Women's Work in Ethiopia

Sometimes when I get together with girlfriends, we complain about the chores that fall on us.  Why is it up to us to pick up toys, organize playdates, buy birthday presents, plan meals (insert your least favorite task here)?, we moan.

Before I went to Ethiopia, I knew that my woes were fairly trivial.  Seeing the back-breaking, monotonous work women do in Ethiopia, I vowed to complain less.

My earlier post about coffee included a picture of rows of women hand sorting coffee beans.   This job seemed cushy compared to some of the other work we saw.  To start, homes in the villages and many in the city don't have running water.  Women and girls walk to public water points or other water sources, stand in line and wait for a turn to fill a 20-25 liter containers, and carry home the water their families will use for the day.  In some villages, girls spend so much time collecting water, they don't have time to attend school.

Driving up a long, steep road to a church built above Addis Ababa, we saw women carrying bundles of eucalyptus on their backs.  These women start walking up the road at 4 a.m., we were told.  They gather eucalyptus branches in the woods, tie them into large bundles, and carry them down the hill where they sell the bundles for firewood.  The reward for this day long process?  About $1.

On one drive, we saw scores of women sitting outside the Sudan Embassy.  Our driver told us that they were waiting to get work visas so they could go to Sudan to look for jobs.  Don't they know how dangerous it is?, we asked.  No, he said.  But they usually come back within a month or two.

An avid bird watcher on our trip asked our Ethiopian guide about a bird she saw.  After stating he couldn't answer her question, he said, We don't watch birds.  We survive.

NOTE:  The UN Millennium Goals seek to eradicate poverty and hunger by achieving decent work for all, and to promote gender equality.  For more details, click here.

Coffee in Ethiopia

One of my favorite things about Seattle is the availability of incredible coffee. When I heard that Ethiopia considers itself the birthplace of coffe, I knew I would enjoy my trip -- or at least be wide awake to experience it.

The coffee in Ethiopia is amazing! Even the hotel coffee was strong and delicious. The waitress at our hotel in Addis Ababa came to our table each morning with a pitcher of thick, dark coffee and a pitcher of hot milk.

In Ginchi, our group ordered macchiatos by the tray. These drinks came in small cups with a shot of coffee and a little steamed milk. The cost of 20 to 30 cents per macchiato was a welcomed break from the $3 lattes. I found impossible to have less than two. Some members of our group had four or five a morning.

Americans are not the only ones who appreciate Ethiopian coffee and the ritual of drinking it. Ethiopians welcome guests with a coffee ceremony. At this ritual, a woman dressed in a traditional white gown, roasts coffee over a small fire and then brews it in a clay pitcher called a jebena. The hostess burns incense during the ceremony and serves the coffee with popcorn. We asked, but never heard a satisfactory answer, how a seemingly New World food (popcorn) made it into this traditional ceremony.

Noticing our love of coffee, our tour guide arranged for a visit to a coffee wholesaler in Addis Ababa. At the wholesaler, we watched men carry large sacks of green coffee beans to sorting machines:


After the beans were sorted by machine, they went through a hand-sorting process. This picture shows women hand sorting the beans:

The wholesaler exports the coffee beans unroasted. It does, however, roast small batches for local customers. We were lucky enough to taste some of these coffees. We sampled coffees from Sidamo, Yirgacheffe. and Lekempti. We were told that Yirgacheffe is very popular in Ethiopia. I liked the Sidamo the best.

You may recall a dispute between Starbucks and Ethiopian officials over the sale of Ethiopian coffee in the United States. This article explains the dispute. Basically, Ethiopians, encouraged by Oxfam, were looking to share more of the profit from the sale of Ethiopian coffee in the United States. Eventually, the two sides came to an agreement. I must admit, however, that the Ethiopian coffee I purchased at Starbucks didn't come close to the coffee I enjoyed in Ethiopia. Hopefully the coffee I brought back will taste better.

So, what's it like in Ethiopia?

My trip to Ethiopia generated so many potential blog posts. Before I get too deep into water and sanitation needs or Ethiopian coffee, let me tell you a little about what it's like in Ethiopia.

