Chatrooms

During a morning coffee break, we spoke with some of the staff here about some "counterculture" activities in Ethiopia; specifically, stimulants. Indeed, coffee itself is a stimulant, and Ethiopia is considered the home to the buna bean, but this morning we were discussing a narcotic plant. Overall, I feel that Ethiopia projects an exceedingly sober country, which could in part be an effect of their mild climate; however, Ethiopia does have a culture of chewing a leaf called chat. Apparently there are chatrooms around town where you can go to buy and chew this stimulant following a short ceremonial preparation. In total, a proper chat ceremony can take up to 6 hours, while the effect of this narcotic, a feeling of euphoria and clarity, a state of mind they refer to as merkana, lasts about 2 hours. The description reminded me of what people say of the hashish bars in Amsterdam. At the Ethnological Museum I visited last Sunday, there was a display of medicinal plants used in the various regions of Ethiopia and, of course, chat was among them. This plant obviously has a long history in this country, maybe much akin to the coca leaf amongst Andean mountains tribes, and so remains legal here despite its addictive properties, although in the country's urban areas I would guess it is not used with the same deference as it may be in the rural areas. Nevertheless, every place in the world harbors such counterculture and it was refreshing to hear a straightforward description of this without a gloom of shame.