Sept. 14, Dessie, Debresina, Debre Berhan
Today would have been my 21st wedding anniversary. Last year at this time, Rob and I were celebrating our 20th in Sicily. It's painful, but I'm glad I'm here.
I awoke this morning at 4 a.m., then again at 5 to the sound of a crackling call to prayers over a muffly loudspeaker from a local mosque.
Breakfast was a crispy fried flat bread with honey. In the car four of us chewed the khat I bought the previous day for birr 10 ($1.25) through the car window from a young man.
The June 7 Des Moines Register had an article about khat being the newest "illegal street drug" in the Des Moines area, introduced by Somali refugees who had it shipped over. Two area men had been arrested, and 136 pounds of khat seized.
When I told Ethiopians here it had been described as a controlled narcotic substance like meth, and that people were prosecuted for it, they laughed. Here, chewing khat is about as controversial as drinking beer. It's one of Ethiopia's top exports. It's sold to Britain, Somalia and Yemen, but the United States won't allow it in. Sales are taxed. In fact, I'm told, many farmers have switched from growing coffee to khat because it's easier to cultivate and more cost-effective since the world market for coffee has slumped.
It's supposed to make you mentally alert and upbeat. People typically chew it socially, during four or five hours on a Sunday, in a living room over coffee and snacks. Conversations become intensified, they say. College students use it to stay up and study.
Though there are no known harmful effects, a government publicity campaign warns against overdoing it when the time used to chew khat could be used more productively. But that leaves the government in a bit of a quandary --knowing it's good for the economy, but not wanting to be pushing a drug.
Khat is horrendously bitter, so you eat it with sugar, which someone conveniently supplied from a small newspaper envelope in his pocket. You're supposed to chew it for a long time and not swallow, but I had a hard time keeping it in my mouth.
For all that effort, it had no discernible effect on me.
