September 28 — You Missed the Party at Our House
Though some Americans are always fashionably late, here it is the norm to pop in much after the official start to a gathering. Since we were hosting a 1:00 p.m. Friday afternoon lunch “Nyoma Choma” (barbequed goat with all the fixing’s), we chose to only serve juice, water and soft drinks. By almost 8:00 p.m. when the last of our colleagues left, about 3 bottles of alcohol (they purchased) and several beers later, we had divided up the remaining food and sent everyone off happy and a bit tipsy. One of our office-mates admitted that Kenyans do like their alcohol, so I guess that’s the Kenyan idea of a “pot-luck” meal!
September 27 — The Challenge of Giving/Receiving Directions in Africa
Unlike our life in the U.S., we hadn’t entertained friends at our home. So we invited our office colleagues to what was originally going to be a pot-luck party. Apparently pot-luck is a very foreign concept. I instead hired a local caterer to cook typical African food. I got our apartment manager’s permission to host the party by the pool, so I wanted the caterer to see the layout to better plan what her staff needed. We were to meet at our apartment about 5:30pm. I had given her directions (there are no street addresses, no Google maps, and Africans generally don’t use paper maps). She was late getting through the always-miserable downtown Nairobi traffic but called about 6:30 p.m. to say, “We’re lost!” Since I couldn’t give her any more help than I already had, being directionally-challenged myself, I whisked downstairs to the guard-house so that a guard could give her directions. A few minutes later she called back, further lost, so back downstairs to the gate I flew. Another guard gave her directions. This time it was lucky that I stayed by the gate. A 3rd then 4th guard gave her directions after another few minutes. One even went to the street corner, though we didn’t have her car description. The 4th guard “talked her down” but by then she had parked the car and was walking. She and her party manager turned up shortly, both embarrassed.
Sept. 26 – Working at Home
One more thing I brought back from Ethiopia was the Part 2 of my coughing cold from a couple of weeks before. After a couple days of “fighting through it” I surrendered and stayed at home to work. Thank heavens for the Internet access at our apartment, lots of sunlight, plenty of liquids, etc. Most of all I’m grateful for my inhaler left over from 2006’s asthmatic-like bronchitis.
September 23 — Stepping Forward 2 Centuries Returning from Fascinating, Haunting Ethiopia
On Sept. 14th the plane left Nairobi 2 hours late, but we were met on time by a driver and guide then were driven to the Ararat Hotel in Addis Ababa to meet Mr. Habtamu, our hosting travel agent. The roads were definitely less pot-holed than Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Even though we hit Addis’ afternoon rush hour, by comparison there was much less traffic than Nairobi at non-rush-hour.
Despite its touting that it hosted the Ethiopian Olympic athletes some years back, the Ararat Hotel would have rated less than 0-Stars on the international hotel scale. I strongly requested that Mr. Habtamu give us the names of the hotels at which we would stay for the next 4 cities, so he hand-wrote them on our itinerary. He assured us we were staying at “all the best hotels.” We had an early, tasteless dinner since we were to fly out of Addis at 7:10am the next morning, but at least we knew where we were going…
We WERE warned about Ethiopia
…by Anna and Greg that: 1) Ethiopian Airways flights delayed them each leg of their journey to/within Ethiopia on their trip earlier in 2007; 2) the country was dusty; 3) the hotels were low caliber (Motel 6 is luxurious by comparison); and 4) the food was mediocre at best. The bad news was that they were right. The good news was: only 4 out of 6 flights were delayed. And it was muddy, not dusty due to the highest rainfall season in 30 years. Thus went our 8 days. On the 9th day, we rested.
Ethiopian Orthodox Calendar’s Millennium
It might have been worse if we were visiting during the actual Ethiopian Millennium, approx. Sept. 11. The Ethiopian Orthodox calendar is seven years behind the “standard” Christian calendar, so the benefit is that “you can be seven years younger in Ethiopia.” We could not find a really good reason for the delta, nor for many other events. As Anna had pointed out before we left, despite the fact that Ethiopia’s many religious documents herald back to 4th century A.D. or earlier, no 2 stories were consistent from city to city about the religion or important events. Ethiopians are proud of their heritage, which incorporates a lot of Jewish traditions since their kings “were all descended from King Solomon”. In many ways Ethiopia has been arrested in time, having been an isolated kingdom in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa,.
