Amharic Words for the Photo Album

The linked documents list common words that you might want to use to label the photos in the photo album for your new child.  (Link is at the bottom of this entry.)

Left column is the American word, middle is the phonetic pronunciation of the Amharic word and the right column is the word in Amharic letters.

You will find the Amharic words for

Mom
Mother
Dad
Father
Brother
Sister
Grandma
Grandpa
Aunt
Uncle
Cousin
Our Family
Our Home
Your Bedroom (M)
Your Bedroom (F)
Our dog
Our cat
Your new school (M)
Your new school (F)
We love you. (M)
We love you. (F)

It should make it easier for the nannies with limited English skills to explain your photos to your new kids.
MS Word Version:

http://ethiopianadoptiontravelogue.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/amharic-words.doc

Adobe Acrobat Version:
http://ethiopianadoptiontravelogue.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/amharic-words.pdf

If you have other words you’d like to see, leave a comment and I’ll ask my husband to translate.

(And, yes, I know one column is entitled “American word.”  Sorry, I can’t help it.  I’m an egocentric American. )

Update 9/18/07:  I was given the wrong translation for grandma and grandpa before.   (The old version was actually step-mother and step-father).  It is corrected now.

I’ll Take “Scary Things” for 2 Birr, Alex.

I didn’t actually witness this myself, but…. 

Yes, that is a Santa.  I think it is plastic, although it does sort of have the appearance of those dried/shrunken potato-head Grandma dolls we had to make in 3rd grade Art class.

Now, I know in America some parents get the royal-rip off by paying $5 (or more) to get a photo with Mall Santa.  But a least Mall Santa won’t instigate nightmares for the next 3 weeks.  To get a lifetime memory with this Santa, it costs 1 birr PER photo.

This photo was taken at Meskel Square on Ethiopian Christmas Eve.  Sorry if you missed your opportunity this year.  There’s always next year.

Kidiste Selassie

After the National Museum, we visited the Holy Trinity Cathedral. The actual name of the church is Kidiste Selassie. It is one of the most important Orthodox churches. Some of the Orthodox churches restrict entry of non-Orthodox people. However, for 25 birr plus guide fee, you can enter this one.

I’m not sure I have all of the details correct as our guide spoke English so fast I could barely understand him. The church itself is extremely impressive. As you walk up to the front, there is a large patio area. It is called the Mercy Plaza. There are also four statues on the plaza representing Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

When you enter a church, typically the men enter on the left side, women on the right side and priests from the back. However, to accommodate the tourists, they allowed us to enter freely. Before we went in, we removed our shoes.

Inside, the church was very ornate. The church had stained glass windows representing the most important parts of the bible and Ethiopian history on them. It wasn’t uncommon in the Orthodox churches I visited to see the Bible intermixed with Ethiopian history.

The stained glass windows had been specially ordered from Belgium, so it surprised me a bit that so many of the people were all Nordic looking. I would’ve expected that they could’ve added enough tint to the “flesh” colored glass mix to at least make Jesus look like he was not born in Oslo or Flanders.

The guide explained each of the stained glass windows to us. 

Haile Selassie and his wife’s tombs are in the front of the church, off on the left side.

Haile Selassie was deposed by Mengistu Haile Mariam. Shortly thereafter, in 1975, he died under mysterious circumstances while imprisoned. In 1991, his body was exhumed from a makeshift grave that was under a latrine (or under the president‘s office, depending which story you believe). His remains were taken to a church.

In the 1990s, his wife, Empress Menen was entombed at the Holy Trinity Church.

Seven years later, Selassie’s remains were entombed next to his wife at the Holy Trinity Church also.

There were also a lot of tombs around the church, many for soldiers.

Tattoos

Occasionally around Addis and frequently in the North, I saw women with tattoos.  Many women had the tattoos around their necks.  There were also many that had tattoos of crosses or other Christian symbols on their foreheads.

Different regions had different typical “necklace” design.  The one to the left is a bunch of connected crosses.  It is from the Amhara region.  This design can also be found in the Tigray area.

Basically, the tattoos are to show one’s commitment to Christ.

The youngest girls I noticed the tattoos on were probably around 14, but I was told girls under 10 could have them done.

Effects of War

My first evening in Ethiopia (on my second trip), we were welcomed by the whole family.  They were dressed in very nice clothes, they had prepared delicious foods and had purchased a bakery decorated cake.

Everybody was in a very good mood, including Abebe.  Nearly all of the time I was around him, Abebe had a huge smile on his face.  He was laughing and, in general, a hoot to be around.  You can see Abebe with us cutting the welcome cake.

And, then the war began.  Sweet, happy, funny Abebe turned serious.   Very serious.  Jokes stopped being funny to him.  All he could think about was the war and what was going to happen next.  Abebe took out some of his stress about the war on his family members.  Since I was there, he also took it out on me.  It was hard to be around Abebe during the war.  We tried to be supportive, but he frequently misinterpretted our comments. He wouldn’t even smile when I asked him to.

I did learn a big lesson from this.  NEVER help a 12-year old cheat in a Battleship War when playing against his Uncle Abebe. 

Fortunately, Abebe was a little less intense when we played Jenga.

Gondar-Restaurant

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s probably a duck…and you’re in The Habesha Restaurant in Gondar.

They also had a cat.  That was not quite as rare of a restaurant site so no photo of that.

The food was excellent, the prices were good and the decor was great.  Oh, and there was also a sign posted that said Please, No Photos.  However, it was written in Amharic… which oddly I can’t read!!!  So, I got a few glares after I took the picture.

Oh, and this nice lady kept helping me wash my hands.