Teaching Algorithms in Ethiopia
Five weeks in Addis Ababa
Recently, I helped teach an introductory algorithms course to high schoolers in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. I had an amazing time—the students were wonderful to teach, and I got a sneak peek of a very different culture. It’s hard to compress everything here (and you should go to experience it yourself!), but I’ve included some highlights below.
Life & culture
Starting with the food…within two hours of landing, I was handed a platter of raw beef.
Ok, this isn’t what people regularly eat, but it turns out that raw meat is a huge delicacy. Kitfo is another hugely popular, marinated raw beef flavored with a variety of herbs and spices.
(When I eventually tried some, I found that the raw meat itself doesn’t taste like much; most of the flavor comes from the intense seasoning. Let’s also say my stomach complained that night.) Structurally, a traditional Ethiopian meal always has injera, a spongy, pancake-like bread, and a variety of dishes and stews plated on top. You eat with your hands by wrapping a piece of injera around a dish. I ate with my hands for the first time (and was pretty clumsy at it), but I got better over time. Traditional Ethiopian coffee is also ridiculously good. I’m not fond of coffee in the US, but I probably drank a cup or two every day while there.
Walking on the streets each day, I often attracted a lot of (friendly) attention. Addis Ababa does not attract many tourists, so any foreigner immediately stands out. There were many funny accounts where people greeted me on the street by saying, “Ni hao” or “Hi China”. Once, as I was walking, an Ethiopian man stopped his car in the middle of the road, threw open his window, and yelled out, “Hi Jackie!”1. For the first time, I started to see how people view China outside of Western countries. From taxi drivers to students, almost everyone I met there respects China. And how could you not? Ethiopia has a lot of problems, and thirty years ago, China was probably in a similar shape. Many Ethiopians see their country in China and look up to it as a model, especially its work ethic. It is absolutely remarkable how, in a few decades, China went from a poverty-stricken nation to a global force now competing against the US. Unlike the US, China has also invested heavily in Ethiopia; much of the infrastructure today is there due to Chinese companies. While it’s relatively rare to find Chinese people walking on the streets, you’ll find these hidden pockets where the stores and hotels are teleported straight out of China. I managed to find a Chinese grocery store and bought a peanut drink that I hadn’t had in over ten years.
The streets were also regularly teeming with people wearing a religious white garment called netela (ነጠላ) going to church. Ethiopia is a very religious country. During holidays, people will go to church starting at 12am and going until the morning. Sunday service starts at 5:30 am and will go until around 9am. I went at 6:30am one time and watched people standing for three hours singing along to hymns and praying. Two-thirds of the country practices a variant of Orthodox Christianity that is specific to Ethiopia. On Wednesdays and Fridays, Orthodox Christians will fast, meaning they won’t eat animal products. This often meant that Ethiopian restaurants would only serve fasting foods on those days (much to the despair of my carnivorous diet).
One of the more surprising discoveries while there was the timing system. Time intervals run on a 12-hour clock that starts at what I know as 6am, so people refer to “1 o’clock” as 7am and “2 o’clock” as 8am, with the time interval resetting at 6pm. Because Ethiopia is so close to the equator, the sun rises and sets at around 6am each day, so it makes natural sense to organize the clock based on when it’s light or dark out. As one local TA put it, “Your times are weird. Why would you start the next day in the middle of the night?”.
General impressions
Overall, I found Ethiopian people to be overwhelmingly warm and welcoming. There were times I got lost or couldn’t get a ride due to language barriers, and shopkeepers nearby would always be willing to help out. The students were curious and learned quickly. I was shocked at how many went from zero programming experience to learning DFS & DP within a few weeks. Many students surprisingly wanted to become doctors, not because it’s a particularly wealthy profession, but because the healthcare system is deeply short of staff.
It’s clear from the start that Ethiopia has its issues. The current government led by Abiy Ahmed, once highly adored, has lost its popularity among citizens. Corruption is a problem, and my impression was that funding isn’t going to where people need it most. For instance, since 2019, the government has been beautifying Addis Ababa by investing in modern urban amenities like bike lanes. Over the month, I didn’t see a single person biking. The actual infrastructure used by the city’s residents is poor. Power outages are frequent2. We used Addis Ababa University—one of the top universities in Africa—for our classes, and the bathrooms were always broken. The wealth gap is stark, and the streets are filled with children who beg or try to sell you things. Perhaps the most noticeable thing for city residents is that economic opportunities are few. In the face of these challenges, it felt to me that the people here had little faith in their country, and the most agentic thing to do was to try to leave and find opportunities elsewhere (indeed, virtually everyone wants to).
Despite these issues, national pride is strong, given that Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that European powers never colonized. There was even, at times, suspicion towards foreigners. I once went to an antique store with a group, but the shopkeeper refused to sell us any of the older historical artifacts because we were all foreigners.
This was my first time being in a place where ordinary people actually use crypto. The Ethiopian government keeps a tight rein on the supply of US dollars to maintain control over the economy, so the demand for US dollars is quite high. For example, people who import goods from the US need US dollars for payment, but since the government doesn’t sell dollars (they only buy them), importers turn to the black market. Consequently, you can convert US dollars to Ethiopian Birr at a much higher rate on Binance than the official exchange rate.
Ethiopia and SF
Going to different places always makes the unique characteristics back home more prominent. SF is unique for its presence of unbounded hope. For example, I come from a community that continually debates about whether AI will supercharge humanity or lead to its extinction. Underlying both sides is a certain hope that banks on AI’s rapid and successful growth. It is a hope that has no limit. Regardless of how true it is, let’s first recognize how great that is.
I frequently wish people in SF grounded themselves more, and Ethiopia is an example of a place where their grandiose hopes can be tested. Many people in AI (at least purportedly) claim to want to help the world, but how can you help the world when you barely know what it looks like? Seeing Ethiopia’s problems grounds you in what an AGI is actually up against. Going there personally puts the reality in your face that people could die sooner from a civil war3 than from a misaligned superintelligence.
Concluding thoughts
I’m enormously grateful to the students and locals for these five weeks. Everything I spoke about here was based on impression, and as I mentioned at the beginning, there’s a lot I still don’t understand. If you have even an inkling of interest, I’d recommend checking out the AddisCoder program as they’re looking for TAs right now! Addis Ababa is a fascinating place, and I learned a ton.
To clarify, these were tended as enthusiastic greetings, not racial slurs. Ethiopians just rarely see Chinese people in person.
To be fair, many of these infrastructure challenges are normalized and not as noticeable to a local as they were to me.
In Ethiopia, the Tigray civil war killed 800K people from 2021 to 2022. It is the deadliest conflict of the 21st century, and nobody seems to know about it.