Time Moves Slowly for the Ethiopian People
What I had begun to observe in Addis, hit me with a blast in Bahir Dar. The Ethiopians were by far the gauntest, most ragged, barefoot people we had seen in Africa. Even the donkeys, goats, cattle and sheep look scrawny and miserable. Almost half of the people we passed wore traditional clothes, i.e., robes/shawls and hats or head-covering. Additionally, many carried walking sticks over a shoulder, sometimes with bundles hanging off like “hoboes” and/or umbrellas either over their shoulders with or unfurled to block the hot sun. Whether the streets were paved, muddy, rocky or clear, Ethiopians were walking for miles in all directions, though there were huge distances between villages. This country of 70+ million people seems to always be moving, with not a lot of places to go. The per capita income is $120.00 per annum so the time-worn phrase “starving children in Ethiopia” may continue to be a prediction for a while.
De-forested Countryside
Ethiopia is mountainous and generally high above sea level which contributed to its isolation for the last 2,000 years. Though normally very dusty, Ethiopia was a lush, green, dramatic landscape with lots of wildflowers, including small, yellow, mustard-like Mascal, for which there would soon be a major festival. Most noticeable after a while, though, was the lack of trees which have been cut down by the exploding population for traditional firewood-cooking. Some government effort is under way to re-forest, but it may be too late for this land to support so many people.
Feudal Kings and Government
Legend (with little proven fact) says that the Queen of Sheba (a.k.a. Sabea, Abyssinia, Ethiopia, Axum, etc.) visited King Solomon, her intellectual peer. They exchanged more than knowledge. She begat Menelik I, from whom almost all Ethiopian Kings were descended, including Emperor Haile Selassie who died in 1974. The notable exceptions were the kings who built the majority of the stone-hewn churches for which Ethiopia is now famous and why we were touring.
Despite Italy’s attempts in the late 1800s, the Ethiopians are very proud that they were never colonized—except for their former region of Eritrea which Italy had conquered and Italy’s WWII occupation of Ethiopia for 4 years.
Bahir Dar, Where Time Starts Reversing
We left the Ararat Hotel at 5:30a.m., having had to push the barely-awake staff to serve us some breakfast. The flight from Addis to Bahir Dar was actually on time, arriving at 8:00 a.m. Our guide and driver drove us through downtown Bahir Dar where we saw so many people (75% Christian and 25% Muslim) traditionally dressed in shawls/robes and head-coverings, often walking near donkeys, goats, cattle, etc. We checked in quickly to the seedy Tana Resort Hotel overlooking lovely Lake Tana, the largest body of water in land-locked Ethiopia at 70 x 60 km. Our enthusiastic guide hustled us off to a boat ride across Lake Tana. We stopped to visit Azuwa Maryam, a 700 year old monastery that is the oldest in the city. The monastery’s outer shell and roof could be any home in Ethiopia, but the inner shell is covered with frescoes, telling the Bible stories about the birth/life/death of Jesus and his family. After less than an hour, we were back on the boat, to visit one edge of Lake Tana, the “mysterious source” of the Blue Nile. Due to the biggest rainy season in 3 decades, the silt in the lake and river turned the water brown. That did not prevent many people from bathing, washing clothes, fishing and gathering drinks in the water everywhere we looked. Our last stop for the day was the famous weekly market, where it looked as though thousands of people were walking through mud and garbage to shop for anything and everything among the crowded stalls. By 1:00 p.m. we were back in the hotel for lunch and a free afternoon. Lunch was mediocre and dinner looked like more of the same, so I skipped dinner for a Luna Bar and packet of almonds. We went to bed early.
Day 2 was more of day 1, including the accommodations and meals. We drove down the main street of Bahir Dar, where our guide proudly pointed to the 2 traffic lights (totally for show). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church services are 5 hours long with no sitting. The men stand separately from the women. If people tire, they are given tall, crutch-like sticks upon which to lean. We began to notice contradictions in stories, despite our seeing so many books written in Ge’ez (200 characters with a few letters looking like Hebrew), the ancient language for religious writing…
Frogs in the Bahir Dar Night
About 3am I woke to use the toilet when I noticed in front of the bathroom door, there was a frog about 2.5 inches long from nose to toes. We both minded our own business. The next night, I looked forward to froggy’s return. Instead there were 2 tiny frogs in the bathtub so we decided to leave in the tub and skip showering. Those 3 frogs were my fondest memories of the Tana Lake Resort Hotel.
Slow Pace of Poverty Noted on the Road to Gondar
Rather than spend 2 to 3 hours at the Bahir Dar airport for a 30 minute flight, if it was on time, we were driven to Gondar, our next historic city on the tour. Scattered across the countryside were homes that reminded me of the 3 Little Pigs’ houses: most were made of straw, straw and mud, or sticks and mud. Some were leaning.
