Call Me the Pied Piper of Ethiopian Children

...except, y'know, I left them all where they were, completely unharmed. And ignoring the fact that every ferenji walking around town gets the same treatment.



 

 

This is one of my favorite kid photos, even though I have dozens of them.

One Sunday (the only day I wasn't workin' hard), the other volunteers and I trekked the short distance from SF to town, grabbed some breakfast (egg and avocado on fresh made bread) and meandered for a bit. They hadn't seen the market area before, so we wandered down there, even though there wasn't much to see because market days are Monday and Saturday. As we were leaving, we met a group of seven or eight kids, who were positively delighted to run up and say hello to the ferenjis. I'd picked up enough Amharic to ask their names and have a very short conversation, full of giggles and confusion, and then we continued on our way- but not alone.

These two handsome fellows followed us back the kilometer or so that we walked, smiling widely the entire time. We were making a quick stop at the cultural center before heading home, so I asked them if I could take a photo, and little red shirted man their on the right puffed up his chest in his best imitation of a world-class body builder and strode up to his friend to pose. I handed them a couple of birr for the photo, and off they ran, back to their friends (cousins? siblings?) by the market place.

On a side note, I happened upon a couple of Ethiopian Peace Corps volunteer blogs, and I felt a little less guilty for some of the lingering negative feelings I have about my experience, knowing that it isn't just me who gets frustrated with the constant attention, or the very common expectation that because you're a white person, you should hand things out all the time. Now that I'm home, those things don't matter much, but it was a very real, very hard, part of being there.

More photos to come!