Ethiopia - anyone been? (1 Viewer)

Jos Stratford said:

I have spent a number of weeks there, it is a stunning country, but the one of the things that truly remains memorable are the kids - unique in the world how annoyiing they are! So the advice is, pack enough stones to throw at them Seriously, one kid sees you and instead of staring or running up to say hello, as elsewhere in much of the world, he or she has a very different reaction, he shouts 'fOOR ann GEE, fOOR ann GEE' at the top of his or her mouth, a cue for another 20 or 50 kids to arrive, they then (with big smiles and a genuine friendliness) proceed to follow you, follow you very closely! In fact, they start to mimic you, you scratch your head, 50 kids behind you scratch their heads (or actually 70 kids, as the constant chant of 'fOOR ann GEE, fOOR ann GEE' continues unending, thus attracting more and more kids). Then you accidently trip over and, by god, the kids, now upward of 80 and still climbing, all trip over behind you! Now this is highly amusing for the tourist concerned ...the first time, perhaps second time too. But, boy after a month of this, you sure are sick of it and nothing, nothing, persuades them to relent. So to the birding, forget it near villages, the crowd of kids has now reached 90 and any self-respecting bird uses its wings to escape the oncoming rabble.

But, somehow, you finally lose the kids and the country is actually stunning and most of the endemics fairly easy at the best spots. Elsewhere, birding usually fantastic too, I will try to search out my notes and give you some better tips.

PS I was there over a decade ago, so the kids may be better now (ha ha ha). To do the little brats justice though - with the exception of in Addis (where be very careful if kids crowd you), there was never any malice from the kids, they found the presence of a tourist purely an event to enjoy.

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Jos Stratford said:

I have spent a number of weeks there, it is a stunning country, but the one of the things that truly remains memorable are the kids - unique in the world how annoyiing they are! So the advice is, pack enough stones to throw at them Seriously, one kid sees you and instead of staring or running up to say hello, as elsewhere in much of the world, he or she has a very different reaction, he shouts 'fOOR ann GEE, fOOR ann GEE' at the top of his or her mouth, a cue for another 20 or 50 kids to arrive, they then (with big smiles and a genuine friendliness) proceed to follow you, follow you very closely! In fact, they start to mimic you, you scratch your head, 50 kids behind you scratch their heads (or actually 70 kids, as the constant chant of 'fOOR ann GEE, fOOR ann GEE' continues unending, thus attracting more and more kids). Then you accidently trip over and, by god, the kids, now upward of 80 and still climbing, all trip over behind you! Now this is highly amusing for the tourist concerned ...the first time, perhaps second time too. But, boy after a month of this, you sure are sick of it and nothing, nothing, persuades them to relent. So to the birding, forget it near villages, the crowd of kids has now reached 90 and any self-respecting bird uses its wings to escape the oncoming rabble.

But, somehow, you finally lose the kids and the country is actually stunning and most of the endemics fairly easy at the best spots. Elsewhere, birding usually fantastic too, I will try to search out my notes and give you some better tips.

PS I was there over a decade ago, so the kids may be better now (ha ha ha). To do the little brats justice though - with the exception of in Addis (where be very careful if kids crowd you), there was never any malice from the kids, they found the presence of a tourist purely an event to enjoy.

Click to expand...