The Ethiopian Church lent begins tomorrow, sooner and lasts longer than lent in the U.S. It is a lot more focused on sacrifice too. No animal products. Every day. For 55 days. Worse yet, no food or drink until 3 p.m. Every day. That means coffee too. No alcohol at all. Of course, some people don't observe these customs. Others are even stricter. Some butcher shops, dairy stores and cafes close during this period. For a great pictorial explanation of Ethiopian lent go to https://www.dw.com/en/ethiopia-fasting-for-55-days/g-38067533
But today, most everyone is feasting on the literal sacrificial lamb or goat. I was no exception, thanks to the kindness of my Guesthouse family. The dishes were delicious, if difficult for a mostly vegetarian to digest. But it will be easy to find my favorite vegetarian dishes for the next 55 days.

Shed to table. As I got ready to go on my bike ride the camera shy goat above had taken up residence in the bicycle parking lot. Since today was the last day before the 55 day Easter fast I thought he might end up on the table for dinner. I did not think he would end up on my table. My Guesthouse treated me to their pre-Easter fast feast on the right.
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Donkey carts are still a common way to move agricultural products and building materials. They don't have to wait in line for gas (benzene as they call it in Ethiopia). This donkey is bypassing a line for gas that stretches about a mile long. 
https://www.africanews.com/2019/01/16/ethiopia-djibouti-road-blockade-causes-acute-fuel-shortage-in-addis/
Below you can also see one of the best views of Bahir Dar from just below the last palace built by Haile Selassi. 

Timkat exceeded my high expectations. It was so beautiful and colorful. There was music and dancing and religious ceremonies that take place over three days. But most memorable in Ethiopia is the people, and Timkat was no exception. They welcomed us and were proud to have us be a part of their UNESCO World Heritage Event.

The event celebrates Epiphany, John's baptism of Jesus and includes the symbol of the Ark of the Covenant. Its replica is in each Ethiopian Church. It is called a Tabot and is carried on a priests head from each church to a central location on day one. On day two all the Talbots are returned to their respective churches in another procession except one. St. Michael's church stays at the central location for an extra day. Above you can see St. Michael's Talbot being returned in what was probably the single biggest procession I have ever seen. We enjoyed it from the balcony and roof top of my hotel. I could not have done that in Gonder.
I cannot adequately capture the amazing beauty and celebration of Timkat here. You can learn more about it at https://www.thetravelmagazine.net/timkat-festival-ethiopia.html

On day two pilgrims start the day by coming to the central place where the Tabots were kept overnight to get baptized again. In Bahir Dar at one location I understand they used Lake Tana to baptize. But where I was they used firehoses. Some of the priests seemed to enjoy dousing their flock with the holy water. I saw lots of cold, wet pilgrims leaving the park. Some stopped for sugar cane for quick energy.
Below, you can see the colorful groups that march with the floats and priests to return the Tabots (Arks of the Covenant) back to their rightful churches.

People sweep the streets with palm fronds, symbolic of palm Sunday) ahead of the red carpet, which is laid down ahead of the musicians, dancers, floats and priests carrying the Tabots (Arks of the Covenant) on their heads. Incense burns constantly. This goes on for miles. The carpet carriers below are very earnest.

Sugar cane is brought in on these donkey carts and sold as a snack at the festival. I understand this is a relatively new tradition, but a good one I think. Of course, you can also get a Coca Cola for your sugar fix.
Below is a vendor who harkens back to a much older tradition. Male suiters used to propose to a young woman during Timkat by throwing a lime at her. A throwback that isn't taken seriously today.

Below is the first day of Timkat. As noted before, replicas of the Ark of the Covenant (Tabots) held in each Ethiopian church are carried on the top of priests' heads to a central location in the community. That was a park near the lake in my part of Bahir Dar. There is dancing and blessing of water for baptisms. As I left the gathering on the first day of Timkat this guy below charmed me into getting a cross painted on my arm. I waived him off at first and he gave me a perfect "buzz killer" look. The only thing to do was set the price. He asked for too much at first so I started to walk off again. He said okay, he'd do it for free. Just to pain a Ferengi's arm I suppose. He really did a great job and, of course, I paid him what we both decided was a fair price.

This street scene captured from my balcony was my initiation into Ethiopia's Timkat. The crowds, the colorful floats and the festive atmosphere were Ethiopia at its finest. They are ceremoniously moving the Tabot from each church to a central location for the blessing of baptismal waters.
​Many people seemed disappointed I did not go to Gonder, where the Timkat celebration is considered superior. But Bahir Dar is my home. I wanted to experience it here.

