Moment #219. Amharic to Taxi driver. Thu, Mar 10, 2005.

03/10/2005. Taxi ride from home to the Airport, early AM.

The taxi driver was from Ethiopia and spoke Amharic, so while loading bags into taxi, I retrieved two Amharic books from my car's trunk to take with.

On the ride, he graciously accepted an Amharic and an English Book of Mormon. He said, and the icon on his dashboard indicated, that he was Eastern Orthodox Catholic.

He spoke English very well, and also spoke/read Tigrinya and Amharic. His main language was Tigrinya. Amharic, Tigrinya and Ge'ez are languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea, which all use the same alphabet. But aside from Amharic, the only other language of the area in which the church publishes stuff is Afar.

He also told me an important piece of info, that most of the African taxi drivers in town are Ethiopian. Note to self: Always have Amharic Books of Mormon when taking a taxi in Indy. Note to self: pay a visit to the office of "______ Taxi" on West _______ St.