Furious Faranji Finally Finishes (his blog!)

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Continued...

But I quite enjoyed my journey from Addis to Bahir Dar actually! Although the windows remained closed the entire 12 hours (sweltering!), some of the mountain scenery was incredible, and we wound our way through villages which reminded me of how I felt as if I’d been transported back to medieval times upon arrival in Twifu Mampong (Ghana) six years ago.

Everybody is walking somewhere on the roads here, and as we approached maket towns we passed by hundreds of women in headscarves carrying traditional pots and bags of who-knows-what, children herding goats and cows to be sold, and men - draped in lengths of cloth and carrying, behind their necks, traditional staffs, ideal for resting on, ‘encouraging’ cattle with, or beating off aggressive dogs!

We stopped in towns with dirty, dusty streets, with wood and mud houses - corrugates iron roofs in the towns, thatched in the villages. Donkeys carried wood, horses - often in ornate headdresses - carried men or pushed carts, and children smiled and waved, before getting back to work.

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BAHIR DAR was a nice town, in spite of the touts, with a beautiful setting alongside Africa’s third-biggest lake (according to my guide) - Lake Tana. A boat trip on the lake was relaxing and, whilst the monasteries on its islands weren’t quite as exciting as the Lonely Planet’s have us all believe, it was pretty cool to be shown 900-year-old illustrated goat-skin bibles by the priests who live there.

The majority of the Ethiopians I’ve seen so far have been Orthodox Christians, and quite strongly so. However, 35%!o(MISSING)f the population and a significant percentage practice traditional African beliefs. Christianity had reached Ethiopia by the Fourth Century, and Ethiopia became only the world’s second country (after Armenia) to adopt it as state religion.


As well as enjoying some fine food lakeside, I also had the pleasure, in Bahir Dar, of being invited to an Ethiopian home, where they prepared the traditional ‘Coffee Ceremony’. Ostensibly, my invite was because of the interest my new found friend’s mother would show for my eyebrow ring and my love of LFC and, whilst it later transpired that the prime motive for the special treatment was to get my support in his sister’s application for a British visa, it was still an interesting evening…

The house looked typical enough - situated off a dusty track in the town’s outskirts, and with an outdoor kitchen and shared outdoor toilet, but it’s amazing how nice you can make the inside of a mud hut look!

As is tradition, grass is scattered on the floor and incense burned to greet the uet’s arrival. Upon being seated I was presented with a perhaps alcoholic and not particularly nice home-made drink made with various grains. Then fresh coffee beans were roasted over a charcoal stove, before being ground up by my mate’s younger sister, who carried out the whle process. Once the coffee was brewing, popcorn was made and passed arund. Finally, everybody slwly drunk three very sweet cups of coffee served in small china cups. All very nice. We exchanged email addresses and I said I’d have a look at her application when it was ready…

The other Bahir Dar highlight was a trip to a typical Ethiopian bar. A single-stringed fiddle created quite an amazing sound when played by a dude seated in the corner next to a drummer pounding out a rhythm. Meanwhile, two women took it in turns to dance, whilst making up lyrics on the spot, which the beer and tej (a local spirit made of honey)-sipping locals found hilarious, and which seemed to be based upon taking the mick out of everybody in the bar! As the only ’faranji’ in the bar (perhaps for a long time too!), me and my Polish pals I’d met earlier, were all too obvious ‘banter’ targets. We were invited to dance with the performers. I like to think that I didn’t let the side down, as anybody who’s seen me in action in Gibbos or The Raz can surely imagine…

It’d be worth finding some examples of Ethiopian dancing on the web to see what we were up against! It’s all in the shoulders, neck and head in jolted movements - it’s really quite strange to see a dance floor of people bopping with their shoulders, but impressive when done well!

There’s plenty more I could tell you about, but I am already fearing my third power cut of this internet session so will call it a night. Oh, but it is worth mentioning today just how popular Barack Obama is here. In fact they sell Tshirts of him in every town!

As they say here - Ciao!

Lots of Love,

Ben 😊

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Comments

[Ruth]

are you sure the woman wasn't phoebe from friends, sounds pretty similar to what she does in central perk! xx