the visit north, the trip south

I am now heading south to visit missionaries amongst the semi-nomadic tribe, the boraana people. Once again, lady luck has rolled the dice, and a group of spiritan fathers arrived from the south, inaugurating a cultural dictionary that they put together. I will be back in contact around the 15th.


It seems I have been slacking on my blog again. I will fill you in on the details of the final part of my trip through the north.


On Monday we began our journey out of axum. On the roadside we saw a caravan of camels. These camels were carrying bricks of salt. Important to know is that salt used to be the currency of the day in Ethiopians history. Salt bricks, mined in the denkil region, were carried by camel by a people called the afhar (recently infamous from the kidnappings). The afhar are known to be quite an aggressive bunch, and up until the 1920’s there were still reported cases of them cutting off men’s testicles who entered their lands. Seeing this salt caravan is just as historical as seeing an ancient 6th century church ruin.

Before reaching axum, we stopped off for a bite to eat and some drinks. When we finished, the woman asked us if we would like some coffee. In Ethiopia, the home of this wonderful drink, you don’t refuse this act of hospitality, if only because it will be the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had.
She then went through the entire process of making the coffee. She roasted the beans over a coal stove, shaking regularly her hand held pan to get a thorough cook. After having roasted the beans, she carried the pan around the room, allowing us to smell the aroma.
She then hand ground the beans in a gourd with a piece of wood. next she placed the grounds with hot water in a ceramic kettle, specially made for coffee. Finally, placing a piece of plant in the spout of the kettle to filter the beans, she poured us each a hot cup of coffee. It was excellent. The whole process took about 30 minutes, and it was given to us free, as a gift of hospitality from the restaurant.

An hour away from axum, we stopped in a small town that held the ruins of Yeha. In this town were the ruins of an ancient temple, that was at one point converted and rearranged for the purposes of a chrisitan church. The temple is attributed to the sabeans, a group of people who traveled from the Saudi Arabia peninsula to Ethiopia. The temple thus predated Christianities entrance into Ethiopia. Walking around the temple, I felt like a real archeologist. We were, in our own amateur way, making observations about the temple, what it might have looked like before the Christians adjusted it, and even how it might have been used as a Christian church. The stones had been rearranged at some point in the south eastern corner to create a baptistery. There were also several holes purposively cut into the walls, for some unknown purpose. Inside the church, the floor had tracts cut into it. From this, one might assume that it didn’t have a roof and the inlaid gutters served to transport water outside of the church. The main exit point for this water was a hole in the middle of the south side. This was blocked over by rocks that we had to move in order to get our photo. Walking around the structure, I also noticed that the base of the temple extended out slightly. It was thus sitting on a slight podium base. This is an influence that was carried through to axumite structures. The sabeans had intermixed with the indigenous people there and slowly became absorbed into local culture.

Returning to the other side of the water spout from the temple, we noticed that it was covered by a sheet here. Behind this sheet, within the walls, we noticed melted wax. It would seem that this ancient non-christian is being used for equally obscure purposes today. From the exterior, we also noticed a gargoyle protruding (architecturally, meaning a spout extending from the wall). I traced this to the interior and found the corresponding block. I surmised that there must have been some sort of additional level. One can always guess. We spent a good amount of time examining the structure. I never thought I could have so much fun staring at stones.

Entering into the museum of the monastery, we were shown very well made, but relatively recent drawings in books. We also were shown ancient artifacts that might have been a part of the temple. On one incense altar were inscribed sabean script that tied the temple to them. On this altar was a horseshoe symbol with a circle inside. This represents the moon and Venus, the ancient symbol of the god of the sabeans. This same symbol would later change my life, or rather, the size of my wallet.

We arrived in axum, ready for hot showers and nice beds to wash off the dust from the road. I have probably been covered by more dust on this trip than even the most ancient of grandfather clocks. After cleaning up, we drove around the town, seeing by car the ancient sites of axum. Axum is a city that was very influential in Ethiopia starting from the 6th century. Today it is one of the most important religious sites in Ethiopia. It is, in fact, illegal to even build a mosque there. The town houses, supposedly, the ark of the covenant.

