Goodbye Ethiopia - final thoughts

From the little I have seen of Ethiopia I see a country that is slowly moving ahead but reluctant to let go of some of its age old cultures. 

I loved the contrasts between one part of Addis Ababa and another, between the tribes and between the townships.  The new with the old; the westernised and the African, both working in harmony together. 

Traditions revolve around the word of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the beliefs of the followers of Moslem or those of the tribes who in some cases are christian, animist or have their own version of religion. Both Moslem and Ethiopian Orthodox are quite staunch religions so it is interesting that they do survive harmoniously next to one another.  I was told that even in the smaller places like Lalibella there is a significant amount of inter-marriage between the religions which is great. 

Our mornings in Jinka started in the middle of the night with a call to prayer from the nearby Mosque. That was soon overtaken by the sound of an Orthodox service and prayers, each with their own haunting chants and not easily distinguishable from one another. 

Education is not felt important outside of the cities and any people outside the cities are totally uneducated.   In the rural areas they want their kids on the land, helping them and helping to pass their skills to subsequent generations.   In the cities though great importance is placed on education, especially for women as it is considered that an educated woman will educated her children as well. 

Marriage in the cities for orthodox followers is usually between two people that have dated. Not too different to our ways, but in the villages partners are usually found by parents or village elders. The people of ancient tribes may participate in arranged marriage, consensual marriage, marriage by inheritance, or even marriage by abduction. Gay marriage is not permitted and in fact gay relationships are frowned upon by the church and not accepted by society. 

The age expectancy is 55 but there is a very high child mortality rate. Excluding the high child mortality rate the expectancy rate would rise to about 65 but even that is very young. Medical services are not funded at all so I guess people just dont get treatment as they cant afford it. 

A small government pension exists but only for civil servants. Older people rely on support from their children. 

Infrastructure!  Hmm! Where do I start?  Roads: Pedestrians, cows, sheep and goats share the roads with cars, trucks, busses and tuktuks. Roads is possibly not the right word as even some of the national roads are not paved and even then are filled with pot holes. Many are being repaired but with the heavy rainfall they get each year they get washed out as soon as they are fixed. Hopefully the many new roads are made more robust. 

Trains run between Addis Ababa and Djibouti but there is no train network elsewhere in the country yet. It is coming. 

Airlines: Ethiopian Airlines are a member of star alliance and run a comprehensive network of routes domestically and internationally. 

Electricity: Most built up areas appeared to have electricity but even in the cities it is still a bit hit and miss. 

Water in built up areas is apparently drinkable but for us farangi, not advisable as our stomachs are not used to the minerals.  Water is fetched in barrels from the river for many people. 

Plumbing. Well even where it exists, dribbling showers, non flushing toilets and sewerage smells are not unusual. 

Internet:  well all hotels have it (or so they say) but it is often limited to the reception area and mainly the signal is not strong enough (or the lines not capable) to cope with more than a couple of users at a time, or for more than three seconds at a time. You need the patience of a saint to use it. 

Building: In both Lalibella and Addis Ababa there is a huge amount of construction happening. Labourers are hard to find and with much of the work being manual it must be damn hard work.   In parts of Lalibella people have been moved out of their traditional rondavels, on UNESCO  sites and into apartments on the outskirts of town. They are struggling to find tradesmen to complete them. 

Much of the new infrastructure is being sponsored by the Chinese who make financial, resource and planning contributions but expect/enforce an element of control in exchange. It will be interesting to see where that goes and how much power the Chinese will exert. 

Tourism. Interestingly most the tourists I saw were in the ‘older’ age brackets which was great, more discerning but also more money. Capacity for the increasing numbers is slowly progressing and we noticed huge amounts of building happening everywhere. In hotels little things like details about the hotel facilities, whats closeby, availability of tours etc dont appear anywhere and would be a great help for visitors and save the time of their staff. The not so perfect state of most tourist related things is endearing and reflective of the place overall but the novelty can easily wear off. There is a very fine line between retaining their own identity and providing comfort and service for their tourists. 

The people!  Gorgeous. The majority were polite, gracious and got a thrill from my pathetic attempts to speak Abrahmic. It is a difficult language with lots of long words. 

I can honestly say I met people from many walks of life, talked with some more than others and from the city dwellers found that they want modernisation. Certainly the young people in the cities dress and act much like our youngsters. Modern, women beautifully made up, cell phone attached to their hand, enjoying cafes, restaurants and clubs. Elsewhere there is a mixture of people wanting the new but also wanting to cling to the old. Religion is a huge influence in the country and many believers are very very devout, sticking to religious traditions to the extreme. I hope that doesn’t hold them back. 

Would I come again?  I would not do the tribal thing again as I felt uncomfortable treating the people like monkeys in the zoo. But I would like to come back in the future to see how the construction in the cities/townships that is currently happening changes the place. Every which way you look there is big scale construction happening. Maybe once the building is compete they can upgrade the footpaths and also the roads.  Although it seems wrong to want to impose western ways on developing countries if they do it right they can still retain their traditions in an environment that we hope makes their lives easier. 

I would also dearly love to visit the Denakil Depression, part of the below sea level part of the rift valley. 

So who knows. I may be back soon.