Meet Lucy, She’s Been Around the Block……

This is Lucy, thought to be the oldest set of fossilized human bones in existence. They believe her remains are 3.2 million years old. Her brain cavity was about the size of a chimpanzees’ but she did walk upright. I’m going to resist any jokes here because it was a really impressive visit to the Ethiopia National Museum this afternoon. I took a tour this afternoon and we also went up to the mountain overlooking Addis Ababa—the second highest spot in Ethiopia. On the way we drove through villages that looked like something out of Biblical times. The mountain is covered in eucalyptus trees and every morning women walk up the mountain and cut the young trees at the top, bundle them into very large bundles, and then carry them on their backs down the mountain (all the time they’re barefoot) to sell as firewood. Usually they’re very old women and I wonder how they can even pick the bundles up much less walk down a mountain to sell them every day. And remember, they have to walk up the mountain in the mornings.
Here’s a picture of a very common street seen in Ethiopia. This one was taken on the mountain road but you see this everywhere in the city as well the only variation might bee sheep, cattle or goats rather than donkeys. If you can, click on the picture and zoom in and look at the old woman in the upper right with one of those massive bundles of eucalyptus.
I also visited one of the Ethiopian Orthodox Churches here in Addis Ababa. They are literally everywhere but I visited the Trinity Haile Selassie—so named because Emperor Saile Selassie had it built for his coronation in the 1940s. Although he was eventually deposed in a coup he is still very revered here today especially for his resistance to the Italian occupation during WWII. I didn’t know it but Ethiopia is one of the few parts of Africa to never be colonized by European powers. The Italians occupied the country twice for short periods but never succeeded in colonizing it.
The church was built for his coronation and is unusually new and modern in this ancient city. It has beautiful stained glass windows throughout and the Orthodox Church is in the middle of Lent now (they fast for 55 days—literally not eating until late afternoon). You remove your shoes upon entry and women move to one side and men to the other and they worship separated by the center isle of the church. I don’t think there’s any significance to this but the Old Testament side is on the men’s section and has beautiful stained glass windows of Old Testament scenes. The women’s side has the New Testament stained glass windows. The church holds services throughout the day and I visited after one of the services and it was relatively empty but there was a small ceremony on the women’s side and they were kneeling on carpets praying. There is a very distinct influence of Islam in the Orthodox Church and the two religions seem to get along pretty well. The tombs of Haile Selassie and his wife are located inside the church.
The other night I had my first experience with injura—a traditional Ethiopian food in which they place a large circular bread (much like a pizza crust) on a lazy susan in the middle of the table. The bread is sour—very sour—some people can’t eat it but I really liked it. On top of the bread they put all kinds of meats and vegetables covered with yoghurt. You then have a personal piece of bread that you tear pieces off and use to pick up the meats and vegetables without any utensils. When the big crust is empty you eat it with all the juices soaked in. It’s actually very good if you can handle the sourness of the bread. Probably because of health concerns the hotel here serves it about pizza sized so you don’t share with the whole table.
I did a personal tour today with a guide because wandering the streets alone, especially for foreigners, can be increasingly risky but I found the crime problem here unique. Ethiopia is going through economic hard times right now. When you do get robbed, five men or boys walk up to you and one of them starts a conversation. Two of them drop down and grab your ankles and the other two each grab an arm and hold your limbs while the first one picks your pockets. Unless you resist, there is no violence and afterwards they often apologize for robbing you. These people on the streets are hungry!!!
I finished training at noon today and fly out at midnight for Paris and then a direct flight to Houston. The class ended up going very well and the students were excellent and very enjoyable to work with. At the end of the class my students gave me a traditional African shirt—very ethnic with an ornate Orthodox cross embroidered on the front. I may have it framed when I get home.
I have really enjoyed Ethiopia—the people have been very kind and very pleasant. I have found the country, despite the poverty, to be one of the most interesting I’ve visited in Africa.
A few more hours and I’m on my way home…..

Today in class went better

Not good, but better. We did go out on the road today—we now have two students eligible to drive over here and three who can’t so I’m modifying curriculum like crazy. The embassy suggested we check out an abandoned airfield for the training and we went out there this afternoon but it couldn’t be used. It did send us deep into the center of Ethiopia’s largest army base onto an “abandoned” airfield and we probably saw some things we shouldn’t have seen—I know I did. Then we got a radio message the base executive officer wanted to talk to me (I guess I stick out here) and we returned to the base headquarters and I went in and talked to him. He was real pleasant and is leaving next month for a year study at the War College in Washington. Still, I’ve got to admit images of the movie “Midnight Express” were going through my mind. This was definitely not a place to be carrying a camera around. Speaking of which, I am going to take my camera on-road tomorrow and try to get some local shots around the city. This week and this job are winding down. I have Friday afternoon off and may try to do some limited sightseeing.

