A Digression.

As I've been writing over the past few weeks, I have encountered a couple of challenges that I would like to address up front, before I continue with our stories.

First, I would like to (re)emphasize that all of the stories I write are based on my (unreliable) memories from twenty years ago. When it’s possible, I am trying to corroborate my recollections with J and/or with other friends who were in Ethiopia at the time, but I am sure there will be details we misremember, for better or for worse. So please enjoy this blog for what it is – a personal memoir, written for my pleasure and for yours.

Second, Ethiopia is home to a very diverse population made up of many different ethnic groups (there are as many as 90 languages spoken in the country, here's a list), which have, until quite recently, had little contact with each other.

Language map of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti; image from www.silethiopia.org.

So regardless of our strong Western preference for narrative structure, there’s really no such thing as a cohesive “Ethiopian” history or culture, which makes it difficult for me to generalize. Our stories about Ethiopia are by necessity connected to the specific Ethiopian people we met – people who were fairly well educated, relatively wealthy, largely urban, and fluent in English. As I write, I am trying so hard not to make sweeping statements about "Ethiopian" culture, so please forgive me if I forget.

(Everything we knew about Ethiopia, in those pre-Internet days, we knew from one of three sources: 1) individual informants, by which I mean, people who had lived in Ethiopia and were kind enough to share their information with us; 2) the encyclopedia, seriously; and 3) the US government, by way of State Department and CIA publications. The individuals were by far the most useful sources, and it’s thanks to them we brought our duvet and winter coats.)

Finally, some observant readers may note that I use the spelling “Abeba” instead of the more familiar “Ababa” in the name of Ethiopia’s capital city. I'll explain later in more detail, but the former is a more accurate transliteration of the Amharic spelling of the word; it is more commonly used within Ethiopia, and it’s the spelling we have used for the past twenty years. "Ababa" isn’t wrong, but it’s like pronouncing the “s” in Paris – you wouldn’t do it in France. Spelling is just one of the many ambiguities that will feature in this memoir.

All right, now back to the stories...