Ari In Gondar

Axum

About two weeks ago I set out on my search for the ark of the covenant, which theoretically resides in Axum, Ethiopia, a one hour plane ride from Gondar.  Although the my search was fruitless, I did see some incredible sights in this historical city.  Axum was basically the capital of Africa in the 4th-7th century as it was the port through which most trading with the middle east took place.  It was a truly international city.  During the height of Axum’s power, many churches, castles and (most famously) obelisks were constructed.  

The obelisk field located in the middle of the city contains three main obelisks all ranging in height but all many meters tall, each with an interesting story.  The obelisk on the far left was constructed, and intricately carved, however when they attempted to erect it, it fell over and smashed into 4 pieces.  Interestingly, the King at the time didn’t feel that it was necessary to remove this imperfection, and left the remains of the obelisk in the field where it has remained for about 1600 years.  

The second obelisk is still standing today but it took a brief hiatus from its position in Ethiopia.  Back in the 1930s when Italy occupied Ethiopia, Mussolini visited Axum and decided he wanted an obelisk of his very own.  Mussolini being Mussolini ordered that the obelisk be removed and shipped to Italy where it would stand in one of the Piazzas. After Mussolini’s reign the obelisk was returned to Axum where it was glued back together and re-erected.

The third obelisk has remained standing for many centuries, but like its Italian counterparts, it is beginning to lean.  In order to prevent it from toppling, UNESCO has constructed (highly unattractive) supports to keep it standing for many years to come.

At this point you might be thinking, yes these obelisks are all well and good, but what is their purpose?  Most archeologists and historians believe they were erected to mark the tombs of the important leaders (much like the pyramids).  Although Axum remains 90% unexcavated, archaeologists have begun to excavate underneath the obelisks and have found 6 rooms that at one point held human remains as well as jewels, pottery and coins.

Besides the Obelisks, Axum is known for theoretically housing the Ark of the Covenant.  According to legend, Menelik the 1^st (love child of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon), went to visit his father, King Solomon, in Israel.  Before leaving to return home, Menelik stole the Ark and fled.  By the time King Solomon realized the tablets were missing, Menelik was long gone.

As of now the Ark is housed in a small church within a monastery.  It is guarded by a 100 year old man, who is the only one who can see these holy tablets.  Being a women, I was not allowed within the compound but I was able to take a picture from afar (YIPEE).

Gonder

This post is dedicated to my father who is always so interested in arts and crafts here in Ethiopia.  Also please forgive me, these posts are no longer in chronological order.

For those of you who have been coloring inside the lines for many years, this may not seem so impressive, but for the children of the Falash Mura community who rarely get a chance to express themselves artistically in any way, the presence of crayons and coloring sheets at the clinic while they waited to be dewormed was an excitement of epic proportions.  Let me back up a bit.  This week, a group of 20 adults from the San Francisco JCC came to Ethiopia to tour and do some volunteer work.  For one of their volunteer projects, we decided to work on deworming the 4300 Falash Muras (Christian Ethiopians of Jewish descent hoping to make Aliyah to Israel) that are registered at the JDC clinic in Gonder.  Because I knew how long this process was going to be, and because I had about 100 crayons sitting around my house I decided to bring some coloring books and crayons to keep the children occupied while they waited for their family’s number to be called.  

Never in my life did I imagine such an overwhelming response to crayons.  I was seconds from being toppled over into a prickle bush by a mosh pit of children all crowding me to get a crayon and piece of paper (or for some kids, a 3rd or 15th piece of paper as they hid their other sheets of paper under their shirts).  Despite this near death experience, I was thrilled to see what the kids produced.  Not only did they figure out how to use the crayons (yes, most Ethiopian children have never used a crayon or marker before), but they mixed colors and patterns to create some very lovely pictures.

As I went around photographing their work, the children all jumped around holding their finished work in front of their faces, so excited by what they had made.  Even though this was something relatively small, and for most American children, something that is done on a daily basis, watching these children color so excitedly was definitely a highlight of my week.

Gondar- Computer Education

Over the past month and a half, we have paid a weekly visit to Askale, a second grade teacher at the Sumarjie School, a school in rural Gondar that was built by the JDC about 2 years ago.  Recently, a laptop computer was donated to the school but since none of the teaching staff had ever used a computer before, we had to teach them.  

Now imagine, you are sitting across from someone who has never before touched a computer.  You have been instructed to get her to a point where she can independently use it in about 4 one hour sessions.  How do you go about this?

