Javana

Don't quote me on the spelling, but a javana is a coffee pot used in the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Today I went to the market nearby where there are a dozen fruit and vegetable stands and a handful of small, open-air shops selling various cooking supplies, utensils, and other odds and ends. I and walked up to one shop that looked like it had some of the ceremony paraphernalia and asked one woman if she had any javana. She held up a finger and said something that probably meant 'wait', because then she turned and high-tailed it out of there. At first I thought I was supposed to follow, but when I got to the end of the lane I didn't see her anywhere, so I went back to the shop where a few other women motioned for me to just stay put and she would be back soon. I knelt down and looked at some of the other things in the shop. One older woman, sitting half-way out of her shop, began to tickle her son who was sitting next to her and nibbling on a bread roll. This caused him to almost spit the bread out of his mouth as he howled with laughter turning away from her, but she reached around, covered his mouth with one hand and pulled him toward her with the other and tickled him again, just for a second to show him who was boss. After a minute or two, the first woman returned with two javana pots and a ceramic incense burner. I passed on the incense burner but thanked her for finding the little, black, ceramic javana and paid her 13 birr (about $1) and then waved good-bye. When I got back to Chez Glo, the housekeeper gave me a nod of approval on my javana and said she would buy me some green coffee beans to take back to Japan.