Injera and Civil War

Yesterday Anne, an unnamed friend and I went out for lunch. The unnamed one took us to a very neat place called Mebrat Cafe. It is run by an Eritrean lady, which I think is very cool. I have a fascination with that part of Africa, although my main focus is Ethiopia. It was hard not to mention this, as Eritrean food is very similar to Ethiopian food, but, Eritreans do not have warm fuzzy feelings when it comes to Ethiopians. This is due to Ethiopia annexing them in the 1960's, which was followed by a 30 year war for independance. The Eritrean rebels won in 1991, and they voted for independance in 1993. That wasnt all, though, in 1998, a border war started up, which lasted 2 years till the UN came in and said "enough already!" From my readings, the very small Eritrea was pretty badly damaged by all this warring, and it was not a very nice place to live at all. Anyways, my fascination is with Ethiopia, one day Im going to go there, and take my daughter. Did you know that Ethiopia was the originating country of Coffee? Or that Sheba, as in the Queen of Sheba, was in Ethiopia? That Ethiopia has some of the oldest rock hewn Christian churches in the world, and Ethiopian Orthodox christians claim to be the oldest christian denomination in the world? Not only do they have a fascinating history and culture, it is apparantly a stunningly beautiful country, with the Blue Nile, and classic African vistas, and according to my father, who spent a few months there, the friendliest people on earth. People make fun of me, but it is my dream to go there. And they have great food.