Travelling around Ethiopia

ETHIOPIA – AFRICA

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1 month into the exploration and I’ve left the wonderful people of Bhutan, to come to Ethiopia which is located in the South – East part of Africa. Ever since i was little, it has been my dream to come and travel around Ethiopia and what makes it more exiting is the fact that scientist discovered a jawbone located here which they believe would of belonged to one of the first ever humans 2.8 million years ago! Ethiopia was the first place in Africa to have people cross its land.

As Ethiopia is situated near the tropic of cancer, areas of the landscape can be very tropical with many mountains and rivers. But this is not the case with all of Ethiopia, having some areas desert like and very baron. This effects how they live and what they eat in there day to day life. But even when things become for hard these lovely people, they will still have a smile on there face and continue doing as much as they can to provide for their family and friends. They are some of the most generous and caring people that I have ever met.

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Throughout Ethiopia the most common crop you will find is Teff. Eragrostis tef, also known as teff, Williams’ love-grass or annual bunch grass is harvested for its edible seeds and is turned into flour which is then used to make flatbread, commonly known as injera. Injera is the national dish of Ethiopia, it is the fundamental part any dish in the country. Because of its major use within Ethiopia I thought that I can’t leave this place without trying some of it, so I decided that i should taste Injera with Syrup. It was amazing but would taste even better with curry.

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Today I learned that Ethiopia has a hidden meaning behind its name. The name comes from Greek ethio, meaning “burned” and pia, meaning “face”. Burned Face. Many
Aeschylus describe Ethiopia as ‘the land far off, a nation of black men.’

Ethiopian life is influenced by there religion and beliefs. Around half of the population follow the religion of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church with believe in Christianity. Christianity was brought into the country around the 4th century and once a year a festival called ‘The Feast of Epiphany (“Timkat”) is held for the day that Christianity was brought into there country and may it forever have a place within there hearts and beliefs. Muslims also make up a large amount of there population, living mainly in the eastern, southern, and western lowlands. The rest of the population believe in an ancient form of Judaism.

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As I have been traveling across Ethiopia there is a couple of environmental issues that I have come to learn. Some of these include Deforestation and the rise of endanger species. The Ethiopian wolf is one of the rarest and most endangered carnivore in the country with only around 500 left. Some of the main reasons that have result in the decrease of numbers is human population. With the amount of people living in Africa, there habitat is being overrun with humans and what they have left is being overgrazed which has resulted in them starving. There is also interbreeding with other dog, which is another cause for the species numbers to go down. Many types of dogs in Ethiopia have diseases and when they mate with the native wolf, it spreads into there blood stream resulting in that wolf, along with its cups dying. To stop this problem from occurring Oxford University has started to vaccinate wolves and save the species from coming extinct.

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