Ethiopia North: Rest day

Today was a bit of a break for us to go out and experience more of the country. We went on a boat to Lake Tana which is the largest lake in the country. We traveled to two “islands” (one of them was really a peninsula) and we got to walk around and explore a bit. There were some beautiful plants and birds that made it really interesting. On one of the islands, we went to a monestary that they say was built near the beginning of the 14^th century. It had some really interesting paintings and carvings around the outside (we weren’t allowed to go in) and a museum with many old artifacts. It was really interesting. We didn’t see any hippos like we thought we would, but the scenery was great. I still can’t get over how green this country is!

At lunch, I tried something called shiro. They give you a very large piece of ingera and then dump an orange mashed-bean like substance on it and you eat it (like most Ethiopian food) with your fingers by tearing off bits of ingera at a time, and scooping up shiro with it. I enjoyed the flavor, but it started to be a little much after I’d eaten most of it and my stomache acted like it didn’t know what to do with it. It felt a little weird for a bit, but nothing bad.

Then tonight, we decided to go see some African dancing. So we went to a place we were told was good. It was like small bar with chairs and benches lining the outside of the room so the middle was open for people to dance. They was a drum player pumping an African beat as another man played his single stringed violin-like instrument with a horsehair bow and his fingers. Periodically, one of the dancers would blow a horn in beat that produced two pitches, seemingly one from breathing inward and the other from blowing out. I had no idea people could move and shake the way these dancers did! Their shoulders and head could shake and move like they were completely unhinged! Their body would smoothly move with the beat, but their shoulders and head could vibrate and jump all over the place. Or they would jerk themselves around while standing or kneeling on the floor. Within a couple minutes of entering, the violin-like player spoke to us directly and (we found when it was translated to us) said something like “Hello and welcome. We hope you enjoy being here tonight. We will not forget you”, and then continued to play. Soon after, a dancer came up to me and pulled me onto the dance floor. Now I can hardly even dance in the United States much less in an African style! Think of the Tin Woodman from the Wizard of Oz, and you’ll get the idea. But I gave it my best shot. Before long, they pulled Nate on the dance floor too and I’m pretty sure everyone there was watching us. We imitated what we saw them doing (somewhat) and everyone had a lot of fun with it. We had a few people come up to us and show us how to shake our shoulders and dance like they do. After a couple songs we sat down and observed the others. A woman dancer came up to us and starting singing at us, but we had no idea what she was saying. Our friend from Jhpiego, Sarewet, was laughing. “She says ‘I am dancing for you and you don’t do anything. She wants you to give her money on her forehead’.” By the time we figured it out, she’d moved on. I’d seen a couple other people do it, so I pulled out 10 birr and gave it to her next time she came by. We stayed a bit longer and had a great time.

Tomorrow we will be traveling further north to Gondar to visit a university hospital and a health post on Monday and Tuesday.