A week of catching up with students and teaching teenagers in the new rainy season programme has flown by. Tea, coffee, injera and shero wot (spicy tomato sauce) seems to have been my staple diet this week, as each day Laura and I have been meeting with different students.

SELS has been a privilege

For me it has also been a sad week, as the reality of leaving behind so many friendships is finally hitting home. The combination of teaching English, getting to know the students and seeing how God is working through the SELS
ministry has been a real privilege, and I thank God for my
time here.

Catching a glimpse of Ethiopian life and culture over these last 3 months has been fascinating and ‘interesting’, as I have realized that so many things we take as ‘givens’ are, in fact, culturally dependent. One thing that I have learned this week is that meeting for coffee can mean a number of different things – depending on whether you are Ethiopian or otherwise!

'Come for coffee'

Last Sunday Laura and I were invited to the home of one of our students to meet the rest of her family. Having established on the phone that we would not be back from church until 1 pm and so would grab something to eat before meeting at 2, we thought that we were just going for coffee. So would most people when told to ‘come for coffee’.

We were a bit unsure from the start as to whether this meant ‘come for coffee and something to eat’ or just come for coffee, and so as not to appear rude if food was offered to us, we decided to have a light lunch. Thank goodness we did.

After we had turned up and were introduced to various
family members – Faseek’s mother, brother, sister, aunt and cousin – a lunch of injera, shero wot, boiled spinach and salad was promptly served, followed by an elaborate coffee ceremony. I couldn’t help giving a wry grin as we tucked enthusiastically into the food prepared for us: our second lunch of the day.

Mastering the art of eating slowly is a necessity if you want to make sure that your plate isn’t filled up with more and more food – especially if you have already eaten! The Ethiopians are so hospitable and really do serve some lovely dishes, which we now know take a lot of preparation and cooking time.

Making shero wat

Last Friday Laura and I decided to reciprocate the many dinner offers that we have had by inviting another of our students, Sitak, to come round for lunch and teach us how to make shero wot.

She certainly had a good time! I don’t know what was so funny as she watched us chopping the onions (not as finely as she would have liked), skinning and chopping the tomatoes and stirred the rapidly bubbling sauce.

The funniest part had to be when we were rolling and cutting the injera. It always looks so easy when the experts do it; it was much harder than it looked. I can now see why the Ethiopian girls start learning how to cook at the age of 14. We all laughed as we stacked the injera onto the serving plate, comparing the neatly cut injera with my misshapen efforts. We got full marks for trying though.

And so to my last week in Ethiopia. Another week of farewell meals and meetings, and a chance to snatch some time to do a bit of last minute shopping. I’ve already bought some chorro powder and barbare powder that I will take home with me. I’ve got the recipe and I’m determined to master the art of making shero wat. Watch out Mum and Dad, that's all I can say!

Lucy

Below: Coffee break with SELS students