109- Arriving at Lalibela, The Ethiopian Jerusalem

 

The night was approaching rapidly and it looked a long haul from Lalibela. The tour group was relaxed; everyone had double the room. 12 of us in a 22 seater bus. Each one of us enjoyed the view from the window seat (a childhood dream). 

The day quickly turned into night and with an almighty groan the bus broke down. It was around 6:30 p.m. The night was eerie and it was pitch dark. Without the backlight from other vehicles and surrounding towns, visibility was near zero. We all got down. The night air was pleasant.

 

We were surrounded by fireflies and almost pin-drop silence. Above us the night sky was spectacular. If our bus had not broken down and if it was a scheduled stop, we could have enjoyed the clarity and the brightness of the stars and the night sky.

 

We were worried, but Daniel was on the job. He and the driver were wrestling with the obstinate bus, which was refusing to start. After a lot of tinkering and back and forth in Amharic, the bus initially coughed like a TB patient and after kicking, grunting, and protesting, reluctantly sprang back to life.

 

The driver knew better. Praying to the almighty he stepped on the gas and took off at supersonic speed (40 Km/hour, for the driver and for the bus it was definitely supersonic). One hour later we saw the beckoning lights of Lalibela town. Finally, we were in the holiest of the holy lands. Lalibela nestles at a height of 2,430 metres! quite an altitude! 

 

Only people who worked in Ethiopia, understand the magnetic pull and aura of Lalibela. Often on my visits to Addis Ababa, the local residents would give me envious looks when they came to know that I resided in Bahirdar. Bahirdar, the quaint neatly laid-out city was the envy of all Ethiopians.

 

It had the biggest lake in the country, hosted the starting point of the mighty Nile river was the gateway to the famed Lake Tana Island monasteries (with some of them having the fame of having had the Ark of the Covenant, the ark that had housed the ten commandments).

 

It was also close to Gondar, the royal city, and to the Jerusalem of Ethiopia, Lalibela. It was thus a lucky posting for us and later when I said that I had visited Lalibela, my Ethiopian friends were delighted.

 

Considered to be the 8^th wonder of the world, Lalibela has some of the most spectacular rock-hewn monolithic (carved out of a single rock) churches in the world, dating back to the 13^th century. At a time when mechanization was not prevalent, it is still a puzzle as to how these churches were built.

 

It is not as if the churches are part of a mountain. All the churches stand apart from each other and the most famous of them all, the Church of Saint Georgia is the most intricate and shaped like a cross. Church Bete Medhane Alem is supposed to be the biggest rock-hewn church in the entire world.

 

If the churches were carved out of rocks and mountains, there should be small mountains of rocks and debris. But we don’t find any hillocks full of debris surrounding Lalibela churches. Where is the debris? No one knows. Ethiopians have a simple answer. The churches have been carved by the gods themselves. A religious belief that has to be respected.   

We were staying at Hotel Helen. It was a bungalow-style hotel with stairs and balconies. It was at best utilitarian but served our purpose.

 

I was tired but went out to experience Lalibela town. What struck me immediately was double storey mud buildings, unique to Lalibela. Most Ethiopian houses are humble structures and are single-storeyed. But I was witnessing double-storeyed houses made of mud and straw. They were not flimsy structures and were solidly built with an excellent staircase.

Walking around Lalibela was a surreal experience. All around us were people moving silently. For many of the visitors, it was a once in a life time experience and the double-storeyed building added to the intrigue and to the ambiance, it was as if we were transported back in time to rural Jerusalem (Lalibela is supposed to be the second Jerusalem and the river flowing through it is called Jordan river!).

 

We were in presence of holy men, chanting silent prayers and counting the prayers on small chains, and holding Ethiopian cross. The Ethiopian cross itself is different from the traditional cross that we are familiar with. Bringing me back to my senses were the Ethiopian Micro-Entrepreneurs – the street urchins.

These street salesmen were peddling different wares. They were selling Ethiopian crosses (quite cheap, 10 Birr, exquisitely carved). “Brass, Brass” they would yell. I bought four of them. The street sellers were also selling coins and currency at a very cheap price.

 

The coins were pennies, cents, and the currency was dollars, Euros, and even rupees. Out of curiosity, I enquired the price of a ten-rupee note, a US Dollar and a Euro. The rate was approximately 1.5 times the official exchange rate. For example, the ten-rupee note was for 3/- birr (officially we could get 2 birr for 10 rupees).

 

“Why are the kids selling them at such a cheap price”, I wondered. Then it dawned upon me. The street sellers were pooling in all the money that was given to them as alms by the foreign tourists and exchanging them for birr. They devised a local money exchange system and it was working perfectly well.

 

Back at Hotel Helen the kitchen army (the ladies of the group) had taken over. They prepared an Indian meal, chapattis, rice, Sambhar and Potato curry and we had a nice hot Indian meal. The day had tired all of us and most were nodding off to sleep by the time they finished their dinner. The hotel kitchen staff hopefully would have benefited from watching us prepare an Indian meal. But it was doubtful whether they could prepare it by themselves.

 

They lacked the most basic equipment, the chapatti rolling pin and the magic masalas that the Indians use. Sangam, the famous Indian restaurant in Addis Ababa is run by Indians and not by Ethiopians. At best hotels in Bahirdar could rustle up watery rice and a basic form of tomato curry but would take inordinate time in preparing them.

 

Hotel Helen embraced us in her broad bosom and tired as we were, we simply crashed and slept!