Meskel Celebration

The Meskel celebration is in full swing here in Gondar. Chants of “hoye hoye”, drum beats and horns can be heard all over town. There are large stick figure crosses decorated with the yellow Meskel flower that will be burned tomorrow afternoon. Tonight the festivities begin. Max and I broke fast at the Quara and were in for a treat as we witnessed a beautiful pink and orange sunset. We watched young boys dancing in the street and groups of men in traditional white cloths bang drums and chant. It is customary to give money to these groups when they come up to you, and we happily obliged. Tomorrow morning we will wake up early and head back to the Piazza to witness the burning of the crosses.

Life in Gondar is getting easier day by day. We have met with the school’s principal and introduced ourselves to Temesgen, the head of the English department. We sat with Habtamu, an English teacher, who would like to take us to eat raw meat and drink Tej, the local honey wine, with him tomorrow. I think we will fit in there and it’s good to learn their customs. We were given their calendar of school days and I sat and matched it with the Western calendar. (There are 30 days in every month and a 13^th month of 5-6 days depending on the leap year). Their biggest holiday is Timkat, or Epiphany, and that occurs in January. We are going to school on Friday to partake in the flag raising before class and then introduce ourselves to the teachers and classes we will be a part of.  

When we’re home, we entertain ourselves with episodes of The Wire.  Max downloaded the first two seasons and we’re on to the second already. We’re breezing through books too. I just started Shantaram and highly recommend Cutting for Stone.

I don’t think I wrote about our day with Manlio and Alemu. Manlio is the program director for Ethiopia and is based out of Rome. He was in town visiting with Alemu (from Addis) and two JDC staff from Israel, Danny and Sam. It was an eventful day, we began by visiting two wells outside of Gondar. It is neat to see the operation, the strategic placement, and then the implementation of these wells. We visited the Chilo Primary School out past Azezo and the airport. It was rainy and the dirt roads lent to a very bumpy ride out there. All of these projects are in place because of JDC donations, usually sponsored by a single person or family. The Chilo Primary School was a series of three buildings. We could see the initial classroom with a dirt floor built with slight mounds for the students to work on. Very little protection from rain or cold but if school is in session, the children will come. A second series of rooms had desks and chairs surrounded by dirt walls and floors and the newest installation is a building with tiled floors, plastered walls, windows and sturdy desks and benches. It was quite a treat to see the progression of these classrooms at this one school and to learn that every year the enrollment grows by over 50%. Most importantly, this school was donated by Max and his sisters after their visit to Gondar in 2008. JDC determined the best location, facilitated the work and implemented the Sandler’s generous donation in order to educate over 400 young children. We plan on being involved with the school directly. They will be receiving their first computer and we will assist in training the teachers.

We have a driver, Fasil, who is young and speaks English. He has been so wonderful with us, taking us any and everywhere and introducing us to his family. One day we woke up and said “we have no plans” and so he brought us to Kuskuam Church and Mintwab’s Palace. It was beautiful! He will drive us out to Simien Lodge in a couple of weeks. We are going to the Simien Mountains to celebrate Max’s birthday (October 8). We hope to make it back to Addis Ababa towards the end of October too. Once you stay at the Sheraton there, I’ll admit, it’s very hard not to want to return on a monthly basis (heated pool, large bathtubs, clean sheets!, an Indian and Italian restaurant and a breakfast buffet…) There also happens to be an NGO fair in Addis the last Saturday of every month and I’d like to see what that is all about.

All in all, things are good. I have to keep my head on straight and recognize that I will be here for a year, because I want to be, and so I will make the best of it. I’ll also divulge that having water the majority of the time makes a hell of a huge difference. Being here with my best friend helps too J

Miss you all and love hearing from you! Please keep me updated on what’s going on! We barely see the news, so a little current events on happenings in your life and around town would be a treat!!