calling names...
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 03/Dec/2009 05:51, 34 days ago
I am called different names every day. I have been trying to decide which I prefer. I’ve decided I really don’t like being called‘YOU, YOU’. Sometimes I find I can forgive the little children who shout this after me because they really are quite cute and they don’t know any better but when it is grown men I don’t have as much patience. I’m also not particularly keen on the term‘FERENGI’ , which means foreigner, as it just seems a bit rude to refer to someone as foreign to their face! However... they don’t seem to mean any offense by this and are happy for you to reply‘habasha’ (local) back to them. I find it quite funny, from time to time, when I am walking down the street and someone will notice me and I will hear a long string of Chinese whispers going on behind me involving the word‘Ferengi’ and a lot of pointing. It can be quite sweet how amazed people are to see me sometimes. Again I have much more sympathy for women and children and find it less sweet when I find a group of likely lads doing the same. My friend, Nancy, wrote in her blog that she really didn’t like it when someone called her‘white’ (‘NECH’ in the local language) but I actually found it quite amusing when I notice someone call me that as they passed the other day. My favourite name though I think is‘CHINA’. There is a lot of Chinese influence (especially in construction) in Ethiopia and so people are used to seeing‘China’ (Chinese) every now and again. The other day a girl called out to me‘ CHINA, CHINA’. When I turned, smiled and waved her Mum was beaming. She seemed so proud of her daughter for knowing how to get my attention. Oops... I guess I have just encouraged some wrong terminology. Still I would prefer it if they all called me‘CHINA’ rather than‘YOU’,‘FERENGE’ or even‘NECH’. Just on occasion I hear‘HELLO’ ,‘HI’ or even‘TARA’ called after me and that is simply bliss!