Ethiopians still use wooden plowshares pulled by oxen to plow the fields they have sown with the same crops for hundreds of years. Crops and grass are cut by a number of people squatting with small hand-scythes. There’s little to no water-harvesting for home supply or irrigation. Women and children carry water from great distances. Everything seems to be accomplished the hardest way with the most painstaking slowness. But I guess poverty gives people a lot of time to fill.
Interest in Gondar due to Abyssinian Baptist Church Members
After we drove into Gondar, we visited the Deborah Birham Selassie Church built by King Isanyu in the 1600s, the only one of 44 churches not destroyed by the Dervishes’ (Whirling kind) attack on Abyssinia in about 1890. We then checked-in and had lunch at the Goha Hotel (part of the Govt. Hotel chain we found in this region). A crowd of Afro-Americans came in to lunch as well. We chatted with one fellow to learn that there were 150 members of the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem, broken into 3 groups, tracking each other around the 4 cities we were touring. Members ranged from 20- to at least 70-somethings. For most of them this was their 1st time in Africa. They literally took over most of the flights and accommodations in all locations. Most impressive besides their numbers and range of ages was that their church was 200 years old, founded by local slaves and Ethiopian merchants so they were obviously thrilled to observe how their church/customs compared to the Ethiopian Orthodox.
Falasha Jews of Gondar Were Truly Inspiring
In the afternoon, we visited Fasiladas’ Castle and his weekend retreat, a small castle in the center of a huge pool. Allegedly, he retreated to this location when the stress of governing got too intense and he needed to meditate. However, our guide suggested that he might have also used it for rendezvous with mistresses.
Rick had read about the Falasha Jews’ Village and Synagogue remaining in Gondar, and since we were on a private tour, we asked to be taken there. The Village was a joke. It was non-Jews selling crappy souvenirs, made to look like the famous Falasha pottery, from a couple of mud huts with a Star of David plastered on. They only had 1 or 2 plain, boring Jewish-themed woven baskets to sell. No one really knew anything about the current status of the Falasha, so Rick insisted we go to the Synagogue, despite our guide saying that the security would be impossible.
As it turned out, Beta Yisrael Synagogue and Center had just concluded its afternoon mid-High-Holydays’ service. We were introduced to the Manager who told us we had just missed 2,000+ Jews attending this service which had to end well before sunset to allow many of them to walk 2 hours back home before dark. I said “Shalom” to the Manager and asked if we could still tour the facility. He placed his Kepot/Yamalkah back on his head and showed us around. The 1st stop was the Cafeteria which feeds 600 Falasha children under age 6 daily. We then walked a bit further to the “sanctuary” which consisted of hundreds of low wooden benches, separated in the middle by a curtain (men vs. women). There were a few posters on the wall with Hebrew sayings. The Torah was hidden behind locked doors and curtains. A few men were still hanging out, discussing the day’s service and probably us as well. The manager was articulate in English, very sincere and friendly. So we believed him when he told us that the morning service had been attended by 2,000 Jews; that there were 15,000 Falasha Jews in the area (as much as 2 hours’ walking distance); and that every Jewish family had sold their land, homes, possessions, and were waiting for the Israeli government to airlift them to the Holy Land as about 30,000 of their friends had been. The Passover phrase “Next Year in Jerusalem” suddenly became full of meaning. The Israeli Rabbinate had recently pronounced the Falasha as “True Jews” despite their different practices. These people were suffering in suspension of their lives because they wanted to fully live their faith in Israel. We made a donation to the manager who said it would be used to feed the children. I hugged him, blessed him, and said good-bye. In those few minutes, I truly was humbled by these people’s faith, dreams, and persistence.
Flying to and Visiting in Lalibela
Ethiopian Airways delayed us only 2 hours for our arrival into Lalibela, named after King Lalibela who had (according to most records) first started building the famous rock-hewn churches in the 1000s. He was part of the Zagwe kings who took over after the Axum Kingdom was defeated by Queen Yodit (Judith) and her Falasha army, thus diverting Abyssinia / Ethiopia’s Solomonic descendants for about 200 years. As we drove to and through Lalibela, we saw the poorest people to date, despite their rich history.
We checked into the Tukul Village Hotel, the newest and nicest of the 5 hotels we would stay in before returning to Addis. Tukul is the name of the typical 2-story, local, stone home that housed livestock on the 1st floor and family on the 2nd. Each of the 6 tukuls in our compound had 2 lovely hotel rooms—no chickens, goats, etc.
