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September 12th 2008

Published: September 12th 2008

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Al and Sara

Grub Up

Woke up with a very sore head and children shouting outside!

So our New Year’s Eve celebrations went well, more people than I expected turned up - most people we asked came and everyone turned up exactly on time. Not knowing the Ethiopian form on parties and food, we floundered for a little while as everyone sat around the edges of the room quietly, Al did a great job being in charge of drinks and making sure everyone had one (no surprise there then!) and then we told everyone to dig into the lovely food Marta had prepared (and a little bit by me too), which went down very well, we ran out of plates, injera and almost food, luckily Al and I waited till the end, the young lads used lids for plates and a few of the late comers had to take the scrapes! The fasting didn’t seem to cause much of a problem and the Doro Wot went in no time. So the party got into full swing, it was lovely to be able to celebrate with so many new friends, there was even a bit of dancing, many requests to crank the volume up on

Getnet

the stereo and a few die hards to sing Auld Lang Syne at midnight.

So what’s all the shouting about, well young kids go round to peoples (mmmm, well, maybe with some close attention paid to ferenji) houses in their ‘Sunday best’ and shout Happy New Year, then expect some money. Shouting at me first thing in the morning, with a hangover is not a good idea, as many of my college pals can probably testify, so the first three got it in the ear, when I got up to find them roaming around the outside of our house shouting at the windows.

Hair of the dog does not work. Having been rudely awakened so early did mean I was able to take up my boss’s invitation to his house at 9. I made it for about 9.45, dark glasses donned and feeling just a little bit wobbly, I was offered T’ulla - Ethiopian home made beer as soon as I arrived - what a way to start the day. It was nice to meet Ato Nassisa’s family and chat and catch up in the traditional Ethiopian way. After about an hour I was offered my second drink

Habtamu

of the morning - Ouzo - I sipped politely, but reminded myself I was at my bosses house, it was 11 in the morning and yes I did need to walk out of the house at some point rather than being carried out by Lesley my VSO colleague, so offered my shot to another guest who was obviously much harder than me on the spirits front! After this expedition I was able to lie on the sofa at home for all of 15 minutes, before being picked up by Joseph to go and have lunch with him and Marta and their girls, we had a really nice few hours with them, sampling more of Marta’s wonderful culinary skills and coffee ceremony.

Then I spent the afternoon in bed with a raging headache and feeling sick.

Ethiopian power out did themselves and turned the power out for about two hours on New Years Day, but judging by the noises floating through our door it didn’t dampen anyone’s spirit and I’m typing now listening to the parties going on into the night, hmmmmmm, wonder how many people will be feeling as bad as I did today tomorrow morning, and it’s