...hmmnnn

She walks casually by, then, just before she gets quite past the door, she stops to stare at me. Hesitant, she is ready to run for it. But she stops, as if she can't help herself, and stares. Assessing.

Hello, pretty girl, I say. What are you thinking?

She blinks. She does not answer or move at all. She just blinks and stares some more. Then, she walks away on the errands she chooses not to discuss with me.

But, after a while, she's back. She's going in the same direction again, right to left past the door. Again she stops. She looks up at me. She blinks.

So, what are you up to, little one? I ask.

She blinks at me, silent. She starts to walk away, hesitates, looks at me again. Blink. Blink.

Where's Gracie? I ask.

Lily walks away again.

Soon, she's back. Always going from right to left past the door. I never notice her going in the other direction, but I must assume she has made the return journey somehow. She is going right to left past the door again and she stops. She stares at me.

This occurs again and again as I sit, working in my office. It's always Lily, never Grace. Lily, assessing me, taking my measure, looking me over. I wonder what observations she is passing on to Grace. I'm sure they are discussing the situation, evaluating. Lily, the daring observer, Grace, hiding in the background, waiting for the information.

I hear them in the wee hours of the morning. They leap and jump around, making all sorts of noise when they think the Misty and I are asleep. They gleefully run from room to room, scrambling around a corner as they lose their footing on the wooden floors. I hope they are chasing mice, but they are probably only playing tag with each other. Bits of my asparagus fern are littered on the carpet of the living room in the morning.

Once, when I speak, I almost think Lily is going to come over for a scratch behind the ears, but no. She is still too nervous. She turns away and walks under the dining room table.

Beta Maryam

(March 18, 2007: Lalibela, Ethiopia.)

Beta Maryam, the Church of Mary

Opposite the west entrance to Medhane Alem, a tunnel cut into the rock wall leads into a large court containing three churches. Beta Maryam stands in the middle, Beta Masqal to the north and Beta Danagel to the south.

The various windows on the east facade, the cut-out designs, feature different crosses as well as different religious symbols.

Isn't she pretty?

In the courtyard, to the east, by the tunnel-entrance from the court of Medhane Alem, there is this baptistry. It has wide external stairs and two small interior staircases. Dedicated to the Mother Mary, this very deep pool is said to have miraculous properties. It is visited on certain special days by infertile women, the reeds are pushed aside and the women step down to immerse themselves in the water.

Beta Maryam is unique in that it has three exterior porches. They are closed at the sides except at the top where there are open arches. The front is open and has a central column with corbels. There is another column in the middle of the porch. Each porch leads to an entrance to Beta Maryam into the west half of the church, from the north, south and west sides.

Facing west here, we are looking at a passage way with a double entrance across from the west entrance of Beta Maryam. The two openings above are to an area known as the tribune or 'royal box' of Lalibela. It affords views of the western facade of Beta Maryam and the courtyard on this side, and out the other side, views of Lalibela village.

In contrast to the grand simplicity of Medhane Alem, Beta Maryam is highly decorated inside and out. The ceiling and upper walls are covered with frescoes, the columns and arches carved. Above, a carved bas-relief, above the western porch, of St. George fighting the dragon.

Worshipers outside the south entrance to Beta Masqal, some leaning on prayer sticks.

Note here the priest showing us another one of the treasured crosses. The style is very different from the Lalibela-style cross shown us in Medhane Alem (see previous post). Behind the priest is an example of the many holy paintings to be found in the churches, some brought out for display only on special occasions. I like this one for the stylized eyes typical of many sacred paintings in Ethiopia. Note the "afro" hair on some of the characters. (More on the sacred art later.)

Beta Maryam has three aisles, the centre aisle, or nave, much higher than the outer two. At the east end of the centre nave, in front of the Holy of Holies, there is a very tall column that rises right to the centre of the transverse arch. It is always kept veiled. The legend is that the Holy King Lalibela had a vision in which Christ himself leaned against this pillar. Now, it is said, "the past and future of the world" are inscribed upon it. It is called the Pillar of Light because once it was unveiled and a miraculous light flooded the area.

first steps

This is a Big Request for your help. I know that through the magic of 6-degrees of separation and other such forces, there will be someone among my beloved readers who will be able to give me some real, solid answers here.

For many years I have had the not-so-secret desire to return to Ethiopia to live. My recent visit did nothing to cool that desire. In fact, it has only fanned the flames.

So here is my problem. How do I do that? Wait, bear with me. I have not done any job hunting for 20 years, so I'm quite out of practice. I would need a job to obtain a visa. I have done some browsing online of ngo's, etc., to see what opportunities might be there without much luck. Although, like a lot of people I suppose, I live from paycheck to paycheck, I can imagine finding ways to support myself if I were to go as a volunteer for a time.

