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!

HELPING THE BIOLOGICAL FAMILY

That is a situation that the adoptive families sometimes have to afford. Is not an easy thing. First of all is necessary to know the biological family and their situation. And most of the times is necessary to have someone that can understand well what is going on to give advice about how a when to do it.

When you know well the situation is possible to think about it and, from my point of view, there are some criteria that can be followed.

May be is not necessary, before to do anything think well about it. If they have work or a way of living may be is better not to do anything.

Sometimes instead is better to do something, for example if the biological family is an old woman that can not work any more, or is a mother that have other children to grow up.

There are different ways to help a family. One is to help to afford a specific expense like to pay the school for brothers and sisters or the health care of someone of the family. Another one is to give money once to start a business and after not to anything else. I am not agree with the help that create dependence, is important to think well to do the right thing. 

The relationship between the two families is very unbalanced and I think is not easy at all to manage it, if you can trust a local to help you is always much better than to do it yourselves.

ETHIOPIAN CHILDREN'S GAMES

Time to time people is asking me to write about something, and it is good so I can have more subjects to teach to Ethiopian children. Today I'm going to speak about some popular Ethiopian children's games. Try to play with your children, after they can also teach their friends. A good Idea could be to organize games like this in the birthday parties for example.

ACOOCOOLU (is the voice of the chicken)

One of the children is looking at the wall and the other children have to hide themselves. For a short while the one that look the wall (his house) waits after that he start to say "coocoolu", and if the children are still not hided they answer "alnegam" (is not still day) after he repeat again and again up to the moment that the children have find a hiding place and they answer "nega" (the sun rises).

At this point the hided children have to try to arrive to the wall, touch it and kiss their own hand to be safe. The one that was on the wall instead have to discover the other children, tell their name and arrive to his house, touch the wall and kiss his hand before the other arrive.

If he do it the child discovered is his prisoner and will be at the wall the next time, if a child arrive to the wall and can kiss his hand before the one who counts tell his name and do the same, the one that was on the wall count again.

The game start again when there are two or three prisoners or when a child arrive to the wall.

SAGNO MAKSAGNO (monday tuesday)

You have to draw lines on the ground like the draw below separated about 40cm. Every horizontal line means  a house. The first child throw a stone on the first part and have to jump from part to part without touching the place were there is the stone, if is able to do it well,  the child can tray to throw the stone on the second place, ans so up to the end, if is able to finish all the places he can get one of the parts (he buy a house) and no one without him can jump on it.
Rules:
If in one part is divided in the middle the child  can jump with both feed if no with one only.
If the child is not able to jump well he loose the turn and is the next to start the game.
If the child is not able to throw the stone in the right  place loose also the turn.
The jumps have to be in two ways, to go, and to back and when the child is going back have to collect the stone. It means that the last place have to be used to turn back.
When a child have buy a house he can jump there with one or two feed.
If a house belongs to a child he make there his own sign or he write his name on it.
The game finish if one child have all the houses or if is not more possible to jump because one child have buy enough to make it impossible.

TERET TERET,  YELAM BERET

This is the normal way to start a tale for children. It means "tale, tale the house of cow" is a nonsense but is the traditional way to start a story.

Today I would like to explain a traditional tale for children.

One upon a time the was Aya Jebo, the hyena. He was sleeping during the day and he was going to search for food during the night. Near his house there was a small lake where there were living a community of frogs. They were happy and they used to sing day and night.

Because of that Aya Jebo was so angry because he was not able to sleep because of them. Finally, when he war tired to roll in the bed he woke up and he went to the lake:
" You frogs!!!! You have to stop your songs, if you don't we are going to fight and that is not good for you"

The frogs didn't want to stop their songs and one of them was telling to Aya Jebo that they could find a good solution. They could organize a competition and if Aya Jebo wins the frogs have to go away from their lake, if the frogs win, They can sing forever as much as they want. Aya jebo accepted thinking that a frog could never be the winner and he went.

The frogs were not happy and so angry with the one that was speaking with Aya Jebo, and started to tell that they could never win. And old frog was listening and an idea come to her. She told to all the frogs and they find it was a good idea. so they made the appointment with Aya Jebo to make the comptetition.

