Tuesday, December 1st - Addis Ababa

We were up, had breakfast and were ready to go at 9 a.m. when Ketema arrived.  We had a number of things on our agenda to do so he took charge and of we went.  Ketemea drives for Canadian Humanitarian when they are in Addis and he's a great driver with an incredible sense of humour.  It's always a pleasure to travel with him.

Our first stop was the Hilton so Randy could run in and get some money.  He forgot to get it yesterday when we were there.  I guess the excitement of all the airline tickets got to him.  Today is international aids awareness day or HIV day or something.  On one street traffic sort of came to a halt and then as we waited the police marching band came by.  They were parading around town to make people more aware of HIV/Aids we assum.

From there we went up Entoto Mountain to see the museum and church and views.  I have been up here several times but today was quite different.  This particular day was the Festival of St. Mary so the road up was crowded with people heading to the church and when we got there it was extremely crowded.  When we thought about it we realized that many churches we had passed had been crowded and people were selling twof candles and brightly coloured umbrellas all along the way.  It is not a national holiday or a work holiday but it certainly appears that many are taking at least the morning off to go to church.

Parking at Entoto was hard to find but we did get one on the far side of the paring lot.  Before we even got out of the vehicle we had people trying to sell us twof candles, the ceremonial candles used in churches for festivals such as this.  There were people everywhere and we wondered if we would be able to even get into the church area.  Ketema led the way and we tried to follow.  We had to dodge priests who were blessing people as they made their way to the church and hundreds of people standing and sitting everywhere outside listening to the message which was being broadcast over loud speakers.  From time to time there were cheers or applause but generally it was a very quiet respectful crowd.  The church looked very festive all decorated in green, yellow and red, the Ethiopian flag colours.  The ladies all wore dresses and were generally draped in white and the men were generally in dark clothes so the bright decorations really stood out.

We made an immediate left into the small museum that is there to tell the history of King Minilik (?) who had his palace here in the 19th century.  The museum shows some of his gowns, crowns, staff, gifts to him from other countries, weapons, priest's attire, Bibles, etc.  It has been deserted every other time I've been in it so it was nice to see it busy for a change.  We had a good guide who didn't linger over things (probably because of the crowd) but gave us the basics of what we were looking at.

We made our way around the side of the church and up the stairs to the back where there were limited views of the city below.  The number of people was certainly one problem but the other more obvious problem was that the trees had grown so high that you couldn't see through them any more.   So we walked on to the old palace and toured that instead.  It is very small and plain but was probably quite nice and impressive in its day.  And back then it would have had an incredible view of the city and surrounding countryside.  It was a square building with a wider thatched roof that covers a patio as well.  The rooms are bare inside so you have to imagine what it was like in the dining hall or the receiving hall.  I'm sure it was impressive.

Leaving there we made our way back through the crowds, out to the van and back down the hill.  There were still people on both sides of the road going up and down.  The services apparently last all morning so I guess you can come and go as you wish.  On the way up and down we only saw one wood carrier.  Normally there are dozens.  These ladies walk up the mountain, which is a very long climb of several hours, then they get a load of firewood tied in a bundle to carry back down on their backs as they bend over at almost a 45 degree angle.  The bundle is probably 2-3 feet in circumference and 6-10 feet long.  It is incredibly hard work and today would have been virtually impossible with so many people and vehicles on the road.  Normally vehicles drive around the ladies and their bundles but on a day like this that would have been impossible.

We picked up a tourist walking down the hill.  He was a Canadian from Vancouver.  He went with us to the National Museum, our next stop, but then moved on to find a bank. The museum is several storeys high and has many exhibits about Ethiopia but the main attraction is Lucy's skeleton.  Lucy was discovered in 1974 in the Afar region of Ethiopia and was dated to 3.2 million years ago.  It never ceases to amaze me how they do such dating but they even had an exhibit that explained that, which was good.  The skeleton of Arid was also there and he was even older.  He spent more time in trees than Lucy who spent most of her time walking on ground.  In both cases the other amazing thing is how much the scientists could determine when they had so few bones to go by.  They definitely did not have complete skeletons from either of these individuals.

The museum also looked at the animals and plants of Ethiopia and then at some of the agricultural history through tools and implements.  There was also a small section on musical instruments, ceramics, clothing, etc.  A couple of the exhibits referred to places we hope to visit like Axum, Gondar and Lalibella.  The main part downstairs looked at the political side of the country with pictures of presidents and artifacts (gowns, crowns, thrones, etc.) from their time.  Haile Selassie was the only one I recognized and I think he was the most current one they showed.  I don't remember anything more current but their could have been.

We had lunch at the Lucy Restaurant attached to the museum.  The food was fantastic and it was a wonderful spot.  It has many different sections and some of them are inside in case it's raining or cold.  We sat outside beside a lovely garden area with lots of plants and a little pool for the turtle to cool off or maybe it was a tortoise.  There were two huge very old tortoises in the outer area so this little guy might have been related.

From there we went to the mercado (market) and Ketema took us for a quick walk through what I would call mainly the hardware section.  He said it was his favourite part of the market.  He was surprised that it wasn't busier but decided that was because of the Festival of  St. Mary and many people would be at that instead.  One of the interesting things about the walk was the amount of recycling down some of the side areas.  There were streets with nothing but blue bags or yellow plastic containers and they were piled so high they totally obliterated everything around them.  We saw some spice stalls and some vegetables but mainly it was tools, rebar, wood, nails, etc. as well as some very nice wood and metal work products.

After that Ketema and I had a bit of a rest while Randy climbed up the mountain to see St. Michael's Church.  I had been there before a couple of times and it is not an easy climb for me as the ground is very uneven and there are some large rocks and boulders to climb over.  I had my book with me so was quite content sitting in the van in the shade with a nice breeze blowing through.  Randy did the walk much faster than anticipated because he is a fast walker.  I think he enjoyed the walk and was surprised to find a rock-hewn church at the top.  It is an interesting one but not as impressive or as intact as those we will see in Lalibella.    

We drove back to the Bow Hotel and Ketema dropped us off.  We had dinner at the hotel and spent the evening visiting, doing computer work and relaxing.  As we had an early morning departure for our tour tomorrow we called it an early evening to get our rest.