Ethiopians

I went to the church today to fold bulletins and the Metro Access driver looked just like Soloman, one of the Ethiopians I used to date.

I dated Ethiopiaans because my sister Sue began dating this guy named Nega McKonnen who was Eritrean, but that was before the war, so Ethiopians and Eritreans considered each other brothers and lived in little "enclaves" in DC and Arlington. Since Sue was actually dating Nega, I just started "dating" some of his friends, Soloman and "Steve". "Steve's actual name was about 15 letters long, so we just called him Steve.

We actually had a good time together as a group. Some of the things we did together were:
1. We went to Baltimore and rode paddle boats around the inner harbour
2. We went to Winchester Virginia and watched the Apple Blossom parade, which is literally about an 8 hour parade
3. We went to Ethiopian restaurants. Our favorite was Meskerem. The food there is quite authentic. Lots of Ethiopians eat there. The way Ethiopian food works is that you get a big platter covered with Injera, a flat bread "made from premium teff, a cereal grain unique to Ethiopia. or whole wheat fermented to perfection." Everyone orders a stew, and every one's stew is laid out in dollops on the platter covered with Injera. Each diner has a stack of Injera, and the diner pulls off a piece of the bread and everyone eats communally of any of the mounds of stew with their fingers.

I'll tell you more about Ethiopia later - I have to go eat meatloaf with gravy in the dining hall!

Beera entata! (That means "Let's drink beer now" in Amharic!