The Fellashas

It started to rain up in the mountains, and so we headed back toward Gondar.
Just outside Gondar, there was a sign which said "Fellasha Village." There used to be a number of people of the Jewish faith, the Fellashas, who lived in Ethiopia. After the revolution in the 1970's, they were persecuted by Mengistu Haile Mariam who was in control at that time. I remember that the Israelis took a lot of them to Israel, and I thought none of them were left. However, there were the signs and several people selling baskets and other memorabilia. We bought the basket the woman with the blue jacket is holding. The woman with the baby was there also and so I took a picture of all of them.

Animals, too

You scratch me, I scratch you. These are the gelada baboons, also known as the bleeding heart baboons, and the top picture illustrates this name. There were several big bunches of these animals. We also saw a golden-backed jackal sneaking through the grass.

For the birds

Crows are ubiquitous. Though they look a bit strange up here, they still behave just like crows. They enjoyed the pieces of bread we fed them.

Looking through the trees

Ok, here is my favorite picture.....

On the edge of nowhere

I wish I could do a better job of showing with pictures what it felt like looking off the edge of these high mountains. Here, Staci and Wayne are looking over a great drop-off!
Here, Kathy and Arleta are sitting on a bench which overlooks the edge of these high peaks. We sat here for our lunch, and what a place for a lunch!

The mountains

The Simien mountains are spectacular! The highest point is Ras Dashen, which is somewhat over 15,000 feet. We drove into the Simien Mountains National Park and I am not sure to what altitude we got, but there were particularly beautiful overlooks along the way.

Into the mountains

Yes, we have been in the mountains. But we left Gondar this morning, heading for even higher mountains. The sign beside the road tells the story.
And the kids are here, too. What do you suppose they are thinking as they see all the tourists?

Gondar, Emperors and Palaces

Emperor Fasil moved to the hilly city of Gondar back in the 17th century. Emperors need castles, and an imposing structure was built. When a new man became emperor, one might think he would use the castle. However, it seemed that each one wanted a special castle for himself, and would build a new one. As a result, there are many castles. Time has its way of mocking the structures man sets up, and many of them are crumbling.

The ancient and modern city of Gondar

We drove up and up into the mountains, finally arriving at Gondar. Then we drove to the center of the city and the road wound steeply up the side of a mountain, with the Goha Hotel at the top. What a view! Here, Staci looks out over the city from the hotel.

Oh, the kids!

We stopped along the road at various points to stretch our legs, and every time, a bunch of kids would run up to welcome us. Here is a picture out the side of the car. Wonderful little creatures! I couldn't help but wonder what their lives are like, what their expectations are for their lives. I wish we had more time to know them.

A volcanic landscape

The north part of Ethiopia has lots of mountains, and many of them were formed by volcanoes. We saw a number of rocks like this. I think they were formed long ago when lava was forced out the top of a volcano. Later, the land eroded around the lava, leaving interesting rocks like these. There were raptors sailing all around the rock, with lots of nests on the side and also on the top of the rocks.

Heading for the hills....

We left Bahir Dar in the car, heading across and expanse of fields of corn, sorghum, teff, towards the mountains and the city of Gondar. The road was paved and very smooth. The picture at the left shows a field of teff. Teff is a very small grain, regularly ground and used to make injera, a typical flat bread, widely used across Ethiopia. There were many ponds in places along the road, and a lot of these beautiful flowers.

A likely bunch

We drove out from Bahir Dar, across the Nile and up a hill overlooking the town. There was a group of young men there, many of them in high school and hoping to go on to college. (Ok, there is one little guy there who is not quite ready for high school....) The fellow in the white hat is our trip leader, Fikreselassie. He is a great guy, very knowledgeable about all this part of the country.
I donated some money for a project to buy some football equipment for them. When I signed my name onto the list, there were other names, from Spain, Germany, France, Italy and so on. When you listen to the tourists talking, you are likely to hear almost any language. But there were very few Americans.

