We went to a local Ethiopian restaurant on Friday and it led to a wonderful unit study on Ethiopia!
Even though we live in a very rural area, we are lucky to have a diverse group of cultures nearby. A neighboring tiny town has a large Hmong population, another has a high Laotian population, and another has a large Hispanic and Ethiopian population. Tucked in a grand old building that has seen grander days, we found the Queen of Sheba restaurant and decided to give it a try.
A lovely Ethiopian gentleman helped us navigate the menu and we settled on a lentil alecha, a beef tip recipe and Ethiopian fried chicken. He brought us a giant platter of injera, a rather bitter pancake-like bread that is torn into pieces, rolled up and dunked in the saucy dishes. We also shared a tossed salad and finished the meal with a sweet and spicy tea.
While we were there we looked at the posters on the wall and watched the news on TV– which was set to the English version of a Middle Eastern news station. It was fascinating to watch people talk about “the upcoming American elections” half the world away. One tourist poster taught us Ethiopia’s slogan: Thirteen months of sunshine! One reason for the phrase is that their calendar has 12 months of 30 days and then 5 extra days at the end. Obviously, it is generally sunny there as well! Rain is supposedly rare except in summer.
When we left, the girls asked the owner to teach them to say thank you in Ethiopian– Ameseginalehu. He helped us many times until we could say it without making him laugh. 
Yesterday we started work on an Ethiopian lapbook and it’s nearly finished. We found out even more about this fascinating country while looking for art, facts and background on it. It’s really been a great unit study, all because we were hungry and decided to try something new. Thank goodness we didn’t just do drive-thru!
Here’s a little information, courtesy of Factmonster:
Kids from Ethiopia
* Location: East Africa
* School:
- Because much of Ethiopia is rural, kids who attend school may have to walk several miles each way.
- Unlike in most African nations, school in Ethiopia is free. However, many kids work to help support their families. Less than half are still enrolled by grade 5.
* Play:
- Gebeta, a game of strategy, has been popular for hundreds of years. It is played using seeds or pebbles and a board with rows of cups.
- Many kids learn the lively and irresistible eskista dance, which is performed almost entirely with the shoulders. Soccer is the most popular sport.
* Family:
- Most families live in rural areas. It is common for an extended family to live in a cluster of houses and farm together.
- Traditionally, parents and children do not share a last name. Most kids take their father’s first name as their last name.
* Favorite foods:
- Injera, a pancake-like bread that is used to scoop up spicy dishes such as doro wat (chicken stew) and mesir wat (lentil stew).
* Did you know? Ethiopia is the only African country that was never colonized. Formerly called Abyssinia, it was the setting of powerful ancient kingdoms.
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If you’d like to try to make an Ethiopian meal or learn about the customs, this site has recipes and instructions on how to do it right.
I’ll post pictures of our lapbook as soon as we’re done!
