Ethiopian Hospitality

A couple of weekends ago, we had the pleasure of experiencing some
quality Ethiopian hospitality, live and in living color. As I
mentioned, I (LeAnne) teach grades 4-8. The 8th graders are
practically adults, and we mainly work on “spoken English.” If anyone
has any recollection of what it felt like to be the junior high age,
the proposition of delivering a speech, center stage, is pretty
daunting, especially if you’re a 8th grade girl. However, as long as
the entire class was collectively uncomfortable, we managed to work
past the shyness, fidgeting, and generally tendency of: low-talking.”
Through this, I became close with one of the girls in the class named
Hermela.

One day, Hermela boldly marched into our “office” (glorified hut) and
invited Danielle and I to her birthday party that weekend. We gladly
accepted, and had no idea what to expect.

When we arrived at her father’s house in Awassa, the party was much
smaller than most American parties, with mostly family and a couple
neighbors. Hermela’s family kept mentioning how honored they were to
have us in their home, and how much they had already heard about us.
We were incredibly flattered, at which point Hermela interjected
proudly with “I made doro-wat just for you!” We knew that ‘wat’ is
stew, so we thanked her with huge smiles. Only later did we discover
that ‘doro’ means chicken…we felt pretty terrible. It was one of those
cultural things that should be avoided at all costs, and we really
tried. Instead, her grandmother made us scrambled eggs, which was a
first at a birthday party., but they were delicious scrambled eggs.

After man cups of strong, black Ethiopian coffee, a detailed
conversation about the virtues of Orthodox Christianity, and her small
cousins performance of some MJ dance moves set to American hip-hop, we
headed out with a very warm invitation to come back anytime, and to
call if we needed anything. It was very good to be with a family,
something we miss a lot.