Timkat celebrations

After nearly a year in Ethiopia I finally tried “Chat” yesterday. Chat is a stimulant drug found in the leaves of the Chat bush. Chat is widely cultivated and used throughout the Horn of Africa and has been part of the culture here for many hundreds of years. It is particularly associated with the Eastern part of Ethiopia (the Somali Region) and of course Somalia itself. Chat just looks like the leaves from any old privet hedge at home but it does come in different varieties. I joined some of the Ferenji volunteers here (two other VSOs and three German doctors) and two Ethiopian friends of theirs. Chat is a social activity and we gathered in somebody’s house and chewed together. I expected the leaves to be fibrous and chewy, but because they are young leaves they just disintegrated in the mouth, leaving a slightly bitter and “dry” taste. Although Chat is a drug the effect is just similar to drinking fairly strong coffee: you get a feeling of mental alertness. We spent the afternoon together talking about anything and everything. It was wonderful, just like being students again. Lots of scientific debate took place, along with some impromptu physics lessons, and also a slightly heated discussion about the hassle we get in the streets and the reasons for it. What a great way to spend an afternoon! There are people who become addicted to Chat, but you have to consume a lot of it very frequently for that to happen. It is entirely legal and almost everybody chews it, especially bus drivers as we noticed whenever we took the bus between Awassa and Addis Ababa. One of the Ethiopians yesterday told me that chewing Chat while driving a bus is illegal, but if that is the case then every bus driver I’ve seen is breaking the law. Given the state of the roads here I actually find it reassuring if the driver is chewing Chat as at least you know he will be fully awake and alert! Although I only had a small amount (about half a 100g bag) I could feel the effect. Gill and I had been running that morning but the Chat made me feel alert despite the underlying tiredness. The really enjoyable part was sitting around debating, the Chat chewing probably serves as big a function as a shared activity around which people can talk or not talk as it does as a “drug”. Also, eating a bag of leaves does take a bit of getting used to.