Photography

As an amateur, I accept that my photos of Ethiopia are going to be somewhat commonplace. That said, I am almost put to shame by the amazing photos by Eric Lafforgue, which you can see at his site: HERE. He does a great job at capturing the people of Ethiopia, which is something only the best of photographers has the charm and the courage to accomplish. He even has a great picture of the hyena feeding in Harar. Skim your cursor over "profile" to see rare pictures of other places, such as Omo Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Yemen, North Korea, and others.

Harar Brewery

On Thursday evening Dereje and I headed over to the brewery in Harar,
home to Hakim Stout and Harar Beer, as well as a non-alcoholic brew
called Harar Sofi which is popular amongst the Muslim population here.
On the way inside we walked through a small park with some trees in it
and I could see what looked like plastic squares falling from the tree;
they were all over the ground too. At first I thought someone must have
had a wedding here and it was confetti all over the ground, but then
Dereje caught one and we realized it was coming from the tree. It was a
nearly transparent white square with a heart-shaped mark in the
middle--completely natural. I snapped a few pictures of them and then we
headed on to the beer.
The brewery has its own well so they don't have to rely on the Alem Maya
well field for water. As such, the brewery is located at the foot of the
Hakim Mountain, a source of water for their well. Dereje ordered a draft
Harar and I ordered a bottle of Hakim Stout. I had tried the bottled
Harar beer when I was in Dire Dawa the other day, but the draft here was
much darker, so I decided to have that next. The Hakim Stout was a light
amber color, as was the head of foam. We then ordered a hamburger and
fries to share, sat back and watched the African Cup football game on
the big screen television. By the time the food came I was ready for my
Harar draft, and have to say it was excellent. Apparently they are
preparing this brew for export, so for those who don't have plans to be
in eastern Ethiopia anytime soon, keep an eye out.

Table Service

In Harar, we basically alternated between two restaurants: Hirut Restaurant and Fresh Touch. At both of these places, after lunch when we order coffee, they bring it in a small clay jebena pot that holds about two small cups worth, and pour it at the table. This is served with a small bowl of popcorn to neutralize one's palate, I suppose. They also place an incense burner smoking with sweet smelling etan (gum), which plays on the senses as the dark, oily Harar coffee perks up your taste buds. Dereje pours in two or three heaping spoonfuls of sugar into his buna and I make due with just one, then we stir for a good while until it should all be melted and thoroughly mixed in. The cups are small and hot and I sip at it at least a dozen times. Each sip brings the bittersweet taste of Harar coffee as Dereje and I sit back and relax watching BBC news on the cafe tv.

Nure Roasted

In old Harar town, we visited Nure Roasted Harar Coffee, a small roaster
located at the end of town. When we entered there were two
floor-to-ceiling shelves packed with brown paper 1kg bags of ground
Harar coffee. They took one of the bags off the shelf, opened it up,
pulled out a plastic bag to open and let us smell the pure Harar coffee.
Led further into the compound to the back, we were shown the roasting
machine. One of the men who worked there explained the operation of the
machine in English that I managed to reconstruct in my head for it to be
understandable. Then he showed us the grinding machine which would give
the bean a medium finish. I asked if they had any whole beans, if
possible in a 500g bag, but they wouldn't have any until the afternoon.
I thanked them and decided to just have some coffee after lunch and
Dereje and I headed back to the car.

Cultural Tourism

Yesterday, Dereje and I visited the Adagar Museum in Harar. It is a
rather small place, but preserves a number of authentic and valuable
cultural artifacts of traditional Harari householders. We were given a
tour, in English, by a very nice young man who, every once in a while,
would pause in his explanation and say, quite sincerely, "Did you get
it?" Adagar Museum is a preserved Harar house-of-old. The walls, made
primarily of limestone, would have kept the residents cool during the
hot days and warm in the cool evenings--a climate I've grown accustomed
to in my short time here.
The first room we entered was where the family would spend most of their
time. An elaborately decorated and multi-leveled platform with throw
pillows is where the head of the house and his grown sons would sit,
with the highest platform reserved for holy men. Behind it were shelves
for the Qu'ran and other books that they would study, as well as wooden
plaques showing their achievements in these studies. On the wall nearest
the head of the household was a spear, which he could use to deal with
any disturbances outside. On the other side of the room is where the
women would sit, with a lower platform for any children. Above the door
were posts that were used to display rolled carpets, always an odd
number of them. As the guide explained, with some help from Dereje,
since the people recognized 9 planets in our universe, even numbers were
not used as a rule. Houses would have between 7 and 15 of these rolled
carpets depending on their ranking, and since this house had 11, it
showed that the residents were of very high standing; 15 reserved for
kings, and 13 for holy men.
Other rooms in the house were for food storage (although the kitchen was
located in a different structure), a bedroom, and a special honeymoon
bedroom which was later used for childbirth. The museum had decorated
its walls with wooden serving bowls of various sizes, from very large
serving bowls to small individual serving bowls. Another cultural
artifact I found interesting was a clay pot covered with what looked
like an overturned basket made of twigs; by placing children's clothes
over the basket and setting a small fire to burn an incense, the smoke
that was produced would keep insects away and protect the children's
sensitive skin from bites.