Ethiopia is in Africa. This is something almost everyone knows (I hope!). However, Ethiopia, or perhaps more specifically the Ethiopian highlands which constitute a large chunk of modern Ethiopia and which are the source for much that is considered “Ethiopian”, is a world unto itself - an island floating above the rest of Africa and the nearby Middle East. It is connected to the rest of the world, but does its own thing. For example, Ethiopia is, perhaps tellingly, a place with its own sense of time, following a different calendar than that of most of the world. Specifically, it follows a version of the old Coptic calendar, which has 13 months (the 13th month being only 5-6 days), the new year falling around September 11 or 12. In Ethiopia, it is now 2003, so I
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