The plane bounced on the tarmac when it landed in the middle of the night, after a stressful flight. I am usually a good flyer, untroubled by the occasional bumpy bit of turbulence. This flight was a different story. It was the first time I had been on a plane and wondered if the plane was speeding. 

It was 4 a.m. when I arrived in Addis Ababa. I was the last person out of customs and immigration, and I was eager to find my friend out by the baggage carousel. She and her family had invited me to come visit them in Ethiopia, an amazing opportunity for a first trip in Africa, and I had no idea what to expect.

As I discovered in the light of the next day, the capital city Addis Ababa is a quickly expanding international hub as the headquarters of many NGOs and political organizations from the African Union to the United Nations. It is nestled high in the mountains. It has a remarkable diversity of over 80 cultures and peoples in its many regions from the Amhara and Sudanese refugees in the west to the Tigrinya and Eritrean neighbours in the north to a large Muslim population in the east in the walled city of Harar and a borderland with Somalia to dozens of tribes in the Omo region in the south – and that’s not including the Rastafarians repatriated from Jamaica to the town of Shashamane and the Ethiopian Jews of Axum, the Beta Israel.

I rode in blue and white cabs, passing compound after compound of gated private residences with gate guards, and marvelled at the stands and shops and pedestrians filling the squares and markets. I was hot in the sun at the high elevation and cold in the shade. I saw a state-of-the-art park with incredible playgrounds that was closed off because it had been built too close to the palace. I stayed in a lovely home decorated with art from Persia, the Arctic and Syria. 

Feasting on Ethiopian food at Habesha restaurant.

I ate homemade Ethiopian food made by my friend’s grandmother, from doro wat to goat zigni to homemade injera. I learned how to properly meet and greet people from the three cheek to cheek kisses to touching one hand to a forearm while shaking hands.