Axum

Axum

Two words come to mind when I think of Axum: Indiana and Jones. Axum is the
site of an ancient Ethiopian civilization. According to Ethiopians it is the
home of the Ark of the Covenant, yes, that Ark of the Covenant . (We saw the
building that houses it this morning.) It is also, according to Ethiopians
where the Queen of Sheba ruled. We went to see her palace yesterday. There are
ancient (some pre-Christian) tombs to climb into, and giant stellae (25 m tall,
made out of a single piece of stone) to look at. Most of Axum's treasures are
still underground waiting for archeologists to excavate, which is kind of
exciting too.

Yesterday we got a guide, grabbed an Italian nurse as a hanger on, and set off
to explore. It was a disaster. I would rather not write about it. I will say
it was partly a "Cows on the Beach" issue. (When we were in Gallipoli I kept
hearing the guide say, "there was cows on the beach." and I was confused. Then
I realized he was saying, Chaos, but his Turkeish Australian accent made it hard
for me to understand and I thought that was funny. Now, when I can't understand
someone, especially if they are a guide, I say to Andrew, "we have cows on the
beach" He is very good about repeating what the person said. )

Rather, I will say the good stuff. We spent several hours after the tour
talking with Stefano, the Italian nurse and he taught us something about kids.
He works for Doctors without Borders. Currently he is in Chad. If there has
ever been a place in Africa you have heard about and thought, man I don't want
to go there, he seems to have worked there. When kids came up to us wanting
things from us, he didn't ignore, he didn't say no, he just engaged them in
conversation. Basically, he quizzed them. He complimented their English. He
told them they needed to study. He shook their hands. They seemed to leave
happy. We have been trying this tack today. Kids say, "hello." we say "hello"
they say "give me pen" We say "sorry we don't have any" they say "give me
money" we say "no" and then we say, "have a nice day" Sometimes they stay
talking with us, sometimes not. It is all much easier then before.

Side note: as I am writing this a little girl walked up holding her dads hand.
She is about 2. I said "hi" she looked at me. Her dad said, "Faranji
Faranji"(forgner) in a nice way, like how you would say to a two year old,
"look, a puppy" He smiled, waved and walked inside

Today was a much more successful day. We revisited some of the tombs because as
I explained to Andrew I wanted to "get my Indiana Jones on" and we visited the
Mary Zion church complex.

The new part of the complex was built by Hailie Sallesie and is the biggest
church in Ethiopia and can hold up to 3000 people during holidays. After
visiting Hagia Sophia it felt small to me, but Andrew noticed, and he is right,
that it felt profoundly alive and used. It is a working place of worship. So
many of the cathedrals in Europe feel like museums, but this one is real. We got
to see a 1000 year old book, "the Miracles of Mary", the pages are written on
goat skin. They opened it up just for us to look at. We have some pictures and
I really hope I can put them up. (unlikely, but I can hope, right?) Then we
visited the museum and saw crowns of the former kings of Ethiopia. They were
huge and grand and heavy. It is a good thing they only wore them for a short
time because otherwise they would have a huge headache. We also saw the clothes
the kings were coronated in, and my favorite, the clothes of their wives. These
were stunning dresses embroidered with golden thread. It occurred to me as I
oggled the dresses that this was the second time in a year Andrew had been
subjected to a museum display on leaders' wives' clothes. I dragged him through
an exhibit on first lady's dresses at the Smithsonian. Today he seemed a bit
more interested. We passed ancient bibles, incense holders, communion host
baskets, crosses.

Then it was time to see the monastery. There is one catch. No women allowed.
I told Andrew I thought he should go and I would wait for him, so he went off
with the church guide and I sat in the church yard watching the people. First I
sat on the steps, then someone came to the steps, kneeled, kissed the steps and
I thought, well probably disrespectful to sit here, so I moved to a spot under a
tree. I watched the world. The world didn't care a lick about me, and that was
nice. Finally a group of well dressed, very groomed young Ethiopian men came
through the Church. They were clearly tourists. They took pictures in front of
the Church and then another near my tree. I offered to take the picture so they
could all be in it. They thought this was funny. They kept using every Western
language they could think of. I think they thanked me in three or four
languages. They left for a second, chatted and came back to me and asked if I
would take a picture. I said sure, then I realized they wanted me IN the
picture. I started to object. I was wearing too big "pants" that end at my
shins and have tons of pockets. I thought they were the right size when I
bought them in Addis, but I don't know what I was thinking. They are massive.
Massive and frumpy. Also, I have been wearing this too big shirt that protects
me from the sun. I intentionally got it too big so that it would be cool. Oh
and then there are the patches of dry skin on my face. I told Andrew this
morning, "no pictures of me today please, I feel terrible" When I started to
object the young men said, "you are beautiful" , I smiled and we took the
picture. I was giggling at all these events when Andrew came walking down the
path. He was through the gate to the monastery and I started to walk to him to
tell him about my funny picture taking experience. Turns out, the "no women
line" is not at the gate, but several yards before it. A priest started yelling
and shaking his stick at me, vigorously. I walked back and waited. I thought
about it later and I think that is the first time a man has shaken a stick at
me, just because I am female. Live and learn.

We could go to another famous monastery tomorrow. It is up a cliff and to get
to it monks have to pull you up with a leather rope. It is supposed to be very
cool. Again though, no women. I have to decide how much patience I have for
waiting outside of monasteries while Andrew has cultural experiences.