

ETHIOPIAN BIRDS

For the prople that have an special feeling for the birds can be interesting.

In Ethiopia there are many endemic animals, between them the red fox, the walia, the gelada baboons, all them big mamals. Well known everywhere. Instead often the people doesn’t know that there are many birds that are leaving only in ethiopia. There are many web sites where you can find Endemic Birds of Ethiopia.

I am not an expert about birds but one of my favorites is the Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco. See the picture below and enjoy googleing the other  ones!!

WORDS TO TELLTHE FEELINGS

Normally when someone learn a language is not the first thing to learn, but instead are words that are very important in the life… specially in the love stories as the mother and child love.

DESTA                                    Happiness

AZEN                                      Sadness

YDEBERAL                            Is boring

YASTELAL                             Is disgusting

AZNALEW                              I’m sorry

ENKWAN DES ALESH          Congratulations

THE COLORS OF THE FLAG

Before, the colors of the flag were in different order than now, the red was on the top and the green on the bottom. After Menelik the order of the colors has change. During Haile Sellassie Kingdom the flag had a lion on it. During Mengistu Haile Mariam government it was an arm to take its place, and now there is a star. Still now the most of the people like the flag of the lion, that was the symbol of the Solomonic dynasty.

The Ethiopian flag have basically three colors:

Arengwadé (green) means the fertility

Bicha (yellow) means the peace and the church

Kay (red) means the blood of the war

GURSHA

In Ethiopia the people use to eat together using their hands.  I was speaking about it when I spoke about injera. The normal thing when the people do when there is a guest is to give a piece of injera with the best part of the sauce, or with meat or egg or whatever is better in the food. This way to offer the food is called gursha.

Gursha is offered directly to eat, it means the person who offer the gursha introduce it in the mouth of the one who receive it.

Is used to do also when someone comes near to a group that is eating and they want to offer a little food. That is a usage called “ennebela” (let us eat together).

If you go to Ethiopia and someone offers you a gursha just take it and enjoy the best food they can offer you!

DO YOU FIND THAT BIOLOGICAL FAMILIES ARE HAPPY TO HAVE THIS KIND OF CONTACT??

This is a question that and adoptive family asked me. I guess there are many families that ask themselves the same.

For me the answer is in capital letters: YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May be the families here are some times extremely poor or sick or have other big reasons to prefer that their children grow up with more opportunities or chances… may be they are able to accept not to know anything else about their children forever praying for their good live. I call this one painful love…

But up to now I have never seen a mother that doesn’t want to see the pictures of her child or have news bout it.

Here there is a way of saying that is “yalmote sew ygenagnal” that means “ the person that haven’t die will appear” and it means somehow that there is hope to see someone one day.

INJERA OUR BREAD

All the people that know Ethiopia have listen about injera and hopefully have also taste it.

In Ethiopia is the base of our food. Injera is something people eat up to three times per day, is a kind of soft fermented flat bread. It has an special flavour and on the injera we place different sauces, vegetables and meats.

Traditionally the people eat together in a big dish using their hands, a nice way to share the daily life.

Injera is made preferently of teff, a cereal that have the smallest grain among the cultivated cereals. Is very nutrient and have a lot of iron, there is a joke speaking about injera that make fun on someone that in the airport that can not pass the metal control because of that!!

THE ETHIOPIA GREAT RUN 

As everyone knows Ethiopia is the born country of the best runners for long distances. One of the most loved runner is Haile Gebreselassie, he is the general manager of the Great Ethiopian Run, event hosted yearly in Addis Ababa that started in 2001. There are lots of runners witch participate in the great run, the streets of Addis are every year full of runners from professionals to just lovers.

Ethiopian people feel proud of the runners that represent our country, males and females. The most well known, a part of Haile Gebreselassie, starting from Abebe Bikila to Morif Efter, Tirunesh Dibaba, Kekenisa Bekele, Derartu Tulu, Kete Wami and others…

Abebe Bikila is the legendary first important runner in Ethiopia, he won twice the marathon in the Olympic games(Rome 1960 and Tokio in 1964) opening the door to the following runners. He was famous to run without shoes. 6 weeks before he won in Tokio he was operated and so he was not in his best!

THE COFFEE CEREMONY

Here in Ethiopia coffee is an important part of the social life. In every house and in every moment the items for the coffee ceremony are ready.

The coffee time is a time that people use to be together, to share the things of the daily life. In a neighbourhood people invite each other to have coffee and most of the days there is someone preparing bunna for the other neighbours. With this life style all the neighbours know each other and also they help each other when is necessary.

The coffee is part of the heart beat of Ethiopians. That is why it has been created the coffee ceremony. Everything has a way to be done and all the people know the different steps to prepare and drink the coffee in a traditional way.

I would like to make you smell and taste an Ethiopian bunna but to invite you to a coffee ceremony… online is a bit difficult!!

