Ethiopia

COUNTRY BACKGROUND

Capital:  Addis Ababa
Population:  94.1 million
Religion(s):  Christian (63%), Muslim (34%)
Language(s):  Amharic
     Example:  Thank you.  =  አመሰግናለሁ  amesegënallô
Currency:  Ethiopian Birr (ETB)
Conversion (approx.):  1 USD = 20 birr
Time Zone:  UTC +3 (8 hours ahead of CST)

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Fun Facts:

• Ethiopia follows a different calendar than most of the rest of the world. The Ethiopian New Year is celebrated on September 11th, and in this calendar, the current year is 2007 rather than 2014. Actually, the calendar contains 13 months - 12 months of 30 days each, plus an additional month of five or six days, depending on the leap year.
• The capital city, Addis Ababa, means "New Flower" in Amharic.
• Like Tanzania, Ethiopia follows a sun-based clock, (called Swahili Time in some places), meaning that they start counting hours of the day when the sun comes up. So what most of the world would consider to be 6 a.m., they call 12 o'clock.
• It is believed that the Ark of the Covenant is located in a church in northern Ethiopia. (Pending confirmation form Indiana Jones.)
• Ethiopia is the only country in the world other than Russia to have never been occupied by another country. (Italy tried to take the country twice but failed.)
• The oldest human skeleton fossil was found in Ethiopia, and so it is sometimes referred to as the "Cradle of Mankind."