Week 10: Ethiopia

view from second village we stayed in in the Lalibela mountains

We apologize for such a late post. We have had very limited internet access here in Ethiopia!

We have also heard that people have not received updates for our last couple of blog posts. We hope this corrects itself as we get into better wifi connections, but in case people want a quick link to the last couple from Ethiopia, here they are:
Week 8: Zambia/Ethiopia
Week 9: Ethiopia

Top 10 from Week 10:

Visiting the castles of Gondar. There are many castles hidden behind a large stone wall in Gondar’s city center. Some of these castles date back to the early 1600s! Some have been better preserved than others, but they were all really interesting to see. We also walked over to the Baths, and although we had NO desire to go for a dip, the structure was very impressive. So were the trees growing right out of the walls!

Visiting the Dashen Brewery in Gondar. The atmosphere was amazing here- open courtyard with picnic tables everywhere and lots of lush green plants. The beer and food was also great!

Taking part in the Meskel celebrations in Gondar! Since arriving in Ethiopia, we had been hearing about Meskel (a religious celebration of the cross) and were told that Gondar was a great place to be for it. For the few days leading up to it, groups of boys and young men run around the streets going door to door, singing and drumming and dancing to raise money to buy the wood to create a cross. This cross is then covered with yellow meskel flowers, and is set up in the middle of the street. By the morning of Sept 27, there were large crosses in many of the streets of Gondar. We watched as groups ran around these crosses for hours in the morning, and then finally lit it on fire, and then carried pieces of one cross to other crosses in the city. In order to watch the celebration around the largest cross, we stayed further back from the massive crowd. We figured large, rowdy crowd + heavy alcohol consumption + lack of sleep for days + running with flaming wood was not a good equation for white tourists to get trapped in the middle of. It was still really neat to watch from a distance!

watching celebrations right from our hotel window!

enjoying the BIG celebration in the middle of the city

Travelling to Lalibela. On Thursday, September 28, we flew to Lalibela. Despite having one person working at the check in booth, and having an ever-growing number of Ethiopian women with numerous bags to check pushing past us in the non-existent line, we made it onto the plane! The view from the plane for the short ride was spectacular; there were mountains everywhere!

Meeting the Lalibela locals. There have been so many teenagers milling about outside our hotel and down the streets of Lalibela. It seems that every child is taught to greet visitors with the exact same script:

Welcome to Lalibela.

Where are you from? (when we say “Canada” they respond with, “Ah, Ottawa or Toronto”)

What is your job? (when we say “teacher” they respond with, “I am a student”)

What is your name?

You’ve been to see the churches?

How long are you here?

Where are you staying?

Can you buy me exercise book to support my education?

It does become tiring answering these questions, but we met two great teens on our first day that made it their mission to find us each day and show us around. Habtam is in grade 10 and Molikon is in grade 11. These boys have come from a village over 40 km from Lalibela to complete their education, as Lalibela is the closest high school for them to attend. In order to study here, they must rent a room, so they shine shoes and carry large loads away from the market for buyers. They joined us for dinner one night, and were great company during our time here!

We also hiked up a short trail near our hotel, and were rewarded with a spectacular view of the city. We also met three great locals that we talked to for hours!

view from our hike to look down on Lalibela

Habtam, our very favourite resident of Lalibela

Will's new friends

Visiting the churches of Lalibela. The main reason people visit Lalibela is for their churches. We spent a full day with a guide travelling between 11 rock-hewn churches. We were absolutely stunned by these structures. Where most buildings are created from the ground up, these churches were created bottom down, requiring what is thought to be 23 years of work by over 40 000 people. These churches were built during the 12^th century, and there is an intricate tunnel system underground connecting them all. In the morning, we visited the Northern Group of churches, including Bete Medhane Alem (largest monolithic church in the world), Bete Maryam (oldest of the churches), Bete Meskel (built into the rock), Bete Denagel (has no windows), Debra Sina-Mika’el and Bete Golgotha (twin churches sharing one roof, also where King Lalibela is buried). We also visited St. George (the most famous, most intricately designed, and only church built in the shape of a cross). In the afternoon, we visited the Southern Group of churches, which included a lot more walking through tunnels, along narrow pathways and underground. We visited Bete Aba Libanos (has a large tunnel the whole way around the outside of the church), Bete Amanuel (looks like it’s built with wooden beams, but it’s all rock), Bete Mercoreos (the one church that has collapsed in some sections because of having a flat roof), Bete Gabriel and Bete Raphael (another set of twin churches under one roof, and it’s unknown how people originally entered this church because they now have a bridge going to the only entrance they know of). We were able to walk around the inside and outside of each of these churches, and marveled at the incredibly detailed paintings and carvings featured in each church.

