Sightseeing with the Choir

Not to rest on our laurels, we were off again "early" Monday morning for some sightseeing. The choir had to check out before departure and so there was the usual African change of plans at the last minute and decision-making about what to do with the mass of baggage. Eventually, the hotel decided to put together a luggage car (read "truck") to take the baggage to the airport to meet folks there.

Of course, shopping was part of the schedule for the morning, which most folks had not had time to do while involved in the whirlwind of the Jubilee, so there was some concern about what to do with projected large "American " purchases. Many people had thought that they would be seeing animals, e.g. monkeys and elephants while here, but of course, Ethiopia is not East Africa and there are few animals left in this region. This puts a different stamp on what there is to buy...most locals are content to buy the necessities of life through the street shops. And I do mean "street"--a blanket spread out on the sidewalk, showing in a jumble whatever the retailer has for sale--belts, kleenex, fruit, shoes, clothes, toothpaste/brushes, housewares, everything; and all available for the bartering, each from their specialty "shop". Part of the game is to see how much you can get a ferenji (stranger/foreigner) to pay for what they buy. Side bets by other vendors, etc. There is virtually no tourist industry here...finding a "city tour" is a very difficult thing and can only really be arranged through the Hilton hotel. There are other companies, but usually they specialize more in the farther reaches and old, incredibly old, churches of the Abyssian and Axumite Empires, which are some hours or days drive from Addis.

The choir's first stop that morning was One Planet School, which I have mentioned before. This time the children were in session and we were treated to hearing the cute (!) little grade ones repeating their(very long) school pledge about being a life long learner and remembering their inherent nobility. What a treat! Zalalem Amare, their school director and Mr. Jamal, the deputy director, were very proud of them. Not to mention their volunteer Canadian teachers, Shokufeh, Bahiyyih and Elham! We were all so impressed with them.


This school has a very high standard and has attracted some 200 students in the year and a half it has been open, from daycare through Grade 3, 27 of whom are students on full scholarship because their parents are no longer with them or cannot afford the $1000 per year tuition. Each year they plan to add a grade until they reach grade 8, "and then we'll see" says Gail Amare. They recently had someone do a "book drive" for them in the US and received a shipment of 21,000 books for their library. Thus they are well equipped for reading with the children and also with resources for teachers to discover new ways to interact with their students. It's a pretty amazing place. There is a computer lab, too; about 10 computers in various stages of repair and capacity, but with the ability to help primary students gain basic skills. They need software of games, e.g. English spelling, that small children can play. Parvin and I are going to dinner with the Amares soon, and will be able to speak more to what folks at home could do, if so moved.

After a very enjoyable hour or so at the school, we were off to the National Museum. Ethiopia is considered to be in the region of the world known as the Cradle of Humanity. This is partly because "Lucy" the oldest know skeleton found to date, a female Australopithecus, was found here. Thue museum is the usual home of Lucy, but we were able to see a very realistic plaster cast, the real skeleton parts being currently on loan to a university in Texas, for 6 years. The museum is organized on three floors--the basement contains very very old, e.g. 6 million year old artifacts, huge bones of prehistoric animals I'd never heard of or seen before! teeth of Australopithicean eras, teeth and bones of Homo Erectus--many many interesting things if you are interested in archaeology (which I am!). The middle floor was dedicated to relics of the Emporers, Menelik I and II and Haile Selassie I and their queens. Very ornate clothing, bedecked with silver (mined locally) and made of velvets. There was a chair of the Royal Household which had been taken to Italy during the WWI occupation of Ethiopia, but has been returned as a gift of an Italian family (whom I presume "owned" it). The top floor contained more modern artifacts and examples and displays of folk arts and the local ways of living. There was instruction in how to make injere (which after several samplings now, I've decided I don't like), many examples of pots and home goods from various archaeological digs, many of which started when digging up the streets and some bright eyed person spotted something that looked "old". At that point all construction stops and the dig continues from a different perspective. Thus, there are a couple of huge roadway projects in Addis that are being held up while the painstaking business of archaeology goes forward. Very instructive for us as humankind, on more than one level. One note of interest to me was that all the charts and all the findings they have made here, where they are leaders in this type of research, have not found any "missing link" between the Australopithecus and Homo Sapiens. The Baha'i Writings say that there is no such link in the evolutionary development of mankind, that mankind is it's own evolutionary stream. Interesting to me to see again the agreement of science and religion--a fundamental belief of the Faith.

Of course, with so many intelligent and interested people in the choir this tour took longer than projected. Did I mention that it takes quite a while for 50 people to go through the security searches that happen at the entrance to each public place? One woman security guard for all the women, a couple of men to search the men. Mostly it is a matter of form, but occasionally something strikes the interest of a guard and obedience to their requests is mandatory. More than one bottle of water has been confiscated, because you are not supposed to bring water to this place. We were asked NOT to take pictures of military installations, or even of an electric tower. People on the street will stop you with a shake of the head or finger, but security guards, who mostly have big guns, could be a different story. Everyone is very polite, except when one over-enthusiastic photographer didn't realize he was taking a military establishment ('cause it looked just like a garden) and nearly lost his digital SLR except for the quick talking of one of our Baha'i guides. Mostly, we were told, they just break your camera.

We all agreed, though, that we'd had a wonderful morning, walking in the cool, away from the 26 degree, very dry, heat.

We were taken to the "Post Office Area" (every street has a name here, but very few have signs nor are the names known, so each district is known by the major building in that area--we are in "Lem Hotel district", even though I have never actually found the Lem Hotel), which turns out to be the touristy selling corner. The rent for a shop on that corner (there are about 8) is equivalent to about $500 per month, about 5 times the average salary in the country. So you can imagine the joy with which the merchants saw 2 bus loads of "rich farenjis" descending on them! We had a scheduled 1/2 hour there, and I think every person on the 2 buses bought something different as a souvenir of their incredibly short time in Ethiopia. Baskets, carvings, clothing and of course, shawls (Pashmina goats abound here, as I may have mentioned--there are 3 or 4 flocks resident right around our 4* hotel entrance alleyway). Much laughter as people compared what they had paid, how they had bargained; who cared about what it actually came out to...we all figured that bargaining for the difference of 1 or 2 Birr (10 to 20 cents) made little difference to us, but made a major difference to the people. Several people finished their plastic water bottles while there and shopkeepers assistants were glad to take these empties for their own use. There is no garbage in the streets here, every item is useful for something!