Sept. 11, Lalibela
Flew early this morning through a downpour into this rugged mountain village in the north, which is nearly 8,000 feet high and pretty inaccessible by road. Some people were feeling the altitude in dizziness and headaches. After a sleepless night and a wandering mind, I suffered a bit of an emotional meltdown, but regained my composure on the flight.
It's warm and sunny here, and the drive into town was stunning -- steep green hills, dramatic craggy rock formations and breathtaking drops over picturesque valley towns. The houses are circular and made of thatch.
Lalibela is known for its amazing 800-year-old rock-hewn churches carved into the ground from a single stone. It has a medieval appearance. There are little hermit holes carved into the rocks, where traces of clothing indicate people sleep in them. At one church, we saw a 500-year-old set of mummified remains.
I asked a priest, through an interpreter, about child marriage, which is prevalent here, and he said it was fine with him if kids marry as young as age 8 or 10, as long as their parents approve.
Priests are important here. There are 500 of them to about 25,000 people.
Hotel Jerusalem, where we're staying, is a simple place with a rustic charm. One circular thatched-roof building serves as the dining hall. A few benches and chairs under an awning outdoors became the bar where we gathered in the evening for drinks. The bedrooms, in a separate, long, low building, are modestly furnished but have little balconies with beautiful views over the wooded hillsides.
A special treat was seeing priests in long white robes and turbans come out to dance and drum in a procession in town in celebration of the new year. A lively group of teenagers gathered around us to chat, and I found myself doing a double take when I noticed a boy next to me was wearing an "Iowa Slipknot" T-shirt. Thousands of miles from Iowa, and about as far away as you could get psychically, there was a link to home. The kid said a visitor had left it there.
We had a briefing from EngenderHealth's Ethiopia office, and learned of, among other things, the huge numbers of Ethiopians who are living with HIV/AIDS and the fraction of the population using contraception. Only about a third of women can read and write, and 80 percent have no exposure whatsoever to mass media. No TV, newspapers, ads, or radios.
In the evening, we ate a sumptuous Ethiopian buffet and laughed and shared stories as a group.
Rural life in the developing world has a calming but energizing effect on me. There's just something about life pared down to its essentials, far from the urban rat race, smog and culture of materialism.
