Wednesday, April 06, 2016

E is for Ethiopia

Today is the letter E.  In the northwest corner of Africa, there are three countries that begin with an E: Egypt, Eritrea, and Ethiopia…  I’m adding Ethiopia to my “bucket list.”  After all, I love Ethiopian food having eaten it in Las Vegas and in Michigan.  The spicy meats and vegetables are served with Injera, a sour spongey flatbread that serves as a fork.  One pulls off a piece of injera and uses the bread to pick up the other food.  When you are done, there are no utensils to wash!  The sour bread goes well with the spicy food.

Damascus may well be the world’s oldest city, but Ethiopia may be where humans first came on the scene.  However, it does appear to be a little dry to have been the location of the Garden of Eden.  Ethiopia does have geographical diversity from flatlands to mountains.  Yet, the diversity of geography does not include coastland.  It is one of the most populous landlocked countries in the world.   Although humanity has lived in Ethiopia for a long time, there is a certain sadness about the people there.  In his trip through East Africa, Paul Theroux describes them as “a race of aristocrats who had pawned the family silver.”  As I’d like to the countryside by rail (as Theroux did), most of the rail line that used to run from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa is no longer in operation.  This line may still connects Dire Dawa to the Republic of Djibouti along the Red Sea.  Today, if one would want to see the countryside, one would have to take a bus or hire a vehicle.   Still, places like Haran with its ancient ruins would be appealing as would the wildlife/national park areas. 

Yesterday I asked this question, why would Sage seek out a Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in Damascus?  


It was probably an attempt at a bad joke and nobody guessed it.  Manfred Mann one hit is “Blinded by the Light” and it reminded me of the Apostle Paul’s experience outside of Damascus.  

25 comments:

  1. Boy, I need to go back to school. I never heard of Eritea. There! I showed my ignorance. BTW, did you eat Ethiopian in Ann Arbor? They have a restaurant there, or at least they used to.

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    1. No, but I remember them advertising on Michigan NPR when I lived on the west side of the state. The restaurants I ate in were in Grand Rapids.

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  2. We are fortunate that despite living in a very rural small town in the poorest county in our state, we have a fabulous Ethiopian restaurant. I love their chicken tibs served on injera. I've also had the lamb and beef but the chicken one remains my favorite.

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    1. I'm envious. I haven't found one here in Savannah, but I'm going to do a google search!

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  3. So much beauty in the world. Our minds have been conditioned to think some places are anything but beautiful because of war and poverty. Thanks far sharing the beauty of our planet!

    I’m exploring different types of dreams and their meanings.
    Stephen Tremp’s Breakthrough Blogs

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  4. I would love to go to Egypt.

    When I was in high school we were given places in Africa to write about and I was assigned Ethiopia. I enjoyed learning about this small city. I had even made this biscuit thing for extra credit. It had paprika in it and pretty much nothing else. I actually like it. :)

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  5. From the photo, it looks beautiful. I doubt I will ever make it to Africa.

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  6. It does look beautiful. I never imagined Ethiopia that way. Is that an old photo? Appears lush to me.
    Cheers, Sage.

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    1. It was a photo from an Ethiopian travel sight (approved, not doubt, by the local Chamber of Commerce). if you look at the hills, you see that it is barren and the water appears dirty, sign of excess rain upstream.

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  7. It seems a lot of civilizations have pawned the family silver--love that quote. I'm wondering if the Leakey discoveries remain in Ethiopia or if they've been hauled off to the British Museum or somewhere here?

    The only thing I recall about Manfred Mann’s Earth Band is they had several huge hits with Bruce Springsteen. So Damascus? They're touring? You've got me.

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    1. It was a joke. Manfred Mann's main hit was "Blinded by the Light" and that's what happened to the Apostle Paul on his way to Damascus.

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  8. Egypt has been on my bucket list forever, but Ethiopia also sounds fascinating. Not good with spicy food though, so I hope there are other choices.

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  9. Years ago we lived just down the street from an Ethiopian restaurant. It was so small and only had 3 small tables in it and the menu on the wall only had 5 things on it. We never went in but we would always look in when we walked by.

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    1. My first Ethiopian restaurant experience was in Vegas (I believe it was on Jones Street, not far from Chinatown). I ate there a couple of times during the weeks I spent in Vegas working on my dissertation and researching at UNLV

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  10. I've always wondered whether or not I'd ever have a "Come to Damascus moment," but I'm beginning to doubt it.

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  11. Just hearing the word "Ethiopia" makes me see pictures of starving children in my head, so it brings about a very sad vibe for me. It does look pretty in the picture, and I'm sure it's an interesting place. "Blinded by the Light"--ha! Oh, now I get it, of course. :)

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    1. Connie, you win the prize (let's see, what was it) for getting my joke!

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  12. What a beautiful blog title, how could I not stop by? Funny post, thanks for sharing!

    -Sati


    http://atozwriting.blogspot.com/

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  13. When I think of Ethiopia I think of the sad side - the starving children, the drought, the poverty. Thank you for enlightening me with the history and I love the image. Sue @Sizzling60 from
    Sizzling Towards Sixty

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  14. I had Ethiopian food with coworkers once - there was raw ground beef in it. Yikes! I avoided that area. :)

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  15. I'm not sure that I have eaten Ethiopian cuisine. I will have to find somewhere. There has to be something in the Queen City.

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  16. Have you notice I'm going backwards in your posts! Playing catch-up. Ethiopia was very interesting to me in grade school and I covered it for many reports!

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  17. A tough to grasp joke, until you explained it. Good one!

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  18. Gorgeous picture! Ethiopia is high on my "must visit" list as well. I have a friend currently living there, so I should take advantage, but it just seems difficult and expensive to get to from Denver and other trips keep coming up.

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