Susan Corbin

Lalibela, May 9, 2024, Thursday

Ethiopian Orthodox Church procession

We left the hotel at 7:30, earlier than we had on previous days. Melaku was very excited for us to witness something that most tours do not have a chance to experience. He wanted us to see a procession, a sacred gathering of hundreds of people at the first group of stone churches we had visited the day before.

Laundry

When I pack for a twenty-day trip like this, I assume we’ll be doing laundry sometime during the trip. How else can I pack everything into a 22-inch carry-on suitcase? The unknown is where and how.

The day before, I asked about laundry at dinner, and Melaku told me they would do laundry at this hotel. He told me it was all hand-washed and hung to dry. I was pleased to hear that because I usually wash some of John’s shirts in the delicate cycle and hang them to dry. They are made of a silk thread, and I treat them gently. John talked to the people at the registration desk to ask about prices and returned with a plastic bag for the dirty clothes. While he was gone, I went through what we had to decide what was dirty and what was not. I counted five pairs of pants and sixteen shirts. We stuffed it all in the bag, took it downstairs the next morning, and left it with the front desk for washing.

I was relieved to be able to get that done. By this time, we’d been traveling for about ten days, and it was time to recycle some articles of clothing. I washed our undies in the sink later in the afternoon. That was the last time we did laundry. I ended up with a suitcase full of dirty clothing when we got home, but that’s to be expected.

While waiting in the lobby for the group to leave, I chatted with Janet. Laundry came up in our conversation. She said she’d had a translation problem with the front desk people about the laundry. She told them she had pants, and they thought she meant underpants. They don’t do “smalls,” as they called them. She said she finally had to dig through the bag to show them a pair of pants, and they said, “Oh, trousers.” Yes, trousers.

Ethiopian Orthodox Church procession

We left the hotel at 7:30, earlier than we had on previous days. Melaku was very excited for us to witness something that most tours do not have a chance to experience. He wanted us to see the whole procession, a sacred gathering of hundreds of people at the first group of stone churches we had visited the day before.

When we arrived at the church grounds, Melaku led us up front of the gathered crowd. His gesture of getting us a good view was kind, but I felt guilty getting in front of the people who had gathered before us and waited longer than we had. A stage stood before a flat area with the crowd in front of it. The flat area had grasses and other vegetation sprinkled over the bare dirt. Some priests came along and moved us back away from the stage. They put down leaning poles on the ground to create a perimeter they hoped everyone would respect. We got shoved behind some people, and others wormed in front of us until I couldn’t see much. I’m not very tall. However, I saw enough, and Melaku shared some excellent videos he had taken.

The priests (all men, of course) came out along the perimeter of the poles on the ground. They walked around the circle before the crowd and then went up on the stage. Some of the priests swung thuribles with smoking incense.

They wore very elaborate robes—primarily white with red and gold decorations. Some of the priests’ robes were mainly gold with beautiful decorations. All of them wore some head covering, from white linen turbans to gold hats of various styles. The hats varied from simple head coverings to ones shaped like crowns.

As one group of priests walked around the circle’s perimeter, others formed lines in the middle facing each other. The lines of priests in the middle moved apart and together while singing and playing the drums. Some priests carried poles and an instrument with cymbals that clanged together as their hands swayed from one side to the other as they sang.

I had concerns

I shared with Melaku that I felt we were invading their sacred rituals, which bothered me. Seriously, I was close to tears. He assured me that the people participating in the ceremony didn’t think we were interlopers or that we perceived their religious ceremony as a spectacle for us to watch. He assured me they were happy for us to be there. I felt somewhat reassured. It was fascinating what I could see.

The women of our touring group wore scarves as a sign of respect and solidarity with the Ethiopian women. I had brought my black cashmere scarf and was glad to have it, though it was warm. We stood in the sun for at least an hour, and the scarf helped keep the sun out of my eyes.

Finally, Janet couldn’t stand in the heat any longer and went to sit by the ticket office. I think that told Melaku that we were all close to done. He herded us back to the ticket office. At first, we were leaving, but then Melaku wanted us to see the church’s museum. Rather than come back later to see it, which made sense. The museum contained relics collected from the various stone churches in the area to protect them from looting. Luckily for me, who was pretty tired by then, it wasn’t a big museum.

