Ethiopia 0907

For the 8 days we spent mid-September 2007 in Ethiopia, our feelings vacillated among guilt, concern, discomfort and fascination.
Ethiopia has the longest, richest civil and religious history in sub-Saharan Africa yet is the poorest country we have seen on the continent to date,
with an annual per capita income of $120. "Starving children in Ethiopia" is both the sad past and a likely fate for the foreseeable future.



Once you pass through Addis Ababa, the landscape, populations and lives in Ethiopia look much the same as they have for hundreds of years, including (Above Far R) families fish on the Blue Nile River from the same narrow "boats" used by their ancestors. There are some exceptions. (Above L & Center) The donkey carts carry people and burdens or people walk for miles carrying their walking sticks alongside cars on the paved roads. (Above & Far R) People walk for hours to the central market on Saturdays to buy Western as well as traditional clothes, grains, spices, beans, fruits and vegetables.


Though we had been warned about the dust everywhere in Ethiopia, instead we were told that the rains hadn't yet stopped as they typically do, creating the wettest rainy season in 30 years. (Above Far L) The hugely engorged Blue Nile Falls were now brown with silt (Above L), according to our guide in Bahir Dar. (Above C) WW walks up to the 700 year old Greek-style monastery, oldest in the Bahir Dar area. (Above & Far R) The Ethiopian Orthodox monks who painted the colorful frescoes would be pleased that their work was still vivid and well-preserved in the 21st century.


Gondar was our next historical city visit, with (Above Far L) the old buildings and ruins right next door to the "modern" neighborhood. (Above L to R) Rick and our guide walk through King Fasilidas' ancient compound, including library, castle, wives' homes, lion house, etc. (Above Far R) What hasn't changed is that people cut the grass and tend the crops by squatting on their haunches, feet flat, using small hand-scythes.


(Above Far L) When the hustle and bustle of King Fasilidas' main compound because too stressful, his would servants carry him to his man-made castle-island for a few relaxing days--probably with his concubines. (Above L) Looking at Gondar from a hill, the view could exactly what Ethiopians saw a 1,000 years ago. Gondar and its region were home to the Falasha Jews. Persecuted in the 1970s and 1980s, about 30,000 Falasha Jews were flown to Israel. (Above Center) The old Falasha village, Wolleka, is now barely a tourist trap with poor pottery and other crafts. But we spent a short time in still-active Beta Yisrael Synagogue and Center. (Above R is the "bema" with the Torah behind the curtains and Above Far R is where the congregation sits.) The manager told us we had just missed 2,000 attendees at the sunset mid-week High Holydays service who had left to walk the two hours home before dark. There are still 15,000 Falasha Jews in the area who had sold everything, waiting to spend "next year in Jerusalem" with Israel's help.


We flew into Lalibela, named after King Lalibela, the first of the Zagwe Dynasty in the 1600s who began the tradition of building churches hewn literally from huge boulders in the earth or on mountain-sides. Our hotel (Above Far L) was called Tukul Village because they copy the area's traditional 2-storey homesteads (Above L & C) where the 1st floor is for their livestock and the 2nd is for the family. (Above R) Children are learning to read Amharic, Ethiopia's national language, while their mothers launder the clothes (Above Far R) and carry the wood (Below Far L) to cook the families' dinner.

	We toured 2 clusters of churches in Lalibela that were carved from rock. Some were monolithic and some, semi-monolithic--totally or partially free-standing. (At R) We go through a tunnel. (Far R) the Italian government is trying to offset their guilt at occupying Ethiopia during World War II by building protection around the churches to prevent further degradation.


Probably the most interesting church was St. George (of dragon-fame), carved in the shape of a Greek cross (Above Far L to R). We walked down into the pit surrounding the church, then around and inside it. We always had to remove our shoes before entering any church, so we hired a shoe-watcher / bearer (Above Far R, the man in the blue jacket) to ensure than no one stole our shoes while we were viewing part of Ethiopia's heritage...


(Above Far L) Inside every church was a priest (Above L) waiting to show us special processional crosses used in daily services, though he wore sunglasses to prevent glare from the expected camera flash so he could still see to collec his fee. A few churches had highly carved walls, painted with saints (Above C). One had a column (Above R) on which was painted the future of the world according to the Ethiopian Orthodox church, which had to remain covered to prevent panic among church-goers. But we could touch an ancient Bible (Above Far R) written in Ge'ez, the old Abyssinian language.


One of the most memorable experiences--in retrospect--was our mule ride up to the top of the nearby mountain to see a 13th century monastery carved into the rock. (Above L to R) The 8 km. steep trail was so steep and muddy in places that we had to walk, particularly the last 2.5 km. So riding down on the mules required gripped knees and feet firmly planted in the stirrups and in places, with the young muleteers holding onto to me. To say I felt like a dumbass on an ass was not exaggerated.


Our last historical city was Axum, the former capital of the Axum Empire, now Ethiopia. (Above Far L) The Maryam Tsion Church is where allegedly the descendants of King Menelik I, the offspring of King Solomon of Israel and the Queen of Sheba, stored The Ark of the Covenant for safe-keeping in its Holy of Holies (Above L). We will not dispute here the likelihood of the Jews giving the holiest emblem of their faith to the illegitimate son of their King, but... Crowns of the Zagwe kings (Above C) are also stored in a locked metal cabinet on the church ground. We viewed another ancient Ge'ez book darkened brown from human hands' oil (Above R) which is now protected by cloth from human hands. (Above Far R) The priests, deacons, and choir practice for a service to be visited by 150 members of the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem who were touring the same 4 cities we were at the same time.

Besides having the Ark of the Covenant, the Zagwe Kings built stone stellae (a more carved form of the Egyptian obelisk) to honor themselves (R to Far R). During their occupation of Ethiopian in World War 2, the Italians removed the largest standing stellae to Rome. It was returned a couple of years ago, re-assembled, (Far R) and is supposed to be raised in Axum this year during The Ethiopian Millennium.