my last day(s)

It is early morning of my last day in “Ethio”. My hotel is adjacent to a church and it is almost Easter, so church service started at 5 am and the rather unmelodious chants are keeping me awake. But the atmosphere is ideal to remember the last 4 days. On Sunday, Moges and me left Motta to go to Bahar Dar. It took us a while, first of all because 120 km on gravel road take a while, and second because we had 2 flat tires. But we made it. I can’t remember if I told about it. Moges is a student who lives on the hospital compound. He worked as a farmer ever since he was a child and did not go to school. When he worked for a richer farmer he used the schoolbooks of their children to teach himself a bit and at the age of 15 or so he started attending school. Now he is 25 years old and about to finish high-school. He has never been out of Motta. So I invited him to see Bahar Dar (Which also appeared to be convenient for me because it saved me a lot of disturbances walking around Bahar alone). In the evening we met Dave and Kiz, the new doctor and midwife in Motta and we updated them about the situation. And the next day we went off for the monasteries. Bahar Dar is situated at Lake Tana, the second biggest lake in Africa. Lake Tana also is the source of the Blue Nile, which later on joins the white Nile to form what we know as the Nile river. Along the lake and on some islands and peninsulas in the lake, many monasteries of the orthodox church of Ethiopia have been founded in the past. Many of them are decorated with beautiful paintings. After some trouble about the conditions of the tour (which of course suddenly was more expensive and with less service than previously agreed) we started and enjoyed a marvelous day. It was like another world and I learned a lot about the mythology of the Ethiopian orthodox church. Except of the bible, the Ethiopian orthodox church has 80 more books that are considered more or less holy and there are many Ethiopian Saints and Martyrs whose lives and deaths are told in very vivid scenes. The believers are painted with 2 eyes and laics are always painted from the side, so that you can only see one of their eyes. (This and many other interesting information is helps to “read” the paintings). Unfortunately, some of the paintings have been restored in a very colorful and bright way which makes them look rather new.
We had a very good time and having Moges around made leaving Motta a little easier.
The next morning I took a flight to Lalibela. Because of the lack of time, I decided to do the travelling by plane, so I can see a little more of this country. So after a 25 minutes flight (saving my a 10 hour gravel road trip) I arrived to that beautiful city. It is almost unknown outside Ethiopia, while it is a wonderful and magic place. There are 11 rock-hewn churches in the town, connected with pathways and tunnels between the rocks and mountains. Ethiopian myth (or history, according to the Ethiopians themselves) has it, that king Lalibela carved them out of the stone al alone a few hundred years ago. Anyway, carved by one person or by a whole group, it is impressive. And Wondale, my guide and also a priest could explain everything very lively. Every rock, every window, every painting has a meaning. And the whole city is situated in a dry and rocky mountain area giving it a wonderful atmosphere. Everywhere are nuns and monks walking around (in Ethiopia many elderly people become nuns or monks at the end of their worldly live.) And priest singing inside the churches, I witnesses a baptism ceremony, young boys reading from the bible… Those churches are not only monuments, but still are daily used as churches and with Ethiopian Christmas thousands of Ethiopians and foreigners come to witness the celebrations in Lalibela.
By the way, not only do we have a different calendar and different time here, but also the dates of the church holydays are different. We are about one week “behind” here in Ethio. So while we will celebrate Easter this coming weekend in the Western world, it will only be next weekend here in Ethiopia.
And then finally yesterday I came to Gonder, my last destination. This is the city of Temkat, the Epiphany celebrations, and the most important church holyday in the country. Gonder has been the capital of Ethiopia during 200 years in the 17th and 18th century and all of the kinds built castles and churches. Many things are destroyed though. Because the Italian had their headquarters in the palaces during the short occupation of Ethiopia in WW II and were bombed by the British, destroying much of the splendor that it must have been. Some things have been restored, partially in a terrible way just using concrete. But there is an interest in using the old techniques. For example a sort of limestone is grinded and mixed with water, then buried in grave like holes for 5 or 6 years. After that the dried limestone is taken out, grinded again and mixed with water again and used for construction. It takes a longer period of the to dry but is said to be much harder. And actually, during an earthquake in the 19th century the castles made with limestone mortar resisted much better than the ones built with cement mortar.
A bit out of town however is the place to be for Ethiopians: The Bath of Fasil, the kind that founded Gonder. It looks like a huge swimming pool, without water most of the year, but was and is used for ceremonial purpose. Every year with Epiphany, the baptism of Jesus Christ is celebrated. And then, they fill the pool with water (that takes 2 weeks) and at epiphany thousands of people come, and all the arks of the covenant are brought to a building in the centre of the pool (The Ethiopians believe that the original ark of the covenant of the Judaic people is kept in a church in Axum in the north of the country. Every church has a replica of it, but it is kept out of the sight of the believers and only priests can get near it. When they bring it out of the church with Epiphany it is also covered so that no one can actually see it.). Then priests bless the water and after wards the people dive in the water.
Seeing it now was somewhat “boring”, because there is not so much to see, no water in the pool, and it is al restored with the traditional limestone mortar, but still it looks as if newly built. But for Ethiopians it is a very important place and I saw some photos of what it is like when they are celebrating Epiphany and it must be amazing.
And I stay in a beautiful lodge style hotel next to the royal enclosure where all the castles are. There are all kinds of colorful birds flying around and singing for me :)
Later on I will have breakfast and then do my last shoppings (and hope I will get on the plane again with my overweight luggage) and start my journey back to Europe and the Western world (well, having hotels with ht en-suite showers actually was already quite luxurious after 2 months of bucket baths).
I will see some of you in the next weeks and maybe have time to call the others. I will be in the Netherlands and spending the Easter days with my family in Dresden. And hopefully over 3 weeks I can join Erik in Mozambique and go for the second part of my adventure. But I am sure that within a year I will be back volunteering here in Ethiopia for 1 or 2 months.
Thank you all for your messages and mails and sorry if there is any delay in answering them. I just try to enjoin the most while still being here.
Big Hug,
Anna