Ethiopian Food
We walked about 300 m. to the Bethlehem Hall Restaurant at the Jerusalem Guest House where Rick had the typical Ethiopian meal: injera (a huge thin pancake made from fermented tef grain, grown mainly in Ethiopia) which is taken in pieces to lift vegetables (always cooked cabbage and carrots for 7 days’ meals); white rice; small chunks of meat, usually beef; and a couple of spicy sauces. I had a similar pancake stuffed with cabbage, carrots, and egg, accompanied by cabbage, carrots, and rice. When I asked, our waiter told us that my meal was “faranji food” (for foreigners). Once you try injera, you never forget its sour, squishy-textured, unique taste, though in a year or so I wouldn’t mind having it again at an Ethiopian restaurant in the U.S.
Beggars, Shoe-Bearers, Shoe-Washers, Flea-ridden Carpets and Other Special Features of Ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Churches
After lunch our guide and driver took us to the northern cluster of rock-hewn churches which were monolithic or semi-monolithic--totally or mostly free-standing from the solid rock around it. During one of our long waits at the airport, a couple of women tourists had suggested that we put bug repellant on our feet because the carpets covering the rock floors of all the churches were flea-ridden and all churches required us to take off our shoes before entering.
Our guide also recommended that we pay 50 Birr (= $7) to a shoe-bearer for the 2 days he’d be with us, to guard our shoes at all the churches we visited. We thought that this was an honest way to earn money, so we agreed. Our shoe-bearer helped us take off our shoes at each of the 8 or so churches over 2 days, moved them to a safe spot, then helped us put them back on as we emerged from each church. Over the next 2 days, Mr. Shoe-Bearer especially earned his keep by holding my hand/arm so I could remain upright as we climbed up and down steep muddy trails covered with loose, small rocks (a.k.a. talus).
Another entrepreneurial activity that seemed worthwhile was shoe-washing. At the end of the very muddy trails (and I imagine dust would coat shoes similarly), young boys approached us to wash our shoes. For 10 Birr ($1.10) per pair, they spent 10 minutes squatting on the ground, washing our shoes with sponges and water. This bargain enabled us to contribute a bit to the economy while teaching about hard work. At least that was my rationale…
We were told by our hotel manager and our guide to ignore any children in order to reinforce the City Council’s edict not to beg tourists for money. That didn’t stop some a few old, shriveled people from begging. We successfully ignored all hawkers, especially those selling “ancient” coins, books, etc. We had also heard that even if a store tells you that an artifact can legally leave Ethiopia, some border agents stop you and confiscate it anyway. This enables the same relic to be sold to multiple tourists and gain baksheesh for multiple guards.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Name 5 types of crosses we saw in Ethiopia: Latin, Greek, Maltese, Swastika, and Lalibela.
Lalibela Mule-Ride to the Mountain-top, Stone-Embedded Monastery.
Starting at 7:45 a.m., Rick and I began a memorable journey, accompanied by our guide and 2 boys leading 2 mules, one of which would bear me for more than half and Rick for maybe one-third of our jaunt to and from a famous mountain-top monastery. We would go for 16 km. round-trip up/down from Lalibela Town at 2,400m above sea level (ASL) to 3,100m ASL to the Asheton Maryam monastery. The quality, rockiness, steepness, and narrowness of parts of this trail reminded me of the old “E-ticket” rides at Disney Land. In fact we walked the last 2.5 km each way because the mules couldn’t manage it with us on their backs. They view of the lush green valleys and mountain range after mountain range was glorious. And even though I’m better prepared to trek Mountain Gorillas now, I could have missed this adventure. Because the mules were nervous on some areas of the trail, the boys held onto my arms as I held onto the mule with my knees clutched to its side and my feet stiffly against the stirrups. When this adventure was over, I was grateful for having had a few horseback-riding lessons as a child. AND I was embarrassed by looking like such a dumb-ass on the back of an ass riding through town with the 2 boys around me. Rather than looking like a “4th mule” Rick walked all the way down from the monastery.
