ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia is known as the country of hunger and poverty. The population fairly young and the number of Ethiopians is rapidly growing. What less people know is that Ethiopia is the country of ancient Christian tradition, a world-famous kitchen, music and beautiful people too. The country borders Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. The capital, Addis Abeba is centrally located and surrounded by an extensive and fruitful high mountains where mainly flowers, fruits and vegetables are being cultivated.

Climate/Working climate:
The lowlands in the west have a true tropical climate. The high altitude and wet monsoon of the Indian Ocean can affect weather in Ethiopia. The average yearly temperature in the lower located areas is 30°C. In the mountain regions on the other hand the temperature can become 5°C.

Do’s and don’ts:

• Take the many fasting days of the orthodox Ethiopians into account. On these days they are not allowed to eat dairy products or meat. Fixed fasting days are on Wednesdays and Fridays and the 40 days before Ethiopian Easter.
• Know that Ethiopians use the Julian calendar. This calendar runs 7 or 8 years behind on our calendar. A year consists of twelve months of 30 days and 1 month of 5 or 6 days.
• Don’t forget to carefully check the arranged time. The day starts at 6.00, so the official time runs 6 hours behind on ours. In business life they often use the Western time indication. If you have an appointment ‘tomorrow at three o’clock’, they might mean nine o’clock the next morning.
• Be prepared, the Ethiopian are strong negotiators. They will try to haggle on everything.

Facts and figures:
Capital: Addis Abeba
Area: 1.127127 km2, 27 x Nederland
Inhabitants: 85.200.000
Timezone: UTC+3
Currency: Ethiopische Bir
Languages: English (official), Amhaars (official) In about 80 languages and dialects are spoken in Ethiopia, of which 64 are officially acknowledged by the government.

For more information please visit:
http://www.world66.com/africa/ethiopia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia