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!