ETHIOPIWHERE?!?: Jobs that Kids Do

Initially when I arrived in town, I was bound and determined to do everything myself. I didn’t want to appear like the pampered farenji who required a slew of worker bees in order to survive. I still don’t want to have that reputation, but I’ve realized that kids and adults who ask for meaningful work are much better than those who just want a handout. So…I’ve changed my tactics and now often pay very nominal fees for things that I can do myself or really don’t need to have done, but do because it helps real people with real needs.

I now pause to have my shoes-shined, sit and drink tea while the mini-bus “broker” flags me down a bus, hire boys to cart my packages home from the post-office and pay Souwnet to do my wash on a weekly basis (that I’m glad to give up!). It feels good to help support those who have carved out a job in this job-less economy and its even more fun to hand out a hefty tip for a job well done.

The picture that I’m missing is the one that depicts Abi’s job. Because he was always underfoot and I had minimal toys, I was constantly searching for something to keep him occupied. One day it occurred to me that he might enjoy having a job and that’s when I introduced him to my “sheep food bucket” which is full of scraps that need dumping. That was one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. He was so excited and so proud of the fact that he had a job. And boy was he thorough. He would dump it, check, whack it against the ground to dislodge anything hanging on and then would promptly return to the compound to wash the bucket. Now when Abi bops over one of the first things he asks is, “is the sheep bucket full?”

Asirtsehi shines my shoes outside of the post-office. Shoe shining is a popular business and there is definitely a market for it given the amount of dust or mud that coats our shoes. Typically, one is charged 1birr (roughly 10 cents) for this service.

These boys cut grass and sell it alongside the road. Pretty ingenious given that most grass is free for the taking…provided that you beat the cows to it. Grass, such as this, is used for bunna ceremonies. I bought it because Gigi said that if I sprinkled this all over my house that the fleas would flee. Consequently I bought these 2 boys out of everything they had for the grand sum of 3 birr (roughly 30 cents…which Tambarat thought was too much) and paid them 2 birr each for walking it to my home. Unfortunately, the fleas didn’t flee, but my home did smell like a freshly cut lawn for days.