I am now sitting in a cyber cafe in Nazareth. This is the first time I’ve used a computer in over two weeks. The Internet has been down in all of Ethiopia due to some cable in the Mediterranean. We came here looking to make an international call to Ellinor’s parents and surprise, there’s Internet!
Ethiopia is much different than the other African countries I’ve visited. As I understand it, other than a short-lived Italian occupation in the 1930s, they were never colonized. I guess that explains why they still use Amharic as a national language and have such a rich culture — food, language, music, and dress are all very unique. Strangely they do say “ciao” sometimes, and they love coffee. I know Ethiopia is the “birthplace” of the coffee plant, but these people love both macchiatos in small cups and pasta. There are coffee shops everywhere (even the small towns), which is really nice compared to Kenya, where you can only get a nice cup of coffee in the two or three upper-class coffee shops in Nairobi.