Gourds are used for all manner of storage in Southern Ethiopia, and almost everyone
carries one with them for water or local beer.
Month: April 2008
Starling, Southern Ethiopia, November 2007
A Blue-Eared Glossy Starling (?) in the rafters of an outdoor eating area.
Stilt, Lake Ziway, Ethiopia, November 2007
Hummingbird, Lalibela, Woldia, Ethiopia, October 2007
Entrance, Bete Medhane Alem, Lalibela, Woldia, Ethiopia, October 2007
Looking from the original ground level down to the walkway-level entrance to Bete Medhane Alem (‘Church of the Medicine of the World,’ a name for Christ), the largest church in Lalibela. The pillars have been partially restored with quarried stone.
Priest and Crosses, Abba Libanos Church, Lalibela, Woldia, Ethiopia, October 2007
Lalibela, envisioned as a second, African, Jerusalem, is a pilgrimage site in Ethiopia, site of churches cut out of the living rock, and home to a great multitude of priests and deacons, who manage the churches, conduct services, and give tours.
This priest is showing off processional crosses from the treasury of his church.
Sunbeam, Bete Golgotha Church, Lalibela, Woldia, Ethiopia, October 2007
A sun beam coming through a small window illuminates the interior of Bete Golgotha Church.
Sometimes lumped together with its sister church, Bete Debre Sina into the same unit, called Bete Kidus Mikael, Bete Golgotha is meant to evoke its biblical namesake. Inside, in addition to several bas-relief figures and a symbolic tomb of Christ (obscured by curtains), a narrow passageway connects to Trinity chapel, a place so sacred that it is even off-limits to most Lalibela priests.