Tag: ethiopia

Living in Ethiopia

     On April 2018, my mom told me that our family was going to move to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She said that we’re going to move to Ethiopia on September 2018. At first, I thought that Ethiopia is a modern country. But then, my mom told me that Ethiopia wasn’t that modern like Indonesia. Because of that, I’m worried that I can’t feel a happiness like in Indonesia. I’m also worried to be a new student in a new school. In my old school, I told my friends & teachers that I’m going to go to Ethiopia for survey & for living there. They were shocked & ask me “do you really have to go there?”. Well, the answer is “yes! I really have to go there J”.

     On July 2018, we went to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the 1st time to do the survey. We spent 5 nights at the Radisson Blu hotel. I feel like Ethiopia is a good country to live in. It has more animals in the city than most cities in Indonesia (imagine you can find eagles, donkeys, cows, kites, ibis, Ethiopian crows, Magpies, Mara storks in the city street!! so fun!).

     Finally, on September 2018 we moved to Addis Ababa. I felt so excited because I’m in a new country. Yet I felt so sad because I miss my family & I live far away from home. I also felt so nervous because I will be in a new school (ICS, International Community School of Addis Ababa). Luckily, I had so many friends at school. My best friend is Joseph Gudere, he’s half Kenyan & Norwegian.

     My activities at school are studying math, play soccer, UoI, science, PE, DCI, recess, eating lunch & snacks & doing After School Activities. My activities during weekend are watching YouTube, watching movies in Edna & Century mall. They have the best cinema place in town. Sometimes I go to museum near my house or travel to other places such as ICS, Wenchi crater lake, Portuguese bridge, Negash lodge, etc. I love to go to ICS during the weekend because it has 2 cool libraries & 2 gigantic soccer field that I can play on it. At home, I like to play with my toys.

Online Exploration

Challenge I

Tonarigumi (Chonai Kai)

Hi, my name is Fatih, I live in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I joined exploration online, they give me a challenge to interview Pak RT about RT/RW in Indonesia. Because I live in Ethiopia, no such thing as neighborhood association (RT/RW) here. The smallest district is Kebele (the same as municipality in Indonesia). So, I went to Mariko’s house (a Japanese woman, a friend of my Mom) on Wednesday,27 March 2o19. I interviewed her. She said that there is no longer tonarigumi in Japan.    

From left to right: Fatih, Mariko, Rashaad

Tonarigumi is a neighborhood association created by Japanese government. Formerly, 250 years ago, in Edo period, there was a group called ”gunmi gomi”. Gunmi gomi means five groups of people. Gunmi gomi will become tonarigumi. The function of tonarigumi is to share information from the local government to community and sometimes they were trained the military service.

In 1943, the Japanese were attacking the Pearl Harbor, in U.S, where the military are resting. 2 years later… the Americans got their revenge. The Americans were planning to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the big cities in Japan, with the nuclear atomic bomb that created by: Professor Albert Einstein

After the Japanese lost, the Americans controlled Japan. At that time, America prohibited tonarigumi in Japan. In 1951, after the agreement, there is tonarigumi again, but the name become “chonaikai” (cho=town, nai=inside, kai=committee). This chonaikai is not controlled by the local government. Usually, chonaikai cover 5 to 10 households.

The functions of Chonaikai are: 1. To share information from the Japanese government to community 2. Take care the people especially elderly 3. Security patrol 4. Waste management (recycling trashes 5. Hold festival like winter festival & summer festival. 6. Funeral arrangement 7. Fire drill training 8. Helping others if there is a disaster. The chonaikai leader is called hancho. Mariko is never become a hancho but, her parents did. The last hancho around Mariko’s place is Mr. Mukasan. If you want to join a member of chonaikai, you have to pay fee every month.

Chonai kai meeting

The administrative system in Japan is different from Indonesia.

The system in Japan:

Country –> District/Perfecture –> City/Village –> Town –> Chonaikai.

If you want to know about the administrative system in Indonesia, you can see the picture below.

Administrative System in Indonesia

        Today,3 April 2019, after school, I wanted to stay home and relax, but my mom force me to go to Kebele office. So, I went to Kebele Kirkos 06. It was 15 minutes away from the school. My driver went inside first because he wanted to ask permission.

My driver and I in front of Kebele office

Before, I thought the office was clean but it was not. I went to the 6th floor. In the 6th floor, I met Mr. Tadelle, the chief of public service. I ask questions to him. After I interviewed Mr. Tadelle, I know some information about Kebele. The function of Kebele is to serve people (if people wants to create an ID card) and give people jobs. There are 107 Kebeles in Addis Ababa City. There are 7,000 populations in Kebele Kirkos. The leader of Kebele is called chief executive.

Me and Rashaad with Mr. Tadelle, the Chief of Public Service Kebele Kirkos 06

The administrative system in Ethiopia:

Country –> Region –> Sub city –> Woreda/Kebele.

So, Kebele is the smallest unit of administrative system in Ethiopia.

Fun facts:

Ethiopia has different clock, date & year. They have their own local time, for example: today is 3 April 2019 but in Ethiopian calendar, today is 25 Makawit/March 2011, so if you live in Ethiopia, you’re 7-8 years younger.

If it’s 9AM, it means 3AM (Local or Habesha time)

Direction/Map

This picture shows you the direction between my house and Mariko’s house (let’s pretend her a Hancho). The red one is my house & the yellow one is her house. The distance is 3 km .

List of my questions