if i was asked to sum up my perception of ethiopia in one word for someone who had never been there, i'd say 'contrast.' this is a land of extreme contrast. in addis ababa (the capital), you can find a shoeless shepherd herding sheep and goats to the same stoplight that a mercedes suv waits at. beautiful people with their trendy jeans and shirts walk the dirty dilapidated sidewalks past brand new high-rises and broken down shacks; business men and beggars; ice-cream shops and garbage dumps. the massive compound of the stately UN building sits up on a hill overlooking a rusty old shanty-town. as we drove north from addis to bahar dar (through the blue nile valley), we were struck by the beauty of the mountains and the poverty of the villagers. farmers have all the land they could ever dream to have...but the soil is full of rocks; their fields are massive...but the land is parched. transportation is a slight peculiarity as well: to fly approx 200km (ie. bahar dar to lalibela) it would take just under a half hour. to drive that same distance (our mode of choice), it takes just shy of 15 hours.
dusty village roads are lined with locals crowding around foosball tables (yes, foosball tables by the hundreds). the most remote huts advertise for coca-cola. beautiful gardens and dried up scrub-lands. calls to prayer (both muslim and orthodox christian). electricity where it doesn't belong and no electricity (random shutdowns) where it clearly belongs. beauty and pain. love and hate. all of this lives in ethiopia.
contrast is everywhere, all the time, but somehow in ethiopia it slaps you in the face...and then again and again and again and........(you get the point).
ps. this post is in retrospect: we are now in kenya, but (as you know) we have been unable to post for the previous couple of weeks. we are now just trying to play a bit of catch-up.
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4 comments:
Hey Lars,
It's great to hear all about your adventure. Thanks for the discription, I love it when you can describe a scene and leave us with something to think about. Hope you're not missing home or the Guat too much :D (j/k). Can't wait to hear more about your journey! I'll be praying.
Melody
PS I got into Cap College in Vancouver so we should hang next year!
Alright lads? Glad to hear you're moving along - it seems as though you haven't had many hang-ups thus far (save the obvious), which is great to hear although I imagine the information you give us reflects but a miniscule fraction of what you encounter on a daily basis. I check the blog every couple of days & I must say that time really does fly - I mean, for me its flying, so for you as you navigate down the continent it must feel like you've been there for both minutes and months.... You know what I mean?
On another note, if you ever get around to doing another Q & A, is there any music that's currently inspiring you (or are you sans ipods for this trip?) All the best, keep up the classic blogging & until next time.... Cheers.
a great word picture!
this is still my favourite blog to date...it's July 10 now. piercingly deep, incredibly revealing and creatively spoken. this is why your blog rocks all blogs.
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