I have worked as a Registered Nurse for many years on a busy inpatient surgical care ward and thus I have extensive experience in post-surgical care of most of the surgical specialties: general, thoracic, urological, gynecological; even some plastic, orthopedic and vascular. Prior to that, I worked as the French Specialist teacher at the High School level -- therefore my continued interest in education.

Now, armed with perhaps more personal information than I had ever intended to give here on a blog concerned in a general way with gardening, perhaps you can think of some concrete, helpful information that I need. If you do, email me.

Medhane Alem

(March 18, 2007: Lalibela, Ethiopia.)

Medhane Alem, the Savior of the World

The first of the rock cut churches of Lalibela that we were to visit was Medhane Alem. We arrived with a hot sun blistering down in the thin mountain air. Around the compound of the churches, a few trees provided some shade. Outside the gates, a cobblestone road winds past into the older part of the town.

One approaches Medhane Alem via stairs cut into the southwest corner of a huge pit. Inside this pit sits perhaps the largest rock cut church in the world, 33.5 m by 23.5 m, and 11 m high, elevated above the floor of the pit on a large platform. 34 large square stone pillars, cut of one piece with the church, form an exterior collonade with a pleasing symmetry. The overhangs are carved with curved blind arches.

The immense size of this church can be seen in relation to our guide, here standing at the southwest entrance to the church.

Visible lines in some of the columns attest to the reconstruction that has been done. Some of the columns and part of the roof had collapsed. The original columns and the roof were carved in one piece out of the red volcanic rock.

Carved into the walls of the pit are some tombs and storage spaces. Some of the empty tombs became temporary housing in the past for pilgrims during festivals or Holy Days.

In a country that gets torrential downpours during the rainy season, handling the runoff of water was given careful consideration. We were shown channels carved into the floor of the pit and openings in the walls which carry water away and down to the "River Jordan".

The organizers of our tour arranged for two "shoe minders". By encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in this way it is hoped that the constant presence of beggars will be reduced. The two lads were very helpful as well in places where the passage-ways were very steep and steps difficult to climb.

Shoes must always be removed prior to entering Ethiopian churches.

Inside the church, the eye is drawn upwards to the high vaulted ceiling of the central nave. Two aisles run parallel to the nave on both sides, for a total of 5 aisles. The ceiling is supported inside by another 28 pillars, 4 rows of 7 columns, which rise into arches with corbels, the arches of the central nave rising higher to follow the curve of the vaulted ceiling. The interior columns are aligned with the exterior ones and with pilasters on all four interior walls. In each bay thus formed, where there isn't a door, there are windows. The top of each window is also curved with corbels. The bottom half of each window is decorated with an insert of carved stone of many various types of crosses.

As with most Ethiopian churches, the interior is divided into three spaces. The outermost is where the choir sings the hymns or chants. Next comes the space where communion is given. The innermost space, at the east end, is the Holy of Holies and is shut off by curtains. Only priests and deacons are allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. It is there that the tabot or altar tablet is kept. The tabot is a representation of the Ark of the Covenant, or the tablet upon which the law was given to Moses. The original is said to be in a shrine at Axum (more on that later).

We were shown a depression in the stone of one of the columns of the nave. This is where it is said that the original Lalibela cross was found. One of the treasures of this church is the 7 kg gold Lalibela-style cross that is said to be the processional cross of King Lalibela himself. It was stolen in 1996 and sold to a Belgian collector for US$25,000. It was fortunately retrieved from Belgium in 1998 and returned to Ethiopia.

Our shoe minders help us as we exit Medhane Alem.

too wild

I was driving home this evening, admiring a deer off in a field that I could just see in the gathering dark, just before getting to my laneway. Upon turning into my laneway, what should be in the headlights but a bear! Now, I shouldn't be surprised because it's not as if this isn't bear country, but this was the first time I actually saw one so close to my home.

the ice is gone

only some ice washed up onto the shore, or onto docks, is evidence of the ice recently departed from the lake


can you see the pair of bufflehead ducks at all, swimming away from me and my camera?

can you see the ospreys' nest in the top of the white pine? I look forward to many exciting sightings of these magnificent water-diving raptors.

Did spring suddenly arrive?

Sometime during the last few days the ice disappeared off the lake.

I spied some Buffleheads, Loons, Merganzers and Goldeneyes on the lake. In a very tall white pine in the woods, a pair of ospreys have built their huge nest of sticks, higgledy-piggledy.

As usual, all these birds do not allow me to appreciate them, swimming out of range of my camera, in the case of the water-birds, or flying off to circle the nest, in the case of the ospreys. The ospreys have an annoyed exchange of "yewk, yewk, yewk" between them as they fly around, in reaction to my disturbing the quiet.

