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Published: February 13th 2009
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Daniel and Fish
at St. George's Museum Since we were unable to spend the day with our friend, Sara, we booked an all day tour to the capital city with the tour people who picked us up from the airport. Our tour guides were Fish and Daniel of Tom Tom Tours. Fish is actually a nickname (no kidding?) for Fiseha which is a Ge’ez name which means fun. Ge’ez is an ancient language that centuries ago was replaced by Amharic, the current national language.
Ethiopia is inhabited by 83 tribes and including the minor ones, over 200 separate dialects are spoken. Amharic was established as the national language to replace Ge’ez much as Italian replaced Latin. The area and people were originally called Abyssinia by the Persians and when the Greeks arrived they named it “Ethiopia” which means “burnt face” in reference to the peoples’ black skin.
We toured St. George’s cathedral and museum & the National Museum in Addis Ababa and St. Mary’s Cathedral and the palace of Emperor Menelik II at nearby Entopo.
The National Museum displays a replica of the skeletal remains of “Lucy” a full-grown woman discovered in 1974 and believed to have lived 3.2 million years ago. She was only
Lucy
She doesn't look a day over 3 million! about 3.1 meters (3 feet 5 inches) tall. Lucy’s original bones are ordinarily kept in the museum’s archives. At present they are currently on tour of the US.
Lucy was thought to be the oldest true bipod (walks on two feet) ever discovered until just in the very recent past Selena was discovered. She was a 3-year old child who lived 3.4 million years ago.
Addis Ababa (or just Addis) means “new flower” and sits about 2,600 meters (8,000 feet) above sea level. It is the second highest national capital, second only to Lima, Peru.
Entoto was Ethiopia’s capital before Addis and sits at 3,300 meters (10,200 feet) above sea level. The Emperor’s palace at Entoto is a wood and mud building with rough softwood floors that bears no resemblance to the fine palaces of other realms. The story goes that Emperor Menelik II was away on a military campaign about the time of the American Civil War and his wife was increasingly unhappy with the conditions at Entoto. When he returned from battle, she persuaded him to look into the lush valley below and they spied a new flower. They decided (note the liberal use of
dinner at Yod Abyssinia
looks yummy doesn't it? the pronoun “they”) to build a new city, a new palace and a new capital at Addis Ababa (new flower).
Climbing around the rocks and steps and bluffs at Entoto in the high altitudes just about did me in. Cheryl and the tour guides were very gracious in waiting for the old man while he caught his breath. A trip back to the hotel and a good nap had me back on my feet for the evening’s festivities.
In the evening, Fish and Daniel took us to a delightful restaurant called Yod Abyssinia Cultural Restaurant. We ate in the traditional Ethiopian style at a low table with a large tray covered with injera onto which is ladled various meat stews, vegetable preparations and spicy sauces, each in its own area. Injera is a flat pancake-type bread that is the main staple of Ethiopian cuisine. It is both the plate and the utensils. Each diner is expected to tear off a bit of injera and use it to wrap up two or three foods and perhaps some spicy sauce and then pop it in the mouth.
Only the right hand is to be used and the left hand
Gursha
culturally correct is kept tucked under the table. This custom is believed to have been inherited from Muslim countries where the left hand is reserved for personal hygiene.
Also part of the Ethiopian dining experience is the custom of “gursha” where one person (generally the host) picks the tastiest morsel and feeds it directly to your mouth. The trick is to take it without letting your mouth come in contact with the person’s fingers or letting the food fall. It’s a mark of great friendship or affection and is usually given at least twice. Once is considered bad luck. Refusing to take gursha is a terrible slight to the person offering it.
After dinner, we were entertained by the restaurant’s professional dancers who performed dances from five of the countries 18 major tribes. The video of the dancers is at the top of the page. I'm just not technologically savy enough to get it down here where it belongs.
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