Week One
We left our familiar U.S. culture on December 7th, and arrived in Addis Ababa and the unique Ethiopian culture 3 days later. At first glance, Addis is an unremarkable city of about 3 million people. Cattle, sheep, and goats share the roads with cars, trucks, minivans, mule carts and people. It is hard to tell if there are any rules of the road, and driving is chaotic and time consuming. There appears to be new construction everywhere with wooden scaffolding, which seems quite precarious. Although some roads are paved, many are not and hence dust is ubiquitous.
Our first destination was the home of Joan’s son, James and his wife, Shirley and their 4-year old son, Chaskiso. They are indeed a multicultural family with James from the U.S., Shirley from England, and Kiso from Ethiopia. They live in a comfortable 4-bedroom house with a large, beautiful garden (including backyard grass that “Bug.” Kiso’s sheep, grazes. Their property is enclosed with a razor wire topped concrete wall and they have 24 hour guards. This is typical of middle and upper class homes in Addis where ex-pats generally live. They are lucky to have two wonderful Ethiopian women, Lilly and Wakanesh, who do cooking, laundry, cleaning and provide care for Kiso.
After a day and a half adjusting to the 9 hour time shift, we embarked on our first tour to the historical northern area of Ethiopia.
Day 1: We flew to Bahir Dar, a city of about 200,000 on the south shore of Lake Tana, the 2nd largest lake in Africa (after Lake Victoria). We traveled about 50 kilometers to the site where the Blue Nile begins. The gravel road was dusty and bumpy and we had our first view of living conditions for Ethiopian families who are primarily engaged in agriculture. USAID has funded a Land O’Lakes joint gardening project. Along the way, we saw everyone working in some capacity, from little children (like 4-5 year olds who seemed to be herding sheep) to all ages of youth, women and men harvesting crops of sugar cane, corn, chick peas and perhaps other crops. With support from western governments, they now have an irrigation project here pumping water from the Nile River allowing them to harvest 3 crops a year rather than the former 1 crop. We climbed several kilometers on rocky trails to the 65 meter high Blue Nile falls. During the rainy season, instead of 3 separate falls, they become one immense waterfall. A portion of the river is diverting above the falls to a hydroelectric plant (recently restored).
The next day, we traveled by boat across Lake Tana to the Zege peninsula and visited the Ura Kidane Mehret church and monastery. It contains incredible religious paintings from the 13th and 16th centuries as well as a collection of crosses, crowns and religious items, including a 10th century Bible.
Day 3: We traveled to Gonder, 2-1/2 hours north of Bahir Dar along the east side of Lake Tana. The road was recently paved by the Chinese government. In fact, any place we saw paved roads they were done by the Chinese government. Gonder was the capital of Ethiopia in the 17th century. A number of castles were built in an enclosure, called the “Royal Enclosure.” The remains of most are complete but a couple were damaged during WWII when the British conquered the Italian Army that had sought refuge in the royal enclosure.
Day 4: We flew to Aksum, the center of the Aksumite culture of Ethiopia as early as 400 B.C. Legend has it that the Queen of Sheba had a place here as early as 1,000 B.C. We toured the restored ruins and heard about her relationship with the Old Testament King Solomon. In the center of town is a field of stelae, large obelisks of one piece carved granite. The tallest one standing is 36 ft high. A taller one is on the ground in several pieces, presumably because it fell due to the base being too small for its height. The stelae are essentially gravestones. Near the stelae field, an archeological dig has recovered the first church of St. Mary of Zion’s foundation. The 2nd church is now used by monks and therefore women (i.e., Joan) can not enter it. A smaller building adjacent to this site purportly houses the original Ark of the Covenant, containing the tablets that Moses brought from the mountain. A single monk is the only one permitted in the building. The current St. Mary of Zion church was built in the 1960s and is unremarkable.
Day 5: We drove to Yeha, just north of Aksum. Here is the oldest church in Ethiopia built between 800 and 500 B.C. Stones forming the walls are so perfectly cut that it is impossible to place a coin between their joints. This original church was renovated in the early time of Christianity to add stone crosses to some of the windows. Prior to Christianity, the Ethiopian people worshipped the sun and the moon. On our return to Aksum, we drove through Adwa, famous for where Ethiopians first conquered and drove out the Italians in 1896. Adwa is also the home of the current prime minister as well as the pope of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. That afternoon, we walked through the granite quarry where the stelae were extracted. It was a long, rocky climb up, up, and up through this quarry, a strain on our sense of balance and stamina. Two young children held Joan’s hands thoughout this journey (expecting a few birr when we returned to the road). Our last stop in Aksum was the tomb of King Bazen, who according to legend, was one of the 3 wise men. Aksum is an archeological paradise, with many sites yet to be excavated.
Day 6: We flew to Lalibela, a town of 15,000 people sitting at 10,000 ft. Here we found the famous rock-hewn churches, which have been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. There are 11 distinct churches carved into the rocks, as well as one that is freestanding and surrounded by the rocks from which it was carved. The churches date to the 13th century and are still actively used by the Ethiopian Orthodox church. Nuns and priests live in carved out “cubbies” carved out of the surrounding rock. Their lives involve continuous praying and fasting. The priests living in the churches bless any believers (e.g., our guide) with the cross. We saw this many times as we toured.
Day 7: In addition to viewing more churches, we visited the weekly market, organized into sections such as animals, grains, fruits/vegetables, clothing, plastic containers, etc. It appears to be a major social event as well as used for commerce. People walk for many kilometers to sell/buy goods. In fact, in these rural areas, walking is the primary mode of transport for all ages. In a kind of surreal juxtaposition to the ancient churches is a futuristic restaurant sitting atop a mountain with incredible vistas in all directions. It was recently opened by a Scottish retired schoolteacher and a young Ethiopian entrepenuer. We enjoyed two dinners there and chatted with the enthusiastic staff.
Day 8: Since this was Sunday, we were able to observe the religious devotions of 100s of believers covered with white shawls (man and women). The priests read from their Bible, there was a bread communion, a collection, and a sermon. Within the churches, we observed people seeking “healing” as they were blessed by priests with the cross. Men and women removed their shawls from their heads and clothing for this blessing as the cross was moved around their bodies from head to foot. We also visited an orphanage, one of many in Ethiopia. Children in this particular one were receiving incredibly loving care.
We flew back to Addis for a week of Christmas preparations and festivities.
After this first week, we were left with many impressions of this very religious country:
- You hear chanting everywhere (although some of it., in Addis at least, apparently comes from recordings playing through loud speakers).
- The influence of Old Testament Judiasm on Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity as it emerged is evident in many ways – the Amharic alphabet incorporates Hebrew and Arabic symbols, the line of emperors ending in Haile Selassie all descended from Kind Solomon of Israel, Lalibela was constructed as a replication of Jerusalem.
- Ethiopians use the Julian calendar and hence 2011 in our calendar is 2004 in their calendar.
- Although Addis is becoming Westernized, the rural areas still reflect an earlier era, in clothing, lack of transport, with most people engaged in agriculture or husbandry.
- Although you see signs for clinics in many places, we were told that they often are staffed only once a week by a nurse.
- You get a strong sense of national unity among the people, unlike the internal conflict in many other African countries.
- There is a strong sense of religiosity among the people – people going to church daily, frequent prayer (one guide told us he prays every day before eating).
- We have only seen one person smoking (although khat and addictive plants are used by some older people).
- Men show signs of affection publicly, like holding hands, arms around each other, etc.
- ….to be continued
