Ethiopian Facts That You May or May Not Know

1. More than 80 languages are spoken by different people groups in Ethiopia
2. Ethiopia has the second biggest population for an African country
3. One of the ways Ethiopians say “yes” is to gasp in air
4. One of the ways Ethiopians say “hello” is by raising their eyebrows at you.
5. The capital city of Addis Ababa is split into smaller sub cities (like Cherokee House is in Tor Highluch and I walk to Abenet in the morning and take a bus to Piazza and then to Kechene)
6. Because of the half a** job done when building the dams, the reservoirs have more silt in them than water, causing the government to ration power. Power goes out about every other day depending on where you live in the city.
7. Butcher shops associate with either Christians or Muslims by painting either a red cross or a red moon cresent on the outside of their store and only those of that respective religion will buy meat there
8. To say “thank you” in Amarhic, say I’m-a-suck-an-olive very fast.
9. The more money you have (or the more money you are perceived to have) the more money you are expected to give away and be generous with
10. Seeing white people is rare and special here so everyone wants to talk to you and try their English out on you and to shake your hand
11. Ethiopia is one of the only African countries that was never colonized by whites (hence the lack of white people here)
12. EVERYONE in Ethiopia loves Obama
13. Mini-bus operators overall will not try to rip you off and overcharge you just because you are white. Contract buses and private taxis are another matter though.
14. There are no traffic laws here (at least there doesn’t seem to be)
15. It is the year 2001 here right now
16. There are 13 months in the Ethiopian calendar. No month has more than 30 days. Those few extra days are put together to make a very short extra month.
17. Time is kept differently here. 1pm+7. I’m sure there is an explanation for this, but I just don’t know what it is.