The first hour with her we didnt even turn on the computer (partially because the battery was dead and we didn’t have the appropriate outlet, plug, power strip combination to plug it in), we sat with her as she learned what each of the keys do (imagine not understanding the purpose of the space bar let alone how to access the symbol keys), how a mouse works, and where the power button and CD-ROM are located.

The next visit with her we did finally turn on the computer and worked with her on how to open a word document, type in a word document, save a word document, edit a word document, and close a word document (it was word-tastic).  Within an hour she was able to out a simple sentence, and change the font, size and color.  

During visit three, I brought with me “Elmos A-Zoo Adventure” a CD-ROM meant to teach the alphabet, word use, colors, shapes and etc. to pre-school aged children.  I was hoping that by teaching her how it works, she might be able to use the game with her second grade class to work on their English speaking and comprehension skills.  However, seeing how much difficulty she had with the game, I became doubtful that her students would ever use it. However, it is my hope to have the opportunity in the coming months to work with her students on using the game and the computer.  Sadly, though it is likely that these students will grow up with with the same limited knowledge of technology.

On lessons four and five we reviewed how to use a word document and introduced her to the basic functions of Excel.  Hopefully, once she gets the hang of it, she will be able to record her student’s attendance and exam scores, but as of now it is much more efficient for her to use a pen and paper.

This experience has really opened my eyes to the huge differences that can be seen across a few Kilometers here in Gonder.  In Gondar city, we have people that are better at using computers than me (which is not THAT big of an accomplishment), and overall have a population that understands the basics of computer use.  However, all you need to do is drive about 20 minutes in any direction and you hit a population of people that dont understand electricity let alone this complex machine.  It’s even more shocking to think about the Western world’s dependency on technology and machines, where most 2 year olds can operate an iPad and many households have not one but 3-4 computers. Overall, working just kilometers outside of the city limits of Gondar has showed me how truly different the majority of Ethiopia is from the western world.

Gondar- Chag Purim

I know you have all been sitting at the edges of your seats waiting to hear about how Purim is celebrated in Gondar, Ethiopia.  So sorry to keep you waiting!

Being a Conservative Jew from the States, I am used to celebrating Purim in some secular costume, at a large party or carnival, eating triangular cookies and at times drinking copiously.  Interestingly, Purim here is celebrated in much the same way.  On Purim the community center (the place of gathering for the Falash Mura community) was dressed up in streamers and posters, the children wore funny hats and masks, the older kids put on a play retelling the Purim story in Amharic, and the Megilla was read in Amharic (probably one of the few time in history when that has happened).  It was quite the celebration bringing thousands of people to the community center for a day of learning, games and fun.

Back at home that evening, Alex and I decided to undertake the task of making Hamentashen. Side note: Israeli’s don’t know the word Hamentashen and refer to the triangular pastry only as Oznei Haman, leading to some very confused looks whenever we mentioned Hamentashen.  Anywho, without any measuring devices or mixing bowls and an oven that refuses to work conventionally, we actually made a pretty successful batch of the triangular treat.  We were so moderately successful that we invited the Israeli volunteers over the following week and made like 50 more.

Gondar- Solar Panels

As many of you know, JDC’s work in Ethiopia mainly consists of non-sectarian projects, that fall under the category of IDP (International Development Projects). One of the largest of these projects here in Ethiopia is building schools in rural villages.  Recently, JDC Ethiopia received a donation to install solar panels in 5 of these rural schools.  After two months of having solar panels and a newfound access to electricity, three of the five schools have made vast educational improvements.  They are now able to broadcast government sponsored educational radio programs, the teachers and students are able to charge their cell phones (which allows them to stay in contact with school officials and the local government), and many of the schools are beginning adult education classes in the evening now that they have working lights.  Most interestingly (in my opinion) is that many of the students are becoming more interested in science because for the first time they are able to see electricity, they can see how phones are charged, and they can see how radios are plugged in.  Furthermore, the schools have seen an increase in their attendance because parents are more willing to send their children to school (even though it is the harvest season) now that they have access to new technologies.

Gondar- Sparky the Injera Stove

For those of you not familiar with Ethiopian cuisine I will introduce this posting with the definition of Injera (In-jair-ah).  Injera is like a spongy sour pancake, about 12” in diameter.  It is a staple in Ethiopia, served here with pretty much everything including salad, spaghetti, eggs, and in my case peanut butter and jelly.  However, it is traditionally eaten mainly with wot, which is a sauce type dish that comes in many varieties some spicy, some mild, and made from many different ingredients.  Injera is used in place of utensils, and is eaten by tearing a off a piece of it with your right hand and using it to scoop up the wot.

