Week 4

Some highlights of field trips we took this week follow.

Trinity Cathedral

Trinity is the largest cathedral in Addis and one of the most popular. This cathedral, designed in European fashion, is the final resting place of Emperor Haile Selassie I and his wife.

A visit with Haile Gebreselassie

Haile Gebreselassie is a 15 time world-record holder and two-time gold medal winner in the 10,000 meters. He has won races in everything from the 1500m to the 10,000m. During the 90's, he asserted himself as the preeminent middle/long distance runner in the world, as evidenced by the fact that he hasn't lost a competitive 10K race since 1993. He graciously took time off from his busy training schedule (4-5 hours a day) and invited us to the "chill-pad"/penthouse of his building where we spent two hours interacting with him.

Lalibela

We flew north to Lalibela to visit the 8th wonder of the world: the rock-hewn churches of King Lalibela. Dating from the 12th century, these churches were chiseled out of a solid-rock mountain side. There are 11 churches in all, some monolithic (as at left) and some of a cave design. Though many centuries old, all of the churches are still used today, and during Ethiopian Christmas as many as 60,000 pilgrims come to Lalibela to worship.

Each church is designed after the temple in Jerusalem with a worship place, a holy place, and a holy-of-holies containing a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. Indeed, Lalibela is a replica Jerusalem complete with a river Jordan (dry except for the rainy-season), intended to provide pilgrims with a local/safe alternative to the trip to Israel.

Lalibela sits at 8600ft overlooking the most beautiful country in the world! Looking straight West, 50+ miles and seven ridges of mountains and plateaus were visible. Along with seeing the churches, we had our first taste of life in an impoverished, rural Ethiopian town.