Axum is an ancient city in the northern part of Ethiopia that once had an empire stretching from red sea to the lakes in the south. Visiting the small museum here, I began to appreciate just how ancient ethiopia’s tradition is and how interconnected the ancient world was. We saw coins that were dating back to pre Christian times. Christianity arrive in Ethiopia in the 3rd century. These ancient coins have pictures of the king on both faces. Sometimes the kings head is bordered by pieces of grain. This is to symbolically tie the prosperity of the land to the king. As Christianity became the state religion, one can see how these symbols become newly appropriated, and the cross now replaces the king surrounded by the grain. On the other side of the coin, the king sits in profile, holding the cross scepter. We also saw ancient greek pottery vessels that would likely of held olive oil. The world was much smaller than we might think.

We visited an ancient stylite field. These are giant, monolithic obelisks, used to mark the graves of ancient kings. We later visited the area where they were quarried. It is difficult to imagine how these monstrous stylites were transported almost 15 kms. When the Italians stole the smallest one during their occupation, they cut it into three pieces to carry it to italy. It was only just returned within the past few years.

We also drove on to visit the ancient tombs of Kaleb and Gabral. Father and son were both part of the Christian dynasty. We saw the very sarcophaguses where they and their family would have been buried. It was odd to walk in such an ancient and sacred place. It


In Gondar, we entered into a new era of ethiopia’s history. It was here where the country was almost split apart by the well-intentioned, misguided and arrogant missionary work of the Jesuits. It would be unfair to make such a generalization, as the first Jesuit here was quite a genius and was doing good work. He was followed by a prouder sort, however, whose efforts to sway the king led the country nearly to civil war.

We visited the ancient castles of gondar. At this point, I would not have minded having a guide to explain the history of these dynasties. The people who pose themselves as guides, however, would be much better at fiction writing than history. Their accounts are often simple (due to the language barrier) and false.

More impressive than the castles, was an 18th century church, whose interior was completely covered by icons. It would be wonderful to capture each and every icon. The messages hidden behind these ancient paintings are quite fascinating. For example, there was one icon that was above the entrance to the church on the inside that revealed a very large glorious mary. Surrounding mary were many people falling in prostrate, the king david, ancient priests of Ethiopia, and mohammed. Mohammed led by a demon, arms tied, sitting on a donkey, looking towards mary. We asked the priest the meaning behind it, and he said that ti was from an apparation of mary in Egypt where even the muslims saw her. The church was the perfect example of the function of Ethiopian iconography however. Every wall was covered with icons. Even the ceiling was painted with over 100 faces of cherubs.

We visited the baths built by king…..
While I am sure there is great historical merit to this location, I enjoyed it purely for the scenery. I felt as if I could be in central park during the autumn. The leaves were dry and falling in the empty pool. As the wind blew, the leaves rustled across the ground. Not having seen much by way of seasons since I have arrived here, dry dead leaves were a welcome sight.


On our way to Bahidar, we got in a car accident. I already spoke of it, so I will spare the details of that, but I will recount an experience I just had over the weekend. I was driving with phillip again and a group of sisters down to Sodo to see an ordination. We were overtaken by another priest from the region. 10 minutes later, we arrived on the scene of an accident. We saw a group of some 50 road workers on the road and a truck that had fallen into a ditch that dropped some 20-30 feet. Upon arriving on the scene, one of the sisters realized that it was in fact the priests car. More surreal, however, everyone around was wailing. A man had walked in front of the car and had been hit. Seeing another accident, which included life threatening injuries, I began to realize just how lucky I was so many weeks back. It was also strange to compare the way that we mourn. I was so struck by this wailing, I felt as if I had stepped into another world.

Arriving in bahidar after the accident, we found the first hotel we could. The next day, we searched for cheaper venues. We stayed at the Ghion hotel, located right on the lake. We were in bird paradise. There were beautiful giant trees with purples flowers filling the courtyard. Inhabiting these trees were black horn billed tucans.

I finished up my visit of the lake with a tour of 3 monasteries located on islands on the lake. While we had a completely inadequate “guide”, my experience with emmanuel served me well in understanding the church structures and icons. I happily shared this knowledge with my comrades on the boat.

Well, I’ve run out of time to recount more as I now need to catch a taxi to the distant south. Hot weather and nomadic tribes, here I come.