Bahir Dar Market

Here are a few shots from the Bahir Dar market. Just by looking at the picture, can you smell the spices? I think that is the part of the market that I like the best, just because of the aroma.
And, of course you would expect a few sheep and goats in the market, wouldn't you? How about using your imagination and think what it would be like if you were doing your daily shopping here. Look at the wonderful vegetables! Food, clothes, hardware...It's all here somewhere.

School's Out!

As school lets out, a group of happy kids comes down the street in Bahir Dar And there is Kathy on the left, recording the event. These kids are wearing purple uniforms. At another school, they were wearing green, and I caught a man in the market, making clothes for them. Look at that smile! I bet he thinks how wonderful it is that kids go to school, and that he can make clothes for them. (Or maybe he thinks I might give him some money for the picture.)

Something to buy

There nearly always are things to buy, and out here, near the Blue Nile Falls, were a number of items. Arleta stands with the woman who sold her the shawl you see here. They do beautiful work, and it is all done by hand.

Blue Nile falls

These are tremendous falls. Before some water was taken for hydroelectric power, the falls extended to the right of the picture. They are still spectacular. Notice the boys who were tending cattle on the ridge below us. If you look closely, you might even see some tourists down there.

Crossing the Nile

Not far out of Bahir Dar is a ferry where you can cross the Blue Nile and then walk a ways to see the Blue Nile Falls. The picture here shows one of the boats crossing the Nile. The boat we were in had a motor, and it was an easy crossing. Not far below this picture, some of the water is taken out and goes through a power station to produce electrical power. Because of this, the falls are not quite as spectacular as they once were. Lake Tana and the Nile are a nice brown color. I can just imagine all this mud going down the river an, historically, forming the great delta where people lived eons ago. Today, the Aswan Dam collects all this silt.

A church on the mountain

Here, high on a mountain, on a peninsula in Lake Tana, accessible by boat is a church, the center of life here, and important to the people. Beautiful paintings adorn the walls within the church, and each painting tells stories of the history of the church. Among the pictures, you will see the shepherd who goes out to find the one sheep that was lost, as well as other stories of great importance to the memories of these people. In another small building not far below is a museum which contains many things which have been of importance to the history of the people.

Hoping to go to college....

It was a steep and rocky ascent to a church high on the mountain. The young fellow helping Arleta is Getahun Nibret, a high schooler who lives here, rather isolated even from Bahir Dar. But he has great hopes of going on to college. There is a university in Bahir Dar and he hopes to attend there. But first he has to pass the exams. All our best wishes are with him. He has an email address at Yahoo, and when he gets to Bahir Dar, is able to get on line. We will email him and wish him all the best.
A very beautiful little girl, probably 10 or 11 years old, accompanied me down the mountain. I sure wish I had gotten a picture of her. She, too, is going to school here. I left my pen with her. A lot of the kids we met were asking for pens.

Coffee

We took a pontoon boat and went on a trip across Lake Tana. Tana is known for having churches on the islands out in the lake. In fact, the Ark of the Covenant, when it was first taken from Israel, was taken first to a church on an island in Lake Tana. (See the November 3 blog, "The Ark of the Covenant." We went what seemed far across the lake to a peninsula that was accessed only by boat. There we saw a lot of coffee growing.
Coffee is an important crop in Ethiopia. The area up here around Bahir Dar isn't a major production area but there is quite a bit of coffee around.
Beneath the trees, they had a number of new coffee plants they were starting.

Bahir Dar

We got up quite early this morning and got our things to the airport and flew to Bahir Dar. I remember looking out over the great expanse of the light brown lake, Lake Tana. We went to the Tana Hotel, right on Lake Tana. I could look out the window of our hotel room, through all the trees, and see the lake. It was beautiful sitting out back with a pleasant breeze and perfect temperature. There were big hornbills in the trees. Their bills looked so heavy it seemed they could hardly hold their heads up. But they were quite adept at swooping through the trees. There were some kind of parrots as well. The magnificent starlings were really magnificent by comparison with the starlings we have back home. There are lots of doves and pigeons around as well. Little birds seem quite at home. Doors were open from the dining room to the patio out back. Inside, someone had finished breakfast and the dishes were still there with some crumbs on them and the little birds went right in and picked up the crumbs.


A magnificent old fig tree just out in front of the hotel

The Churches

The church plays a very important part in the lives of Christian members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. On Mt. Entoto which stands watch high over Addis Ababa, Menelik II built a church when he came to the area. The Church is highly revered and there were a number of
people at various places around, praying and bowing down, often touching their heads to the ground, as they indicated the great importance of the Church in their lives.

Behind the church is a palace where MenelikII lived and where he had meetings with various dignitaries. It appears somewhat in disrepair. Menelik's daughter had some work done on it in 1911, but since then, it has remained as it is, to preserve it the way it was built.

When we first arrived in Addis Ababa, 40 years ago in September, which is the month of Meskel in Amharic tradition, we saw the airport completely surrounded by vast fields of yellow flowers, the Meskel flowers. This year, we were a bit late, and the season of the Meskel flowers had passed, but I did find a few of them still blooming. There is an important tradition behind these flowers. Meskel means cross, and the flowers led Menelik to the true cross, and so they represent the finding of the true cross.

Later, we stopped by another important church, the Church of St. George. Again, you can see people there, kissing the side of the church, or touching their forehead to it, or bowing. One woman came by with her little girl. The woman stopped to bow and spend some time praying, while the little girl seemed uninterested. But she will learn because this is an important part of the lives of these people.

King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

One often finds panels of pictures such as the one shown at the right, which tell a story. This is a story quite important to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. According to legend, some 2,900 years ago, the Queen of Sheba made a pilgrimage to see King Solomon. The Queen was quite beautiful--the Ethiopians are a beautiful people--and what might a man want upon seeing such a beautiful woman? The Queen was there for other reasons (Or, was she?) and didn't comply with his desires. However the King made her promise that she would not take anything that was his, and if she did, then she would have to comply with his wishes. That evening, he had his servants make a very spicy, salty food for dinner. That night, very near the Queen's bed a vase of cool, inviting water was placed. Suffering a bit from the spicy food, the Queen took a drink of water and immediately the King stepped in, saying that she had taken something of his, and therefore....
To make a long story short, the result of this union was Menelik I who was the first of the long dynasty of emperors in Ethiopia. In this way, the Ethiopian Orthodox church is connected to the Davidic line and is the real church. Quite an interesting legend.....

Ethiopian food

The typical Ethiopian food is wat and
injera. Injera is a flat bread, the grey rolls you see in the picture at the left. It is made by a sour dough process from a typical Ethiopian grain called teff. The wat is a spicy stew which comes in a variety of kinds. Typicalkly, the wat and injera are served in a large basket, as shown. People are gathered around the basket and all eat together. You don't see any utensils because Ethiopians eat with their hands, and you can see us doing just that. Take a piece of the Injera and use it to pick up some wat and eat it. In the picture to the right is a group of us gathered around the basket. To the left is our server with a bowl from which she served the wat that you see. I'm on the right, almost covering up Arleta. The gal with the big smile is Staci, and the smile indicates that she really likes wat, and especially shiro wat, made from chick peas. To her right is Wayne, followed by Kathy and Jose. I hope that from the look on our faces (ok, I am not at all sure about the look on my face) that the food was great.

The Emperors

There is a tradition in Ethiopia that dates the Emperors back to Menelik I, son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. Menelik II, who back at the beginning of the 20th century, helped to bring Ethiopia into the modern world, is shown in the first picture below. Haile Selassie I, Emperor through much of the 20th century was in power when we lived in Ethiopia 40 years ago. He kept the spirit of Ethiopia strong through World War II and the Italian occupation. Though his reign was ended in the revolution in 1974, he is still revered as not only a great leader but also as a representative of God in the long line of rulers dating far back in the mists of time. These paintings were in the national museum in Addis Ababa.


Menelik II













Haile Selassie I