Ameseghinalehu

The first word I learned in Amharic was thank you, Ameseghinalehu. It was also one of the last words I learned, but it came in quite handy. It is also extremely appropriate for my last blog entry officially from Ethiopia.



My Amharic education began on our way to the REST site with Negash. I quickly realized that “thank you” was a phrase I was constantly using; only I was constantly using it in English. “Thank you” to the driver, to the waitress, to community leaders and I also quickly realized that while some things are universal, such as a smile and a nod, “thank you” in English was pretty much meaningless for the majority of people I was saying it to. So, on the road one day I asked Negash how to say “thank you” in Amharic and he replied, “Ameseghinaehu.”



“Ame-seg-a- what??” I replied.

“Ameseghinaehu,” he stated.

“Is there a shorter word for thank you?” I asked hopefully.

“No,” he answered.

“Hmmm, maybe I won’t learn Amharic,” I sighed with resignation.



A couple days later at the GPSDO site on our way out to the field I was walking and talking with Asefa, the assistant program organizer. And he asked me if I knew any Amharic. I sheepishly admitted that I had tried to learn thank you and had given up. Asefa did not think that that was acceptable, so for the next couple of hills (or small mountains, depending on how you looked at them), Asefa helped me learn Ameseghinalehu. By the end of the day I had forgotten it.



Ameseghinalehu did not leave me alone that easily, however. On our way to Bale, Meron (Mery from entry 1) stated, “when we return to Addis you will be able to speak Amharic.” “Well, you see Meron I tried and I didn’t have a whole lot of luck, maybe we should focus on something else,” I said. “No! You have to speak some Amharic!” Meron insisted. So, with the help of Sandeep we learned to say Ameseghinalehu. For about a day Sandeep would say the first part of the word and I would say the second, together it resembled an Amharic expression of gratitude. Sandeep had the “amesegh” and I had the “inalehu,” but after a day or two we both mastered it. The first couple of times I said it to someone I didn’t even give them a chance to respond before turning to Meron with a frustrated expression and exclaiming, “that was so not right!” But, Meron was very good and reassuring us and after a few more attempts people actually started to understand what I was saying and people were generally very happy that I was being thankful and attempting to speak their language. So, mission accomplished, I now know Amharic. Haha, yea right!



We did pick up a couple of other words along the way, “shai” means tea, “buna” means coffee, and “wuha” means water. “Faranji” means foreigner, so we heard that one a lot too. On accident we learned penis in Amharic, leave it to me. I was trying to remember the name of the wheat kernels we ate on one of the first days, “kolo” Well, if you switch around a couple of letters, you end up talking about male reproductive anatomy. Luckily, Negash corrected me before I got too far.



So, as I get ready for my last day in Addis, I just wanted to take a moment to say Ameseghinalehu for reading my blog. I also wanted to ask you keep reading. Our busy schedule only allowed me to write a few times and I still have a lot of good information and fun stories to share. I often spent our car rides planning and plotting new blog entries and giggling to myself as I recounted our adventures. I am also still beyond grateful to the Sierra Club for this wonderful opportunity and I hope that I can do their program justice through my activism work. In other words, stay tuned for future entries such as, “Filling in the Gaps,” “Baby Sounds are Universal,” “I Need A Donkey Break,” “What Youth Can Teach Us,” “Good Golly Miss Molly,” and “How Did You Get Here?”



In Peace,

Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet