Saturday, January 5,
2013
Dear Aidan,
In less than 48 hours, you’ll be in my arms again! I can’t even imagine having to wait 6-8
weeks for the US Embassy to clear our adoption in order to hold you! 10 days has been long enough! How has your day been? We’ve heard there are a few families
staying at the guesthouse, so maybe you’ve seen some friends tour the foster
home! Hopefully you are well and
getting lots of sleep in preparation for our return to Addis!
Today was another great day! I am truly exhausted and lying in bed feels amazing! Dad and I woke up early to get ready
for the day- around 6AM! Our hotel
still didn’t have water as the city is having a water shortage, let alone with
all of the pilgrims here. After we
were ready, we had a delicious breakfast of tea, toast, scrambled eggs and
French toast. The French toast is
different than the toast I make.
It’s still bread soaked in eggs, but it’s deep friend instead of cooked
on a griddle. Early in the
morning, it tastes wonderful!
After breakfast, Dad and I began walking into town where we were to meet
Addis, our guide.
The pilgrims were already up early walking towards the
churches. This morning, there were
an especially large number of animals being brought to the town as well. They were all going to the Christmas
market to be sold as fasting ends on Christmas Day (Genna, January 7). There were even more people out and
about today than there was yesterday!
After meeting Addis at the city center, which lies up a very large hill
at around 2,600m, we sat down for coffee.
The coffee here still amazes me in that I actually like it if a lot of
sugar is added! I’m not sure
you’ll ever see me drinking coffee outside of Ethiopia! Addis explained that he needed to go
the airport, and that his friend would be our guide for the day. We met up with Yelmo, his friend, who
would guide us on our hike.
This morning, Dad and I hiked to 10,165 feet! There is a large mountain to the east
of Lalibela that has 2 old monasteries and a church on top. It is very popular for pilgrims to
climb so we decided to try it!
Many “faranji” (foreigners) ride on mules to the top. We walked/hiked/climbed! As such, all of the locals were surprised, and happy, to see
Dad and I walking/huffing-and-puffing our way to the top! The hike was 14 km round trip and the
first half was quite the climb!
There were a lot of switchbacks on rocky soil. I definitely felt the elevation! There were hundreds of pilgrims on the mountain, and many
passed us! Yes, we were slow
compared to the locals! They are
amazing! There were even goats,
sheep and many large cows and bulls that were climbing the mountain or coming
down for market! We had to be fast
to get out of the way!
It’s funny because when Dad was in Nepal in November 2011,
he went on a hike with his team in the Annapurna Mountains. His goal in some of the highest
mountains in the world was to climb above 10,000 feet. However, they had to turn around just
short of that. Today, your Dad
brought his GPS with him (no surprise there)! At the
top, it was clear we had climbed above 10,000 feet- in Ethiopia! How amazing!
Dad and I practiced our Amharic! Every time we said “Salam,” “Salam-no,” or some other words,
the locals smiled. Some even
laughed. Many thought Dad was
fluent in Amharic and tried talking to him. Our guide was impressed and said that the locals loved that
we were trying! We loved making
them smile and feeling connected to them!
After our travels in Ethiopia, we were actually able to
determine where certain people were from based upon their hair styles- well,
the women at least! Women from
Axum/Tigray often had the front half of their hair braided back, and the rest
left natural, but cut short. Women
from Addis were a bit more fashionable.
And women from the local area had complete shawls on and short
hair. Many local women from
Lalibela wore green dresses with white buttons- the traditional dress of the
area. About ½ of the people had
shoes, the others did the climb barefoot!
I was very impressed!
Along the way, we stopped to take hundreds of pictures. The landscape and mountains were
gorgeous! It was wonderful to see
the town of Lalibela below with her churches! We also walked through many local villages and made friends
with children! The locals on the
mountain live in round huts made of sticks with thatched roofs- tukuls. This was a different design of house
than what we’ve seen previously!
Once we reached the top, we saw the Ashetan Maryam monastery. This was carved into the mountainside
for a way for priests and Christians to be “closer to God and heaven.” Heaven it was! King Lalibela was believed to have
commissioned the monastery. Inside
the monastery, we saw the monastery’s gold Cross of Lalibela, as well as
Axum. From the monastery, we
climbed up even further into a small cave/alley to the top. Up here, we observed the church on top
of the mountain! There were many
priests and monks! We were even
able to have our picture taken with some!
The way down from the monastery was scary- it was loose dirt
and rocks. Dad and I went slow and
many locals passed us! Many came
down singing and chanting with clapping rhythms! Groups of 20 people or more would sing their songs! I purchased some cloth dolls made by
local girls. These will be for you
to play with! I loved them!
