Day #3 - Entoto

The Bole Medhane Alem Church sang/chanted/praises through the loud speakers all Saturday night and Sunday morning.  This serenade to God was beautiful and their dedication is impressive.  I can't imagine singing through the whole night!  Thankfully I packed some sleeping pills to help with jet lag so we did get some sleep that night.

What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
sing your faithful presence all through the night.
Psalm 92:1-2

At our guest house there was another couple who were also on their 1st trip in the adoption process.  Since it was Sunday and neither of us could visit our little ones until Monday we all decided to take a trip to Mount Entoto - The highest peak overlooking the city of Addis Ababa, reaching 8,200 feet above sea level (many professional athletes train on this mountain because of the high elevation!) It is the historical place where Emperor Menelik II built his palace. The mountain has several monasteries and is a sacred place.

Addis Ababa has a population near 5 million and is fueled by diesel.  Since most people do not have electric stoves they cook their meals over an open fire.  Between the diesel and the cooking fires by mid-day there is a whole lotta stuff in the air!  Our driver told us as our tour van was climbing up the mountain that, "Entoto is the liver of Addis!" :)  All of the trees help to scrub the air clean every night.

Here is a picture taken on our way up the mountain:

 

The road to Mount Entoto is very steep and their are no guard rails.  We drove past the old wreckage of a tour van that took too wide of a turn and we became a little nervous but we made the short journey safely :) 

 

 

The first place we stopped was Saint Mary's Ethiopian Orthodox Church built by Emperor Menelik II for his wife Empress Taitu in 1882.  It is a colorful and impressive church:

 

 

 

The church was not open for touring because of Timkat, but we did get to explore the grounds.  The palace of Menelik II is just behind the church.  We had a tour guide take us through the courtyard and living quarts where the monks and nuns live to the palace. 

The palace was modest yet very stunning.  The sleeping quarters where on the left and the royal meeting room and dining room where on the right.  Both buildings were made of straw, mud, and cedar trees.  They were built 130 years ago from resources found around the mountain.  I got the impression that Emperor Menelik was not a lavish ruler, but more of a caring guardian.

 

 

On the interior wall of the royal meeting room and dining room was a cabinet.  We asked what they used it for and our guide told us the whole wall was limestone which is naturally cool.  We all touched at wall and is was in fact very cold.  The cabinet was where the beer and wine was stored-the refrigerator :)  In the next room there were several oxen horns sticking out of the wall which were used to hang meat: 



 

As we where leaving St. Mary's Church we walked past a wall of tombs carved out of the rock of the mountain.  Unfortunately we did not get a picture of them, but I made a connection between those tombs and the one Jesus' body was placed in.  I had always pictured a tomb large enough to walk into and stand with an enormous boulder sealing it, but now I picture it more like the tombs we saw here.  They are the resting places for high priests.

 

We left Saint Mary's and drove a few miles further up the mountain to another Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Saint Raguel.  It was also very large and inspiring.  Our driver told me that all traditional Ethiopian Orthodox Churches have three special chambers or levels. One for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit. The first floor/entry level is were the people come to worship. He also said that the reason the buildings are built in the shape of an octagon is for eight angels to have they own corner.

 

 

We happened to be visiting on the day that all the priests were butchering and dividing their rations of meat to take home to their families (Ethiopian Orthodox Priests can marry).  It was a very neat experience.  I have definitely never witnessed anything quite like it.  The priests were very kind and let us take pictures and tour the rooms carved out of rock right next to them.

 



This is a picture of our tour guide and me in the room where the Sunday School class currently meets.  There is a two hundred year old painting on the top shelf and many little bits of paper with hand written scriptures from children on the bottom shelf.

 

This is a replica of the stable where Jesus was born:

 

There were lots of shy, but curious children near Saint Raguel's Church.  They would come close and smile or wave to us.  I brought some lollipops with us and we handed them  out.  We were rewarded with many beautiful smiles and sparkling eyes :)  I left the rest of the bag with our tour guide because he said they were a lot of children back at St. Mary's that would love to have a treat too :)

 

Right out side of the gate to St. Raguel's on a over look of the Mountain where was a tent set up and a young women preparing coffee for anyone wanting to enjoy at traditional coffee ceremony.  I am unable to pass up good coffee and the view was amazing!  It was one of the highlights of our trip up Mount Entoto.

 

 

We walked down the road just a little ways and got some pictures of the county side.  It was a very peaceful and beautiful walk.  As we were walking the tour guide asked why we had come to visit Ethiopia.  We told him that we came to adopt and learn about this country.  He said that is good, and they believe orphaned children have been touched by angles and are a blessing from God.

 

 

At the bottom of the mountain were the open stall shops on Churchill road.  We had a great time shopping there and found many treasures there.  I enjoyed shopping here the most and found traditional dresses for all three of our girls, and two traditional embroidered outfits for our boys.  We also bought some beautiful scarves and necklaces there.

 



After shopping we went back to the guest house and I learned how to make shiro from one of the hostesses at our guest house.  Shiro is a very yummy soup-like dish made with onions, garlic, tomatoes, broad beans, and berbere.  Broad beans are like garbanzo beans and berbere is a red spice unique to Ethiopia and gives food a little heat.  That evening we enjoyed a traditional Ethiopian dinner and coffee ceremony at our guest house. 

 

 

We stayed up later than the other guests and watched a Spanish soap opera with two of the hostesses.  During commercial breaks we chatted about lots of things and discover that one of the hostesses is Oromo, which is that same ethnicity as our sweet baby girls.  Oromo is a Cushitic/Afro-Asiatic language spoken by about 30 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Egypt and is the 3rd largest language in Africa. She gave us a lot of insight and some very valuable information about their story.  She was so kind and warm to us.  Any question we asked she was enthusiastic and open to answer.

 

Even though we had an amazing day I was missing all of my kids and was looking forward to calling home (as soon as I could recharge my calling card!) and seeing our little ones at the orphanage.  Stay tuned for day four, five, and six...