Tuesday, December 05, 2006
16:06

Safely home.

Monday, December 04, 2006
12:22

12/3/2006 15:04 Addis Abeba. Belai's revenge. The cannibal Saint is getting back to me for trying to make him a Lutheran. Things happen when you travel and experience teaches you. So when I woke up this morning, tempted to fart, I abstained, an informed decision, the hotel bathroom has been my favorite African location since. But I did manage to get up for a brief outing and pay my respects to Lucy, the 3.5 million old skeleton discovered in the Ethiopian Rift Valley, miraculously preserved in the dry mud and now displayed in the archeological museum; standing erect she is not an ape but not quite a human either.

Monday, December 04, 2006
12:20

12/2/2006 14:05 An anthropologist from Addis/ Wanted to further his studies./ He went for a ride/ Through the countryside/ Searching for Lucy's buddies.// A gentleman caller from Gondar/ Grew steadily fond and fonder/ Of a blonde girl from Axum/ Who was very buxom/ And whose hair turned every day blonder.// The famous King of Lalibela/ Fell in love with another fella./ When this became known,/ He gave up his throne/ And lived with the guy in a cellar.//

Monday, December 04, 2006
12:18

12/2/2006 11:48 Lalibela. On my way to an internet café I make friends with three fourteen year old highschool kids who want to practice their English on me. One of the boys wants to be a doctor, the other one an engineer, the other one a teacher. 'We are 92 students in the classroom and it is very hot,' the 'doctor' says. They want to invite me to their house, a one room mud hut. I decline and they seem much relieved. They rent it for 5$ per boy per month, too much for their parents who do not have cash. So they do odd jobs. Their parents live 37 km away with no roads, only foot paths to get there. Every two weeks they start at sunrise on Saturday and run all day to get there before dark. 'It is too far to walk, we have to run,' the engineer explains. He wants to build roads when he gets his university degree. They return the next day with food supplies for two weeks.

Monday, December 04, 2006
12:15

11/30/2006 17:31 Lalibela. A 12th century theme park. 11 churches hewn out of the rock. Jordan. Noah's Ark. Golgatha. Streets in pebblestone imitating Jerusalem. The guidebooks warn of flees. I put on two pair of socks and pull the socks over the bottom of my pants. King Lalibela survived a poisoning. When he woke three days later he had had a vision of Jerusalem. He visited the Holy City and then built this symbolic impression, in part so his people would not have to go on the dangerous trip themselves.

Monday, December 04, 2006
12:14

11/30/2006 10:10 Axum. Airport security is tight but seems inefficient. The lady at the entrance cannot read well. It takes her two minutes to read my name on the passport. And another two minutes to find the visa in the passport. My passport is new and the Ethiopian visa is presently the only one in it. My feeling is that she reads well but needs glasses. At the check-in the men behind the computer screens take forever. Africa. Don't try to shake a treestump.

Friday, December 01, 2006
08:44

Lalibela. UNESCO Wold heritage site. 11 churches hewn out of solid rock. And all I have to offer is a story. A story! A story! A dog, a donkey, and a goat decide to go for an outing. They hire an Ethiopian taxi and drive around all day. When it gets dark the donkey pays and leaves. Then the dog pays but the driver does not give him his change. And last the goat takes off without paying at all. Therefore when an Ethiopian taxi drives through a village the goat takes off, the dog chases the car, and the donkey stands quietly in the middle of the road.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
09:59

11/28. Monoliths, hundreds of them, decorate the field outside of the hotel. Only 5 percent of the ancient city has been excavated. It was here where Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus stopped during their flight to Egypt, the oldest church building in sub Saharan Africa was built there, dedicated to Mary. Two monks open the church for me and respectfully uncover the precious manuscripts. Under ten layers of beautiful blankets an oversized manuscript with illuminations and the story of Mary in Egypt and Ethiopia is uncovered. They allow me what few librarians have allowed me to do: take pictures. Next door is the chapel which houses the original Ark of the Covenant. The Ethiopian legend claims that the Queen of Sheba returned pregnant by King Salomo to Aksum. When her son had grown she sent him back to meet his father. But after three years the son left and took the Ark of the Covenant with him. Every Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the country has a replica of the Ark and the two tablets with the ten commandments in their Holiest of Holies.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
09:52

Instead of driving back to the ancient capital of Gondar and flying I decide to continue by car over 400 miles of dirt road, climbing and descending between 9000 and 2000 feet altitude seven or eight times. The mountains disappear, the flat savanne begins, shortly before the sun goes down I arrive in Axum, the ancient capital of Ethiopia.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
09:48