A second set of stone churches

Next, we headed for some more stone churches called Bete Gabriel and Rafael, Bete Merqorios, Bete Amanuel, and Bete Aba Libanos. Melaku sent the names of the churches we visited that evening via WhatsApp. I certainly didn’t remember them. It was shoes off and sticky socks on that many times.

You’ll notice that this church was dug into the side of the mountain.

I was tired during the tour of the last church, so I sat it out. After hearing from the boys, I probably should have gone. They told me Melaku talked more about drums than before. Oh, well.

Tunnels

At one point, we went through a tunnel dug through the rocks from one church to the next. There were no lights in the tunnel besides what came in from each end, so I appreciated Melaku’s suggestion to bring flashlights or “torches,” as he named them. The boys enjoyed the tunnel so much that they went back through it and returned. Becky went with them. Thank goodness.

Melaku told us that the tunnel is one reason secular scholars think the buildings may have been built as royal housing and later dedicated to the church. We had seen a chisel and hammer in the museum that St. Lalibela used in the construction of the churches, or at least one similar to what he probably used.

Melaku hired men to help us old ladies up and down the stone steps. I’m not too proud to say I took the offered help, though probably not quite as much as the other two older ladies in the group, but certainly on some rocky up and down parts. Their helpers were putting on and taking off shoes. I didn’t need help with that. Whenever I put on my sticky socks, I thought of my late sister, Donna, because they were hers. She would have been thrilled to know her socks walked in some of the oldest churches in the world.

Priest photos

At one of the churches, Melaku and the priest arranged for us to take pictures of the priest in his arraignment. Some of the group took pictures with him. One sweet moment I witnessed was when Ebony was posing, and Josephine stopped Melaku, who was taking the photo, to rearrange her scarf to look the best. I just thought it was a loving thing to do.

I didn’t take a picture with the priest. Again, it just smacked of exploitation to me. I don’t fault anyone else, but it was not for me. I noticed John and Becky didn’t either. It didn’t bother me that the boys wanted to, but we declined. Of course, I used one of the photos Melaku shared with us in last week’s post.

Police officer photos

At the church that Melaku said was his favorite and the last we visited, one of the men he hired was a member of the police force. Most police do not allow photos with guns and uniforms, but this guy didn’t mind. Several people had their pictures taken with him. He let the tourists hold his rifle and stand next to him. That kind of thing was exotic for the boys.

Lunch and hotel

We had lunch at a restaurant that Melaku liked called Kana Restaurant. It was good. I had a roast chicken that was quite tasty. When it arrived, it was not what I expected because it had gravy. It turned out the gravy was very good.

We got back to the hotel at 2. John and I went upstairs to take a nap, which I did for about an hour. I heard John leave at one point, but not enough to wake up. Then he came back. He said he’d gone to the lobby to get internet reception.

Soon, Sam came by with John’s phone. I thought it had been found in the lobby, but later, Melaku told us it had been in the van, and the driver found it. Whoops. It must have fallen out of his pocket. He knows better than to put the phone in those pockets, but in the moment, we don’t always think before we do things. He was lucky that time.

At one of the churches, he asked if I’d picked up his phone when we put our shoes on. I said I had not. He went back and found it. After these two incidents, we vowed that that phone would be in his hand or the backpack from then on.

Controversial topic

At 4, we met in the lobby bar area and heard the controversial topic talk. I like doing O.A.T. tours because they try to discuss complex topics related to a country you visit. Melaku invited a gentleman to tell us about his experiences during the war with the Tigray people in Lalibela. The gentleman talked, and Melaku translated.

Honestly, I had to distance myself emotionally from the descriptions of the horrible things this man lived through and saw happen. I hope we witnessed it for him appropriately.

End of the day

We went back to the room and rested some more. Dinner was at 6:30. I had just the soup, bread, and dessert. I probably shouldn’t have eaten the dessert. It wasn’t that good. Even though I ate very little, I was still too full. That night, I slept half the night with two pillows.

Sam seemed to have a cold. He was very congested. I sympathized with him, but mostly, I didn’t want to catch what he had.

The next day, Friday, May 10, we took one of my favorite hikes on the trip. Stay tuned.