The first day of training was a disaster

Four of the students are from countries other than Ethiopia and two arrived yesterday and there were no rooms in the hotel so they had spent the night in the lobby. My class materials have not arrived so I have nothing to teach with. On top of that, we found out that you have to be here six months to even apply for a driving permit so that means four of the students and myself cannot do any driving—which is why they are here in the first place. But I’ve dealt with these kinds of problems before which is why my company sends me overseas so I’ll figure something out before tomorrow morning.
Ethiopia is not at all what I had expected. It is very mountainous and Addis Abebis is the highest capitol in Africa. The city is very poor, old and dirty but eucalyptus trees are everywhere giving a pungent odor that is kind of pleasant. They also have towering cedar trees here and except for the urban aspect, it would be easy to imagine you’re in Colorado with the mountains and all. I had expected desert but this is completely the opposite. The hotel is built as a series of garden squares with beautiful landscaping and many trees and there are all sorts of exotic birds—very colorful and making neat sounds.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the primary religion here and dates back to the 4th Century. Because the Crusades and Muslim invasions over the centuries separated Ethiopia from Rome the church here is far different from the church as we know it in America. Although Christian, the church here has maintained very close ties to the Jewish background with regards to diet, ritual slaughter of animals and even in their services. This is definitely an Old Testament Christianity. The Christians here fast 250 days a year—not complete fasting but abstaining from certain items and the restaurant menus have two sections: Fasting and non-fasting. We drove by several today and the churches here are built as octagons and use loudspeakers to blare out calls to worship much like the Muslim mosques. When I heard it at the hotel yesterday I assumed it was a mosque near the hotel. Women here do not wear burkas but when entering a Christian church, I noticed they covered their heads and upper bodies in white shawls—there is a very definite blending of cultures and religions here.
While waiting for my luggage at the airport I watched the departure board and it’s a strange feeling seeing cities like Tehran, Mogadishu, Mecca and Tripoli on the board and the flying times are probably not more than an hour or two away. This is definitely North Africa with a distinct Arab influence.
The people are friendly but Ethiopia is going through tough economic times and petty crime is up but it is usually crime against property, not people. That is changing though and we have been advised not to walk anywhere but to take taxis.
The government here prohibits reading blogs so I can't proofread this once I've posted it. Sorry for any grammatical or speling mistkes.

We’ll see how tomorrow goes……

Made It To Ethiopia OK.....

Made a relatively trouble-free flight from Johannesburg to Addis Abeba in about six hours and got to the hotel around midnight Saturday night. Spent today walking around the grounds getting acclimated to the 9,000 ft above sea level altitude here. The nights get pretty cool here and the days very warm. The hotel is an aging Hilton but has a neat ambiance to it and is clean and secure. The grounds are absolutely beautiful with hanging gardens everywhere. I start work tomorrow so should have a better idea

then of what's in in store for the coming week. So far, so good.........

I’m the one on the left……

Sorry, couldn’t resist that one..... Here’s a photo of our group on the last day today. This was a good group and a good job.
Got up early this morning and tried to follow the Houston Dynamo/Puntarenas soccer game on line but couldn’t get updates so I called Devin on his cellphone at half-time and when the game was over. Using the Internet phone service is really easy. We won: 2-0.
Today is Friday and we wrapped up early and then spent a couple of hours driving around the city. We drove by Nelson Mandela’s home and office and then went back out to Soweto to the scene of the 1976 police attack on the students. The area is now made into a monument and museum and not that many tourists get to visit it unless they are on organized tours. The protest started when the South African government tried to force the students to speak and study in Afrikaans. On June 16 the police shot several students including a 13-year-old boy and the photo of him being carried away by another child while his younger sister was crying became one of those “known around the world” photographs and the incident led to wider protests and the eventual overthrow of Apartheid. At the museum we spoke briefly with the younger sister who is now the museum director and visited the site of the shooting which is now a monument. I could tell the visit made a big impression on our group—even the non-South Africans. While in Soweto we also drove by Nelson Mandela’s old home there and the prison where he was held for 27 years for protesting against the government.
After returning to the hotel I took a taxi over to the South African Museum of National Defense and spent several hours there looking around. The South African army was active in both world wars and the earlier Boer War and had a guerrilla war in Angola and Rhodesia for several decades. They had a temporary exhibit of Sadham Hussein’s military medals that was interesting.
Tomorrow I fly to Addis Ababa which is the highest capital in Africa at about 9000 feet above sea level. I’m really curious what that experience is going to be like but I know Ethiopia is very, very old—Biblical-era old—and the Orthodox Churches there are supposed to be very ornate and interesting. We’ll see…… 2-0!!!