Friday 15 July 2011

Ship of the desert


I've just finished reading the book "Cutting for Stone", a wonderful book set in Ethiopia, that had me completely engrossed for days.  I would recommend it with a few reservations, but that's another post.  When I finish reading anything that has me so involved, I feel at a loss, something is missing.

Within 24 hours  this card arrived from Ethiopia.  Ethiopia!  It made my day.   It came with beautiful stamps too.



(I can't seem to persuade Blogger to allow me to display them at sensible sizes)

On the stamps you can see the unique script of Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, although there are 80+ languages spoken in the country.  It is a country with 12 months of sunshine per year, the land of the coffee bean. Did you know that Ethiopia is the 7th largest producer of coffee beans, and the largest producer in Africa?  I didn't.

As I write this, Ethiopia, with the Horn of Africa, is experiencing one of the worst droughts in over 50 years, worse even than the 1984-85 drought when over 1 million died in Ethiopia and Sudan.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

9 comments:

  1. Wonderful, colorful card. Have a Happy PFF!

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  2. They are amazing creatures

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  3. We talked about reading Cutting for Stone for my book club, so I'd love to hear more...

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  4. Cool postcard! Please forward my info to your Ethiopian contact - maybe I'll qualify for an exchange. :)

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  5. You are lucky to have owned this wonderful postcard. Ehtiopia,I believed, is a wonderful country.

    My Postcard Friendship Friday

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  6. I love the postcard and the stamps! I was once offered a job that would take me to Ethiopia and Somaliland but had to decline it (regretfully) because of the worsening situation in Somaliland. I wish all the troubles in Africa in general would be over soon.

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  7. These poor countries experience so much suffering. I once did a forensic nursing project on the atrocities committed against people in Darfur and that area of Africa and it just broke my heart.

    I have had the excellent Ethiopian coffee, though!

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Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

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