One benefit of Timkat was I was permitted into an Ethiopian Church, the newest and biggest church in Bahir Dar. Getting inside probably had more to do with Zewdu being with me than the Timkat festivities. People are gathering to witness the return of this church's Tabot (Ark of the Covenant) on day 2 here.

My friend and colleague Zewdu invites me to have lunch with his family often. He and his family know how much I enjoy good food, especially their home cooking. He also knows I really enjoy a view into the culture and family life. But most important is the chance to relax and talk.
 
Today was special because I finally got to see them make injera. Injera is a mystery to many in the west. It is a spongy, sour dough flat bread. The staff of life in Ethiopia and Eritrea, but no where else I know of. “Authentic” injera is made with an ancient grain called teff. Teff comes in light and dark colors. To my knowledge, it was only grown in Ethiopia and Eritrea until recently. Since it is gluten free and very healthy teff is becoming more popular in the United States. It is starting to be grown there, perhaps a result of being a healthy ancient gluten free grain and the increase in Ethiopian restaurants in the U.S.
 
Ethiopians are usually surprised that I eat injera and the Ethiopian food that comes with it, much less like it. I think it can sit a little heavy on the stomach of the uninitiated. It tastes a little sour. But scoop up some tegabino with it and it becomes part of a delicious meal.

Since this experience I have also watched injera made over an open fire. I eat it every day, though not usually every meal like Ethiopians typically do. The injera griddle takes up a lot of space in an Ethiopian kitchen, as does injera in the Ethiopian diet.

You feel more like a member of a community if you get out into it. My colleagues and I started going for early morning walks shortly after moving to Bahir Dar. People in the neighborhoods were welcoming. We felt more comfortable in our new home. 
Mulageta, who worked at the Fila, our first hotel residence, saw we were walking every morning and invited us to his aerobics club. He said walking is good, but not enough. It's true for me. Aerobics start time is 5:45 a.m. GT. That's early even for us. It's still dark.
The club had lots of benefits. Good exercise and meeting people from other walks of life than the University (e.g. the director of the local (Jimmy) Carter Center office). Even if we cannot speak Amharic, we felt welcomed and part of a group. 
Now I have added biking to my yoga/walking/aerobics routine. I sleep better. But my Amharic. I still can't count to 10.

Sometimes the aerobics club has activities outside the Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday exercise. The feast above was to celebrate the club's 10th anniversary. We met at the high school where we do our exercise. A few women cooked up a delicious dinner of tibs. Beer is a sports drink?
Below is the city wide aerobics event that happens once a month downtown. It was a blast.

Ethiopia's Christmas Eve falls on Epiphany in the Gregorian Calendar. Today was Christmas Day and the end to the 6 week fast of no meat, dairy or eggs. So Christmas dinner traditionally consists of meat, dairy and eggs. Zewdu and his family had me over to enjoy their Christmas feast. They have me over for lunch every week, so they know how I love duro wat (chicken and a hard boiled egg in a spicy red sauce with lots of dairy fat in it). Also beef tibs and of course coffee. Delicious. Then I went to Chez Meron for round two. I might eat tomorrow.

Ethiopia has a traditional Christmas Day game ye-gena chewata. We watched some of our aerobics friends play it today. It's like field hockey. It has been played for centuries. We are told only on Christmas Day though. The game is so old no one knows for sure how it originated. One story is the Shepards jumping for joy at the news of Jesus birth. The other story a non-believer was beheaded by the three kings (one from Ethiopia) on their way back from Bethlehem. See https://www.ethiosports.com/2011/01/08/ethiopia-cultural-sports-reviving-ye-gena-chewata/

New Year's Eve celebration at the Blue Nile Resort, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Good food, good company and a bonfire. The few tourists we saw at the bonfire out drank and out danced the expats. But then, they didn't have to go to work the next day.

Most people I see on a bicycle are riding to work. They seem to enjoy seeing a Ferengi (white foreigner) out there at sunrise who has the luxury of riding a new bike for fun exercise. The first time I passed a guy, he soon passed me back. I caught up with him and we paced each other for a kilometer. He yelled "Thank you!" when we finally went our separate ways. A bit of fun for both of us.
But these guys really are racing, right outside my residence. You can see how they block off the road here, more often for a football (soccer) match than a bike race. You can also see some of the different donkey carts I encounter on my own rides and the balcony I eat my breakfast of champions on.

