We can’t experience the true nature of rural/farm life in Ethiopia because we are such obvious anachronisms that the village locals change their behavior when we are around. Most people are curious, most will return a greeting with a warm smile (but very few greet us first), a few seem suspicious, and every so often somebody will see us coming and cross the street just so they don’t have to deal with us. As soon as we engage, though, and they see that we are just normal people like themselves, everybody relaxes.
Like many rural areas around the world, the culture here is VERY religious. Church seems to be the center of social life, and I see people making the sign of the cross often. This morning I saw two men greet each other. The first man was wearing a large, ornately-carved wooden cross on a string around his neck. The second man greeted the first man, reached out and pulled the wooden cross away from his chest and kissed it repeatedly.
On Wednesday night we saw hundreds of people walking many kilometers to the local church, all wrapped in beautiful white scarfs.
When we visit local homes, the main decorations on the walls are colorful religious posters and other Christian traditional symbols. Ornately carved wooden crosses, like the one the man wore around his neck, are everywhere. They hang inside the taxis, from storefronts, etc. it seems to be a traditional art form.
Even though the majority of the population is Christian, there are lots of Muslims here, too, and mosques are in every village. As an outsider, it seems that the two religions seem to peacefully coexist, though maybe I’m uninformed.
The civil infrastructure seems far more developed and advanced than in Kenya. The roads are MUCH better. Even small towns usually have sidewalks and many streets have tree-lined medians. There is nowhere near the level of traffic congestion we saw in Kenya, though it may be that there are simply fewer vehicles.
Farm life here seems likely not to have changed much in centuries. You see people plowing with mules and wooden plows. There are as many donkey carts as cars. Shepherd boys still roam all over the countryside, and women carry water jugs miles along the roadways from the wells to their homes. For a Westerner, it’s like a time machine, but for these people, it’s just normal life on a Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this country, as the culture here spans centuries of different lifestyles, from the modern urban metropolis to pre-industrial farm life.
If you can’t tell, I’m completely fascinated by this place. I never imagined anything like this existed. Looking forward to learning more…
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