Ethiopia Trip #1: Perception of Ethiopia

So what do you know about Ethiopia? 

You probably know it's in Africa.  But where?  East?  West?  South?  North?  Could you put your finger immediately on it if you were given a map?  Is it on the coast? 

What about the weather?  It's Africa right?....so it must be pretty hot.  Right?  Every movie you've seen of Africa is either deserts or jungle....so it has to be either hot and dry or hot and wet.  Right? 

How about animals?  Africa means Elephants, giraffes, crocodiles, and monkeys. 


OK let's be done with the guessing game.  Let me tell you about the country of Ethiopia that we continue to fall deeper in love with.

Ethiopia is located in Eastern Africa in an area referred to as the Horn of Africa.....because it looks like a horn.  See that was easy.   Ethiopia is a land locked country.  This creates some problems for the country....which you can probably imagine.  Importing things isn't easy or cheap. 

We talked to several people about cars particularly.  Most vehicles are old Toyota's.  Taxi cabs are early 90's Lavda's from Russia.  HOWEVER....a nice shape 92 Toyota Corolla would still cost 15k US!!!  There are a couple Chinese car manufacturers in country, but everyone says they're garbage and parts are hard to come by.  If you can figure out how to cheaply import Toyota's to Ethiopia you're golden!

Ethiopia is not a desert.  Though there are tiny parts of the country that are the edge of deserts.  It is not a jungle either.  I think of Ethiopia as lush.  It's green.  When I was a kid in the 80's we saw the massive drought in Ethiopia where thousands died of malnutrition......that's not Ethiopia today. Check out this picture we took just outside the city.   Be honest, if I hadn't told you where I that was...would you have guessed?  Doubtful.

 

Here are pictures from outside our house and from the top of a mountain looking down on Addis. 

Average temperature most of the year is in the mid-70's.  In rainy season (when we were there....Aug, Sept some of Oct) it's in the low to mid 60's and damp.  Since it doesn't get super cold few people have heaters.....so damp is everywhere.  Not exactly what you think of when you think Africa huh?

While we're at it, let's talk elevation.  Addis Ababa is HIGH.  You know when it's football season and everyone talks about playing in Denver and how the teams need oxygen and so forth.  Addis looks down on Denver.  Elevation in Denver is 5,690 ft.  Addis elevation is 7,726 feet.  I would get winded jogging up stairs.

 OK animals.  Yes there are giraffe's and elephants and hippos and so forth....but not in the quantities that you think.  When most people think of African animals, you're really thinking of Kenya.  Kenya is known for it's Safari tours.  So yes they're here, but much like the jungle that's not really here....neither are the animals like you think of in Tarzan movies.

But speaking of animals.....there are goats, and sheep, and cows all over the place....including walking across the city.  Actually the night we left there was a traffic jam because a cow was killed crossing a road by being hit with a car.  Boys about Corban's age take care of these flocks that roam around.  We actually called this trip.....the whip trip.  It seemed like all these boys discovered whips.  They cracked them for fun from dawn till dusk.