February 26, 2013 – Chris, Bruce and Lance took an early morning Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa north to Lalibela. We were picked up at the airport by Lutheran World Federation (LWF) employee Abdu who was kind enough to chauffeur us around to a number of sites around the Lalibela area. Of particular interest was the Kenchine Abeba water diversion project.
The project was initiated in 1993 as a work-for-aid project resulting in a dam and diversion with a 6 kilometre aqueduct to flat land. When Bruce and Chris visited in 2008 the dam and aqueduct were badly in need of repair and the aqueduct was in danger of being undermined and falling into the river. Bruce and Chris raised personal funds, and with funding through ANSO, the World Food Bank, AWF and others, the necessary repairs were expedited by AWF in 2010. The results of the repairs by any definition have been positive. The irrigation initiative currently supports 210 families (up from 180 families in 2008) who can produce up to 3 quality crops per season whereas the best one can hope for in the adjacent dry land farming is 2 marginal crops every 3 years. Water being a precious and limited resource is regulated by downstream cooperatives, and family plots are limited to .25 acres. Bruce suggests fish farming is worth investigation. The thesis is supported by many fingerlings observed in the downstream aqueduct.
After checking into Hotel Jerusalem in Lalibela, we visited the late 12th century St Neakutoleab Monastery (also known as the cave church). The resident priest displayed ancient artifacts such as a book written on vellum, crowns and several crosses including a six hundred year old cross given by the king of Ethiopia. The handling of these artifacts was almost cavalier suggesting at first that they were replicas but all evidence points to originals. Ethiopians have a way to go in preserving their heritage.
ANSO supports 15 students from grade 2 through to university. Chris and Bruce set up a dinner event where students and relatives were invited to dine at Hotel Jerusalem. A fun evening of socializing and eating traditional Ethiopian food ensued.
February 27, 2013 – Lance and guide Fikru Woldgeiorgis spent the morning touring the famous Lalibela rock-hewn churches:
"In a mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia, some 645 km from Addis Ababa, eleven medieval monolithic churches were carved out of rock. Their building is attributed to King Lalibela who set out to construct in the 12th century a 'New Jerusalem', after Muslim conquests halted Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Lalibela flourished after the decline of the Aksum Empire." Source and further details: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/18.
Each feature of the church tells a story; for example, look at the picture with 10 windows carved in the side of the church. From the top, the square windows from left to right represent the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The window below the centre (Son) square represents Christ, below this (Christ) is the womb of Mary, and below the womb of Mary is the crucifixion of Christ. To the left of the Crucified Christ window is a window representing the man who was crucified with Christ and denied the faith. The window below this represents the man's descent to hell. To the right of the Crucified Christ window is a window representing the man who was crucified with Christ and accepted the faith. The window above this represents this man's ascent into heaven.
ANSO-supported IT university student Deirbo Melkamu invited Chris, Bruce and Lance to a traditional coffee ceremony. In the late afternoon we navigated a steep hill from our hotel down to Deirbo's home on foot. Mrs Melkamu followed the traditional Ethiopian ritual where:
"Coffee is taken through its full life cycle of preparation in front of you in a ceremonial manner. Coffee is called 'Bunna' (boo-na) by the Ethiopians. The ceremony starts with the woman, first bringing out the washed coffee beans and roasting them in a coffee roasting pan on small open fire/coal furnace. The pan is similar to an old fashioned popcorn roasting pan and it has a very long handle to keep the hand away from the heat. At this time most of your senses are being involved in the ceremony, the woman will be shaking the roasting pan back and forth so the beans won't burn (this sounds like shaking coins in a tin can), the coffee beans start to pop (sounds like popcorn) and the most memorable is the preparer takes the roasted coffee and walks it around the room so the smell of freshly roasted coffee fills the air.
"The roasted coffee is then put in a small household tool called 'Mukecha' (moo-ke-ch-a) for the grinding. Most restaurants at this time incorporate modern coffee grinders into the process; this is to save time and it does not take much from the ceremony. For those interested mukecha is a heavy wooden bowl where the coffee beans are placed, and another tool called 'zenezena' which is a wooden/metal stick used to crush the beans in a rhythmic up & down manner (mortar and pestle). The crushed fresh roasted coffee powder is then put in a traditional pot made out of clay called 'jebena' (J-be-na) with water and boiled in the small open fire/coal furnace. Again the aroma of boiling coffee fills the room, and once boiled the coffee is served in small cups called 'cini' (si-ni) which are very small China cups. As you sip your first cup of coffee, you've gone through the full process of watching seeing the coffee beans being washed, roasted, grinded, boiled and now the culmination you're drinking them." Source: http://www.ethiopianrestaurant.com/ethiopian_coffee.html.
Ethiopian ritual suggests it is impolite to retire until you have consumed at least three cups, as the third round is considered to bestow a blessing. We stayed for the third cup, heartily thanked our hosts and Chris gave Mrs Melkamu a parting gift.
Buoyed by significant caffeine, our crew scampered up the hill to our next destination, the famous Fine Art Gallery studio of local artist Tegegne Yirdaw. Bruce, Chris and Lance bought paintings from Tegegne, then he joined our party to dine at Mountain View Hotel widely reputed to be the best hotel in Lalibela (http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Hotel_Review-g480193-d1224695-Reviews-Mountain_View_Hotel-Lalibela_Amhara_Region.html) which was built in partnership with Matti who is himself a remarkable success story (a pervious guide with aspirations for further education to help himself and his sisters) kindled with support from ANSO. The view from the hotel is spectacular. If you visit the hotel and are fortunate enough to have Tegegne invite you to 'view his etchings in the hotel rooms', it's not a pick-up line. Many of his paintings are hanging from the room walls.
February 28, 2013 – We took an early morning Ethiopian airlines flight from Lalibela to Addis. Just prior to departure we noticed that some pigeons were comfortable with landing in the De Havilland DHC-8 Dash 8 air intake. One wit in the boarding line-up suggested it was a "Coo". The pigeons flew off unharmed as the engines started so, 'no harm, no fowl'. We resettled into the Addis Regency hotel and spent some time collecting gifts to distribute on the next leg of the journey. In the afternoon we met with Dr Lemma Degefa, resident representative (head of Ethiopia) for the Lutheran World Federation. Discussions revolved around continuing cooperation between ANSO and LWF.
In the evening Matti picked us up and we had pleasant conversation and a traditional Ethiopian supper followed by ethnic dance and music. Fun evening!
March 1, 2013 – Bruce and Chris had meetings with 'Food for the hungry (fh) – Ethiopia' representative Craig Jaggers and 3 other associates. This was an introductory meeting to probe the possibility of fh taking over the ground work in receiving Seacan containers filled with school supplies sent by Swan City Rotary Club from Grande Prairie, Alberta. There was a consensus that ANSO and fh are a good fit and will proceed. Bruce and Chris also met with Abdi from Pastoral Concern (PC), our guide and interpreter for the coming weeks, to confirm trip plans. Lance, your humble scribe, put together today's blog and did some last minute sight-seeing. We leave Addis tomorrow morning.
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