Crazy Moments Living Abroad in Ethiopia #Blogging Abroad

Blogging Challenge Day #9:  Crazy Moments Living Abroad in Ethiopia

Living in Ethiopia, crazy moments happen quite often.  I have found that crazy moments have ranged from things about Ethiopia that are very normal and common for the country to occasional embarrassing moments.  To tell you the truth, it is difficult to go a long amount of time without having a crazy moment.

Normal crazy moments in Ethiopia:

• People not necessarily greeting people other than whom they know, but EVERYONE greeting you (because you are a foreigner).
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• Seeing both cars and carts drawn by horse going down the street.
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• Goats, sheep, and cows constantly roam the streets in such a way that it seems as though they own it.
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• Hoards of children following you (also because you are a foreigner).

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• Constantly having people inviting you into their homes for coffee.

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• Walking around in public wrapped in a big blanket is normal.
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• There are a lot more crazy moments, but far to many more to include as of now.

The Occasional Embarrassing Moments:

• Tripping over curbs.
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• Being lost in translation.
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• Finding a worm in my bowel movement.
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• An evident decline in my English speaking and spelling skills during presentations.
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• And this list could go on and on as well…

It’s interesting how many crazy moments you notice when living abroad in a place so different from what is the norm of the place you are from.  When spending enough time in a new place that is so different that from where you grew up, it is interesting how these crazy and very different things actually start to become part of your norm.  For example, it has become very normal for me to see goats, sheep, and cows to roam the streets wherever I go in Ethiopia.  It may actually feel very strange not to constantly see this when going back to America.  But when having to go through that initial culture shock when moving to a new country, it is unavoidable to go through another one when leaving that country after a long period of time.

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