It was at night and every some meters it was a hidden frog. Aya Jebo can not recognize the frogs, they thought, so he will think is only one...

And the run competition starts, Aya Jebo was so fast and soon the frog was very far behind him. He stop and thought "I Almost have win" when a frog in front of him  told "Aya Jebo, are you tired? I'm faster than you!". Aya jebo, thinking that it was the same frog run and run away. After a while he stop again "Now I', really afr from the frog, I'll be the winner!" and another frog in front of him said "Aya Jebó, you are not that much fast I think!" . Aya Jebó started to be afraid not to win and run and run up to the moment he couldn't run any more and he accepted that he was the looser, so finally the frogs could stay at their lake and sing happily for ever...

TERET TERET YEMELESU AFEN BEDABBO ABBESU

That is used to finish the tales and means the tale have to be back clean my mouth with bread.

Have a nice time with your children.

TO GET A PICTURE

A very nice moment when I search a biological family is after to meet them when I give them a picture of the child that have go abroad. Most of the times all the neighborhood come and want to see the child's picture and even to Kiss it.

I have no words to speak about the happiness they feel. I think is good for all. For the biological family means to have news about their child. For the child it means to have information about the origin of the own story and to get images that allow him/her to speak about him/herself. For the adoptive family it create the base to have a good relationship with the past of their child.

When the adoptive family refuse to know about the past of the child is to refuse a part of him or her. One day the question will came and is not going to be easy to answer it.

Sometimes is not possible to find any one but to try also means to respect the story of the child. For the adoptive family it gives  mind freedom and peace.

HAYLE SELASSIE

Haile Selassie was born on July 23th of 1892. He was a descendant of the solomonic dynasty. He was regent from 1916 to 1930 and after that he was the  emperor until 1974. He died on 1975.

Haile Selassie is still on the mind of many Ethiopians, the people that remember him speak mainly with respect and love. He is considered a national hero defending the country from the Italian incursion.

In Africa he have hat an important role creating the Africa Union and defending the independence of the African countries when they were under colonialism.







In Jamaica, the Rastafarian comunity consider him as the returned messiah of the bible, as God incarnate, and they base their religion on the figure of Haile Selassie (before to be emperor his name was ras Tefari Mekonnen).













He loved the lions as you can see in the picture below, and the lion was a part of his flag. In Addis Abeba is still possible to see the descendants of the Haile Selassie Lions in the Anbessa gebi.

LOVE WORDS FOR A LOVE STORY

I think all the adoptions are love stories. And a lot of times the adopted children loose completely their birth language. Once it was an old woman of an orphanage that was telling me about an adopted child and she told me "teach him, how can he communicate with his birth family if he can not speak their language". I know Amharic is very different from English and it make so difficult to learn it, even not all the children that are adopted here have Amharic as a birth language. My purpose is to teach some words that usually are not in the conversation books, I hope they can be useful to someone, even for adoptive parents to tell their children when they come here to meet them for the first time.

WORD (Amharic)                   MEANING     
Amesegenalehu                        Thank you

Ewedishalew                            I love you (to a girl)
Ewedihalew                              I love you ( to a boy)
Enwedishalen                            We love you (to a girl)
Enwedihalen                             We love you (to a boy)
Enwedathuwalen                       We love you (for a plural you)

Endet neh                                 How are you (boy)
Endet nesh                               How are you (girl)
Endet nachiw                           How are you plural

qonjo                                       handsome, beautiful
gobez                                       smart

If some one would be interested into have the voice files or to make a program to learn the Amharic basics with a bit of help we could think about it together.  

KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH THE BIOLOGICAL FAMILY

Of course is not always possible to keep in touch with the family or even to know about them, but when there is the chance to know there is the responsibility to decide to be in touch or not.

The stories of the adopted children are so different that I guess is not possible to tell if to be in touch is good or not for all of the children.

Something is sure, all of them will ask themselves when they grow up about their family, why they have been separated from the biological family and probably many other questions that I can not guess. And the ones that have the answers of the questions are the biological relatives.

Not all of the children want to know personally the biological relatives, but probably most of them would like to have an image of them, to know how they look like or to have a satisfactory explanation about the reasons why it was no possible to grow up with them.

In the same way the parents or other relatives that can not take care of their children would like to know how they are. Who are the adoptive parents, if they learn in a good school or if they have good results. specially if they were too poor or sick to be able to grow up them. I remember a mother asking me "I have no news from my child... I would like to know if he is still alive, if he is doing well". I guess they know that to give a child in adoption means that they have no right to get news, but something is the legal way and something else is the heart.

The children I have seen visiting their biological parents normally they are happy to meet the relatives but for them is clear where is their place (with the adoptive family). It open a door for the questions in the future and it give the chance not to loose them. Sometimes, after a lot of time, when the questions come, is too late to find anyone there.

ETHIOPIAN MUSIC

SCALES 

The Ethiopian music mostly is based in pentatonic scales. It means there are five different tones in the scale. May be you are not musician, but if you have some knowledge you can play the Ethiopian music scales with this lesson.

The main scales used in Ethiopian music are the following:

TIZITA              C D E G A C or the following pattern : tone, tone, 1tone and a half, tone, 1 tone and a half.
This scale name means memory.

AMBASEL        C C# F G G# C or the following pattern: half tone, 2 tone, tone, half tone, 2 tone.
The ambasel scale take its name from a region.

BATI                 C E F G B C or the following pattern: 2 tone, half tone, tone, 2 tone, half tone.
This scale take its name from a city in the Oromia region.

ANCHI HOYE C C# F F# A C or the following pattern: half tone, 2 tone, half tone, 1 tone and a half, 1 tone and a half.

If you have a keyboard or another instrument you can enjoy the scales with Ethiopian flavor.

INSTRUMENTS

Of course, in a country like Ethiopia where there are so many cultures and more than 80 languages, the music instruments are many and my purpose is not to make a complete list about them, I will speak just about the most famous ones.

Masinqo: some times it is described as a one string violin. And in fact the principle is similar as the violin one, it makes the sound with the vibration of the only string. The different notes are performed touching the string with the fingers.







Washint: is the Ethiopian traditional flute. As far as you can see there are six holes, to follow the pattern of the scales, normally is used a different washint for every scale because the distance between the holes is different.

 Kirar: is a kind of lire with five or six strings that can be tuned in different scales with the woods on the top. It can be played with the fingers or with a pick.












I hope you enjoy it!

THE KING MENELIK

After the king Tewodros II, Ethiopia did not have a unified and stable government under one rule. Menelik was the king of Showa and he was claiming the emperor throne. He believe in the federalism under the imperial crown, with this ideas he unify Ethiopia creating the new capital of Addis Abeba, the new flower.

He born on 17 August 1844 and died on 12 December 1913. He ruled Ethiopia from 9 March 1889 until 12 December 1913 when he died.

He is considered the one  that have unified Ethiopia and is also a very loved and respected king.

THE SPECIAL BEHAVIOR OF MENELIK

He had modern ideas, and at that time the people were not open to the technology.

The first car that got in the country was because of him. When the car was coming he told to the people. When the car arrive the people thought that it was something dangerous and tried to attack it and they try to stop him to enter in it, of course he didn't listen to them and he go by car while his people were following him by horse. After a while Menelik went far and they thought that the car had eat him.... So he was the first to drive and to have driving licence.

It was not use to use shoes, he was also the first to use them. His servants were trying to hide them to protect him.

The telephone was also a new thing he introduce to the country. At that time the people were thinking he was speaking with the devil and they were throwing holly water on it.



Also electric power and electric light. One of his soldiers didn't like it and tried to take away the light bulb and he was electrified. after that they were so afraid of the electric power thinking that it was a powerful devil.

He was also the founder of the first hotel in Ethiopia, that is still working in Piassa, is called with his wife name, Taitu. At that time no one was going to eat there because everyone was eating at home. So he was also the first to pay to eat there to be an example for the others.

He tried to be an example for his people but it was really not easy.