Addis Ababa - The first time Beniam Ayele visited his home in Ethiopia after nearly 30 years abroad, he said he was allergic to the place. During that trip in 2000, he couldn't digest the food. He was frustrated by the constant water and electricity shortages. And he couldn't handle the fragile telephone network that hardly let a call connect.
Seven years later, Beniam finds himself in Ethiopia yet again, except he has lived in the Horn of Africa country permanently for the last six years.
He got married, had two kids and dabbles in everything from construction to entertainment to tourism in the capital Addis Ababa.
Like Beniam, scores of other Ethiopians in the diaspora are returning to the impoverished country either for business opportunities, to quit the rat-race, or simply for a change of scenery - but adjusting to a life so different from one abroad is no easy task.
"The American system is so strong, it's hard to move away from that. There's always a fear here the government is going to fall and you'll lose all your money," said 37-year-old Beniam.
Tadiwos Belete came back after 25 years to open an elegant spa in central Addis Ababa, seeing an unserved market that he could address. He closed his two beauty spas on Boston's posh Newbury Street and shifted locale.
"We haven't even dented the potential of this country. It's a gold mine for anyone with a business mind," said Tadiwos, who in the five years since moving back has opened a luxury resort-spa 45 kilometres outside of Addis Ababa, and is putting the final touches on another.
But, he admits, he struggled to kick-start his business in the impoverished country.
"It's a typical African country," said Abebe Hailu, spokesman for the Ethiopian American Community Association, who lives in California's Silicon Valley and has not been back to Ethiopia since he fled 26 years ago.
"You have to bribe and have the right connections. Otherwise, it's very difficult to go back and do business," he said.
The challenges go beyond dealing with a seemingly-impenetrable bureaucracy: Tadiwos said he had to train his own staff because there were no adequate beauty schools in Addis Ababa at the time.
Abraham Agedaz, an Ethiopian living in Canada who was vacationing in Addis Ababa, said he is considering investing in farming in Ethiopia, but is deterred by the capital required to bring in modern equipment.
"It's not something you can just jump into," he said at one of the capital's raucous cafes.
Wooed by the immense profits generated by remittances, the government has been keen to tap into the potential for economic growth from returnees who can invest in the country and has offered them incentives to return.
"The government is mobilizing diasporans to come back home and help in the ongoing development of their country," said Demeke Atnafu, head of the country's expatriate department.
The government has put in place various measures it says makes the relocation easier, permitting returnees to bring in a portion of their goods tax-free, allowing them to keep their other citizenship and making plots of land available for building homes.
Demeke said the only thing deterring the 1.5 million Ethiopians abroad from returning is "misinformation" about what investment conditions might be like.
But despite the challenges of packing up and moving back, Ethiopians who have say it was well worth it.
"When I bought my first house in California, not even two years later I was looking at selling it and buying another one. I was caught up in a never-ending quest for money," said Issayas Gebremichael, 46, who returned with his family to Ethiopia to run his father's soap factory five years ago.
"I knew it was time to get out," said Issayas, wearing a bluetooth device on his ear.
He now makes one-tenth of the 100,000-dollar salary he had in North America and insists he is happier, adding he spends more time with his wife and children.
And Beniam, who said he misses the variety of foods available in the US and the convenience of living there, is slowly learning to love life in Addis Ababa.
"I'm doing all this business but I sleep until 11 a.m. and sit and drink coffee all day. I never had time to drink coffee in the states," said Beniam, slouched on a chair at a coffee shop patio on a rainy afternoon.
"I will never go back now."