Gaja's successful Indian dinner encouraged Meron to open Chez Meron's kitchen up for other experiments. While injera is a delicious and nutritious whole grain carb, the yeast bread here is all white flour. We convinced Meron to let me show her what a whole grain yeast alternative is like. 
I was disappointed in the final results. It certainly wasn't up to Gaja's curry chicken benchmark. But after 3 months of white bread we didn't care. The two loaves pretty much disappeared. I am hoping Meron will give me another chance to adjust for the pizza oven/altitude/kitchen and build a better loaf. And waffles some Saturday morning.

Meron, who owns Chez Meron, had asked Gaja to teach her how to make Indian Curry chicken. Jill seized the opportunity by suggesting they do it on Boxing Day, her birthday, and threw the party for us. So when Americans are taking back their unwanted or ill fitting gifts to scoop up all the after Christmas sale merchandise, we were at Chez Meron's enjoying a rare opportunity to have a delicious Indian dinner. 

Our Fila Hotel Family treated us to true Ethiopian hospitality today, gifts and a coffee ceremony. They knew it was Christmas on our Calendar. No one else here seemed to. I have only seen one Christmas decoration, a tree, in one resort here. I had only one conversation with someone here who knew it was Western Christmas, Dadimos who lived in the states several years.
Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas is not until January 7. The only sign of it is many Orthodox church members are fasting for 6 weeks (no food until noon and a vegan diet). But our Fila Family knew and put on a coffee ceremony for us to celebrate Christmas. They even presented us with these beautiful traditional shirts. Merouane and I had just moved out a week ago, but we are still welcome as family. Gaja has never even lived there, but as our friend is welcomed as well. 
Ethiopians are so welcoming. They will share what they have, even if they do not have much. I am very fortunate to have this opportunity to spend with them.

This Ethiopia Orthodox Medieval Church, Ura Kidane Mehret Church, is worth a second visit. These churches seem to have similar characteristics. They tell the stories of their religion in colorful murals so that the illiterate part of the population could be taught about the religion. The murals cover all the walls on the inner sanctum.  The guide on this, my second trip out to the trip, helped bring the murals and their stories to life. The violence of these stories is not censored. Above this first panel are some of the depictions of the apostles' deaths. 

Below you can see how illustrations also made it into the ancient texts for Ethiopia's Orthodox Church. The museum that holds these artifacts provides a modern glimpse into the ancient religion. 

The walk to Ura Kidane Mehret Church and museum includes a shopping mall of crafts and their creators. I missed getting a picture of this guy on my first trip. 

Chicken isn't neatly packaged in plastic in the refrigerator section of your supermarket in many developing countries. Chicken on a stick in Ethiopia is bought as fresh as can be. The consumer does the rest. In Ethiopia you are never far removed from the source of production. We took Sami and Kathleen to the big market in Bahir Dar. Then to our favorite fish restaurant right on Lake Tana where local fisherman come in to have their catch cleaned and sold. That's why you see all the pelicans hanging out by our lunch table. Kathleen's Kuriftu resort serves as a final, and greatest contrast between the real world and the one we often find ourselves isolated in. 

Sami Andrews is a fellow Ambassador's Distinguished Scholar who came from Gonder University to lecture on “Globalization, Sovereignty and Ethiopia in the Age of Creativity Jurisprudence”. This spurred a discussion on the Marrakesh Treaty, amongst other things. The Marrakesh Treaty is an international copyright treaty to create "limitations and exceptions for the benefit of the blind, visually impaired, and otherwise print disabled (VIPs)." For more information on this treaty go to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) site.
For more information on this creative clinic, or to get involved, contact David Tushaus at [email protected].

Faculty took me on a tour of a couple of Legal Aid Centers that Bahir Dar University operates. The 6 Centers depend on in-kind donations of office space and a small budget from the University. The goal is to expand the visibility of the centers and increase their outside funding so they can be a greater force for change in the community and education for the students. 
This is the Center in Bahir Dar close to the Court of Appeals and where I live. I was also able to visit the center in the prison. That was especially interesting and active. I sat in on a couple of interviews of prisoners by students, which was interesting, even if I could not understand a word of the Amharic spoken. The problems, summarized for me later by the faculty supervisor, included a prisoner who has merely been accused and has waited months for a trial. This is a critical issue in many countries, including the United States. BDU needs funding to be able to do more work at these Legal Aid Centers.

