Around holidays, sheep are like to the streets of Addis as tinsel to a fir tree. Being in the city during Ethiopian Christmas for the first time since ’91, I have watched with practically new fascination and from the safety of my car and predator status as, throughout the city, said sheep are singled out … More Silence of the Sheep
I must look like the Statue of Liberty. Except my plaque says “if you see me at airport check-in, bring me your grandmother and also your young cousin and I will babysit them to their final destination”. I don’t know what it is about my face or my outfit or the torch I don’t carry … More Make Like a Statue
I remember the first time I ever saw a white person. That’s not counting the ones I saw on television and in the movies. They were about as real as all the other color persons I saw on screen. No, a real live white person, in the flesh. The memory, being a very early one, … More About Face
Whoever said the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach clearly wasn’t thinking about accessing my little ticker. Long after my past fellas themselves exited the picture and my long-term memory, there always remains a special place in my stomach for one dish from our history of meals, one recipe that becomes a permanent … More Food for Heart
There’s something English can’t touch. Amharic. That is the conclusion we – some fellow speakers and I – recently came to over the course of numerous, sporadic conversations on the topic. We had these conversations in English, of course – with sprinklings of Amharic thrown in when the Other tongue just wouldn’t do – because … More Talk Amharic to Me
Sew le sew, the longest-running drama series in the history of Ethiopian Television I’m told, is over. I’m sad but I’m also glad. It had pretty much taken over my life. In true soap opera style, a plot line that could be resolved in ten minutes stretches out over many episodes, conversations that could be … More bayte-what?
Picking up from where I left off at the end of After Addis 2, if the diaspora – either as a whole or just one keyboard-happy representative – were to talk back, it might come out something like this. I’m not saying that these things were said necessarily but that they might be said if necessary in certain … More After Addis 3
Continuing from where I left off at the end of ‘After Addis 1‘, on the seven phases of the seven trips of this brown astronaut around the planet known as Ethiopia… Phase 1: immediately following migration, a time of feeling completely at ease with myself, it not even occurring to me to change to adapt to the norms … More After Addis 2
Well, the satellite dishes were everywhere in full bloom in Addis, and I’ve learned that its impossible to be matter-of-fact not only about going to but also leaving from Ethiopia. The ‘going to’ always means something- if not to you-the-goer, then to the person who hears of it. Back in the spring and early summer, … More After Addis 1
Reader response to my last post has been that I write more about this topic: 5) Pets and habesha people: write a retrospective of my colorful personal histories with pets. “His name was ‘Yeneneh’. Things would have worked out much better between us if he himself was aware of that…” (Note: no pets were harmed in the … More The Pet Chronicles
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