The only semi monolithic church we saw at Lalibela. It is traditionally believed to have been built in one day with the help of the holy spirit and faith in god. The walls are one meter thick and it has the smallest area of prayer since most of it is reserved for the preparation of the holy communion.
Bete Saint George Church is said to be the last church built in this area, the first level windows are sealed shut to symbolize the windows of Noah’s Arc being shut to protect the animals inside.
I asked kids to join us while taking our family picture and some did, this little girl joined us too late but still sat on my leg, and stayed there. I was not going to make her feel out of place so instead of standing up I sat with her and used my Wolaiteña to ask for her name. She started talking to me and I just smiled, nodded and hoped it was not a question. In rural Ethiopia there is an informal way of saying yes which is just a forceful yet short inhale through your mouth. Everyone does it. When I did it with this girl, she and everyone around started giggling at the ferengi. I appreciate all those giggles, they let me know that my Wolaiteña language skills are at least understandable.
We sat together for a while, and then a woman brought me a baby, I didn’t know if she wanted me to play with him or carry him, but when I reached out to carry him he freaked out and started crying.
It was hilarious yet horrible hahaha I really wanted to carry that baby. Everyone demonstrated they wanted me to do so as well with laugher of acceptance and hugs telling me not to worry about his crying.
It is amazing how much love can be felt without the language to communicate it.
I am not the only one obsessed with children,Kibrewosen Negash always has so much fun with kids. He and I try to have conversations with them even if there is a slight language barrier. He does speak 5 languages so there is a clear disadvantage is communication skills between he and I, BUT I appreciate his skills because he makes them dance their typical ethnic dances for us to see.
Eventually I will try to learn the dances so I can join them, even if I get laughed at slightly. Hopefully I will be joined by some after they see me dancing and we will have a good dance teaching session.
This is the excavation unit that the students are working on. Mine is N40E35, in other words, the one in the top left side of the picture. Two people are working on the bottom left unit and one is working on the bottom right-most unit.
When we excavate we have to be careful of how much we go down and for what reason. Here we do arbitrary levels of 5 cm, which means that regardless of the artifacts recovered, we have to go down 5 centimeters across the unit. Another method we use is of natural levels, which means that if as we are digging we find a different stratigraphy, we have to stop and create another level, regardless if we went down less than the 5 centimeters we try to achieve.
I am on level 10, and have gone through about 6 different stratigraphic units.
UNIT N40 E35, in other words the coolest unit at the Mochena Borago site.
This is the total station. Without it, nothing that we are doing could be done (or rather, it could, but would take longer).
In order to know how low you have gone in an arbitrary or natural level, you must use the total station. With this machine, you shoot a point in your Excavation Unit, so that you can get the elevation of that particular area in the unit.
This is how the excavators know that they have or have yet to reach the 5cm limit of their level. I am holding a prism, this helps the total station shoot the particular point in the unit that the excavator wants to know the elevation of.
The total station also helps plot artifacts that we find in the different levels and records the data of where they are found in the space of the unit. We do this because the information of where artifacts are found relative to each other is very important for research.
I try to refrain myself from petting animals in Ethiopia but this dog is special. His name is Argolá and he is Yohaness pet, he is always at the site spending time with us; I never pet him as a precaution for any fleas he may have but this time was different. I was sitting on the floor with my forehead on my knees tired from a long day of digging and Argolá came to see how I was doing, I couldn’t help but pet him a bit before continuing to work.
I may look like a terrorist with a bandana covering half of my face, but I try to have an attitude that portrays quite the opposite. I know most people here are curious about my hair and skin color, and I try to be as accepting, open and helpful to that curiosity as I can.
The children use empty water bottles to take water to school and even carry water from the pump to their homes. I have made it my task to always find and save empty water bottles to give to the children.
This is such a simple way to prove your concern for the people, and if I could, I would do much more.
Ps. I use this bandana because of the amount of dust; it is not a fashion statement.
Presenting the elite team on a hike up the mountain with the most beautiful view I have seen in my life.
I have been eating a lot of delicious Ethiopian food, and taking these hikes have definetly helped me not feel too bad about it.
A little bit out of breath but we all just blame the altitude.
They say that the people you meet during your travels will be your friends for life. This is because you usually have many things in common with the people you travel with. I am very fortunate to say that I have met 3 of my closest friends on this trip, we stuck together in sickness and in health, in happiness and anger, and in the clean and the dirty.
After a long day of digging at the Mochena Borago site, we went to visit Justin at the Dalbo site to hear how his work was going.
We loved the site so much we decided to get the elite team together for a picture, here it is,
Family picture at Dalbo, 2016.
Life is complicated. It is too long for most but short for some; it hurts you in order to teach you a lesson; it is multilingual and creates language barriers; it guides you through the darkest of paths yet helps you follow the light of victory. Life is interesting, it makes you adventurous yet cautious; it makes you wise yet humble; it makes you understanding.
Life is an excuse for most, a complaint for some and an experience for few.
Life has made me different than the rest. It has made me strong, it has made me kind and it has made me happy.
These kids were my life today.
This is my friend Amisal, she is rocking my sunglasses better than I ever could have. She also very quickly learned how to take selfies.
Her and the other children were impressed at out Ferengi (all the americans from UF) skills when we counted until 100 in Amharic – disclaimer: they helped us with the difficult numbers.
Student of Life 