As I write, a big wild turkey tom is showing off for a female, fanning out his colourful tail feathers. The female has sedately turned her back on him and is walking away to join the several other turkeys, striding across the field to the south of my house. The rows of corn stubble stick out in uneven rows in the dark soil, bare now that the snow has melted -- for good I hope.

And I noticed several buzzards circling in the air above the barn, when I popped into the kitchen to put the kettle on for a cup of tea. I wonder what carrion has attracted them?

Water has done its work on my laneway, washing away enough of the gravel around the culvert that it looks like everything might wash away quite easily, maybe even the next time we have some rain. The culvert directs the runoff from the north fields under the laneway.

The arrival of spring is not all that obvious in the woods, as yet -- I looked and looked!

Mosses have been green all winter, but they seem to have thrown up a fine, hairy mat of ?fruiting bodies.

The leaves of Round-lobed Hepatica, Hepatica americana, which persist all winter, are still wearing their winter red. One of the earliest woods' flowers to bloom, no sign of blooms is visible yet.

I'm looking forward to the exponential flowering of spring; I can keep up with what's in bloom at first, but soon, the explosion of flowers is altogether too much to enumerate.

Lalibela impressions

(March 18-20, 2007: the rock cut churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia.)

My father travelled to Lalibela on a mule and in the late '50s, the journey was an arduous one. Later, a road was built, but until 1997, that road was impassable during the rainy season. Lalibela is remote, in the Lasta mountain range, perched 2,630 m above sea level, on the slopes of Mount Abuna Yosef.

I always got a vibration of awe from my father when he spoke of Lalibela, a sense of the Ethiopian's extraordinary skill in stone working, an energy incomprehensible to a European mind that perhaps had difficulty reconciling a prejudice of somewhat lesser expectations with this feat of engineering. Reading what I could about Lalibela before my trip only whetted my appetite. As our plane (a Fokker 50, which is largely what Ethiopian Airlines flies within the country) approached Lalibela, I literally had anticipatory butterflies in my stomach!

A Unesco World Heritage Site, Lalibela is unique in that it has probably been a living site, a destination for pilgrims, since it was built to the present day. It is, as well as an archeological treasure, a marvel of architecture and stone masonry, a sacred site.

As one approaches Lalibela from the air, precipitous mountain ridges stretch out in all directions into a horizon hazy with the suspended dust of the Sahara. Scarcely a tree is visible, except in the circular compounds around the round churches atop hills. What is surprising is to see the use of nearly every square inch of arable land, stone walls marking the fields' perimeters in a crazy quilt pattern that covers all but the sheerest escarpments. Everywhere the rocky soil is bare, recently plowed in preparation for the spring plantings of barley and tef. Clusters of grass-thatched tukuls appear on a ridge, on the side of a mountain, at the top of a valley, invariably with the bright yellow buttons of a round hayrick nearby.

The Lalibela airport is a modern structure with bright plantings of flowers around it. It is in a valley, about 9 km from the modern town to which the citizens of Lalibela's old town are slowly resettling. The winding road up to Lalibela has no guard rails on the edges that drop heart-stoppingly away down the mountain side. Rounding bends, the driver constantly tootles the horn of our bus to warn the pedestrians and livestock of our approach. Motorized vehicles are relatively few.

Traffic on this road is very different from what I'm accustomed to: donkeys laden with sacks of grain, young men carrying large peeled poles of eucalyptus or sheets of corrugated tin above their heads, women carrying large sacks on their backs, students in clean school uniforms smiling and waving as we pass, men with easy gait holding their sturdy walking stick across their shoulders. In the cool of this mountain morning, everybody seems to be going up the mountain towards Lalibela and almost everybody is walking.

As we pass the traditional round tukuls along the road, or the more recently built rectangular homes of mud -daub wall with roofs of corrugated tin, small children with bare legs wearing over-sized ragged shirts stand in the yard, waving and yelling at our passing busload of foreign tourists: "hello, hello, hello, ferengi, ferengi, photo, photo, photo."

Not much about modern Lalibela gives any hints to the presence of the rock cut churches. The scenery around Lalibela is quite impressive in itself, purple mountain ridges, ambas (sheer-sided flat-topped mountains like mesas) and cool valleys on every side. With a population of about 7,500 and an additional 1,000 or so clerics, Lalibela is a busy place. Its large schools draw students from a wide rural area around as well. And during High Holy Days, pilgrims swell the population even more. But to the first-time visitor, it is hard to picture this place as the historical capital and holy centre of anything.

But I found Lalibela reveals itself slowly. Only by staying open to it for a day or two does one discover the rhythm of life in the place, the traffic to the early morning services in the churches, the beggars inside the gates of church compounds, the busy shops and markets of the town, the crowded schools where students attend classes in shifts, the evening promenade of throngs of young people up and down the main road.