In order to make injera you need to combine Teff (a grain grown pretty much exclusively in Ethiopia) with water and allow the mixture to ferment for about 3 days.  After it is fermented you need to cook the mixture on a special stove that kind of resembles a UFO (see above pictures).  After living in this country for a few months Alex and I wanted an Injera stove of our own so that we could eat the Injera in our home.  So we asked Assefa, the local JDC staff, and after about a month and a half in came Sparky.  Sparky received his name because anytime the maid would start baking injera on our stove, the power would go out.  Obviously this caused a problem, and after visits by multiple electricians, as well as the maker of the injera stove, a mild rewiring of our house, the subsequent disappearance of Sparky (literally I went upstairs for about an hour and when I came back the stove was gone), Sparky came back a new and improved stove, with the ability to make injera without cutting the power.

Anywho, the actual process of making injera is fairly interesting and begins with the cleaning of the stove.  Interestingly things like stoves and floors are cleaned here by using dirt.  Counterintuitive as it may seem, I guess its a fairly efficient abrasive and can get all the crevices cleaned.  So to begin, our maid rubs the stove down with dirt and then wipes it clean.  She then spreads cotton seeds over the surface of the stove and lights them on fire (this process scared the living daylights out of me one afternoon when I was sitting in the living room and reading reading a book only to look over to see a blaze going in our kitchen.  Considering the injera stove is conveniently located right in front of our curtains I thought this was a very safe and intelligent way of sterilizing a cooking surface).  After she wipes off the burnt remains of the cotton seeds she is ready to cook.  She turns on the stove, lets it heat up and then pours a thin layer of the white fermented mixture of teff and water over the cooking surface.  It begins to solidify almost immediately at which point the lid of the Injera stove is closed to let the pancake cook.  After a few minutes the injera pancake has pancaked and the maid uses a circular woven mat made of natural fibers to scoop the piece of injera off of the stove. It is then placed in the Injera basket which is then closed for freshness.  The process is repeated until she has made about 5 injera pancakes which will last for about 3 days.

Gondar- The little Engine that could…sometimes

 If ever I am feeling old out here in Ethiopia (as I often do when people question my unmarried status at the ripe old age of 22), all I need to do is remember “Hey, at least all the cars here are older than me.”  Our little red Toyota is no exception.  When I first arrived in Gondar three short months ago, my supervisor brought the car and driver over for me to examine.  I was much more concerned with the English speaking abilities of our driver, Getahun, than I was with car itself.  I assumed that,  if the car made it here, it probably runs fine.  This was my first mistake- assuming.  Never assume anything in Ethiopia works as it should. However, had I not selected this little old Toyota, I might have missed out on many cultural learning opportunities.

 For one, I have learned that if your driver backs your car into a ditch you need only wait 20 seconds before the car is surrounded by a group of men pushing and pulling the front and back bumpers to move the car back onto the road.  The same is true if your car gets stuck on a large hump in the middle of a road under construction.  When this happens, the wait time is reduced to only about 10 seconds before our car was rocked back to safety by a mob of Ethiopians.

 Now, if mechanical troubles arise, as they do at least once a day, our driver needs only to pull over (slightly), pop the hood and bang various parts of the engine with a screwdriver.  When these attempts fail, our driver proceeds to call a few of his closest friends and within moments, a completely empty minibus arrives at our side, ready to pick Alex and I up and transport us directly to our destination. 

 However, if the mechanical problem is easy to solve, you can expect a group of men to arrive at the hood within moments and offer their opinions on how to fix the engine.  After a little while of discussion, fiddling and Getahun turning the key 20 or 30 times we might get lucky and hear the sweet roar of an engine coming back to life, allowing us to reach our destination only a mere 20 minutes after we were expected.

 Another interesting challenge with using a car this old is that the gauges on the dash stopped working a few decades ago.  Thus at any given time one really doesn’t know if the car has any gas.  This is particularly true in poor countries like Ethiopia where drivers can only afford to fill the tank with one gallon of gas at a time (as gas in this country costs about $4 per gallon-or 4 day’s worth of salary for the average Ethiopian).  So when the car starts groaning more than usual our driver usually assumes that gas is needed.  If he is lucky, one of the nearby gas stations may have gas.  However, this can never be assumed as, more often than not, the stations are either out of gas or refusing to sell it in the hope that gas prices will go up in the next few days allowing them to make a greater profit.  If we are lucky and gas is available, Getahun will drive up to a pump, hop out (without turning off the engine), and put in a gallon of gas.  However, if no gas is available and our car sputters to a halt, we can expect to sit in the back seat for about a half hour as our driver catches a minibus to the nearest gas station, fills up a plastic jug with gas and returns back to our car.

