Ethiopia – The Children
The children are everywhere in Ethiopia even moreso than in other African countries. Each time we would pull over on a road, kids would appear as if they were coming out of the rocks rather than the woodwork. Each picnic we had except one (we were on top of a mountain well off a road in Simien NP) involved up to thirty kids (and sometimes adults) staring at me while I ate. I was definitely their freak show. It bothered my guide more than it bothered me. In fact, I don’t think I was ever bothered by it. As I have said, I like being the freak. Go ahead and gawk at me. Look! I use a fork to eat my salad rather than the Ethiopian method of fingers! The leftovers of each meal were given to the kids. I especially enjoyed giving them cheese, watching them put it in their mouths and seeing their eyes bug out in disgust right before they spit it out. Funny stuff! I’d take photos of the groups and then show them what they look like and they would all push each other to get a look before laughing hard. The kids of Ethiopia are almost always entertaining although they can wear on you a bit.
There are three sets of kids in Ethiopia. The first group is very excited to see a faranji and they yell “faranji, faranji”, “you, you, you” or just a nice loud “hello”. These kids usually smile and wave and maybe run after the car a bit. The second group of kids may say “faranji”, but they are not se welcoming and start demanding pens, “highland” (their term for spring water since it comes from the Ethiopian highlands) or they just cut to the chase and demand birr (money). The third group mostly seen in the northern districts just throw rocks at the car! The vast majority of the kids in the north fall in the first group while the vast majority of the kids in the south fall into the second group. Thankfully, it is a small minority throwing the rocks.
The saddest thing about the kids is the lack of education. This is the biggest difference between the kids in the rural areas versus the kids in the urban areas where school is more likely to be attended. My belief is that even when kids go to school, they do not spend a lot of time in school and they are probably getting a mediocre education. So many people live out in the middle of nowhere on their small farms and these kids definitely do not go to any school. Instead they work on the farms and around their homes and their futures look pretty bleak to me. These kids are definitely the most filthy looking I have ever seen mainly because water is not available up on the mountains and Ethiopia is one very dusty country. Snotty running noses, dirt on their faces, hands and bodies and old, ripped clothes is how most of them look. We stopped in the middle of some mountains between Lalibela and Mekele where it appeared that no one lived. Appearances of emptiness are misleading because Ethiopians are everywhere. I was taking a photo and a boy came out of the hills. He was quite nice and asked for a pen. He was as grubby looking as it gets and I dug out a pen from my backpack. I handed it to him and he held it out in front with his eyes bulging and hands shaking. It was like I had given him something from another planet. He was mesmerized by it. His mother appeared with a big clay pot presumably with water strapped on her back and he showed her the pen. She got just as excited by it as he. I was even more mesmerized by their reactions! Very weird experience and one I bet you can’t find too often on planet earth.
Some of my best experiences in Ethiopia were with the kids. Showing them the photos was always great fun. Walking and having one grab my hand and walk with me was even better. One day on the way from Axum to Gonder, our vehicle had to wait before crossing a bridge. I decided to walk across to stretch my legs. On the other side of the bridge in this very remote valley a horrible little village of stick homes was strung along the road. When I got to that side a little girl came out and talked to me. She wanted her picture taken so I did that. Then she walked with me holding my hand. Another kid came out and held my other hand. A few more came out and we had more fun with the photos. Then one of the kids wanted to be the photographer so I let him have at it. Oh what fun and laughs we shared before the car got across the river.
Some experiences were not so fun. Having hundreds of kids everyday yelling at you for something for three weeks just starts to wear you out. Sure, I could pretend to tune them out, but that’s really not true. If walking and a kid would yell “you”, I would often turn around and say (never yell) “you, too!” This would catch them off-guard and sometimes would get a smile. Actually, if there is one thing that most of the Ethiopian kids do easily is smile. Even the grubby poor ones usually had smiles on their faces. Also, seeing the kids working or sitting around and not going to school was also never fun.
The worst experiences were the kids that throw rocks at the car. I understand what is going on. They throw rocks at everything. Ethiopians, kids and adults alike, use rocks to heard their millions of cattle, goats and sheep. Seeing Ethiopian treatment of animals in general could drive anyone to look into joining PETA. They also throw rocks at each other. Don’t ask me why. So, throwing rocks at faranji cars is just another fun pasttime especially in the Tigrai highlands. I believe they are so ignorant that they do not get the danger involved. Their homes have no glass so they don’t really understand what happens when they hit a window until one explodes on impact. They throw the rocks at the vehicles like they do with their slow cows. We were traveling one day and found a faranji busload of Germans pulled over with their very large back window smashed by a rock. During myy second day driving between Kombolcha and Lalibela on a cobblestone road one could only describe as a cattle path (the valley it traversed was absolutely stunning so this is why we left the road) a kid through a rock. Not understanding how widespread is this problem, I did not understand why my guide chased the kid. I saw my guide run down a steep field knowing he would never catch the ten year old and I saw him go head-over-feet and roll down the field. I took photos while he recovered and came back. I didn’t tell him that I saw his acrobatic flips.
The other really bad experiences were those that I described in the south with the Omo tribal folks where the kids would be so demanding for photos to be taken for money. Fortunately, now that I am back in Addis and I am pulling away from Ethiopia I can see that these bad experiences really are insignificant as compared to the good ones. I don’t really have images of any of the kids that I didn’t like and I am full of memories of the good ones. I am sad that Ethiopia is pumping out so many children into such impoverished conditions, but I know most of these kids are really loved and they will get by.
Tags: Africa, ethiopia, Travel
vagabondrick
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