Christmas in Ethiopia

Yesterday was Christmas in Ethiopia. Ethiopians have a calendar of 13 months with 30 days in each month except the short one which has 5. They also are on a different year than we, having just celebrated their new year of 2001 last September. The time is also different, but that's for another day. I want to tell you a little bit about the celebrations for Christmas.

On January 6, we were taken on a bit of a tour by our new friendly contract driver, Terefe, who thought we should see the sheep market. In celebration of the Holy Day to come, many families were buying a sheep/goat to share for Christmas dinner with their family members and closest friends. Thus, small herds of sheep and goats have been omnipresent in front of our hotel and up and down the street, as this is near a main market area, plus there is a small green space under the bulletin boards, so it is very convenient. Thousands of people bartered for thousands of sheep and many made off with a good bargain if they took two or more. This might well represent the entire years' savings for an extended family, but the Christians here do love to celebrate Christmas. We saw men carrying live sheep over their shoulders, two men walking each holding the front leg of a sheep who was then forced to walk along with them on his hindlegs. Chickens are also a big festival food and so we saw many many large chickens being stuffed into various bags, carried by the feet or tied to the top of a car. We soon had seen enough and returned to a quiet evening at the Baha'i Centre. A late supper after macchiato and off to bed.

Our Christmas day started in the usual way, with the 5:15 a.m. muezzin's calling of the faithful to prayer--this is broadcast by electronic speakers from the mosque many miles away from our hotel and is quite faint. Only loud enough to wake us up. (I can't imagine how it is if you live right beside the mosque!) At 5:20 the dawn comes creeping pinkly over the mountain and the rooster in the yard below begins to crow. I have to admit, I'm getting a little tired of him and wish someone would eat him for dinner. Some nights there is also a dog who whines and barks all night, and ceases just before the rooster begins, so you can see that sleep is not the best here. However, the bed is very comfortable and we can usually return to sleep quite easily til 8:00 or later.

We began our day with breakfast in the hotel and then out for a walk. The streets seemed deserted after the bustle and busyness we are used to. The few people out were shopping or were the sheep herders. A few businesses were open, mostly Moslem owned ones. Christianity is the official religious of the country and Christians do outnumber Moslems, expect in Addis Ababa. We bought a couple of bananas (small, sweet and very ripe) on our walk and were accosted as usual by a number of beggars. We had our pictures taken wth sheep. We were careful where to walk without stepping on anything small and round from a sheep. You also have to be careful because where there are sidewalks they are very uneven and one side often has a open dry sewage drain (since there is so much drought here there is nothing flowing in the drains). There were big piles of skins, which developed near the "abbatoir"--the back of the field where the sheep had been grazing where groups of men with hammers and picks would help prepare the animal for cooking if there was not an appropriate woman in the home to do so. Despite all the animal remains, not a single fly or mosquito or flying bug.

After we walked for about 2 hours (it's about 30 degrees, but very direct equatorial sun), we decided that we were too hot, had seen enough for the day and returned to the hotel to lie down for a while in the cool. Very shortly, we received a phone call in our room "Please come down and celebrate Christmas with us". The staff has been very helpful and friendly, and we are making friends among them. So, we were fortunate enough to be invited to have Black Forest Cake on small white plates and Coca Cola in tall thing glasses. Everyone was laughing and happy and we took many pictures with the staff at their request. After wishing everyone a Merry Christmas we returned to our room to change for the evening's activity.

One Planet school, a Baha'i inspired school owned by Gail and Zalaman Amare invited us to a BBQ and tour of the school. To travel the short distance to the school, we took a taxi, whose driver of course tried to gouge us, but we were happy in the end with the price (not always the case, as we give in too easily on the bargaining, knowing that likley the driver's family will eat that day because of us.) The school is very beautiful, although I'm sure it would be considered an "inner city school" in North America. Men worked over open fires topped with a pan that looked like a huge hubcap; a beautiful lady provided us with an Ethiopian coffee ceremony. We had injere, of course (the rather sour, pancake like dough that is used to scoop up various sauces), salads and sheep (no not tender little lamb but tough, old sheep) cut up very small and with a lovely brown sauce plus a piece of the bone meat, which was too tough to eat. There was lots of food for the 100 or so invited guests. We washed this down with a choice of soft drink--coca cola or orange Mininda (like Fanta).

Gary Sterling of Australia began the entertainment, treating us to a piece of his live concert with his magnificent bass voice. His recordings have been compared to Lou Rawls, so you can see that we were very lucky to hear him. He was joined then by his friend and mine, Wes Baker, who is a former singer with the Seattle Opera company, but now, at age 85 has retired to Kampala, Uganda. He sang a few "up beat songs" and then the two men sang the classic "What a Wonderful World". They were followed by an Ethiopian choir of men who have come together for the Diamond Jubilee festival and treated us to songs accompanied by traditional instruments. As soon as they began to sing, the Ethiopians in the crowd began to dance and cheer. It was all very joyful and exhilarating. We drank the dark, sweet, earthy coffee from the ceremony, accompanied by the traditional popped corn, served in tall baskets woven with intricate designs.

Dark comes early in the tropics and coats came on as the temperature dropped. A bus collected us and drove us home, to a well deserved night's sleep. When we arrived at the hotel, the staff all wished us a happy Holy Day and wanted to know what we had been doing, so we took time to chat with them a bit first. They really are such lovely people, and are so helpful. Several of them are trying to make arrangements to come to our choir performance.

A very exciting day!

Today, the choir arrived safely, but the stories of that will have to wait till another moment.

All the best,
Liz