Ethiopia, 2009

After arriving in Addis Ababa, attendees took two busses to Dire Dawa. This is about a ten hour trip on reasonably good roads. The bus I was on was playing a small selection of Bollywood-esque Ethiopian music videos on a loop. There were two stops along the way: one for a lunch of injera and wat and a another on the side of the road where this photograph was taken while I stretched my legs

The pot in this photo is an example of a traditional Ethiopian coffee pot. This old method of coffee preparation is practiced daily throughout Ethiopia and provides time for conversation and relaxation.

The coffee ceremony starts with washing and roasting the coffee. Roasting occurs on a shallow pan over coal. The beans are gently stirred throughout the roast. The coffee seen in this photograph was roasted in about forty minutes and the resulting coffee was quite dark as is the custom in Ethiopia. Once the coffee was roasted, the beans were quenched with a little water to stop the roasting process.

Next, the coffee is ground by hand.

The resulting coffee particles are quite small and uniform. These coffee grounds are put in the coffee put with water and the pot is then placed on the coal that was used to roast the coffee. In some parts of Ethiopia it is common to add spices to the coffee, but that was not done here.

The small particle size allows the coffee grounds to sink to the bottom of the pot and the shape of the pot and the method of pouring prevents the grounds from escaping into the cup.

Once poured into small cups, the coffee is served and ready to be enjoyed.

During the conference, there was a cupping session in Dire Dawa with samples of Ethiopian Harar coffees from several exporters.

Cupping is a specialized form of tasting used for critical evaluation of the quality of a coffee. Coffee is measured and ground into a set of cups. Hot water is then poured over the grounds in such a way that a single uninterrupted stream of water both fills the cup and wets all of the coffee grounds. After a few minutes, the cups contain brewed coffee with a crust of grounds on top. At this time, cuppers can use a spoon to simultaneously break that crust of grounds and smell the volatile compounds trapped beneath in order to evaluate the aroma of the coffee. Any grounds that are still on top of the cup can then be scooped off and cuppers can use the same spoon to take small amounts of coffee from the cups and slurp it in such a way as to spray coffee over the entire inside surface of the mouth to evaluate teh flavor of the coffee. The practice is reasonably standardized among coffee professionals throughout the world. Seen here are people from North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia who all know how to do this.

I also went out to a coffee farm in the area to look around and enjoy a cup of coffee.

It seems that no matter what part of the world you go to, coffee farms always have at least one dog. This one was no exception.

There were also camels.

Lots of camels.

Also some cows.

After the conference, I went to Harar and wandered around both the old and new parts of the city.

I've always found the cities in Ethiopia safe and comfortable to walk around in. If you're walking around with a camera it's not uncommon for groups of children to run up to get a photograph taken of them. Sometimes they'll say, "1 Birr," which was about 9 cents at the time.

These kids didn't ask for any money. A little while after this photograph was taken, I met a kid who was walking around with his own camera who wanted to take my picture. I probably should have asked him for 1 Birr, but it didn't occur to me at the time.

The old city is filled with high walls around narrow streets with lots of blind corners.

I'm told the city was built this way with the intent to keep invaders from taking the city.

Inside the old city is the A. Rimbaud Center.

The top floor provides a good view of the city.

The ceiling inside was also interesting. Pictures as seen in these photographs filled the perimeter of the room.

In the market, you can buy cheap scraps of meat, toss them into the air, and these birds will go into a frenzy, flying over the area and catching the meat in the air.

If you think you see a familiar brand name in these last two photographs, look at them a little closer.

Prints of the photographs on this page are currently on display at Wilson's Coffee & Tea.