Ethiopia part one

Well I came back to Khartoum around 12:30 at night only to wake up hours later to go back to school. I am still settling back into life here and my heart is in Ethiopia.

What an amazing and beautiful place. Coming from a country that is under strick sharia law - Ethiopia was the breath of fresh air (literally and figuratively) I needed. There is also so much history there it satisfied my intellectual pallet as well.

Where do i start....

I arrived in Addis Ababa (new flower) on the Eve of the second largest Holiday- Meskel. It is has been celebrated for over 1,600 years in the country and Meskel- means cross. It is also the name of a small yellow flower that grows and blooms at this time of year (right after the rainy season).
It commemorates the discovery of the cross that Jesus was crucified by Empress Helena, mother of Constastine the great. It signifies the physical prescense of the True Cross at the monestary of Gishen Mariam in the Welo region.
It is celebrated on The evening of the 26th and day of the 27th of September.

Millions of people come to Meskel Square in Addis and dance and celebrate. There are meskel flowers on every doorstep and huge bonfires are lit.

It was quite amazing to be there when this was all going on.

We also had a little advernture when we were out at the festival on the eve of Meskel. (I travelled with 3 other teachers from my school).
We were walking around and a bull had gotten loose from somewhere. It literally started charging the crowd and we had to run -like for our lives- out of the way. ONe woman in the crowed was rolled and hit by the bull. What spearated me from here was the street I had just crossed and a car. It was really scary. And the crazier part is that one of the teachers I was traveling with got a picture of the bull in all the comotion.

It is common for animals be out and about..herds of goats or cattle walking in the streets. This bull just got away in a big crowd at the wrong time!

It was also exciting to be in a city that allows music and dancing. Just going to a resturnat and hearing lively music made me so happy. I realized how much I miss that when I'm here in Khartuom. IT was also beautiful. It was green and there were mountains.

There were also many more English speakers (as well as the national language which I learned a little of- Amharic). There were also English books---and one that I saw a lot of in book stores and by book sellers on the street were both of Obama's books. I got a picture with one of the book sellers.
I found it so amazing -Obama's popularity worldwide. As soon as someone learned we were Americans they would reference Obama. Actualy one of my collegues got the nick name Obama- It was like a common language....everyone around the world is excited about the prospect of hime being President of the U.S.

We were in Addis for two days and then flew out to Bahir Dar. It is an area right off of lake Tana- which flows into the beginning of the Blue Nile.

Bahir Dar and the lake Tana area are known as the Garden of Eden. Ethiopia and that area is where some of the oldest bones (Lucy) in the world were found. And Bahir Dar really is like a garden of Eden. It has tropical flowers and birds and is the perfect temperature. It was amazingly beautiful.

We took a boat ride out on lake Tana and went to visit the Monestaries in that area. There are amazing , detalied paintings in the monestaries..most painted with natural paints made from local flowers and trees and berries and things.

There were animals like- Fish eagles, hippos (which unfortuantley we didnt see) , Ibis, Egret, Hornbills, Bali monkies, weever birds,and more. We had a great guide who later that evening invited us to some traditional dancing. I went with another teacher and it was so much fun.

A popular Amahar dance is with the sholders. A drum and small stringed instrument called the -Massinko. The women and men dance moving thier upper body -and sholders mostly. We got up to dance with them and had so much fun. We also went to a club/bar with more western music as well as Ethiopian mondern dance music. The club/bar secene was different because it is mostly men and the only women (besides foreigners) are usually prostitutes. And because it is mostly men the men are the ones dancing with each other. Sometimes doing a verson of the traditional danceing or other dancing.

Culturally men and women are much more affectionate with each other and it was very common to see men holding hands with each other. Or walking with arms around shoulders. As well as women. So men dancing with each other is very common as well.

(Pictures: 1) Meskel flowers on steps and streets of Addis, 2) Meskel square with the masses of people 3) View of Addis from the Airport , 4) Some of the paintings inside the Monestary, 5) On Lake Tana- a boat made of Papyrus and tall Papyrus plants in the background