Timkat/ Epiphany in Addis Abeba

Today, January 19th Timkat in Ethiopia. 

We went to the religious celebrations at Jan Meda, a big field where most citizens - apart from the moslims- come together as early as 07:00, in order to be blessed with the holy water. In fact it is the re-enactment of  the baptism of Jesus by Yohannis. At that point in his life it became clear that Jesus was called upon for his special task as Jesus Christ. 
Therefore, apart from all the flags, there are many decorations along the road depicting the baptism and Jesus with a dove on his crown chakra, receiving the holy spirit. 



 Anyway, in the middle of this huge field (two football playing fields together), there is a closed compound, where the orthodox pope and many, many bishops and priests stand together to do the ceremony. It encompasses a lot of chanting before the priests walk three times around  the basin and then bless the water with their huge wooden, silver and golden crosses.

I was somewhere in the middle of the crowd of 'ferengi' (foreigners with a special permit to be in the sacred area), dressed in white , as is the customs, with a Netella (a big thin white cotton scarf to be draped around you). 

There is so much to see, especially since the various types of priests are dressed in the most wonderful embroidered robes, carrying beautiful gold embroidered parasols and wearing phenomenal miters on their heads. Even the deacons are impressive. 

After the celebrations we drove back through a very festive city. 


Because the other very important occasion that is celebrated today is the blessing of the arc of the covenenat, the tabot. Only once a year the tabot is brought form the holiest of holies of its church to a  big tent where more tabots are being assembled. the whole night the priests are singing and drumming. A colleague of mine stays in a hotel near to that place and couldn't sleep the whole night. 

 The next day the tabots are carried back to their respective churches in festive processions, with people singing and dancing all around it.  

At the ceremony, I was interviewed by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC televison): What I thought of the celebrations? Of course I told them in front of the camera about my love for Ethiopia, its old jewish-christian traditiosn, its beautiful landscapes etc. I did appear in the 8 o'clock news and got reactions from quite some of my ethiopian colleagues that they has 'seen' me on tv  and were proud of me. 

met Maurits en Cobie naar HARAR

My brother Maurits and my sister-n-law Cobie visited us in november. Their purpose was threefold: 
1. to see us, and get and idea of our life in Ethiopia, 
2. to experience Ethiopia and its cultural heritage, so they toured the North, visiting the monasteries in lake Tana, gondar, Axum, the Simien mountains, and Lalibela. Together we visiited Harar, an age-old walled Muslim-city in the Est of the country 
3. to pay a visit to the project that the Rotaries of Maurits/ Vogelenzang and Robert/ Addis Abeba may jointly sponsor. it is a project in which schools can provide their own food to the schoolchildren, by establishing a bakery and vegetable gardens. 

View of the Blue Nile valley: note the terraces in the hill side! 

 The pelicans in lake Tana

 the traditional reed boats, that were also used in lake titicaca in Peru! 

One of the women coming to the orthodox church, in traditional cotton clothes

To Ghimbi, West Ethiopia

I had the opportunity to join a group going to Ghimbi, October 28-31, where a contract was signed for an interesting project. 

Organic coffee will be produced by the area around Ghimbi; the local cooperative, the women's cooperative and the Oromo Coffee Union have agreed to do so. Here you see the members of the booard of the local coffee coopertaive, all in their best shoes and trousers, and offical white clothes! 


The coffee is going to be bought by a big Netherlands based supermarket chain and they will sell it as a special brand. 

There were many people watching, as they had never seen so many 'foreign-gees' together. 

The interesting aspect is that the F&S climate fund was part of the deal as they will organise that 40.000 households will get a sustainable cooking stove. The women can earn carbon credits by using those stoves. They are sustainable in 3 ways:  first oif all: women do not need to walk far and carry heavy loads of fire wood, and secondly, the forest will be saved from cutting wood. Thirdly, the stoves are bruning on compressed organic waste, so it's been recycled. 

The director of Max Havelaar/ Fair Trade Netherlands was also present as - in fact - they organise thefair deal ( percentage) for the farmers. 


The guy at the right is a very jolly 'shoe-shine boy' and since he made us all laugh, in beautiful English mind you, he got ten-fold of what a normal shoe shine boy would earn. 

My friends visiting us and Ethiopia

From October 8 till October 21 my 'intervision group' visited me and Ethiopa. It was great. The purpose was to have 'intervision' ( feed back on what we do towards sustainable agriculture) here an that succeeded quite well since we had the most in-depth discussions at the Agri-Hub office, in the bus on the way and in Debre Zeit, after visiting 3 different Dutch farms/ businesses  in Ethiopia, with very different approaches to their purpose of being here.

 

We started out together to Debre Markos ( Portugese bridge and monatery with special windows) and continued to Bahir Dar at the Tana Lake. 

Beautiful views along the way - the Blue Nile valley! 

 

a 3 day outing to Guassa - community eco tourism

As it was the feast of Meskel (september 26th) we went to Guassa, a 5 hours drive North West past Debre Berhan into the mountains. The meskel flowers were everywhere. They announce springtime here:  rich harvests, end of rainy season, good times! And that was obvious! 

we stayed 2 nights at Guassa lodge, self catering and it was terribly cold! 3000 meters above sea level! We saw the most beautiful endemic birds and the Simien wolves! 

An outing into the wild

Today we had an afternoon 'off', an excursion into the national park around the lake Navaisha here. To my surprise we WALKED through the area, in between the wild animals:  zebra, giraffe, buffalo, monkeys, antilopes. a pity that it started raining, so we- and the animals ( see picture of the giraffes ) - went home.  

Isn't it amazing?

Training in Kenya near lake Navaisha 15-20 september

On Sunday 19th, concluding our great 4 day holiday, Robert flew from Mombasa back to Addis Abeba. on his return home he found the house without guard and the dog very very happy to see him and very very hungry. it appeared that the guard was still there on Friday but somehow got a fit (depression?  anger? epilepsia?) and disappeared. Luckily, Robert could call the guard's brother, who located him in Debre Zeit, in a hospital? For the time being the guard from our former house is now watching over house and garden and dog, but I feel really sorry about our guars as he is such a nice and responsible guy.

 Anyway, on that same sunday I flew to Nairobi to meet up with colleagues from 11 different African countries, where indeed they have Agri-Hubs:  Burundi, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Kenia, Mozambique, Uganda, Niger, Benin, Congo (DRC). Monday morning early we drive in two hours into the Rift Valley. Bautiful views! 

Once down near lake Navaisha we saw the biggest rose grower farms ( vanden berg, Florensis, Oserian, Finlays) and the houses for the labourors. 











Also I could take some money from an ATM in the smallest Barclays Bank I have ever seen. It must be the smallest in the world.

Our lodge is very isolated. Apart from work there is not much to do.... unless you like birdwatching! Although it is rather chilly, every morning at 06:15 I walk around with my binoculars, with some nice results! After that, around 07:0 I swim in the small pool. great! 

Above some nice bee-eaters.

The ones on the cacti looks like  Fischers' starling, also from their behaviour and the strane bleak colour, white beak and black patch near the eye.

And then.. the swallows (or martins?) are back from Europe; already now, half september?