Travelogue: Day 3, Lalibela

Today was a ‘country orientation’ day. The girls were up early, as usual, and I went out to take some pictures of our compound at the Roha Hotel. After a nice breakfast we arranged with a guide, Mesfin, to go with us to the Lalibela churches. It cost the children $10 each and the adults $20 each (Mekonnen got in free with his Ethiopian citizen card). We started at the Bet Medane Alem (‘Church of the Savior’) church. The major churches in two clusters are now under a very modern canopy which was funded by UNESCO. The canopy keeps the sun and rain off the stone churches but looks odd in their place; the essence of ancient under the essence of modernity. The churches survived 800 years but time did leave their mark on them.

So what are the stone hewn churches all about? Many ancient churches in Ethiopia were literally cut out of the stone. Not on some mountain, like in Petra (in Jordan) but dug out of the ground. The builders had to cut through stone over 30 meters (90 feet) to make the trench, then shaping whole churches, doors, windows, pillars, roof and all, cutting away the stone to create space. Those who have seen the ‘wonders of the world’ have classified the Lalibela stone churches as easily within the category. There are a number of these stone-hewn churches in Ethiopia but none are a large or as intricate in design as these. Experts wonder at the building of these churches in the same way that they wonder how the Pyramids in Egypt were built, how could the ancients have built these structures with ancient tools?

So we went from one church to the next, through ancient doorways of wood and metal. We saw rectangular burial places hewn out of stone in church floors and in the walls of stone around the churches. We saw priests who dressed up in their robes, pulled out their crosses and had their photos taken (small tip appreciated). We saw a few people at prayer (but most had prayed prior to the hours of 8 a.m.- noon and the rest will likely pray later). We were fortunate not to see a lot of tourists like ourselves, we mostly explored in some isolated peace.

The peace was broken at Bet Giorgis (St. George Church), probably the most splendid church in Lalibela. The church stands alone and across the street, away from the other 2 clusters of churches. We had just walked down into the church area and we noticed other tourists there. A group of 5 or 6, probably European I guessed. Mesfin led us over to little pool of water when he and his friend Zedeke got a little silly and started spraying water on our girls (in the ‘blessing’ fashion of orthodox priests) and our girls squealed in delight at the moment of play. In that moment a white haired man in a thick accent berated us ‘Americans’ for having no respect for the church and suggesting that we were behaving inappropriately. I asked, where are you from? As he went on and on, I asked a couple more times until he said, European and immediately walked into the church before I could respond further.

I have to admit that that got my dander up. Actually it flustered all of us, even the Ethiopians with us (Wanda protested, “I’m Canadian,” but no one from their group acknowledged that). I think being unfairly charged was one annoyance (it was our Ethiopian tour guides that started spraying water, but so what?). It was also this Euro-prejudice that annoyed too. In the past and even present we have experienced prejudice, either very subtle or quite open (as in this case) from Europeans to North Americans. The stereotype is that North Americans are culturally inferior and backwards, the ‘Ugly American’ overseas comes to mind. The irony is that as we talked afterwards (much later after things cooled down) Ethiopians said their favorite tourists are Americans and Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders.

Those from the continent: German, Italian and Spanish are especially arrogant and snarky. Perhaps this was for our benefit but Mesfin seemed personally aggrieved by the whole situation (maybe he recognized his role in it and our unfair labeling). It was a good lesson for our girls and I used it as a teaching moment. This is how prejudice feels: To be unfairly labeled and stereotyped. But our response is not in kind, but rather to not to stir up anger with harsh words (even if many good replies come to mind). The matter is closed, I said. We all agreed and things did cool down. I had even told one of the women in that group that since we will see each other more that day it would be good to be on friendly terms. She tried to say in her best English that what one in their group says doesn’t represent the whole group. Fair enough.

So we continued on that morning and did see the other group again but they let us go through and we continued touring until the noon hour when they closed the churches. We said goodbye to Zedeke, our shoe-bearer (since we have to take our shoes off for each church someone watches our shoes), and paid him the agreed price plus a bit more. We paid the one guy who watched our Land Cruiser as well. We took Mesfin back to the hotel and agreed to have him escort Wanda and Abby shopping in the afternoon. We came back and washed up for lunch and, sure enough, our Spanish friends were in the lobby as well. So there was nothing to do but walk past them and down to the dining room for lunch.

The afternoon was mostly relaxing: Naps, games, shopping, organizing photos of the morning. The girls played out in the compound grounds. We could have visited monasteries near and far since we had a vehicle but the girls would have lost their joy and will. So it suited everyone to relax. Sometimes it is better not to do or see everything even if we may never pass this way again. That’s OK. I’m grateful that the girls had a good time overall this morning. They loved all the walking around in the churches, between churches in narrow passageways, over high wooden bridges, through dark tunnels, across streets and around the church buildings. I think memories will last long and I am glad.