“MEKINA DECOR”

In Ethiopia people like to personalize their cars in very special ways. There are shops specialized in items to decorate the cars as special cover for the wheels, or hairy fabrics used to decorate the inside of the car… Some of the decorations are so imaginative and is very curious to see them.

May be it could be interesting to collect pictures of different decorations and put them together. Good Idea for a photographer!

If you ever come to Addis Ababa try to notice it!

THE WORDS FOR THE WATER

The water takes many shapes in the life, tha's why there are many names to call it. HEre you have some words of the water:

UHA                  water in general
MINCH            source (like Arba Minch, forty sources)
WENZ              river
HAYQ              lake
BEREDO         ice or hail
BAHIR             see or very big lake (like Bahir Dar, shores of the lake)
FAFATE          waterfall

Here you have a picture of the Blue Nile Falls. ENjoy the water!

GELADA BABOONS

Is there someome that have traveled to Ethiopia that have send me this beautiful video about the Gelada Baboons. They are one of the endemic animals of Ethiopia, you can't find them anywhere else!

There are many communities around the country, epecially in the Simien Mountains but you can see them also in Debre Libanos, only 100k km far from Addis Ababa.

Watch this video:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dp2tsjtezoyt2ss/SIMIEN%20BABOONS%20GELADA%205%20FALANDO.MTS

MORE MUSIC

Here you have a pair f links of music that I have create, the first one is created in one of the traditional scales of Ethiopian music. I'm waiting for your comments!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wo2apt5axbdh8ge/Tizta%20minor.mp3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2m83tbbe7cxxmlp/Techono.wav

Please don't forget to comment!

MY MUSIC

I'm starting to make my own music, I hope you like it...

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE FILE

BERBERRY OR MORE THAN IT SEEMS

Everyone knows that the majority of the meals here in Ethiopia are spicy and hot. Some times when the people is not used is not easy to eat the local food!

 To tell the truth, every house has its own berberry different from the other ones because people use to add more things in the berberri than only the chilis. There is a great veriety of plants and spices that are used to add to the berberry to make it taste special. That is why if one day you want to buy berberry is better to ask well before what are the ingredients to choose the best one.

At the end of the day every house has the own recipe and they prefer to use the one they prepare by their own!

fake and imitation

FAKE AND IMITATION

In Ethiopia there is no protection for the copyright of the other country items, that in one side, in the other side is still a very poor country and there is no way to import good quality items for the majority of the people. So most of the items you can find in the market are fake.

Here you can appreciate a great variety of items with names similar to the original one, as Adidos, Abeba, Adidus, and other for Adidas, Sonia for Sony, and many other imaginative fake names. 

Some times I ask myself why. Is not better a good quality without name?

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