Visiting villages in Ethiopia is a real treat. The countryside around Bahir Dar is beautiful. I get to see what a cow shed looks like, how they dry crops and bricks in the sun, everyday life and best of all the children. This day trip was to see the last palace built by Haile Selassie, Ethiopia's 225th and last emperor, serving from 1930 until his overthrow by the Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1974. For more information on the Emperor see https://www.biography.com/political-figure/haile-selassie-i

There are no supermarkets here. Well, there are, but they are more the size of a very small grocery back home. Most people shop at smaller shops on the street or something like this large open market in Bahir Dar. You can get almost anything to be found in town here. The market is divided into large sections of various items, similar to a supermarket here. There's the poultry section (look closely for the chicken on a stick, spices, beans, vegetables, tef (the ancient grain unique to Ethiopia and injera) and even plastics. One vendor pointed out that his section was all Ethiopian goods, nothing from China, to try to sell us on his vendors.

I had an opportunity to tour the domestic violence shelter in Bahir Dar. One of my proposed projects is to conduct a Sex and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Clinic at Bahir Dar University Law School.  My hope is to have students study the international law Ethiopia has signed on to and make recommendations for changes to its present domestic law. It is my understanding Ethiopia has not criminalized marital rape and has no civil order of protection law. We can at least expose the students to these issues and get a conversation going on adopting these laws.
The shelter is in a nice new building. It has a lot of programs for the residents. Classes, art therapy, drama therapy, and group therapy. The staff was very nice and welcoming.

We stopped on an island on our way back to Bahir Dar from the Zege peninsula. As we inspected this building, a monk passing by informed us that it used to be a prison. There was probably no need for bars or fences. The nearest land would be too far for most people to swim to. The weather would make doing time here not as bad as Alcatraz, where it can be beautiful but also bone chilling cold. You also would not have to listen to the rich people partying at the nearby yacht club of an evening and be reminded of what you might be missing.
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A peaceful boat ride and walk through a forest of coffee trees and vendors selling crafts brings you to this 14th Century Church. It is said by some to be the most beautiful in the Lake Tana region, and for good reason. The contrasting colors set against the mud/straw walls feel symbolic of Ethiopia. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ura_Kidane_Mehret for more information. 
Below are photos from the museum next to Ura Kidane Mehret Church. One book dates back to 900 A.D. Our guide asked us if we wanted to go into it. When we said yes he summoned a monk who let us in. It was much more impressive than this afterthought would imply.

The catch is that the peaceful walk through the forest winds through a variety of shops selling local goods. There were some nice local crafts, from locally harvested incense to pictures on leather to jewelry fashioned out of old, obsolete coins. Frankincense is readily available in Ethiopia, unlike the U.S. It smells wonderful and is used in Ethiopian religious ceremonies, homes and coffee ceremonies on the street or in a restaurant. See https://fairtradefrankincense.com/tag/ethiopia/
It was easy for me to resist everything by the coffee. Jill could not resist buying a local craft from this girl, who drove a hard bargain to the amusement of even the locals who joined us while we had our coffee.
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The coffee here was delicious as most Ethiopian coffee is. These people are roasting the beans grown there on the peninsula, brewing the coffee while burning frankincense they harvested. They were not going to charge us for the coffee. They wanted to sell us some frankincense instead. I paid for the coffee.

It was a peaceful day in Bahir Dar on Wednesdays. It's a fasting day, and we could see the gathering of the mass believers to pray at church when we began our walk shortly after 6 a.m. This is a common site Fridays and Sundays as well. Fasting means nothing to eat until after 3 p.m. our time, that's 9 o'clock Ethiopian time (Sunrise starts the day at 0. Sunset starts the night at 0. Each occurs at what we call 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.).
Even when the fast is broken, no meat or dairy is eaten. There are 55 days of fasting right before the Ethiopian Easter, and I think almost as many before the Ethiopian Christmas. I try to observe vegetarian most days, but I don't fast. There isn't much dairy to be had here anyway, but I assume the restriction applies to eggs, which I count on every day.
For more information on religion see http://www.ethiopiantreasures.co.uk/pages/religion.htm.

It was not so peaceful in other parts of Ethiopia today. There were 200 arrested and 23 killed in and around Addis Ababa due to ethnic clashes. There is a real tension between tolerance of opposition groups and keeping things peaceful. That's the case anywhere. This continues to shape up as an interesting and important year for Ethiopia. I had a conference call cancelled because the internet may be down in parts of where one participant is. See ​https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/ethiopia-thousands-protest-ethnic-violence-killed-23-180917141138078.html