New Year’s Day

11th September – 1st Maskaram

New Year’s Day - A repeat of Easter.

First to Mekdes’s family for lunch, then to Belete and Adina for dinner. I took a bottle of Gin to each. It was supposed to be Ouzo. Mekdes’s mum thought it was great and drank a small wine glass full. She then offered it to her son – who gave back his glass for more and to another visitor who happily consumed a glass – nothing added.

To the neighbours.

I watched as Kibebe and Adina cooked dinner whilst Belete and his friends played cards.

Later another neighbour visited. Bhair from Nigeria with his 3 children. Food was served and my protests were finally adhered to and I only had to eat what I wanted – this was helped by Bahir telling them how odd it was that they kept making people eat when they did not want to. This is a custom frequently applied in Ethiopia and does cause a lot of problems for visitors. My story about how the doctor says I must restrict the amount I eat especially of injeera, seemed to do the trick.

At Mekde’s house, the same applied but Mekdes had come up with an ingenious idea to help me eat the over spiced food; a dish of yogurt was served and it was great. The only battle there was only to drink one beer.