Hip Hip Hooray!!! Ethiopia has finally made it to the year 2005!!! :) Yes you read that correctly – Ethiopia has finally made it to the year 2005. Most of the world, including the US, uses the Gregorian calendar, while Ethiopia marches to a beat of a different drum…err the tick of a different clock?!?! As of September 11th, 2012 (Gregorian calendar), Ethiopia officially entered the year 2005. I know, it is crazy. If I only to use the Ethiopian calendar, am I reliving those 7 years of my life? How will I distinguish between the “reoccurring” years in my records? Am I younger? So many questions… In juxtaposition to the Gregorian calendar, the Ethiopian calendar is made up of 12 months of 30 days each plus a thirteenth month with either five or six days, depending upon the leap year schedule.
Typically in America, we would celebrate the coming of the new year on New Year’s Eve. Here in Ethiopia, they like to celebrate on New Year’s Day. Across the country families and friends gather together to eat doro (chicken) wat (stew) and spend time together. Several of our Ethiopian neighbors invited us to come celebrate with them. We developed a quality party hopping plan. Over the span of 5 hours we each ate 3 full meals of doro wat, drank 3 huge glasses of a cultural barley drink, and drank countless cups of coffee. We finished the night with full stomachs and grateful hearts. The next morning when Bryan was talking with one of the guys he works with, Gunamo, about his New Year celebration, Gunamo said that it was good but that he spent most of the night in the “shintabait” (bathroom) because of all the spicy food he ate. So now we know – it is not just the “Ferenjis” (foreigners) who can’t handle the doro wat :)
Typically in America, we would celebrate the coming of the new year on New Year’s Eve. Here in Ethiopia, they like to celebrate on New Year’s Day. Across the country families and friends gather together to eat doro (chicken) wat (stew) and spend time together. Several of our Ethiopian neighbors invited us to come celebrate with them. We developed a quality party hopping plan. Over the span of 5 hours we each ate 3 full meals of doro wat, drank 3 huge glasses of a cultural barley drink, and drank countless cups of coffee. We finished the night with full stomachs and grateful hearts. The next morning when Bryan was talking with one of the guys he works with, Gunamo, about his New Year celebration, Gunamo said that it was good but that he spent most of the night in the “shintabait” (bathroom) because of all the spicy food he ate. So now we know – it is not just the “Ferenjis” (foreigners) who can’t handle the doro wat :)
