Ethiopia

I wasn’t going to blog about my Ethiopia trip, which was purely vacation, but going through the pictures now it was just too incredible an experience not to try capture in words, so here goes:

It’s been a while since I last travelled with people and I must say travelling in Ethiopia with an American and Englishman who had never been to Africa was definitely entertaining, who knew Ethiopia was not a “dessert bowl with no trees!”:)

Lalibela was our first stop (literally, we took an aeroplane between Gondar and Lalibela that was more like a shuttle service and even left half an hour early when the plane was full, (only time I’ve ever left early in Africa time)). The main attraction in Lalibela is about a dozen ancient churches and its beautiful setting. Like my previous trip to Ethiopia, the local people proved again to be incredibly friendly and two young students who “wanted to practice their English” become our friends and unofficial guides for the duration of our stay there. Although I was weary of them at first we landed up having a very authentic experience with them that began with an impromptu 5 hour hike to a monastery on top of the mountain and ended 2 days later with a 5:30am visit to one of the ancient churches. In between we were taken to their local hangout for injera (surprisingly I only actually got sick after eating at a fancy “Farangi” (white person) restaurant the next night) and a local bar for Taj (honey wine served in a kind of test tube) where an Ethiopian wedding was taking place and of course being the only Farangis we were expected to join in.

After a good dose of ancient Christianity we moved on to Gondar for Rosh Hashana (FYI, for anyone considering a trip, internal flights in Ethiopia are around $50 if you fly in on Ethiopian Airlines.) Before I began planning this trip I wasn’t sure there were Jews left in Ethiopia, turns out there is a community that is said to be around 4000 people in Gondar. An orthodox rabbi from Israel comes every year to spend the holidays with them together with young Israeli volunteers who run activities with the children and help lead the services. This group belongs to the Falash Mura, a group originally part of the Ethiopian Jewish community but who converted to Christianity many years ago. Despite their conversion they never intermarried with other Christians and in recent years have come back to Judaism. This is a very contentious issue in Israel, but the Rabbi there sees these people are “Chozrim B’Tshuva”, Jews who returned to Judaism like any secular Western Jew that comes back to their roots. Today there are about 1000 people who are deeply religious and desperately want to make Aliyah to Israel (most have family in Israel such as the young Ethiopian Israeli volunteers who were with us and returned for the first time making it a very emotional experience). There is a lobby in Israel working to bring this last group to Israel despite the fact that the Jewish Agency officially ended Aliyah from Ethiopia a few years ago. This community goes to shul every week; eats kosher, the women go to the Mikvah and the children learn Hebrew. It was surreal sitting in Shul, which was largely a corrugated iron structure over a sandy floor, and listening to prayers that are partly in Hebrew and partly Amharic or Ge’ez (a holy Ethiopian language used by the priests) or listening to the kids sing well known hebrew songs and practice their Hebrew. While I realise this is still a politically sensitive issue in Israel it was an incredible experience spending Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat with this unique congregation. The Rabbi’s enthusiasm and dedication to the community was contagious and we spent many hours listening to his stories about the Ethiopian Aliyah and the incredible history of these people. While I was there I bought a book about the original Ethiopian Aliyah and while it is a story I have heard about many times, being there and seeing for myself where these Olim come from and the poverty many of them lived in (and some still do) took it to a new level. Reading about the horrific stories of the journey many made to Sudan and about the conditions in the refugee camps where they stayed for long periods awaiting Aliyah made me appreciate my own very privileged Aliyah experience. I’ve been involved with Ethiopian Jews in Israel before but I definitely feel a strengthened connection to this special community and all that they have been through and hope to get back involved when I return to Israel.

Our next step and my highlight was the Simien Mountains, the “Rooftop of Africa”. This could have began better in that the first hour into our hike on the first day, the skies opened up and we were completely drenched by rain, to the point when you think you can’t get any wetter and then suddenly you begin to feel that slimy-fish feeling in your toes as the water begins to seep through your hiking boots into your socks, and then you know, you really can’t get any wetter (and have 3 days of hiking left in those shoes)! Eventually we made it to the camp site where coffee and popcorn and a warm fire were waiting, and it was uphill from there (literally). The Simiens are absolutely magnificent, each day the views just got better and better. We were even lucky enough to see a leopard on the first day after the rain cleared up. There is a certain feeling of accomplishment after spending four days sleeping in tents in the freezing cold (I innovated and created a kind of hot water bottle each night which helped) encrusted in the day’s mud and sweat. (And we did it in relative luxury compared to the Israelis we met along the way who brought their own food, tents etc.) There is nothing like waking up in the morning to coffee and breakfast in the sun with those beautiful views or seeing the millions of stars before you go to bed each night. (Although the toxic fumes from the fire I could have lived without, I do not know how people manage to live in huts with those fumes every day, I am an avid new supporter of the clean cook stove alliance).

Our final destination in the North was Bahar Dar where we took a trip to see the waterfalls and then spent the afternoon chilling at the lake. We also enjoyed one last night of Ethiopian shoulder dancing (anyone who has ever seen Ethiopian dancing needs no further explanation) and the guys asking if Teddy Afro was in town, (Teddy Afro is a popular Ethiopian singer they discovered in the first week and subsequently asked every taxi driver, waiter, air-hostess and anyone else who would care to answer if he/she knew Teddy Afro and if he was around (and me hysterically laughing every time as I am doing now as I type)). Our final stop was Addis Ababa for Yom Kippur. We spent the holiday in a cute little shul that was built by the Jewish community from Yemen (the Aden) who have lived in Ethiopia for many years but it was filled with an eclectic mix of Israeli business men and tourists, Jewish researchers and embassy and NGO workers. After breaking the fast we spent our last night at a historical Jazz bar with a friend I had met 10 years ago in Geneva who now lives in Addis. (Apparently Teddy Afro was not there either although we did meet a guy that exports sesame to Israel in the process of enquiring).

Done! I’ve tried to keep it short but it's hard to capture everything even in just a two week trip to Ethiopia, it is a magical, mystical, beautiful country with incredible people that have seen so much suffering and while there is still a long way to go, I am  optimistic about the future (I’ll keep my developenty insights for another forum). Perhaps one of the guys summed it up best in describing Ethiopia as “partly charming, partly shit-hole” but you can’t help loving this incredible country!