BUNNA'S WORDS

Coffee pot             Jebena
Coffe cup   Sini
The coffee table Mudae
Pay pay to blow the fire Kesel marragebiya
Fire place for the coffee Kesel mandeja
Sugar Sukwar
Coffee spoon Mankiya
Place for the resin to smoke Etan machesha
Pop corn Fandisha
Bread Dabbo
Green grass for the ground Ketema

TRANSPORT GUDDAY (The transport issue)

In Ethiopia there are the buses called Anbessa (lion) that are going everywhere in Addis Ababa and arround.
This Busses in certain hours are so incredibly full... may be because are the cheapest transport that one can find.

The company was a owned initially by Haile Selassie, may be that is why are called anbessa, the lion was the symbol of the dinasty of the Ethiopian Kings.

It happens a lot of stories in the buses, from love stories to any other thing you can imagine... There is an Ethiopian writter that have been collecting the stories of the anbessa buses and have published a book with them!!!

If I have time one day I would like to translate a pair for you.

A PART OF MY STORY

When I was born my mother was in trouble, and in addition to this I have a twin sister, that means it was not easy at all.

She was not able to grow up us and she went to mission and they accepted us because we were twins. In the mission we entered when we were about 3 years old. We were living with our mother and during the day we were staying in the mission getting from there food, clothes and other primary necessities. There we were a lot of children and we grew up together. We have had good time there and I have a lot of memories from the mission.  Now is not existing any more and somehow I miss the times I was there.

I’m not an adopted child. I know is not the same to grow up in a mission but even from the mission the smaller children were being adopted some times and I have asked myself what was happening in their lives.

Because of that I’m very happy to help the children to back to their roots. When I find the real story of a child I feel I have done a great thing, instead sometimes I can not get the truth and I feel sad about that.

GEBREHANA

Akeka Gash Gebrehana is a famous character of the stories that are explained in Ethiopia. He is a man about, we could say, fifty years old. He was a smart person and he was very able to speak and to tell the things with irony. The next time I will check about him and I will explain you more, today let me tell you a little story.

One day Akeka Gash Gebrehana was invited to a wedding. At the entrance there was someone that was checking that all the people that enter in the celebration place were wearing nice clothes. When Akeka Gash Gebrehana entered, that person stopped him and told him that he can not enter with the clothes he was wearing and told him to change it.  Akeka Gash Gebrehana went back home and changed his clothes. After that he was able to enter in the wedding place.

There was a lot of different food there and he started to put the food on his clothes. Someone asked him “Akeka Gash Gebrehana, what are you doing?” and he answered: “Is not me that was invited to the wedding but my clothes!”

I hope you enjoy it!

THE ETAING ITEMS

Is a long time I'm not writing new words. I thing that to divide in subjects is not bad... Today let me teach you the items that are used to eat:

DISH                      sehon
GLASS                   brichiqo
FORK                     shooka
SPOON                  mankya
FOOD                    migib
CUP                       kubaya
TEA                        shay
COFFEE                bunna
WATER                  weha

There are many more but is better to star slow, isn't it?

MORE ABOUT PAPERS

Some time ago I was speaking about the problems with the papers. In the last period I have been seeing that most of the papers of the adopted children have not address or the address is not the full one.

When a family adopt a child normally think about the child only, but the time goes and the questions start to come. Sometimes, after a while, the families search for the biological origins of their child and at that time the more information they have easier is to find.

I wander if the adoption agencies avoid to give the address to the adoptive families but the fact is that mainly is not there. Some times I have seen that is full on the original papers but not on the translations.

I think when the people adopt a child they could ask to the agencies to have the full information about the child, may be it could change something. Is better for the child and for the adoptive family too.

BIOLOGICAL BROTHERS AND SISTERS

For me is a big issue the biological family, finally they are the ones I use to know more than the adoptive family. When one child in a family is adopted while the others remain there, always there is a big question to answer: Why me?. Normaly there are many reasons that give the way to arrive to that decision. Normaly the age and the condition of the children make easy to take the decision. The other thing is the great difference between the children that stay in the country and the children that go away... I know ia a matter of chance, but there is a big ocean between the children that are abroad and the ones that live here.

Something is sure, the mothers never forget the children wich they can not see anymore.

I ask myself about the feelings that wake up this condition. Not only fo the adopted children that know that they have a brother or a sister that are so different from them, that have a so different story, but also for the adoptive and biological parents.

THE LION OF THE ETHIOPIAN KINGS

In Ethiopia the lion is a great character, historically have a great meaning and it have been the symbol of the solomonic dynasty.
Lion in the daily language means strong and hero, someone that is not afraid. As I have already explained about the history to be a hero is a way of being of our kings. So to be a hero and to be a lion is very near in the people idea.
In Addis Abeba there are some lion sculptures, one of these lions is the one of the train station. This one is the lion of judah, that was also in the flag of Haile Selassie and the one used in the Rastafarian community. It was build on 1930 prior the coronation of Haile Selassie. The italians, in 1935 carried it away to Rome and they set up beside another monument caller Vittorio Emanuele in a ceremony where were present Hitler, Mussolini and also the king Vittorio Emanuele III. It have brought back in  the 1960s to Addis Abeba.

