Ethiopia I: Addis Ababa

“Our adventure has already begun,” I said, as Dave, Camille, and I surveyed the mostly African members of our Ethiopian Airlines flight milling about the airline gate in Washington, D.C. The sleek Ethiopian Airlines jet was being serviced outside our window.  It was August 22, 2019, and Dave, Camille and I were off for a two-week tour of Ethiopia.  Mike was flying separately.  Camille and I both commented on how beautiful the Ethiopian ticket agents were, with their high foreheads, high cheekbones, large eyes, and café au lait skin.  A few old ladies were dressed in Ethiopian “shamas,” which are loose white dresses edged with embroidery and gauzy white scarves, but most of the crowd was in Western clothes.

After landing in Addis and taking a nap at the charming Jupiter Hotel, we took a city tour with Bayau, our Grand Ethiopian Holidays guide.  First stop was Trinity Cathedral, constructed by Haile Selassie in 1931, the year after he became emperor, and lavishly decorated with religious paintings and stained glass windows in both modern and medieval Ethiopian styles.

 Ethiopia received Christianity in 300 AD, and the Ethiopians are still profoundly religious.  Many of our best character study photos were of priests.

Many Ethiopian religious objects are symbolic.  These drums are used in the church to create music.  The small end of the drum symbolizes the New Testament and the large end of the drum symbolizes the Old Testament.

 We especially loved the stained glass windows by Afewerk Tekle, who also did the distinctive stained glass window at Africa Hall.  Windows along one side of the cathedral depicted scenes from the Old Testament and windows along the other side of the cathedral depicted scenes from the New Testament.  We also saw the crypts of Haile Selassie, who was executed in 1974, following his overthrow, and that of his wife, Menen.

 The Ethiopians are proud of being only briefly colonized, by the Italians in World War II.  The mural above portrays the Battle of Adawa, where the Ethiopians beat the British in the 1800s and banished them from Ethiopia.

 This is Haile Selassie's throne.  My mom and dad went to parties at Haile Selassie's palace, since Dad was the first business vice president of the new Hailer Selassie University.

 On August 23, 2019, we visited more highlights of Addis Ababa.  We spent a few hours at the National Museum of Ethiopia, with its archeological displays of digs from the Great Rift Valley, running diagonally through Ethiopia.

 This sculpture in the garden portrayed Haile Selassie reviewing his troops.

 A bit of serendipity--an Olmec head from Mexico!  I had never seen one before.

 The display of Lucy showed cast moldings of her bones.

 The display also included a model of what Lucy, one of the earliest humans, may have looked like.

 I felt an enormous sense of déjà vu as we drove through the gates of Emperor Haile Selassie’s old palace, now the museum for the university.  When we lived in Ethiopia, my father’s office was on the first floor of the palace.  Bayau arranged for me to talk with the curator of the museum about my father’s involvement with their institution.  The curator summoned the university historian, who said he recognized Dad’s name.  The historian showed me a plaque commemorating the life of Kasse Wolde-Mariam, the first president of the university, with whom my father worked as the first business vice president of the university.  I remember my parents talking, over, and over, about “Kasse.”  Eventually, my father changed offices and became dean of the business school, but this is where he began.  “I wouldn’t be surprised if Grandpa is taking a peek at us now,” I told Camille.

 Bayau walked with us through the cultural displays.  He told us that we would see many of these items, as we toured Ethiopia.

 These are burial sculptures.  I thought of my mother's collection of African statues.

 Our tour concluded with the personal bedrooms and dressing rooms of Haile Selassie and his wife, Menen.

 We ate an Ethiopian lunch at "Lucy's", a charming, jungly restaurant next to the National Museum.

In the afternoon, we drove to the top of Mt. Entoto, which normally had a beautiful view over Addis.  This day it was foggy and rainy.  It was on Mt. Entoto that King Menelik I founded Addis Ababa, after unifying the country.

 Our final stop of the day was an antiques store, where we admired the beads and baskets.  Camille and I each bought Ethiopian crosses.