And it is not until one begins the ascent of the steep mountain path to Asheten Maryam, a church cut into cliffs high above Lalibela, and looking down, that one catches a glimpse of the complex of churches and tunnels cut into the singular outcropping of red volcanic rock. In the photo above, protective roofs of corrugated tin are visible, constructed to prevent further deterioration of the roofs of some of the churches.

Not only are the dozen odd churches excavated from the rock, but they are connected by a vast network of tunnels to each other and to other chambers that were used for living, cooking, or storage. The tunnels extend upwards also to Asheten Maryam up in the cliffs above Lalibela, several kilometers away. It is fascinating to imagine the use of the tunnels for devotional processions that progressed upwards through the churches, perhaps even to Asheten Maryam, or the other surrounding churches.

Recent attempts by the priests to explore the tunnel connecting the churches of Lalibela with Asheten Maryam were halted by the lack of air deep in the tunnel, which forced the priests to turn back. Rumor has it that the tunnels hold sacred treasures that are protected from despoilers by miraculous forces. Needless to say, many of the tunnels in the complex are disused or blocked today.

The 11 churches that are to be found within the town of Lalibela are divided into two groups. The group known as the Northern Group lies to the north of a canalized river known as "The River Jordan." The other group lies somewhat to the east, with the most photographed of them all, Bet Giorgis, carved into the shape of a Greek cross, lying somewhat separately to the west. A third group of churches lies outside of the town and most of these are not on roads or marked on maps. I already mentioned Ashetan Maryam, up above the town, at 3150 m above sea level. Of the ten or so outlying churches, we also visited Na'akuto La'ab, about 7 km from the town, built in a cave near a small village of the same name.

(more photos of Lalibela to follow in future posts)

what'll we do?

What'll we do now that June Callwood is gone? She will be missed.

what's this??

What's this?? Sunshine?

See ya later. At last! At last I'm going to get at my garden outside!

lost in translation

(March 21 - 29, 2007: Gondar & the Simien Mountains, Ethiopia.)

OK! I give up! I just cannot resist posting a photo of the labelling on this package. It's a delicious snack many of us stocked up on in Gondar before the trekking portion of my trip in Ethiopia.

The snack consists of a blend of roasted barley, peanuts and a third grain I can't identify. It's pretty tasty and as addictive as, say...popcorn. At the end of a day of trekking, when we arrived in camp in the late afternoon, the temperature rapidly dropping to freezing, this snack was often served with very welcome hot coffee and tea in our dining tent.

However, I wouldn't be able to guess what "organic testes" might actually mean...Sorry, my evil mind just finds it too, too amusing! (Mmm....Bwah-Ha-ha-ha!) (did I say it was delicious? ooops -- sorry! I'll stop now.....tee-hee-hee!!)

aaaaaw...

Grace and Lily behind the dryer.

Grace, behind the dryer again (sorry about the blurry photo).

Lily, upstairs under my bed.

Suppertime, I thought I'd find where the cats had gotten to. Lily was easy -- under my bed. It took me a long time to find Grace, upstairs, hiding in the closet of my work room. With Lily racing ahead of me down the stairs, I thought I'd bring Grace down to the laundry room to show her where her supper was. Grace promptly took refuge behind the dryer again and Lily soon joined her. Aaaaaaw, poor kitties. At least they have each other.

edit, edit, edit

It's disgusting. I can't seem to do it. I can't seem to stop my stream of words!

A local paper asked me to write about my trip for them. The trouble is, I can't seem to edit my long rant about all the wonderful experiences in Ethiopia into a piece of reasonable length. Help!!

bloomin' today

African violets.

Hurray for these little spots of brightness indoors because it's just too cold to enjoy anything outside!

A few snow flurries today indicate how cold it is, generally. The rain stopped, the snow melted and the sun is trying to shine through. A cold wind has come up which, I am eagerly hoping will dry things up a little faster. It's far too soggy in the garden still to do anything but create heavy clods of clay later on if I should attempt to mess around out there now. Brrrrrrrrr-r-r-rr! Besides, it's far too cold for me.

After visiting Tyra's Garden, where I found photos of spring bulbs in Amsterdam (Tyra actually gardens in Sweden), I realize I need more bulbs, especially bulbs in all the colours of Easter Eggs!

I am resolving to plant lots more spring-blooming bulbs this coming fall. The few brave crocus (never enough!!), which are trying to provide that hit of colour we long for after a long winter, are a bit tattered after the snows of the last week. The jonquils and daffodils haven't quite opened up yet...Yes, I most certainly do need to plant lots and lots more bulbs!

And now something to think about: coming, April 22, 2007. How will you remember the Earth on Earth Day?

Entoto Mountains

(March 17, 2007: Entoto Mountains, north of Addis Ababa.)

The Entoto Road leads north out of the centre of the city of Addis Ababa, past the American Embassy and the campus of the University of Addis Ababa, to the Entoto Mountains.