11/26. The rented car and driver heads for the mountain. The houses are round, and so are the churches. People walking everywhere, carrying everything. At the end of the day I arrive in the Simien montains, 10.000 feet high. Breathing is difficult and the views are breath taking. The roof of Africa, my guide calls it. He laughs when I fight for air.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
09:44

11/25. A short flight to the North of Ethiopia. 36 km over a dirt road. 40 minutes of climbing up and down a rocky mountain, across a bridge, which according to the young man who shows me the way was built by the Portuguese in the 17th century. It still stands, the road leading to and from it is long gone. And then, turning around the last bend I stand in front of the Blue Nile falls. I think of my grandfather and my parents, who have stood at the Victoria Falls. // Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile. I stay overnight overlooking the waters.

Friday, November 24, 2006
14:30

We Lutherans believe that God is merciful and so God's grace is at the center of our understanding of how the Divine powers work. On the other hand we do not believe in Saints. Well, I may have found a Lutheran Saint right here in Ethiopia. His name is Belai the Cannibal and he probably lived long before Martin Luther was born. This Belai had the unfortunate habit of eating the people he encountered. One day, however, a leper asked him for a sip of water in the name of the Virgin Mary and Belai granted him the wish. Belai killed and ate another 72 humans before he finally died. When he arrived in heaven, it was found that the one kind act he had done in his life was enough to perfectly balance the many terrible crimes he had committed. A decision had to be made. Should Belai go to heaven or to hell? At that moment Virgin Mary walked by and cast her shadow on the scale and her shadow made the scale tip and Belai was accepted into heaven. Saved by grace not works.

Thursday, November 23, 2006
05:41

Monastery Debre Libanus, a monastery in the Orthodox tradition. The monks live on their own, about 500 of them, there is little or no community among them. The founder of the monastery in the sixth century is said to have stood on one foot for almost 30 years. I am told that I am now seven years younger. The religious calendar is based on the Julian calendar, which assigns exactly 30 days to every month and adds a 13th month every year for the five to six extra days. This calendar runs seven years behind, so they will celebrate the coming of the new millenium on September 11 2007. I explain to the guide that I may be seven years younger in Ethiopia if I go by the years, but if I go by the months, I am four years older than anywhere else in the world. You do the math.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
14:05

"If you try to shake a treestump, the only thing you will shake is yourself" (African saying). Africa is about waiting. At the ticket counter, at the security check point (where else do the authorities check travelers for bombs when they enter the country?), and at the hotel reception. But everyone waits with a smile and an apology, inviting me to enjoy the moment. And isn't most of life about waiting? So, why wait in a hurry? Why shake a treestump?

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
13:46

I had this dream that I sat in a chair and was able to fly. A flight attendant wakes me up and I find that I sit in a chair and fly. It is seven o'clock in the morning, the sun is up, and Africa has spread out her welcoming arms beneath us. We will be landing shortly.

Monday, November 20, 2006
19:23

Ok. So it's not 14 hours non stop. The plane landed in Rome for refueling. Next stop: Mamma Africa.

Monday, November 20, 2006
09:13

5:30 AM. I say good-bye to my friend Matthias. For many years now we meet at the annual conference of the Society of Biblical Literature and share a hotel room. I call home one last time. When the taxi driver to the airport tells me he is from Addis Ababa I laugh because this is where I'm headed

Monday, November 20, 2006
00:07

Friday. I am rebooked. Flying through New York I am scheduled to arrive in Washington at 11:18. But at La Guardia the plane stands on the runway for 40 minutes. I land 11:55 and run for a cab. The driver is from India. He smiles from under his turban. "I'll get you there," he says as he pockets the 20 dollar tip. I walk into the packed auditorium the very moment the technician launches my PowerPoint presentation. The clock shows 12:30 when I step up to the podium and begin to speak.

Sunday, November 19, 2006
23:38

Thursday. I rush home after class and begin to pack my suitcase. I'll be gone for two weeks and three days. The first stop will be Washington DC, a lecture on the oldest manuscript of the gospels in the US at the Smithsonian on Friday at 12:30. At the airport a security officer points to the long lines at the check-in counter. "All flights into DC are cancelled for the day," he says. As Vera drives home I check train and bus schedules using my cell phone. It is impossible to arrive in time for my lecture even if I drove all night. A group of scholars from England, France, Germany, Australia and the US had been planning this event for three years. But one hour after leaving home I am back again, watching the heavy rain set in and strong winds pick up, wondering.

Thursday, November 16, 2006
17:31

Off to Washington, DC. But this is only the first leg.