Ethiopia in my heart

Happy new year, Hope all spent the holidays well.

People talk about being connected to a place. They like the culture, the music, the food, and the landscape. Well this is my place. I have already started dreaming about a motorcycle trip around the country. The food is good and cheap. The people are kind or a bit stand offish but rarely rude. The transport I’ve seen so far is safe, I repeat safe. The country appears safe for tourists and the troubles of the past election seem to be calming a bit.

Ethiopia is a place described as “a region with no flat places”. It is a tough life as evident by the mix of new high rises surrounded by scraps of metal sewn together for housing. There is a strong sense of history and identity. The vehicles that I have ridden in drive slowly/safely and are not overcrowded. They seem polite and mindful, without the might is right mentality. One good example of a different mindset is that there are stray dogs every where and in all my time here I have seen only one kid strike out at them or throw rocks.

My travels included Lalibela and Bahir Dar. Lalibela is the home of the Rock hewn churches and is truly awe inspiring. Picture a 150 by 150 foot square. Now in the center place a 50’ by 50’ square. Between the two squares dig down 30-40 feet into the rock. Then cut out a church of the remaining structure. It was created as the 2nd Jerusalem and has tremendous symbolism. It took 23 years to build with 40,000 people. I find it amazing the amount dedication to a faith. Their Christmas is January 7th and there is around 9000 pilgrims that visit. They were just starting to ride, roll, and walk in when I left.

Bahar Dar is the home of monasteries on Lake Tara. They were built in the 14th century and have been manned by monks since. While visiting them the girls in our group could not attend as it is a man only thing. Funny how religion can be a powerful tool used for either good or bad..

I recently took a bus trip from Lalibela to Bahar Dar. The landscape of the central region is one big series of plateaus and valleys. The road was gravel and the 300km trip took 12 hours in a big bus with bench seats. It was not crowded and was an easy trip. Along the road there were tanks scattered about, left where they were destroyed. We found one of them inhabited by a few children playing in the afternoon. Another indication of the history was demonstrated when a man boarded the bus with an assault rifle, after a bit of arguing with the conductor.

This is not to say that Ethiopia is without trouble. The government is not operating at its best. While in Kenya there was a protest of the Ethiopian refugees to the UNHCR(United Nations High Commission for Refugees). The claim is that 25 refugees were abducted Christmas day from their homes. The people claim that they were abducted by Ethiopian security forces to be repatriated or punished for being dissidents during the last election. When I got to Ethiopia I visited the UNHCR office to try and see if there was a chance that I could work in a camp. They sent me to an NGO who told me due to my short stay that I could not. The group I visited, SIM, does education and relief support. More information can be found at http://www.ethioamericans.com/index.html.

One of the other problems that I found out about was the exploitation of children in this country. I spoke with a policeman about it and he said that it did not exist but claims of others are that there is little in the way of NGO’s here to protect the children. Many people who used to go to other countries now visit here. I was witness to young children parading around a hotel. More information can be found at http://www.ecpat.com/eng/CSEC/faq/faq14.asp . This describes what each of us can do. Mostly they suggest education and discussion.

The airlines lost my bag(which includes everything) so I am hoping to get it back before I fly to Egypt in two days. If not I will travel really really lightly.