These days, since 9/11, much of the beautiful gardens on the grounds of the American Embassy are hidden behind large concrete barriers. The surface of the barriers facing the street have been painted over with colourful murals. It's a sad thing to me, since it seems in my foggy memory of childhood, I think I can remember walking in the gardens of the embassy grounds, something probably very unlikely to be permitted now.

The Entoto Mountains were the site of the Emperor Menelik's former capital. However his wife Empress Taitu, a woman of strong influence, was granted title to some land in the foothills known as Filwoha, or "boiling water", after the hot springs found there. She named the site "Addis Ababa", or "new flower". Soon a settlement grew around the site and as the royal court began to spend more and more time there, the capital was eventually moved to Addis Ababa.

Menelik II (1889-1913) of Shoa, predecessor of the well-known Haile Selassie, was the ruler who, through many conquests, enlarged the Empire to more or less the borders of Ethiopia as it is today.

Ethiopia, unique in Africa, consistently resisted the efforts of European countries to colonize it. While Italy proclaimed its first colony in Eritrea in 1890, claiming a protectorate over the whole of Ethiopia, the humiliating defeat of the Ethiopians at the battle of Adwa, 1896, resulted in fueling a proud Ethiopian resistance to all further foreign influence.

Despite further wars with Italy, and the loss of Eritrea to Italy, Menelik largely succeeded in unifying the country and in maintaining its independence. Under Menelik, some modernization also took place, the building of railways, roads, banks, hospitals and schools.

Below, panaromic views of the city of Addis Ababa from the summit of Entoto Mountains:

I noticed that reddish haze above the skyline throughout Ethiopia. It was suggested that it is a perpetual dust in the air that blows over the mountains into Ethiopia off the Sahara Desert in the west. I find that easy to believe, because on the way to Ethiopia, my plane made a brief stop in Khartoum in a dust-storm the size of which I could not quite believe!

Near the summit, is the Beta Maryam Church (in the photo below), it's octagonal shape typical of the many smaller round churches found all over the countryside in Ethiopia, often on the top of a mountain. (More on religion in Ethiopia later.)

As we enjoyed the panaromic views of Addis Ababa from the summit, the sound of the sing-song chanted prayers carried up the mountain. The afternoon services were being broadcast over loudspeakers.

During my whole trip, in part because it occurred during Lent, but also because religion is a large part of everyday life in Ethiopia (most Ethiopians are Orthodox Christians),we were to hear those chanted prayers again and again and again.

oooooh! Wildlife, spotted catching a bit of warmth in the dying sun of late afternoon. As dusk falls in Ethiopia, temperatures fall quickly.

shy kitties -- update

As I sit in my office, working at the old computer, I sometimes spy Lily out of the corner of my eye. She pauses to look at me with a little curiosity, but as soon as I speak to her, she freezes momentarily in alarm. Then, she slinks off quickly -- as if I can't see her!

I'm trying to recall if any other cats I've had were quite this shy when they first came to live with me!

Lily at least is roaming all over the house and I can often hear her when she jumps off a dresser. I'm assuming Grace is out and about as well, even though I haven't glimpsed her in a while, because she is not behind the dryer in the laundry room. Nor is she in the sauna.

Hah! Looks like photos of the little girls will be a while in coming.

Holy Trinity Cathedral

(March 17, 2007: Addis Ababa.)

The tomb of Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of the famous Emmeline Pankhurst. Sylvia Pankhurst was a defender and exponent of Ethiopia, loved by many.

detail from the throne of Emperor Haile Selassie

a mural depicting Haile Selassie speaking to the League of Nations in Geneva

in the room containing the tombs of the Emperor and Empress, these mysteriously draped chairs had no explanation -- they were just there for me to photograph

Holy Trinity Cathedral, sometimes called Selassie Cathedral, north of the city centre on the Entoto Road, is reached after passing many other important sites and beautiful landmarks. The biggest Orthodox church in the country, it is also a tribute to some of the painful episodes in the country's more recent history.

On the grounds, memorials to some of the country's heroes can be found. See my previous post about the gardens.

Inside the cathedral, two elaborate thrones of the Emperor Haile Selassie and the Empress Itege Menen, are located under the central dome. In the central dome, four different murals depict some relatively recent events of Ethiopian history. Of the four, I remember in particular the depictions of the massacre of Ethiopian resistance fighters armed with medieval weapons at the hands of the Italians in a three-day blood-bath in Addis Ababa in February, 1937, and the exiled Emperor Haile Selassie speaking before the League of Nations on June 30, 1936. His pleas for the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian occupation fell on deaf ears.

