Do Ethiopian men date in the Western sense? And would they be interested in farenji women? On a recent trip to Tigrai (where I had an amazing time!), I developed a massive crush on my thirtysomething single driver from Hawzen, which I later found out was reciprocated. At least I think it was. I can't figure him out. He sends me WhatsApp messages pretty much every day. Generally nothing deep, more like "good morning", "good night", "how are you doing?" and the occasional "I miss you", etc. Sometimes he sends me pictures. The chats only last a few minutes and more often than not they end rather abruptly... which might be due to the patchy Internet connection or that he's busy with work. A few times I've gotten a few terms of endearment ("konjo", "sweet"), compliments ("you too kind", "good person", "beautiful smile") and the admission that he was constantly looking at me in the rearview mirror but mostly it's just the daily "how you doing?". I honestly don't know what to think. In addition to the language barrier (his English is pretty basic), I'm sure there's a huge cultural divide that I'm not even aware of. What's the right answer to these "how are you?" messages - should I just say "fine, and you?" and leave it at that? I get the impression that he doesn't like direct questions - is that cultural or because answering in English requires too much effort? Does he just want to be friends or is there more to it? Someone enlighten me please...