ARENGWADE, BICHA

This is the name of a popular game in Ethiopia. It means Green  yellow. And is an easy game to play with the children.

You will need some chairs and a group of children. Normally is necessary a chair less than the children number. The master of the game say "agengwade, arengwade..." and the children have to walk or run around the chairs following the rhythm of the words. The master some times say "bicha" and the children have to sit. One of them will not have place because there is a chair less and he is eliminated. After you have to take away another chair and start again. The winner is  the last child that get the last chair.

I hope you enjoy it!

THE COLORS OF THE LIFE

Let's continue with the words in Amharic. I think that can be useful to know the colors because they are easy words to learn and they have a clear image behind. Is easy to learn and to teach and it can be useful also to play games.

KAY                      red
SEMAYAWI         blue
BICHA                  yelow
ARANGWADE     green
GRACHA              grey
WEIN TECH         purple
ROSE                    pink
BUNNI                 brown
BIRTUKANEMA orange

Have a nice time learning the colors!!

USEFUL ADJECTIVES

Often is useful to know some adjective to speak about the things, the food, the daily things... so let me tell you some other useful words in Amharic that can help you to communicate with your children or simply to allow them to keep something of their birth language.

ADJECTIVE      MEANING
Konjo                 beautiful / handsome
Askeyamee         ugly
Arif                     cool
Teru                    good
Betam teru           very good
Metfo                  bad
Tefach                 tasty
Debbary              boring
Redjem                long
Acher                  short
Wofram               fat
Kechen                thin
Defar                   bold
Ferri                    coward
Koshasha             dirty
netsuh                  clean
Addis                   new
Eroghe                 old
Tinish                   small
Telek                    big

STORY OF TOTIT

Totit is the monkey, a great character in the Ethiopian tale tradition. Normally is  a smart animal and the role she play is theone that make troubles or the one that trick the others.

TOTIT AND THE OTHER ANIMALS

One day Totit was bored and started to think what to do. She was near a house of a man and entered there. She looked around and she saw a bag of berberry (a hot spice in powder) and after a short while an idea came to her. She stole the bag and run away to her home.

The next day she woke up early and she go to a field where the animals use to eat grass. She distributed all the berberry on the grass and finally there was no place without berberry.

When the sun rises the animals start to come and to eat grass. After a short while some of them started to jump crazily. And all of them run to the river to drink water. The animals started to fight to be the first to drink water. Totit was hided on a tree and seeing this started to laugh and laugh. The animals listened her and understood that everything was the Totit trick and back to their houses. Totit that day was so happy and she laugh a lot up to the moment she sleep...



Another day I'll continue the stories of Totit... not always she is the winner!

BATTLE OF ADWA

This battle is very important for the Ethiopian History. It happen in 1st March 1896. At that time most of African countries were under colonialism and Italians were trying to make Ethiopia part of their country.

Everything started with a trick. There was an agreement between Menelik II and the Italian kingdom called yewuchale sememmenet in the Italian version and in the Amharic one there was a great difference, in the Amharic it was saying that Ethiopia could use the Italian advice in the foreign affairs and in the Italian one instead was saying that Ethiopia have to manage the Foreign affairs through Italy. Italia wanted to get their version of the agreement and because of that they decide to make a military solution to make Ethiopia their protectorate.

The main purpose of Emperor Menelik was to keep the independence of Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian army was having old fashion arms and were week because many other reasons like a recent famine and shortage in the country, but they get the victory of the battle that finished in the treatment of Addis Abeba where Italy recognize the Ethiopian independence.

This part of the history make proud us of ourselves.

TO LEARN AMHARIC

Someone was asking me to upload soundtracks or videos for the words I try to teach. There is a web site were you can find interesting things about Amharic, probably also the sound tracks:

http://www.amharicdictionary.com/

Try it!

DAILY WORDS TO START

As I promise I'll continue time to time to teach some words that can be useful specially in the first days of adoption and also to keep something of the language of the birth country of your children.

The words I propose today are simple words for the daily life that can be used if the child is over one year:

WORD                MEANING
dehna neh?          are you fine (for boy)
dehna nesh?        are you fine (for girl)
dehna nachiw       are you fine (for plural)

na                       come (boy)
ney                      come (girl)
heed                    go ( boy)
hiji                       Go (girl)
tekemet              sit down (boy)
tekemechi           sit down (girl)
bela                    eat (boy)
bey                     eat (girl)
setegn                 give me (boy)
sechign               give me ( girl)
enka                   take it ( boy)
enki                    take it ( girl)

yecarta               excuse me
amesegenalew    thank you
aznalew              I'm sorry

I hope sincerely you can use some of the words with your children in the daily life even if they are so few!