During the revolutionary years after the early 1960's, the aging Emperor Haile Selassie died under mysterious circumstances, allegedly at the hands of his successor, Mengistu Haile Mariam, a military man who came to power in the midst left wing student protests, and widespread dissatisfaction with the old empirical regime, taking advantage of a fractured military coalition that had dissolved parliament and established a provisional government. Haile Selassie had been under virtual house arrest and his death came on the heels of the infamous footage of starving children juxtaposed with glimpses of sumptuous emperial banquets broadcast by the BBC. The remains of the Emperor have been rumoured to have been buried in all sorts of demeaning places, under Mengistu's office, even under Mengistu's toilet.

In 1991, one of the most miserable and infamous periods of Ethiopian history came to an end as an alliance of opposition groups defeated Mengistu and he went into exile in Zimbabwe. The remains of the Emperor Haile Selassie were exhumed and temperarily buried at Ba'ata church, also called the Beta Maryam Mausoleum, the mausoleum of the prior emperors Menelik, Taytu and Zawditu. At last, in 2000, the Emperor's family were permitted to hold a final funeral for him. His remains, with the Empress Menen's, now lie in Gondorian style tombs found in the wing north of the cathedral's Holy of Holies.

In colourful Ethiopian style, the Emperor's final funeral was not without it's conflicts. While the government issued statements decrying the days of the old emperor's rule, Rastafarians who had settled around Sheshamene, south of the capital, called it a sacrilege.

To the amusement of many Ethiopians who considered the Emperor to be human with human flaws, many in Jamaica, where Marcus Garvey's "Return to Africa" movement had taken hold, saw the crowning of Haile Selassie as emperor in 1930 as the fulfillment of prophecy. They took their name from Ras Tafari, the name Haile Selassie had before adopting a new name when he was crowned emperor, and many Rastafarians came and settled in Shashemene, a busy cross-roads town, south of Addis Ababa.

Establishing a new religion based in part on holy scriptures and partly on individual inspiration experienced by the ritual use of ganga (marijuana), the Rastafarians objected vociferously to the idea that their god, the King who had come out of Africa, was to be given any sort of public funeral. They claimed that the exhumed remains were a blasphemous lie, that their Emperor-God was not dead.

Otherwise, the cathedral is an odd mixture of architectural styles, with typical Christian paintings of the gospel stories found around the interior walls of the main sanctuary.

Lily & Grace: update

The little calico (or is it tortoise-shell) cats I've adopted are still adjusting. The first day they hid in the laundry room and I had to peer behind the dryer to catch a glimpse of them, they are so shy.

Friday night, I spied Lily up on the window sill in the laundry room and they had finally eaten something and used the litter box...

Last night, I found Lily up in the window, sitting on the frame of the bottom half of the window. And Grace, who Doreen claims is the quieter follower of the two, had ventured as far as the sauna and was sitting up on the top bench.

In the wee hours of this morning, a little form came flying down the hall, landed briefly on my bed and leaped off again, disappearing in a scratchy little blur back down the hall past Misty. Misty appeared to be returning to bed after getting a drink. The little blur and Misty nearly collided in the dark. Misty seemed a bit surprised by it all but didn't let it bother her much, settling back in her matter-of-fact way into her place beside me in my bed!

I'm still wondering when Lily and Grace will settle in and wander about with more confidence. They allow me to pet them, and I get little whispers of purring from them, but they are staying mostly out of sight!

wood carrier women

(March 16 - 17, 2007: Entoto Mountains, north of Addis Ababa.)

Just seeing them is heart-breaking. They are tiny, often barefoot, carrying huge bundles of wood and singing. Almost all the diesel-burning vehicles that roar past them, geers grinding on the steep mountain road, emit noxious clouds of exhaust. On the narrow roads, the drivers constantly tootle their horns at them and the women have to turn so that the bundles they carry are parallel to the road and do not jut out into the traffic, to allow the vehicles to pass. Many drivers barely give the women time to get out of the way.

At those altitudes, I huffed and puffed like somebody with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, so I could hardly believe my eyes to see these tiny women and girls who could not weight an ounce over 80 lbs, running down the mountain, laughing, chattering and singing, as they carried these enormous loads of perhaps 40 - 60 lbs of wood on their backs.

But when you hear more about their lives, you have to be made of stone not to cry for them.

In order to protect the scarce resource of the eucalyptus trees, the Ethiopian government has hired guards to protect the forests. In theory, if the women are not cutting down trees, merely collecting deadfalls, branches on the ground, and so on, the women are allowed to gather the wood. The women make the trip up the steep road from the city in the early pre-dawn hours, gather wood all day, then make the trip down to the markets at dusk. Often, it is the guards who harass and rape these women, who are already barely surviving on the pittance brought in by selling the wood in the city.

The work the wood carrier women do is terribly undervalued, as most households in the cities of Ethiopia and Africa still rely on biomass fuels like wood, charcoal, and dung for cooking.

