Did you get a chance to speak Arabic?

…my roommate asks. Yes, I had a couple of chances to speak Arabic in Ethiopia. Both were in Mercato. Both involved attempts to convert me to Islam. It’s interesting because, generally, Ethiopian Muslims are reluctant to proselytize in Amharic; however, it seems that Arabic provided a safe manner of communicating their faith.

Home Again

I’m back to the US safe and sound.  On the first flight, I met Erin, who is studying development projects in Shashamene, Ethiopia.  On the flight from London to Chicago, I managed to get some sleep, but this guy 2 seats back thought it would be appropriate to play his electric guitar through headphones.  Even my earplugs didn’t block out that sound.

Immigration was great in Chicago, because everyone was excited about the Bears playing in the SuperBowl.  Though, the guy was like “Ethiopia, you picked a bad time to be there!”  (referring to the conflict with Somalia)  I responded, “Yeah, and I was in Amman, Jordan for the summer…”

I’ve been reunited with my bag and my shower.  I had last showered on Sunday, which made for my 4th complete shower of the trip.  So, I took liberties and showered before and after sleeping last night.

Jet lag?  It seems to me better to travel to Jordan or Ethiopia than to England or France.  For whatever reason, the 20 to 24 hour trip seems to prevent jet lag in me.  It might also be that I’ve generally arrived at night, tried to stay up as long as possible, and then crash until mid-morning.

Research and Return

I’ve had a good couple of days of research (Thursday and today).  I’ll be meeting with a professor on the subject tomorrow, though I won’t have a lot of time to follow up in the library here.  I suppose I’ll take what I can get.  I also visited the Orthodox Seminary here in Amist Kilo and found some interesting historical books.  The guy who showed me around tried to get me in to see the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church so that I could recommend him for a position as a priest!!  I had no interest in troubling the Patriarch, so I felt somewhat awkward. 

Friday, was Timket (baptism of Jesus), so we marched in a parade along with a replica of the Ark of The Covenant.  There must have been a million people on the streets.

Return to Addis

The groomsmen, including myself, returned to Addis yesterday.  We took 2 minibuses, one from Dila to Awasa and one from Awasa to Addis.  There don’t seem to be any police between Dila and Awasa, so they crammed about 20 people into the “capacity 12” minibus for 100 kilometers. 

Addis is much cooler than Dila, like 20 degrees F on average, I think.  Addis is actually very temperate all year round because of its altitude.  So, the people we returned with were all thanking God for leaving super-hot Dila. 

The virginity song

We, the groomsmen, woke up early this morning in order to sing of the breaking of the hymen (see the Hebrew Bible for that).  We took a cloth with some blood on it to the bride’s family’s house and sang this somewhat explicit song.  We would pass the cloth to members of her family and then tell them to give us money for the couple.  We then ate and returned to the groom’s house where we once again passed the cloth and raised money.  All in all, we collected about 2000 birr, which is pretty good. 

Tonight is the “mels” in which we dress in white, cultural clothes and celebrate the wedding at the bride’s house.  The cameraman has already told me that I’m too white for his camera and I don’t think white clothes will help. 

The Wedding

Yideneku Admassu “Dadi” and Segenet married on Sunday.  The wedding was an all-day event that started with a party at the groom’s house, travel to the bride’s house, a party at the bride’s house, some photos and then return to the groom’s house for, uh, consummation.

Unfortunately, it rained in the afternoon which created difficulty with vehicles and fireworks.  The management at the place for photos and cake encouraged us to use the fireworks indoors.  I strongly opposed, but I was looked at like the over-cautious “ferenj”.  So, they lit 8 sparklers and set off a smoke bomb before realizing that it would burn and suffocate us.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.  After that, the management agreed that we should avoid more powerful fireworks in the 20 x 20 room. 

Inshoshila

Inshoshila is part of the wedding process and honors the bride and groom including the wedding parties.  The two parties occur at the same time on Friday night, but the bride and groom do not contact each other.  They dressed us in “netela”s and we danced a bit.  Unfortunately, Friday is a day of fasting, so we had cabbage and lentils.

Dila

Thursday was “bisqot”, a gurage festival honoring the mothers of the bride and groom.  Only women show up, but since we, the groomsmen, were staying at Dadi’s place, we got to partake.  The focus seemed to be on “qinche”, a food made from boiled grain and lots of butter. 

End of the bag

I emailed British Airways about my bag and they told me to re-send the email to some subsidiary…a week after I sent the email.  It’s been almost a week since I received that email, and I now understand that my bag is in Illinois (no, Illinois is not an Ethiopian city or tribal name). 

Dila

We travelled to Dila yesterday.  I was surprised to find internet access here…  The bus trip was long and uncomfortable with several people arguing over the price halfway. 

The wedding ceremony began last night with honoring the mothers of the couple.  Each has a separate party and the couple are not supposed to meet or see each other.  We, the groomsmen, jumped in later for dancing at Dadi’s house.  Tonight is a party for the wedding parties (us).  Tomorrow we bring a sort of dowry of clothes and jewelry to the bride.  Sunday is the official wedding.