We started our trip in Addis Ababa. Addis has approximately four million people, many traffic circles and only two or three stoplights. The streets are crowded with cars, blue and white minibuses, people and, every now and then, donkeys. This picture gives you a sense:

UPDATE:  The picture above was taken by Sam Effron.  I found it through a Google search and thought it provided a great illustration of traffic in Addis Ababa.  Many apologies to Sam for not providing credit in the original post.  

Driving down the road, we saw men playing Foosball on tables out in the middle of dirt sidewalks, buildings under construction with wood scaffolding and cement floors that didn't seem very level, vehicles loaded with people and goods. One pickup truck we saw near The Mercado was stacked 10-12 feet high with sacks and sacks of items from the market. A goat balanced on top of the tower of purchases.

Our hotel was relatively fancy with an elevator, wi-fi and flush toilets. We saw many people in town standing in line to get water at public water points. And power outages seemed like a common occurrence.

The second part of our trip was spent two hours outside of Addis. We stayed in a town called Ginchi and visited two nearby villages where Water 1st sponsored water projects. The courtyard of our hotel in Ginchi looked like this:

During the day, donkeys and other animals wondered into the courtyard. At night, our drivers parked their 4x4s in the courtyard. And inexplicably started the engines hours before we were supposed to leave.

The countryside near the villages we visited was beautiful and reminiscent of California.

The villagers live in one room huts with no electricity or running water, dirt floors, and very little furniture. Frequently, animals spend the night in these homes. Women build cooking fires in these poorly ventilated homes, creating a very smoky environment.

Seriously, do they know it's Christmas time?: time and dates in Ethiopia

One of the more interesting tidbits I learned from my Ethiopia guidebook related to telling time.

  

According to the Bradt guide, Ethiopians measure time in 12-hour cycles starting at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.  So what I would consider 7 Seattle time, Ethiopians would consider 1.  Also, Ethiopians only worry about gradations of five minutes - so four minutes past five become five minutes past five.  

The calendar in Ethiopia is different too.  Again the Bradt guide explains, in 1582 the Christian world dropped the Julian calendar in favor of the Gregorian calendar.  Ethiopia never made the switch.  As a result, Ethiopia is seven years and eight months "behind" the rest of the world.  (Right now it's 2001 in Ethiopia.)

Ethiopians celebrate Christmas on January 7 and New Years on September 11.  Looks like I'll be arriving in Ethiopia right in time for the after-Christmas sales!

Lucy

One of the highlights of the Water 1st trip to Ethiopia is visiting the National Museum of Ethiopia.  At this museum, visitors can see a replica of Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old fossil found in Ethiopia that proves our ancestors were walking 2.5 million years earlier than previously thought.

Few visitors to Ethiopia are allowed to see the actual fossil.  Happily, Lucy is touring American museums and is featured in a fantastic exhibit at Seattle's Pacific Science Center through March 2009.  We went to see the exhibit last night.

The exhibit begins with an explanation of Ethiopian history and culture.  Many people of my generation (myself included) associate Ethiopia with famine and "Do They Know It's Christmas."  The exhibit reminded me that Ethiopia is famous for so much more.

According to legend, Ethiopia was the home of the Queen of Sheeba ,who visited King Solomon for diplomacy and, some say, romance; possibly one of the lost tribes of Israel ; and the Ark of the Covenant.  The final Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, aka Ras Tefari, inspired the Rastafari movement.

The second part explains Lucy's role in evolution: she provided conclusive evidence that bipedalism came before big brains.  And how scientists can deduce bipedalism and other characteristics from a very partial skeleton.

Lucy, by the way, got her informal name from the fact that the scientists who discovered her listened to the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamond" over and over again on the night of the discovery.

I'm Going to Ethiopia!

In January, I'll be spending a week in Ethiopia with Water 1st.  Water 1st helps some of the poorest communities in the world implement community-managed projects that integrate water supply, sanitation, and health education.

My parents think I'm a little crazy for going on this trip and offered to send me to a Marriott timeshare instead.  A friend suggested I might be happier going to a spa for a week.  I'm looking forward to the adventure, the chance to gain perspective on and appreciate the stability and comfort of my life in Seattle, and the opportunity to help others.

Hopefully, you'll enjoy learning more about Ethiopia with me, hearing about my preparations and reading about my journey.  

Lonely Planet describes travel in Ethiopia as "testing, awe-inspiring, and heartbreaking."  I can't wait!

For the geographically challenged, here's a link to a map of Africa.