 The most common problem that we encounter on a nearly daily basis is our car’s inability to make it up hills, particularly the one right by our house.  As we near the top and our little car gives out, we can expect to roll backwards down the hill while shifted into neutral.  Now if we are lucky, we will make it to the bottom without incident; dodging donkeys, people and other vehicles as we roll.  However, as happened on one occasion, we may roll backwards right into some man’s brand new Toyota truck.  As we realize that our bumpers are locked and that there is no easy way to free ourselves the two drivers may start arguing.  Men come over and start taking pictures of the accident, trying to show whether or not any real damage was done.  This continues for about 30 minutes, as Alex and I watch from the backseat.  Finally the men figure out the correct maneuver to separate the bumpers, our car miraculously starts, we thank G-d, and make it home in one piece.

 Now, these are only a few of the adventures we have had with our little red Toyota.  Others have included flat tires, stalling in the middle of the road and breaking down in dark alleys.  However, even though it is annoying to constantly be late, or miss appointments the experience that we get with this little old car is really educational.  From this little car I have learned that Ethiopians are truly a kind and caring people, who will immediately stop what they are doing to help a car or driver in need. In fact, most of what I have discovered about the loving nature of this culture has been from my experiences in our not-so-trusty red toyota.

For the first few weeks of my placement here in Gondar, I spent time getting down a rhythm and routine.  I had time for teaching, time for learning about health and medicine and time for myself.  However, I had not found a time or place for practicing my Judaism, which was expected considering I am in the middle of rural Ethiopia.  However, after getting to know some Israeli females who are volunteering through the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) with the community of Ethiopians hoping to make Aliyah, I discovered that there may actually be a western-style Jewish community here after all.

After joining the Ethiopian Jewish community for Chanukah celebrations we were invited to join the Israelis for their own candle lighting ceremony back at the hotel where they are living.  We were joined by the visiting Rabbi who is an Ethiopian Israeli man, as well as two Polish Jewish guys who were here doing research for a book.  After lighting the candles and singing the chanukkah prayers we got to talking and learned that every Friday night they host a Shabbat dinner here at the Lammergeyer hotel and that we were welcome to join them.

Now I assumed that Shabbat dinner in Ethiopia would be a rather low key, unceremonious event where friends just gather to share a meal.  However, when I walked into that first Shabbat dinner I was shocked to see a table filled with 20 or so people.  Some of them were volunteers through the Jewish Agency, but the vast majority were Jewish tourists, passing through Gondar who searched out a Shabbat dinner.

 Besides being taken aback by the number of guests at this unorthodox location for a Shabbat table, I was also surprised by the fact that Challah, Kosher wine, and a hand washing station were all present.  We began the meal with Shalom Alechem, followed by the traditional Friday night blessings and then took from the buffet of, what I later learned was, Kosher food prepared by a cook in the kitchen of the Lammergeyer hotel.

 As we ate, I took part in what became a multi-lingual conversation, mixing Hebrew, English and Amharic to discuss the lives of the various guests, the preceding service at the Community center, and the issue of the remaining Ethiopians hoping to make Aliyah. I soon discovered that Amharic may not be the only language I will be learning this year, but that, in fact, I will have the opportunity to brush some of the rust off of my Hebrew skills.

 After taking part in two more Shabbat dinners with this same community I have continued to be surprised by far reaches of the Jewish religion.  This past Friday we were joined by Jews from South Africa, Australia, New York, DC, Ethiopia and Israel.  Although we were accustomed to different tunes for the brachot, we all prayed using the same words and in the same language.

 Since my childhood I have heard the song “wherever you go, theres always someone Jewish” but I limited it the reaches of the song to playing Jewish geography in the Midwest.  Now I understand that this simple tune has a far greater breadth.  Who would have thought that living in the middle of Ethiopia, I would have so many people to whom I could say “Shabbat Shalom”?

Gondar- MELKAM TIMKAT!!

