Well after a night of chanting and dogs barking this morning, I had planned to walk down to the centre of town - about 4 km. But the rains came and so decided after a quick search of what to do, to go to the National Museum, primarily to see "Lucy". The museum was an old building - in dire need of renovation. Lucy was in the basement floor while the other floors were a mix of modern and historical artefacts and art. What can I say - saw it all in 30 mins.
The rain was still coming down so I decided to walk to the taxi rank about 200 metres down the road. I was accosted by first one then a second young men. The first later showed my a uide ID card, and was 21 , while the second was about 25, both students, struggling to live and pay rent, utilities and food of $150 per month. They stuck to me like glue, suggesting I visit a couple of churches. Well I decided to do that - the first was the Church of St Mary's a mix of Ethiopian Ortodox ( major part of church) and a second smaller part was Coptic. The mass was finishing as we entered. There has been at least a week of fasting during the day which was over and tonight would be a final big celebration. Around the church courtyard sat many people out of the rain under cover.
After visiting the church we continued our walk down the road, even with light rain and torrents of water rushin down the road and open drain pits which I need to avoid. I was struck by the number of people selling many things as well as beggars, people with deformities, blind, mothers with babies...all remaining in the rain with various degrees of clothing, filthy dirty, sandals for foot coverings. It is something I am not familiar back home, but can understand their plight as the economy cannot support these people, predominantly rural folks coming into the city as drought and hard times hit. It is I guess what we as Pulse volunteers are trying to do, overwhelming in some respects to help these people with little education.
The second church was the Holy Trinity, also burial place of Hailie Selassie. The church is adjacent to the Prime Minister soffice and peoples assembly. paying teh ticket I noticed the woman hiding what appeared to be facial injuries.This church was also finishing the mass.We managed to walk around the church and see up close the tomb and priest artifacts. I was taken aback by surprise in terms of the devotion the people had, bowing, and kissing floor and other holy objects. I even noticed people kissing the building outside. I also went into the adjacent museum which had many artifacts from 18 and 19th century, royal garments and crowns.
My two guides then stuck with me as they showed me the way back to my hotel, still pushing their story asking for over 1000 birr to pay for their room. I gave them 200 birr ($12) to thank them - proabbaly too much.
Caught up with the other Pulse folks for lunch and walked around. Accosted by more mothers with babies - and gave them a few birr, but then a whole crowd pounced on us. It took some strong language from the taxi driver to push them away. Not what we were taught in training!
So Day 2 has opened my eyes to the poverty even more so as it clashes with modern buildings going up all around at least in the Bole area.
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