Lukas Loves Lalibela

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Lukas writing…
Our Christmas day was different than any others. We drove to Lalibela, which is one of the most famous places in Ethiopia. It is really amazing there. It is high on a mountain - the village has about 9000 people, just like our town of Riverside. When we got there we found a hotel, and then climbed a hill to watch the sunset because we heard it is very beautiful. While we were waiting we remembered that we still had not gone to mass. We asked the group of local kids that were following us where the church was. It was about 5 minutes walk through backyards to the church . Well, it was not really a church, just a lot of rocks with people on them all facing the priest who was talking about something in Amharic. We prayed. After about 30 of listening to Amharic words we didn’t understand, we left and went to a restaurant to eat dinner and then went home to our hotel.
The next morning we went to the rock carved churches. There were 11 in Lalibela. The person who carved these rock churches in the 12th was King Lalibela. Lalibela means honey eating. He was named this because when he was young bees swarmed him and that meant he was going to be king. My theory is that the bees swarmed him because he accidently invaded their nest. When he died, King Lalibela was buried in one of the churches. Ethiopians say that is you take the dirt from where King Lalibela was buried and put it on a wound, it will heal the wound. No women are allowed in that particular church because Eve was the one who got them kicked out of The Garden Eden. My mother thought that was very unfair that she could not go in.
All of the 11 churches were connected through tunnels except two or three of them. When you go into the churches you need to take off your shoes. Legend sais that Saint George’s Horse’s hoof print was in he side of a steep part of the hill.
My favorite church was the Saint George Church. It is the smallest and most photographed. The hoof print of Saint George’s Horse was close to that church. That church was designed like Jonah’s Ark. It had three “stories”. There were some really really dark caves that if you put your hand in front of your face you could not see it, so we had to hold hands and walk through carefully. I think I will always remember that day.

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