A comparitive study

I wrote this entry last Friday.  Had a pretty awesome weekend shopping in Africa's largest outdoor market and swimming in crater lakes.  Will update my loyal readers soon.  For now I am off to my happy place...i.e. OR :-)

Because I think in studies now and I also can’t help but to compare Ethiopia to Samoa to America.  Maybe this a little early in the game to be attempting this, but here it goes…

On Food: Ethiopia wins, hands down.  Again, to be fair I haven’t even tried that many dishes, but everything I have tired is so flipping good!  There is so much spice!  In Samoa the only spice they ever used was salt.  Well, that is true unless you want to include coconut milk and butter.  All the food was horribly bland and covered in butter and coconut cream.  I would leave meals feeling like a bowling ball was sitting in my gut.  Obviously I love most American foods (mmm…cheese curds…) but in the first week in Ethiopia its just fun to experience a new, unique and delicious taste

On Coffee: Ethiopia again.  Sorry starbucks.  In Samoa their idea of coffee was that instant crap (gasp!) with approx 17 tablespoons of sugar and cream.  Sometimes I wasn’t sure if there was even coffee in there.  Samoa did have koko Samoa, which was pretty delicious, but again, lots of sugar.  And if we are going to play the hot chocolate game, Brussels is gonna win that one every time.  Man do I sound like a pretentious jet-setter or what??

On People: Sigh…Ethiopia, although Midwesterners may rival Ethiopians in niceness.  Everyone I have met (again in 1 week) has been so gentle and kind and everyone smiles.  To be fair, in my first week in Samoa I would probably have said the same thing about Samoans.  Samoans are incredibly happy people, but they are also very touchy and pushy.  I felt like I was constantly being touched, hugged, pushed, or pulled.  It wasn’t that big of a deal at the time, but I have noticed how nice it is to be in a culture that doesn’t constantly have to be touching you.  Samoans are also very nosy.  Whenever I opened a book or had a bag of things whoever was sitting next to me, whether I knew them or not, would grab my book or my bag and just riffle through it.  I grew to accept this and patiently wait for them to finish and give it back, but in Ethiopia I am constant collecting data and no one has asked to look at my computer or my notebook once.  They just smile at me politely and go about their business, similar to Americans in that way I guess.  You do your thing and I will do mine.

On Weather: America i.e. the midwest.  Ethiopia, like Samoa, does the dry/rainy season thing.  It is currently rainy (or as I like to call it “sleepy”) season.  Personally, I like my 4 seasons.  Yes snow is annoying, but it makes summer that much more enjoyable. 

And that is all I got for now.  Hopefully more categories to come.