This weekend (January 19th) the Ethiopian Orthodox Church celebrated Timkat, or Epiphany, which marks the Baptism of Jesus Christ.  Although this holiday is celebrated throughout Ethiopia, the main celebration takes place here in Gondar.  The festivities bring in about 100,000 Ethiopians and Ferengi’s (foreigners) alike to the city with a capacity of 80,000, leaving hotels booked, restaurants filled and streets packed.  Dont even get me started on our attempt to drive through the city to get bananas….

How is Timkat celebrated you may ask?  Well the celebration began on the 18th as a grand parade of glitzed up horses, dancing women and men, and priests in their festive robes brought the “arks of the covenant” from local churches to the royal enclosure.  Why the royal enclosure? Because amongst the 17th century castles and churches lies Fasiladas’ bath; a giant swimming pool that is filled once a year for Timkat.  This ‘bath’ is where the symbolic baptism of thousands of Ethiopians takes place on the 19th of January.   

After the parade and the night time ceremony in the compound, the priests undergo a night of prayer… a night of prayer which is broadcasted throughout the city using loudspeakers ensuring that no one sleeps through the night.  

Early the next morning (6:30 AM for Alex and I), people begin congregating at the bath.  When I arrived I was immediately taken aback by the sheer number of people, most donning their traditional white dress and shawls, crowding within the compound engrossed in prayer or conversation with friends and neighbors.  Speckled throughout the crowd of Ethiopians dressed in white, are the tourists donning their “traditional hiking gear” and long lens Nikon cameras, attempting to blend in while capturing every moment of the ceremony. 

After fighting through a mosh pit of people scampering to get the remaining seats on the rickety bleachers, I finally gained a visual of the pool and the ceremony taking place around it.  On the left side of the pool stood rows of priests in different robes signifying their ranks and roles, the most heavily  adorned of which led the service while those dressed merely in the white linen turbans and robes stood passively in the back.  The poolside service went on for about an hour and a half and was broken up by bouts of cheering and clapping and periods of song.  Then, the priest took a lit cross, and (I’m assuming) ceremonially blessed the pool.  Immediately throngs of boys dressed only in their underwear jumped in and gleefully began swimming, playing, and celebrating the day and its meaning.  Every so often, someone would fill up a water bottle with the pool’s sacred water and ceremonially splash it all over the crowd up in the bleachers.  

It was truly amazing to see the joy in these thousands of people, and despite getting splashed and squashed, I really enjoyed being a part of this holy day.

Gondar- Tsadiko School

As I have already explained, my main responsibility here is teaching English to 9th grade students at Fasilede’s General Secondary School.  For the most part teaching is going very well, but I am having some problems reaching all the students.  Particularly the 11 blind students at our school that have no materials or special accommodations to help aid their learning.  They are not even permitted to take science or math classes as there would be no way for them to understand the material.  Coming from the states where every student is accommodated no matter his or her needs, I felt that the lack of accessible education was unacceptable. So I talked with the head of the English department and the Vice Principle about what we could do to improve the education of the visually impaired at this school.  They in turn introduced me to Tsadiko Primary school, which is the oldest school in Gondar and the only one that has special classrooms and materials for the hearing, seeing and intellectually impaired.  I had the opportunity to visit this school and meet with the Principle and the special ed teachers and I was shocked and impressed with the quality of the program they have created with seemingly few resources.

Not only are there not enough materials, the teachers are expected to hand type the text books used by the students into braille (a feat that takes a month for each book), and they must convert all of the posters and other materials into 3D form which would allwo the students to learn by feeling them.  Despite a need for more materials, the teachers at this school are able to work with all of there special needs students and offer them a curriculum that is comparable to the one taught to the rest of the student population.

This school has over 250 blind or visually impaired students, and only enough Slates and Stylus (the instruments used by blind students for writing) for about 1/5 of them.  From grades 1-3 the visually impaired students are taught in separate classrooms where they learn all of the subjects as well as Braille.  From 4th-8th grade they are integrated into normal classrooms and learn with the rest of the students in the school.

However, the problem arises once they  finish 8th grade and need to move into secondary school. There are no secondary schools in the area that have any accomodations for blind students, so those who continue into 9th grade must go to schools like Fasilede’s where they can only receive a fraction of the education of the rest of the students.

Thus I am hoping to secure a donation of about 150 slates and styluses (11 of which will go to the students at Fasilede’s school and the remaining will go to those students at Tsadiko), which will allow the students at my school to better participate in lessons, take notes, study, do better on exams and hopefully pass into preparatory school.