Update from Ethiopia

I just spoke on the phone with Orian, who has just crossed over the border into Ethiopia. He was sampling some of the local cuisine, getting his first taste of njera, the spongy flatbread made from fermented grain.
"It tastes like that stuff in Botswana--it must be made from sorghum," he said, referring to this thick sour porridge we bought at the gas station in Nata. We'd added sugar but still couldn't stomach the taste.
Njera is tasty, though, at least when used to scoop and sponge up the spicy lentil or meat stews that are characteristic of Ethiopian cuisine. At this border post, all they had was meat stew, Orian said, which he won't eat. I could see it being a little tough to enjoy without something to temper the sourness.

"Did you try the coffee yet?" I asked.
"No, although it looks like this place has some...wait, that looks like an espresso machine! That's impressive, this is such a hole in the wall place!"
"That sounds like what Charlie promised."
Charlie was a British bicycle tourist we met on the road in Tanzania. We'd had a slow and chilly morning, stopping every 10k for chai and chapati. We were going up a hill, also slow. "Is that a bike tourist?" Orian asked. We frequently had false calls--from far away, locals carrying bags of charcoal or whatever on the side of their bikes will look like a bike tourist. But as he got closer, this cyclist was pale skinned and had touring bags. Charlie was animated and traveling solo from the U.K. "Ethiopia has coffee," he'd said. "Relic of the Italian occupation during World War II...everyone has an espresso machine. You'll go into this little hole in the wall place and they'll have an espresso machine."

Romano, an Italian living in South Africa, had promised something similar. Romano had done missionary work in Ethiopia a decade or two ago, and said they were big drinkers of coffee. He didn't say anything about espresso machines, though--he talked more about traditional coffee ceremonies, where it sounds like they drink coffee the way South Americans drink mate: grounds are put into a cup and the first drinker (usually the visitor) gets the most potent brew, which gets progressively weaker as the cup is passed around, the grounds not being changed, and each drinker consuming the whole cup. All the other countries we'd been to we did not find much in the way of brewed coffee--even South Africa relies on instant coffee.

Orian has another 1000km to go before getting into a big town, which may be Addis Ababa. He's only got $20, so he may not be drinking much coffee, but hopefully he gets to have a few cups. I know he's been missing his morning cup. Maybe he'll get to sample some traditionally brewed coffee--I hear coffee originated in Ethiopia.

Orian and the others split up when the tarmac ended south in Kenya. Nate and Minwah are riding the dirt section and it sounds like Quinn is heading to Europe to bike tour there before flying back to the States.

Hopefully when Orian gets into Addis we can get some stories straight from the horse's mouth.