By Blein Solomon
‘Non Belongingness’, that’s the feeling that follows us whenever we are away from our country. The veracity of it might differ. When one travels to a country with a completely different culture, then aside from fascination, you wouldn’t feel at home. While in some areas, it can feel like you never left, a home away from home.
When we visited Addis Ababa for the first time, almost all of us made our minds up on one thing, that it is fairly similar to the country we came from. The staggering similarities almost knocks your balance. The culture, history and language falls under a similar lane with that of Eritreans while keeping few differences. Every day I am reminded of the comfort I left but to name few of the things in Addis that reminds me of Asmara are:
- The People
Raging from the color of our skin to the almost identical looks our facial features and body possesses, we very much look alike. Whenever I get to watch the people here, it’s like looking at myself in the mirror. This dearly reminds me of the friends and family I left behind.
At first, I would find myself almost calling out to a person with a name of whom I knew back home. Later on, I had to remind myself that the person walking past me is not the neighbor or friend I knew but someone with a striking similarity.
- The Food
Our common obsession over the local food ‘Injera’ is something you can’t miss. The Ethiopians keen stand to put injera in almost everything they eat retells our own love over the food in my home country. The infusion of the western food with that of the local one like ‘pasta with injera’ just shows Ethiopians profound passion on their local food and culture. This passion we Eritreans also share.
The hot bubbly shiro prepared in the local pot, sheikla (xaehlie), with a newly baked injera is the one that reminds me of my mother’s food. The holiday feast, filled with meat and spicy soup is the one I dearly miss but gotten the second chance to enjoy in Addis Ababa.
- Cactus Pear (Beles)
In a cold and rainy summer, the one thing you see everyone lining in to eat is the infamous ‘Beles’. After a hearty rain, the local fruit is the one you crave the most. With your friends and your loved ones, you would take a walk in the damp and moisty streets eating this tasty fruit.
Luckily beles also grows in Ethiopia and people here shares the same tradition. Whenever it rains, I still go out and eat beles as a reminder of the life I used to enjoy back in Eritrea.
- Holidays and the Churches
There is nothing you miss more than holidays when you are away. It goes beyond the significance of the day or the reason of the celebration but the way you celebrate it. The custom your family follows in the honorary of that day is what makes you nostalgic for those days.
Braiding our hair, wearing our traditional cloth and enjoying the best meal of the year followed with joyful coffee ceremony is the most common celebratory attributed to most holidays. And nothing delights me more when I found that Addis Ababa is full of this exact demeanor.
My favorite thing to do is to wake up early on Sunday morning to witness the great faith our mothers possess, when they are ready to walk the walk in that freezing hour. They would call each other at crack of dawn, putting their special cloth nexela or a gabie to head out before the priest starts the sermon. Pleading on our behalf, I could see the relief they feel when they are walking back home after church service. Call me foolish, but that’s more than just a spiritual belief but a social rod that kept my neighborhood together.
Early Sunday morning, I was blessed to see this priceless custom repeat itself in Ethiopia. This just doesn’t feel my heart with the unbearable feeling of ‘missing my grandmother’ but a gratitude for a second chance to see my granny in that of my neighbor again.
