Oslo Shop in Addis Ababa
05.07.2008 //
At Casa Inchis, close to the Norwegian School in Addis Ababa not surprisingly, you can find Oslo Shop, a small unassuming retailer, not unlike the typical small shops you find all over Addis Ababa. The shop is a family business and today Tegist, a student at Haremayu University, and Fisseha, a high school student was shopkeeping.
The story goes that some Norwegians at the Norwegian School/ Lutheran Mission (NLM) helped a family set up this little shop and that the name Oslo Shop was given to it as an acknowledgement of the assistance rendered. The family of Tegist and Fisseha, running the shop today, has been renting it for the last three months. "Business is good" says Fiseha, who helps out after school hours, "but we can feel that business is a little bit down now that many Norwegians has gone on summer leave". Probably students at the school and employees at NLM are among the regular customers.
Tegist, one of only 12 girl technical engineering students out of 80 at Haremayu University, helps out during her summer break from University and seems to enjoy it. More so she enjoys being among the best in her class at University and wonders why so few girls study engineering. I tell her it is the same in Norway. "But it is not difficult for girls, it is natural" she says. For her brother Fisseha though she has other ambitions, she wants him to be a doctor. But as for now, they both learn their trade at Oslo Shop.