One aspect of living abroad that is not talked about often, if at all, are the continuous ups and downs that happen on not a weekly or monthly basis, but on a daily basis. So here is my truth of living abroad in Addis Ababa.
Before coming here, I knew there would be some ups and downs due to my experience living abroad in France for seven months in 2017. I was also aware that moving to a third world country like Ethiopia would have a very different set of challenges. However, unexpectedly, the challenges are more different than I could ever imagine. Simple things like, going to get groceries or gaining a social life, became a harder and harder task. To give you some perspective: going to the supermarket for my basic items requires me to go to three different stores about a mile away and the only way to get there reasonably is to walk. Now, the first time I did this, I thought I was going to shit my pants, because although I went with someone the first 2 times, it would be my first time venturing into the city by myself as a white foreigner in Ethiopia. The constant staring and the points with the locals calling “ferenji” or “Hello, how are you” at me every 300 feet, is the most draining part of my daily existence.
The even more annoying part about going to the market and being white, is that all the locals are not aware that it IS possible that I could cross a crazy Addis street by myself. Each time, still 3 weeks later, someone will walk up next to me and hold my hand or motion for me to follow them as they basically walk me across the street. It is just the Ethiopian way to be so amazingly helpful and friendly but the sideways look and laugh as they walk me across the street only adds to the fact that they don’t believe I could walk alone. Little do they know, that after years of going into NYC and maneuvering the way the drivers stop so short in front of the person walking across the street, or may not even stop at all, has only led up to this moment of walking across the street where the Addis drivers will LEGIT take you out without another thought. Each time I handle myself across the street well, I always get one look from someone seeming to say “Wow, I’m impressed”, to which I just nod and laugh to myself.
Then, once I actually cross the street and endure more stares and shouts, I walk the mile to the first supermarket to get long term items like cans of beans, pasta peanut butter, and date bars (my addiction since arriving). Next, I continue to get the stares and shouts until I reach my next destination a little further down, Fresh Corner, which is where I get all my weekly veggies and fruits. For those of you who don’t know, at home I followed a vegetarian lifestyle, but here, I’m following a vegan lifestyle mainly because milk comes in powered forms and the cheese looks like lumpy yogurt, so I steer clear of dairy and eggs here. With that being said, Fresh Corner is where I get a bulk of my items and now my bag is 20 pounds as I walk to my final store about a mile away from home where I get a few basic items like toilet paper (they call it soft here which I find interesting because there is NOTHING soft about it), nuts- which are so expensive I almost always suffer a heart palpitations and have to close my eyes to force myself to spend the money, and chocolate.
With my bag weighting over 30 pounds by this point with the week’s groceries, I walk the mile back to my home with the continuous stares and points until I reach the comforts of my gate.Now some of you may be thinking, “Cynthia that’s so bad since you only do it once a week” and I would agree with you. But when I’ve had a week full of its own ups and downs, it can be draining, and I have to force myself out of the house to have any aspect of a social life.
When I first looked into moving abroad and specifically teaching English, I read blog after blog about how much fun it is to be with the kids, to get to travel on the weekends, to settle roots in a new country, and to go on a different adventure every day. But my reality is nothing like this. My days are filled with getting up at 5:30am (something I’ve never had to do before, up until this point I thought 7am was early), driving an hour to school every morning and arrive at my school in Bole, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to teach 24 classes, YES 24 CLASSES A WEEK, and teach more than 200 students when half of them don’t want to learn. My days are also filled with assistants who do not want to assistant at all what’s so ever in the classroom and correcting the student’s English homework with a star, when the child really deserved an “x”.
On a daily basis, I’m dealing 1st and 2nd graders who say their letters using the sounds and saying “Teacher! Teacher! TEACHER, I FINISHED” every five seconds. I’m also constantly surrounded by other teachers speaking only Amharic to one another and who don’t think I realize when they’re talking about me, even when all of a sudden 5 of them will turn in my direction and laugh. These are the lows of my days and weeks of living here so far for 3 weeks.
But when a small group of teachers ask me to share their breakfast and lunch of injera with spices and vegetables; or when I’m asked to join them for coffee; or when a fellow teacher invites me to a charity fashion show; or when one of my first-grade students, Natihan, gives me the biggest hug with the brightest smile and hands me a picture of a multicolored cat and giraffe saying, “it’s your cat Gatsby (a fun fact I told them about myself the first day of classes)” as he pointed to the blue, brown, and white cat, it makes all the downs worth it.
Getting used to living in a new city is not as easy as the blogs or stories I read made it seem. But coming here and experiencing the highest of highs, even when the day before was filled with the lowest of lows, I feel full of love and laughter in my new home on the other side of the world. I am surrounded by people every day who make me laugh until I cry and who have become my family away from home, and students who come up to give me hugs and kisses all throughout my day at school, and that is what makes living here worth it for me. Those are the moments I hold onto when I feel as though I want to give in the towel and book a ticket home. These are the moments I am going to cherish 20, 30, 50 years from now and remember as some of the best times of my life.
Even though I hope to see more of Ethiopia soon, with all the ups and downs, Addis is becoming home.
So, if you’re thinking about moving abroad, be prepared for all the emotions, because they are going to hit you and the feeling of wanting to pull out of your hair. Not only a weekly basis, but on a daily basis, but I promise you, you’ll love every minute of it.
Happy travels,
Cynthia
Girl Wandering, Not Lost 