SCIAF
Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund
19 Park Circus
Glasgow
G3 6BE
Tel: 0141 354 5555
Email: sciaf@sciaf.org.uk
© SCIAF 2008
Registered Charity No: SC012302
Company No: SC197327
Registered Office: as above
Rural life in Ethiopia
Yabello, Borena
Eighty-five per cent of the Ethiopian population live in rural areas and if the north is anything like the south then once you leave Addis Ababa, that’s all there is, rural. We covered over 560 kilometres today and despite the more or less good road it became obvious that most people are reliant on farming and livestock, and by any Western measure, they are extremely poor.
The centre of the country and a fair way south remains very lush and the cattle graze in large numbers by the side of the road with their masters sitting idly nearby. Just outside the capital city we entered Oromia region which is largely flat before we entered the more mountainous Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples Region (SNNPR).
For mile after mile we travelled through a major coffee growing area with the bushes planted under the canopies of larger trees – coffee bushes like the heat but not direct sunshine. The bean pods of the bush are picked and opened to reveal two yellow-green beans which when dried out on tables turn red. The coffee beans from here really are some of the finest in the world.
Aside from the coffee I was told by Kibnesh, the communications officer from the joint programme SCIAF is a part of, about the ‘false banana’ plants which look like normal banana plants but don’t produce any fruit. It’s called Kocho and local people submit the roots to a prolonged preparation process before making it into a bread or porridge which is said to be particularly good for young babies and people suffering from illness.
When we passed through SNNPR and came down from the mountains and drove into Borena (back into Oromia region) the lush gardens of Ethiopia turned sharply into a barren land where the grass thinned to expose more and more deep red soil, only broken by bushes which are inedible for most cattle. The change in the landscape was simultaneously marked by the change in appearance of the cattle – far thinner, with their ribs exposed.
Now, after many miles, I realised we had entered the drought zone.
As I write this, I wonder what tomorrow will bring…