29 April, Friday Bahir Dar
Not only is it the Call to Prayer that we wake up to, but also prayer and chanting coming from the Orthodox Church. The chanting often continues for several hours. I fall asleep again to be woken up a few hours later surrounded by the call of birds. We are in one of Ethiopia known for its rich bird life and we are not disappointed – we’ve already seen 15 new birds and hope to break through the 100 threshold before we leave. It is so awesome to be surrounded by birds of all kinds and so many of them are brand new. It is interesting how quickly we’ve retrieved our past birding experience from our memory attic. We recognize the calls and habits of different species we’ve become familiar with in the past.
We leave after breakfast with other tourists on a boat cruise to visit a few monasteries on the islands of Lake Tana. On the boat with us is an Orthodox Priest with his orange robe and iron cross. We visit 2 circular-shaped monasteries built during the 14th century with walls adorned by Ethiopian icons and paintings dating back as far as the 16th century.
It is fascinating to listen to the guide explaining the different ceremonies, customs and rituals (food restrictions, method of animal slaughtering, church layout, circumcision) of the Orthodox Church which is thought to have its roots in Judaism What I find even more interesting is to hear so many new stories coming from the 88 book Bible that the Ethiopian Church uses. Lake Tana, which means ‘to come with a cloud’ was the place where Mary fled to from Egypt during the reign of King Herod when he ordered for the babies to be murdered. She and Jesus arrived on a cloud and stayed at Lake Tana until it was safe to return home. Mary is highly venerated as a Saint in the Orthodox Church and many of the paintings depict her in different Bible scenes as well as in illustrations unfamiliar to us. For example a painting shows someone attending to Mary’s foot which she injured during one of her journeys! Another shows her pleading with Jesus to save the people suffering in the fires of hell. Her pleas were heard and they were brought from hell to no longer suffer anymore.
Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are very devoted believers and extremely proud of their ancient Biblical heritage dating back as far as the time of Moses. It is believed that the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia in the first millennium BC to protect it from enemies and it is housed in the maqdas (Holy of Holies) of St Mary of Zion Church in Aksum. No one has seen it, except for the priest who can enter the Holy Place once a year.
We also see a few new birds and during a trip from one island to another, the priest asks Willie for his binoculars. It is a joy to watch the surprise on his face as different far away objects and places come into close focus through the binoculars. Hugo also has an interesting conversation with him and he shows Hugo several illustrations from his prayer book. Hugo and Andrej befriend some of the other young people on the boat – 2 of the guys, one from France and the other from Canada, are working on their Masters’Degrees in Agriculture. Very interesting conversations follow about the agricultural problems that Ethiopia, but also surrounding countries face specifically in regards to water preservation and farming methods that deplete the soil from nutrients and the resulting devastating effects that follow as a result.
The guys all go out to the city to hang out and Willie and I watch birds, go for a walk. Willie downloads pictures from his camera and does some computer work until a fierce windstorm cuts the cities’ electricity and chases us into our tent. It is very early, but since there is nothing else to do, we go to bed.
Something that has been extremely frustrating since we are in Ethiopia is the fact that we’ve not been able to find Wi-Fi, but only broadband internet. We were spoiled in the Middle East where we had access to faster internet in most places. We’ve seen 103 birds this far!
Not only is it the Call to Prayer that we wake up to, but also prayer and chanting coming from the Orthodox Church. The chanting often continues for several hours. I fall asleep again to be woken up a few hours later surrounded by the call of birds. We are in one of Ethiopia known for its rich bird life and we are not disappointed – we’ve already seen 15 new birds and hope to break through the 100 threshold before we leave. It is so awesome to be surrounded by birds of all kinds and so many of them are brand new. It is interesting how quickly we’ve retrieved our past birding experience from our memory attic. We recognize the calls and habits of different species we’ve become familiar with in the past.
We leave after breakfast with other tourists on a boat cruise to visit a few monasteries on the islands of Lake Tana. On the boat with us is an Orthodox Priest with his orange robe and iron cross. We visit 2 circular-shaped monasteries built during the 14th century with walls adorned by Ethiopian icons and paintings dating back as far as the 16th century.
It is fascinating to listen to the guide explaining the different ceremonies, customs and rituals (food restrictions, method of animal slaughtering, church layout, circumcision) of the Orthodox Church which is thought to have its roots in Judaism What I find even more interesting is to hear so many new stories coming from the 88 book Bible that the Ethiopian Church uses. Lake Tana, which means ‘to come with a cloud’ was the place where Mary fled to from Egypt during the reign of King Herod when he ordered for the babies to be murdered. She and Jesus arrived on a cloud and stayed at Lake Tana until it was safe to return home. Mary is highly venerated as a Saint in the Orthodox Church and many of the paintings depict her in different Bible scenes as well as in illustrations unfamiliar to us. For example a painting shows someone attending to Mary’s foot which she injured during one of her journeys! Another shows her pleading with Jesus to save the people suffering in the fires of hell. Her pleas were heard and they were brought from hell to no longer suffer anymore.
Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are very devoted believers and extremely proud of their ancient Biblical heritage dating back as far as the time of Moses. It is believed that the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia in the first millennium BC to protect it from enemies and it is housed in the maqdas (Holy of Holies) of St Mary of Zion Church in Aksum. No one has seen it, except for the priest who can enter the Holy Place once a year.
We also see a few new birds and during a trip from one island to another, the priest asks Willie for his binoculars. It is a joy to watch the surprise on his face as different far away objects and places come into close focus through the binoculars. Hugo also has an interesting conversation with him and he shows Hugo several illustrations from his prayer book. Hugo and Andrej befriend some of the other young people on the boat – 2 of the guys, one from France and the other from Canada, are working on their Masters’Degrees in Agriculture. Very interesting conversations follow about the agricultural problems that Ethiopia, but also surrounding countries face specifically in regards to water preservation and farming methods that deplete the soil from nutrients and the resulting devastating effects that follow as a result.
The guys all go out to the city to hang out and Willie and I watch birds, go for a walk. Willie downloads pictures from his camera and does some computer work until a fierce windstorm cuts the cities’ electricity and chases us into our tent. It is very early, but since there is nothing else to do, we go to bed.
Something that has been extremely frustrating since we are in Ethiopia is the fact that we’ve not been able to find Wi-Fi, but only broadband internet. We were spoiled in the Middle East where we had access to faster internet in most places. We’ve seen 103 birds this far!
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