Once we reached the bottom of the mountain and were back in
Lalibela, we set off to meet up with Addis. We thanked our guide and headed towards the Christmas
market. Lalibela was very crowded
by now, so we walked slowly down the gravel and rocky streets. The market was unbelievably crowded
with people buying and selling everything! Addis was our loyal guide and I followed your Dad by holding
onto his shirt. We saw people selling
pots and pans, eating utensils, clothing including shirts that said “Obama”,
fruits like oranges and lemons, and vegetables like tomatoes and onions. At the bottom of the market was the
animal section, where goats, sheep, cows and donkeys were for sale. It was very chaotic but amazing to
see!
After the market, we headed back to our hotel for
lunch. We had a delicious lunch of
pasta, French fries and beef fingers!
It was perfect after our long day of hiking! Our hotel had water, so we took advantage of it by having
hot showers. Then, we got dressed
again and ready for the afternoon!
We were met outside our hotel by our guide assistant. For each church, we are required to
take off our shoes. We hired an
assistant to watch our shoes to make sure that they weren’t stolen. As a bonus, he brought our shoes to the
door we exited out of- quite the touch!
We walked through another market to the southern group of churches. There were 5 more churches to see and
Addis was there waiting!
The first church was Bet Gabriel-Rufael, a set of twin
churches that are connected. The
entrance to this church was through an alleyway carved into the rock earth that
opened up into a very large area.
The church is extremely tall and has a silver-colored rock roof that’s
called the “Way to Heaven.” The
entrance was via a bridge at the top story of the church, which was different
from the other churches which have entrances on “ground” level. It is possible that this church was
made for Askumite royality in the 8th Century…maybe there was more
than one king around Lalibela for some time! Bet Rufael’s roof collapsed, and so services are not held
there anymore. Below the 2
churches are buried rooms…rooms below the churches already underground!
The next church was Bet Merkorios. There is a long, very dark and narrow tunnel from Bet
Garbriel to Bet Merkorios. It is
nicknamed, “Hell.” Due to the
crowds, we didn’t access the tunnel today…maybe tomorrow. Much of the roof of Bet Merkorios
collapsed about 100 years ago. 75
years ago, much of the church was restored. However, there was barbed wire surrounding parts of the roof
to prevent people from walking on it…just in case! There is rumor that this church, at first, wasn’t a church
at all! It may have been a prison
or a courthouse as chains and shackles were found. But maybe people were devote followers as well…who knows!
Inside this church, we saw many old paintings. One of the paintings was from the 15th
Century and depicted the 3 wisemen, one of which was from Ethiopia! There was also a painting showing the
12 apostoles, as well as the stations of the cross. These paintings were painted on cotton fabric, and were attached
to the walls with mud, straw and ox blood!
Next, we visited Bet Amanuel. The entrance to this church was through many alley-ways,
stair cases and tunnels carved into the stone earth. Without Addis, we would have been lost! This church may have been the private
chapel for King Lalibela’s family.
King Lalibela wanted the church to resemble churches in Askum, which are
made of rock and wood. The rock of
this church was carved so that the texture looks like rock and wood in
alternating layers- amazing! There
is an upstairs section of the church that was closed off. Under the church, there are 3 tunnels
that lead to the other churches!
Along the wall outside of the church, there were many graves of pilgrims. There were also very deep tunnels for
monks and nuns (“hermits”) to live back when the church was first built. Additionally, one of the walls has a
beehive! This is in honor of King
Lalibela- the “honey eater.” To
this day, it is believed that honey produced in churches has special healing
powers!
The last church of the day, and of Lalibela, was Bet Abba
Libanos. This church was very
unique in that it is made of 2 parts!
The ceiling and floor are the same stone that were carved hollow. The church itself is of a different
stone, so the church is called a hypogeous church. The church is made to look like it is a small neck
supporting a large head with a crown of thorns like the one Jesus wore. As such, the floor and ceiling are much
larger than the church. Another
unique thing about this church is the story. Although angels are rumored to have helped with the other
churches, they really helped with this one! King Lalibela’s wife, Meskel Kebra, built this church with
the help of many other women. No
men were allowed! But the amazing
legend is that they built this church in 24 hours! Men claim angels must have helped! Women claim they did it on their own! :)
After this last church, we climbed to a look-out point where
we could see all 11 churches and the Christmas market. After taking in these sites, we thanked
Addis for all of his help and for being an amazing guide! We headed back to the market for some
shopping! I bought a reusable bag
made from a concrete bag that has Amharic on it. We also bought scarves for our family. For you, we bought a scarf that is
green, white, yellow and red- the colors of the Ethiopian flag. We also bought a beautiful blanket!
We then made our way back to our hotel where we sat down
outside for some dinner. We at
popcorn (part of a coffee ceremony) and fasting food. After dinner, we retired to our room.
As I sit here, there is a priest below giving a sermon over
a microphone. The house next door
has the voices of happy families chatting and a sheep baying very loudly. It was purchased today for the feast to
come! This city is still very
lively!
Tomorrow will be a very crowded but fascinating day! Then after tomorrow, we’ll be back in
Addis with you! Oh, how I can’t
wait!
Sweet dreams Aidan Bedassa!
Love,
Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment