My family and I visited Ethiopia in 2018 as my father was a professor at Ethiopian Civil Service University. We stayed in Addis Ababa the capital of Ethiopia. Our first flight was from Hyderabad to Mumbai and then it was time for our flight to Addis Ababa. After travelling for a very long time we reached Addis and I finally could see my father in person after 6 months. My father and his friend Babu Rao lived together in a huge two-storeyed house. We just spent the whole day talking to my father and in the evening we walked through the colony and ate some hot corn cobs. The next day we all visited Mount Entoto the highest peak on the Entoto Mountains, then we visited a church, where we also meet a newly married couple and then went back home. We also visited the Red Terror Museum of Addis Ababa, where they showed us the skeletons, guns and the paintings of the rulers.
The weather there is very pleasant. The cuisine of the people living in Addis ate injera, a traditional food. They used to sell French fries as street food. I loved fresh Avocado juice.
We planted leafy vegetables and flowers in our front yard. During weekends we use to visit my father’s colleagues who were Indians. There lived a boy named ‘naughty’, he was born and bought up in Ethiopia. He used to play with us every day. My mother used to feed him Indian snacks which he loved a lot.
Once we also took with us a few Indian outfits and jewellery and father used to give it to some of his students and our maid, they were just delighted. The language spoken there is Amaric and I learnt a few words like Salamno which means hi and Endeno meaning how are you.
Ethiopia’s currency is the birr. I still have the currency saved with me as a memory. After spending our summer vacation we returned to India bought some gifts for my cousins. We travelled to India via Dubai and I took a photo with the air hostess as she was very friendly with me. The trip to Ethiopia was indelible.
Y Ananya, VII – A, Gitanjali Devashray
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