Ethiopia - a Report by Cassidy

As a homeschool family, our children are learning about Africa this year. Our newly turned 11 year old son, wrote this report on Ethiopia. I am very pleased with how he covered so many important points. Please feel free to leave comments, as I am sure Cassidy would love to read them. Thank you!

ETHIOPIA

I’m writing this report about Ethiopia because we are adopting from that country. We have decided to adopt from Ethiopia because GOD led us there. I think that the Ethiopians are beautiful.

Ethiopia is on the continent of Africa. Africa takes up one-fifth of the Earth's land area. That makes it the second largest continent in the world. Lake Victoria, in Africa, is the largest lake in the whole world, and the Nile is the longest river.

Ethiopia is on the Eastern side of Africa. There are a lot of mountains in Ethiopia that are over 6000 ft high. Ethiopia is made up of desert, forest, hills, and mountains and barren land. The capital city is Addis Ababa. There are about 100 languages in Ethiopia, and the official language is Amharic. Ethiopia’s population is 77 million. It is the only country in Africa that has not been colonized. This means that it is the only country that has not been conquered by another country. Canada is ten times the size of Ethiopia, but Ethiopia has double the population as our country. The average lifetime of a Canadian is 79 years, but the average lifetime of an Ethiopian is 39 years old.

Telling time in Ethiopia is done differently than anywhere else in the world. The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months. Each month has 30 days, except one, which has 5 days.

There are eleven churches that were carved from rock. They are from north Ethiopia, in the town of Lalibela, and the churches are named after the town.

Ethiopia was the founder of coffee. They sell the beans to Star Bucks and other companies. When they make coffee to drink they have a Coffee Ceremony. This is how they have the ceremony. First, they light incense, then wash the beans, next roast them. The Ethiopians enjoy the smell of the roasting beans; they use their hands to pull in the smell. After this, they crush the beans, and make the coffee, and they drink it out of small cups.

The main way of life is farming, but the drought is making it hard. Drought is when there is no water. They grow coffee beans, corn, teff, barley, and yams.

In Ethiopia, they grind their grain, called Teff, into flour. They make their flour into injera. Injera is like pancakes. Injera is used for scooping up stews because they don’t have any spoons, forks or knives. They cook their injera on a fire in a dugout. Women make a type of porridge called genfo that is made from honey. Men in Ethiopia make a type of beer called tej; it is also made from honey. In Ethiopia, people don’t eat on tables with legs, but instead, they use tall baskets shaped like hourglasses, with flat tops.

Children in Ethiopia don’t have a lot of toys, but they make do. Ethiopia’s children make their footballs round. Instead of using all the famous material like we do, Ethiopians use plastic bags all crunched up in a ball. Another simple toy that the Ethiopians use is a hoop and stick. Since Ethiopians don’t have hoops they use bike tires instead.

Ethiopia's children go to school barefoot, not like Canadians. There is no electricity in many parts of Ethiopia and the night temperatures can drop to very cool. Ethiopia's temperature is very cold so the people have to huddle close to each other. There are two main kinds of houses Ethiopian’s use. The first one is a round house with walls made of sticks and mud, and the roof is made from grass. The second house is a rectangle row house made from mud. Most houses have dirt floors.

People in Ethiopia are suffering. Million of adults and children are dying from AIDS. When their parents die, the children are often left to fend for themselves. There are about 4,000,000 orphans in Ethiopia. Some are left with relatives, other go to orphanages, and many end up on the streets. There are about 50,000 orphans on the streets of Addis Ababa.

We can stop this tragedy!!! If all people gave a little bit of money and the government gave some, there would be enough money to buy medicine. HIV is like a seed that will grow into AIDS, but this medicine will stop it. If we give and this happens, there won’t be any more deaths, and there won’t be as many children in orphanages.