There are a couple of projects that I am aware of, that have been set up to help the women. The first is the Former Women Fuel Wood Carriers Association. Their market is very visibly located right on the Entoto Road in the foothills of the Entoto Mountains. The second is The World Bank’s Ethiopian Women Fuel Wood Carriers Project.

coffee

(March 16, 2007: Addis Ababa.)

To help me deal with a headache which might have been altitude-related, but more likely due to caffeine-withdrawal, Kassahun took me to a coffee house in Addis. There I was suddenly confronted with choices quite unlike the choices I was used to at Tim Horton's (small/medium/large; regular/double-double....etc.). No! Here there were washed and unwashed coffee beans of several varieties, green or roasted...I'm not even sure which variety I had in the end, but I suspect it might have been Yirgacheffe. It arrived, black as I'd requested, in a small handle-less cup. Somewhat bitter, very strong, it had the most amazing lingering delicate floral berry-like aftertaste. What was I thinking?? I should have sampled more of the coffees!

Read about the Ethiopian origins of coffee.

It is a lovely experience to be invited for buna, the Ethiopian coffee ceremony, a social event that may happen as often as three times a day. Not to be rushed, it is a sensory delight on many levels. You just have to love a society with proverbs such as : "coffee and love taste best when hot!"

Support the rights of Ethiopian coffee farmers. Read more about Oxfam America's campaign to help coffee farmers enjoy a more fair share of the profits.

some gardens

(March 16 - 17, 2007: Addis Ababa.)

Some gardens around Addis Ababa, public and private:

I think as much as anything, it's the quality of the sunshine that fascinates me in these gardens, where the sun is almost directly overhead every day of the year. Ethiopia, after all, boasts 13 months of sunshine (it follows the Julian calendar)!

Euphorbia splendens var. milii , crown-of-thorns

bottle brush tree, Callistemon rigidus

my friend, Kassahun, in the garden beside the Seventh-Day Adventist church in Addis.

On the grounds of Holy Trinity Cathedral (next few photos below), off Entoto Road, north of the centre of Addis, lovely trees cast shade on the burial place of many patriots who lost their lives during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1933-1941). Also found here is the tomb of Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of the famous suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst. Sylvia Pankhurst was one of the few people outside Ethiopia who protested the Italian occupation. She and some of her heirs later lived in and have written extensively about Ethiopia.

On the grounds is also a memorial to those high-ranking ministers and officials who were killed in the infamous Death of the Sixty, on the night of December 23, 1974, executed by the Derg.

bouganvillea blossoms

Below: Emperor Haile Selassie's former palace is now the home of the University of Addis Ababa's main campus off Entoto Road. In the palace itself, some parts, such as the emperor's bedroom and bath have been retained as they were when the Emperor's family lived there. The palace also houses the library of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies and the Ethnological Museum.

The Ethnological Museum is layed out with the unique thematic arrangement of life cycles ( for example: birth, marriage, death, etc.). It houses representative artifacts from many diverse peoples who live in Ethiopia.

A photo below of some architectural detail of the entrance hall of the Ethnological Museum -- before I was informed that taking photographs inside the museum is strictly forbidden!

welcome home

These little gems in my garden greeted me on Monday afternoon when I returned home from my trip.

Not sure what is going on, I woke up this morning convinced that it was Friday, the 6th. I slept most of the day yesterday, horrified when I finally got out of bed at around 2 pm. I think I lived through all of yesterday thinking that it was Thursday then. Am I confused? Very!

My conviction that it was Friday today was so strong, that it made me paranoid that people were lying to me! Really! The couple of people I've spoken on the phone with this morning have been subjected to severe interrogations as to the day of the week and the date. I even made them take an oath that they weren't lying to me, that it really is only Thursday, not Friday yet. And then I checked the news online -- not to catch up on world events, no -- to triple check that it really is Thursday, the 5th.

What a bizarre feeling!

My other news is that today, I'm adopting two calico cats. Their mom, Doreen, has developed an allergy and so they need a new home. Their names are Lily and Grace. I think this is going to be a lot of fun. Hopefully, they are good mousers as this old farmhouse has a large and growing population...

Hmmmnn. I'm thinking we will have quite the population of females (not counting the mice and squirrels), living here: me, Misty, Lily and Grace. Maybe I should declare this an abbey!

Maybe not. While I can get quite rhapsodic about the peace and what I consider to be a holy energy that I sense in this place, I can also get quite raucous in my enjoyment of life. And raucous has no place in an abbey, does it?

revisiting memories

(March 16, 2007: Addis Ababa.)

The first objective of the trip Ethiopia was to revisit old memories. As luck would have it, I booked a large portion of my trip before being able to make a connection with someone who knew of the old places where I might have found myself as a child in the late 50's.

No matter. In the time I had before the start of my historic tour and trekking expedition, Mr. Kassahun Alemu generously drove me around the mission's work in and around Addis, trying his best to recall places that might have been around all those years ago.

