General trends about Ethiopians.

In my two months here, I have met my fair share of Ethiopians, and have noticed some common trends. Here is what you need to know not to get too vexed whilst living here!

Ethiopians are proud, as mentioned before in this blog. They don’t say thank you much (which is a relief after living in the UK for 3 years) and they never, sorry NEVER complain. I noticed that during our trekking. Ethiopians are never thirsty, never hungry, never tired. They are never too cold or too hot either.

Ethiopians are not ultra-sensitive like Europeans. They don’t say many compliments, except if you speak Amharic and they can be quiet blank. My Amharic teacher told me on my second lesson not to get vexed if someone came to tell me I was fat, or getting fatter…

Ethiopians are not patronising at all. It is refreshing, especially when visiting cultural sites. I always get slightly annoyed when I am going down the stairs of a 16th century castle and there is a big panel telling me that the stairs are slippery. I understand the legal motive behind it, but really, really, do I need to be told to be careful when the stairs are irregulars, steep and dangerous? In Lalibela for example, you have no reminder at all. You are going down an extremely dangerous path, around 15 meters above the ground and nobody tells you to be careful. It is nice.

Another aspect of the above is during learning activities. I experience it first hand every Monday during my tennis lesson. My teacher never really tells me how to improve but get slightly annoyed when I do the same mistake again and again and again. It does not say encouragements as such, I don’t think I have ever heard him say well done yet. When the ball is (miraculously) doing what it should, he says: “ichi”, yes in Amharic. When I finally manage to serve he acknowledges by saying, “in”… My tennis teacher is also very competitive and nicely treats me as a real opponent! His two favourite sentences are: “I am still winning” and “I am here, but where are you?” whilst throwing the ball at the opposite side of the tennis court.

Finally, French sense of humour does not work in Amharic (not that it did in English either…). So, there is no point at all trying some joke because Ethiopians already find me hilarious when I just stand in front of them, trying one or two sentences in Amharic. My vegetable lady has seen me every week for the past month and she still thinks I am the funniest thing in Addis. When I get in the shop, I can see her eyes brightening and she waits for the next stupid thing I will do, like asking for 2 kilos of tomatoes or if there is cucumber today…