Maintaining Protocol
While on my mule, closely-guarded by one of the boys who was carrying my purse across his chest and holding my water bottle, he and I began chatting. I know he enjoyed practicing his English as well as learning a bit about faranjis (foreigners). At the end of the trip in town, I took out pictures of our family that I had promised I would show him. But suddenly he turned almost unfriendly among the crowd of children surrounding us as we completed our ride/walk. I sensed that something was bothering him so later that afternoon, I asked our guide about that incident. He said that if children or young people were caught “harassing” or even looking like they were harassing tourists, they could lose their jobs.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
After a couple hours’ recovery from the mule-ride and walk to Asheton Maryam, we visited the last cluster of rock-hewn churches, including Emmanuel and Golgotha. Our guide took us through a tunnel connecting the 2 churches, turned off his flashlight/torch and, made it pitch-black. Moreover, the tunnel was not tall enough to stand upright and barely 3-feet wide. We literally put one hand on the ceiling and one on the wall then followed his voice until we saw a distant lighted area that was the end of the tunnel. That was a really creepy experience.
Ark of the Covenant at Axum – Capital of the Oldest Kingdom in Africa
Ethiopia supposedly reached its zenith during the Axumite Empire, before Queen Yodit of the Falasha took it down. In their heyday, Axumites had conquered what is now Eritrea, Yemen and Abyssinia (northern half of Ethiopia), built huge stone palaces, and brought Christianity to Africa. What now remains are ruined buildings, stellae* strewn over several fields, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, pride in never having been colonialized by Europeans and supposedly The Ark of the Covenant hidden inside the Church of Maryam Tsion’s Holy of Holies.
According to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Menelik I (Sheba and Solomon’s son) brought the single most prized possession of the Jews, the Ark of the Covenant, to Ethiopia for safe-keeping in order to prevent its capture by the Babylonians who destroyed The Temple in Jerusalem. Only one man , the guard of the Covenant, is ever allowed to see it in his lifetime. He is replaced upon death by another sole guard. Even the Bishops and Priests have never been allowed to see this. Nor, very conveniently, have scientists been able to test its authenticity. Yet The Church somehow has reproduced the Covenant in several locations. And Ethiopians have declared themselves God’s Chosen People.
*We are told that the main difference between Abyssinian Stellae and Egyptian Obelisks is that stellae are more intricately designed whereas obelisks are plain and simple.
Conflicted Feelings for 8 days
Another light at the end of the tunnel was the confirmation that our last night in Ethiopia would be at the Sheraton Addis Ababa. From 4pm on 21st Sept. to 2pm on 22nd, I luxuriated in the Sheraton, letting Rick fulfill our obligation to tour the Capital of Ethiopia.
Our stay in the Sheraton heightened and symbolized the 8 days of Conflicted Feelings that I had felt since touching down in Ethiopia: guilty pleasure at enjoying great food, hot shower, clean room, etc. vs. all the starving, barefoot people here. Ethiopians are proud of the fact they are the Chosen People, living much like their ancestors. The downside is that they have the barest trappings of the 20th century (not 21st) while the average person barely survives on $0.30 per day. We wasted about 24 hours in airport delays while many of the people waste most of their lives doing every task in the most slow, primitive way possible.
I’m mostly left with questions about Ethiopia. With Starbucks, Peets, Seattle’s Best, etc. growing exponentially, and since kaffe or coffee originated in Ethiopia, why is it one of the poorest countries on earth? If there are Espresso machines even in the lowliest of restaurants and hotels, why are the tourist hotels so shabby and moldy? On a different note, would Jews ever entrust the most holy element of their religion to the King’s concubine’s family? Is there no compromise between gaining the benefits of modern life and giving up an ancient, restrictive set of traditions? For a country spanning at least 2,000 years, why is there no clearly, documented history to be examined? Can Westerners tour places like Ethiopia and not feel guilty?
September 22 — No Stamp, No Free Entry
I still didn’t have my dependent’s visa stamped in my passport before we left for Ethiopia. I was given a funny little “alien” card and a paper saying I’ve paid for the visa. But unfortunately as anticipated, the plastic card and paper did not pass muster with Kenya’s Immigration Control. I had to pay $50 again to enter Kenya. The good news is that the visa is good for 3 months and the next time we re-enter Kenya in October, since we are only going to Uganda, I don’t pay for re-entry. Moral: unless you are moving to Kenya for more than one year, just exit and enter the country every few months and pay the darn $50 fee.
September 13 – Friends Moving and a Blur of Work
Once again, we have been buried in a blur of work with some occasional, fun evenings out with friends for dinner, especially Anna and Greg, who are “foodies” like us. Sadly, Greg has started his one-year contract in Arusha, Tanzania as of Sept. 1st Anna will be on a UN contract for 5 weeks in Europe for October. We will see them for dinner for one night right before we return to The States. But we’ll really, really miss them!
