Posted June 2015
26 - 30 December 2011
MEKELE
Arriving ever so early, I’m at Ethiopia Airlines office when
it opens up and even though tomorrow’s Addis flight is full, a seat is found
for me to connect to another flight continuing onto Dire Dawa and the tickets
reissued – so efficient that it still causes me wonder!!
Walk about town to visit the Matyrs’ Memorial, a huge golf
ball in the sky along with the associated museum in a massive round building
with umpteen photos & memorabilia from the fifteen year struggle against
the “fascist Derg regime” by the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front during the 70s
& 80s. Thus the famine…. Check out the palace being reconstructed behind
masses of scaffolding so it’s museum exhibits
are viewed in a smaller building nearby. One of the exhibits labelled as
Elephants teeth is actually a pair of elephant tusks!! And then there are the
baskets made from ‘glass wings’ which I think may have meant grass twigs??
The churches here were
built in high, remote places to fend off would-be attackers. Locally, tradition
attributes the churches were hewn out either during the joint reigns of Abraha
and Atsbeha, the first Christian kings of Ethiopia (c. 330-356 AD), or sometime
when the nine saints spread monasticism in Ethiopia during the 6th century. Some
are very elaborate, cathedral-like, separated from the rock on three sides,
while others are more like caves with great stone pillars descending within.
However In the 10th century, the Jewish queen Judith tried to eradicate
Christianity here by burning churches and valuable Christian works. Then an
invasion in the 16th century
also destroyed valuable treasures and signs of the destruction still appear in
many of the churches. But at long last I have worked out what the sticks are
used for at the churches – these look a little like a crutch and they are used
to rest on, during the many hours of prayer & hymn singing, especially for
the elderly, stored in the corner of every church.
Wandering through town I get accosted by a women who makes
all sorts of claim about her ancestry- lots of mentions about Emperor Haille Selaisse
- and as I try dodging her she turns on me with strings of abuse much to the
horror of locals… Dined on a great
dinner of fish goulash and a lovely sleep on a bed that was akin to a
trampoline.
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