Life in Ethiopia

If you like oddities of history in an old African country then you will enjoy this book.  Also you will like learning how people live under conditions so unfavorable for centuries and how they finally begin to change. In the early part of this book the author and his wife relate some of their experiences in getting settled in a country completely foreign to them. Furnishing a small apartment is a real challenge in this country that relies in large part on having furniture handmade rather than manufactured in a plant and  bought from a  retail stores. Locating a place to live was a major decision, as was the selection of a maid. Fortunately, The author and his wife considered they were fortunate in their choices. They selected an apartment and avoided having to have twenty four hour guards (Sabaynas with a dog)to guard their home. Also they might have elected to live in house in   the American section ( commonly known as the American Ghetto).This would have been a more sheltered place to live ,but they would have missed the experience of getting to know the natives and other interesting people who chose to live outside the protected areas.

They take you sightseeing to beautiful old churches and monasteries, to historical places, and famous buildings. One trip was by air for about two weeks that took you see some of Ethiopia that was not visited by many tourist, the famous rock churches of Lalibela, Gondar an ancient capitol of Ethiopia, and historical Lake Tana, to mention some   They share with you some of the  interesting myths that abound in Ethiopia.

The latter part of their two year stay they begin to realize that Ethiopia is about to experience a coup d’état. It becomes dangerous to travel on the streets of Addis Ababa. About when their time was up the country was in turmoil. Fortunately they had earlier decided not to accept an offer of another two year tour and were able to get out just ahead of any major trouble. They like describe their trip to airport as being transported out under armed guard.

It was years later when the idea of writing a book about Ethiopia emerged. The Savages say they intended to return home after their assignment in Ethiopia to a normal retired life. That did not happen. The telephone began to ring and people were wanting Job to take another overseas assignment. The offers were too much to resist and soon Job was back at work, though not for two year assignments. Most were two or three months at the time and there were almost always intervals of several months between jobs. On most of these trips he was accompanied by his wife.

As the years passed there were occasions when Ethiopia was brought back to mind, one in particular, an offer to teach a short class on Ethiopia for the Christopher Wren Association at the College of William and Mary. Job was flattered to receive the offer and accepted. Now he had to go to work and really learn about Ethiopia. He saved his notes with the idea that one day he might use them to write a book. And now you know!

There are many countries in Africa with interesting histories but none so old or as interesting. To fully appreciate Ethiopia it would be nice if we could go go back some millions of years when it began. Unfortunately there is so little left in the way of evidence it almost impossible to make it worthwhile. Because of the past movements of the earth’s crust in the Rift Valley some valuable finds do occur. One example is the skeletal remains of LUCY found in1974 by a team headed by Donald Johansen.LUCY lived over three million years ago and is described as a gracile australopith. The next link in the evolutionary chain will be homo sapiens ( humans).The area that we now know as Ethiopia was one of the very few places where humans first lived. There also claims made that the Negro’s great contribution to civilization was the development of cities in what is now Ethiopia. And that there were said to be opulent cities in the Nile valley peopled by Ethiopians who were civilized long before whites.