The one place that most definitely had memories for me was this place, where I can remember "cooking" a marvelous wat with another little ex-pat girl, who with her family was presumably also on holiday in the capital. Lacking red pepper, the other little girl declared that she often ground up soft red brick to provide our mud/water wat with the needed fiery note of berbere. Red brick was found, ground into powder and added to our wat. Just then her big daddy appeared and in his hearty American way asked what we were up to. The wat was offered to him to sample. He declared that it was very tasty with much smacking of lips. We were terribly pleased, no doubt giggling and giggling -- tee hee hee!

Another memory I have here is of the thrill provided by running down that hill in the background of the same photo above. While my Daddy often warned us to slow down, that we might fall, running as fast as we could, legs going so fast as to be on the edge of losing control, was enormous fun. As might be expected, the great big long hill of my childhood had somehow "shrunk" over the years...

The old house above was familiar, but not specifically so, in my memories. It is to the left of my "big hill" in the first photo above. Kassahun told me that Veslemay (one of the daughters of Dr. and Mrs. Hogganvik, who were in Debre Tabor when we lived there) used to live in that house before she too returned to Norway. There is also a publishing house right at the gate of the compound that has existed since the 'old days'.

The school building just out of sight to the left in the photo below has been added more recently. The property falls away down to a river and across the river is the German embassy. Note the tri-colour Ethiopian flag in the school yard! Those who've been to Jamaica might recognize the colours as favored by Rastafarians (more on that later).

thoughts on Ethiopia

(March 16 - 31, 2007: Ethiopia.)

Children outside a remote village school in the Simien Mountains region of Ethiopia.

A shepherd boy tending livestock

Notice the two girls in blue and green wraps on each end of the second row carrying babies on their backs?

Children in the remote highlands of the Simien Mountain region of Ethiopia

Children in a rural area outside Lalibela being sent out by their mother to the road to greet the passing ferengi with: "hello, hello, hello, photo, photo, photo, birr, birr, birr (the local currency)."

Children at play at a private school on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.

Since my return from Ethiopia, I have found my thoughts in a turmoil that started the first morning I sat at breakfast in the dining room of my hotel, watching the sunny Addis Ababa street life going past outside the windows.

In the wide boulevard, the median was planted with leafy palms. Over a wall, I could see the fuschia-coloured blooms of bouganvillae. Mauve clouds of the Jacaranda mimosifolia tree- blossoms shaded the sidewalk.

Horns honked. The infamous "blue-devil" mini-van taxis swerved to the side of the road, stopping to pick up passengers. The taxi-touts hung crazily out of the side door of the taxi-vans, yelling out the collective destination of each taxi to potential customers, swinging the door shut as the taxis pulled away from the curb.

Lean, lithe pedestrians, neatly dressed in conservative business suits, often with a cell-phone pressed to the ear, streamed past. Women often wore colourful headscarves in varying elegant ways. Western clothing, pants on women, t-shirts, were often seen on the young. Older women tended to wear dresses with skirts that reached the ankle.

The devout women, returning from early morning church services, covered their heads in the traditional white cotton natala, beautifully trimmed with borders, or tibeb, of silk. School children, on their way to school, were all in compulsory uniform. Occasionally, dignified old men dressed in traditional north country garb, with a large wrap of fabric on the head, wearing the traditional shammas wrapped around the shoulders, walked by, back straight, gait firm and sure.

The plaintive rhythmic chanting of the Coptic church prayers of Lent services, broadcast over loudspeakers, had started in the early hours of the pre-dawn.

I had an overwhelming feeling of not belonging, of really being a ferengi, and a conspicuous white one at that! And yet, everything was familiar, the music of the streets, the quality of the light, the smell of the air, as the long-ago childhood memories stirred to the surface. How could I feel such a longing mixed with the feeling of already belonging, being and yet not being of this place, more than any other place that I have ever travelled to?

back home

My eldest daughter picked me up at the airport in Toronto yesterday afternoon. Given the 8 hours time-difference between Addis Ababa and Toronto, I thought maybe spending the night with my daughter, her husband and my granddaughter would be wiser than trying to drive home right away. I'll continue on my way to my own home, dog and gardens today, armed with my own "to Gramma, love Kaylee" drawing! What could be better than that??

This trip to Ethiopia has been incredible, fun, challenging, awe-inspiring and even scary at times. I'll admit, the scary parts were completely my own idiotic doing. I'm sureI'll get to all that later, as I can't seem to resist talking about my life here anyway.

I had the opportunity to talk with so many interesting people and I hope will be able to continue friendships with several of them. And! Be warned. I took lots and lots of pictures...

And I'm already crazy with longing to go back to Ethiopia. Oh dear. How on earth will I manage that? But I have to!