Bete Maryam

Us outside St. George's Church

St. George's Church

tunnels!

Bete Amanuel

climbing up...

...and down!

Visiting the Saturday market. We had been told not to miss the Lalibela market, and we are so glad we didn’t! This market, however, was not quite like the Saturday markets back home. The market area was huge, with sections for each different type of item people were selling: spices, teff flour, barley, salt, honey, plastic shoes, housewares, clothing, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, and mules. So many of the people who come to the market to sell their items make the trek from up to 42 km outside the city. Most people set out on foot early Saturday morning and return home Sunday, carrying their goods to sell on the way there, and the goods they have purchased on the way back.

Eating at Ben Abeba Restaurant. Ben Abeba’s was recommended to us right away, and we are so glad we decided to try it out. The restaurant itself has a gorgeous design, modeled after the 3^rd highest mountain in Ethiopia, Abuna Yosef. It is run by a local Ethiopian and a Scottish woman named Susan. The view from this restaurant was unbelievable, we just couldn’t get over it. We stayed for hours, enjoying their delicious food and chatting with Susan. She had such wonderful stories!

Ben Abeba Restaurant

the spectacular view from the restaurant!

Trekking in the Lalibela mountains. We spent three days hiking through Lalibela’s beautiful mountains. We walked along a variety of trails, going from dirt roads to very narrow, rocky, steep paths. We also walked through many flat fields, and saw farmers working away. We had a chance to see more Gelada monkeys, and we even saw an Ethiopian wolf! The little villages scattered across the countryside are so picturesque, and are home to some of the toughest, most hard working people we have come across. The second day was a short walking day, but the first was quite long, and the third was very, very long. The views of mountains and valleys followed us everywhere we went, and we witnessed the most incredible sunsets we’ve seen in Ethiopia.

wildlife, including Gelada monkeys and the Ethiopian wolf

trails

views along the way

Staying in countryside villages. We had so many amazing experiences during our two nights in the countryside. In the first village we stayed in, I attempted to make injera, Will tried local beer, we both experienced a foot washing ceremony, and we watched some incredible traditional dancing. Of course, we were taken from our seats to attempt some of the dance moves, but our shoulders and necks do not move the way that Ethiopians do. We also had a lot of fun with the six kids that belonged to the family we stayed with. In the second village, we experienced a delicious coffee ceremony, had a more successful injera making experience, and visited with the family’s seven children. The family especially loved talking and laughing about Will’s height and shoe size.

We loved the tukuls the countryside people live in. They all have a main living/cooking tukul and at least one more for a toilet. The families we stayed with had a few more for guests and for animals. The main tukul where the family cooks and eats and sleeps is also where the animals are brought to stay overnight. On our second night, we counted 34 sheep, 3 goat, 1 horse, 6 cows, 3 donkeys, and 6 chickens. The family members all sleep together on a bunk above the animals to stay warm. The tukuls are tidy and well organized, with lots of storage space built around the outside of the main living area. We were able to stay in our own tukul each night, complete with a mattress and warm blankets. We even had hot water in bottles for the second night!

attempting injera... expert and novice version

having fun with the kids... everyone loves giving me babies, and everyone loves Will's beard!

Tukuls, inside and out

Unfortunately, I felt very sick on our third day of trekking. I was very short of breath, nauseous, dizzy, and couldn’t focus my eyes on anything. We were supposed to stay in a lodge in the mountains that night, but because we were unsure of the altitude of the lodge, Will arranged for us to go back to Lalibela. This required four hours of hiking, on top of the six hours we had already completed, but I am very glad Will pushed for this. After some medication and a good night’s sleep, I felt a lot better.

Random act of kindness:

We had two well worth mentioning this week!

Desu, our guide from our Simien Mountain trek, invited us to his home in Gondar for a coffee ceremony. His girlfriend was such a wonderful host!

Habtam and Molikon invited us to the room they rent for a coffee ceremony with their neighbour. They were so proud of their copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Habtam also gave me a necklace with a Lalibela cross on it.