Lalibela and The Underground Churches

Woke fairly early, and got up around 4am to pack. Breakfast was booked for 5am, and the driver was arriving at 5:20, however when I got down to the lobby, the place was in darkness and the guard fast asleep on the floor behind the couch covered in a sheet. Watched the soccer in the lobby for a while, then wandered into the restaurant which was also in darkness to see if my breakfast was about. Found the 2 waiters fast asleep on the floor covered in sheets, and no amount of coughing and calling seemed to rouse them. Honestly, I could have cleared out the business centre and nobody would have been any the wiser. Gave up on the breakfast, and went and got my suitcase from the room. The wheels clunking out of the lift were enough to wake the receptionist who I actually hadn't seen (yep, lying on the floor covered in a sheet). She rang the restaurant phone which was enough to wake the waiters, but by the time the folded the sheets, put away the cushions and tucked themselves in, the driver had arrived, so that was the end of my breakfast.

Back to an African airport. Two independent security checks. They didn't care about the water in the pack pockets, or the fluids in the bag, but they'd probably arrest you if you didn't take your sandshoes off. Stood in endless lines while the airline guy controlling the queue let all his friends to the front, but we eventually got through. Had some breakfast at the only food store, which was a debacle. All 3 groups at our table got the wrong things, and some still hadn't turned up by the time we had to board. The waitress hadn't cut the bills yet, so the cashier didn't have a clue when we came to pay.

More security and two checks of our boarding passes. The last person put a purple elephant sticker on our boarding pass. Probably an award for surviving.

The plane was a little Dash-80 with propellers. Two flights took off one after the other, so it's a popular destination, but I guess the Lalibela runway just won't cope with larger planes. They would also have to paint some lines on it first - there weren't any. About a 40 minute trip, which was uneventful except for a German tour group that came on with 4 pieces of hand luggage each, then proceeded to rearrange the overhead lockers for everybody.

Lalibela is a delightful rural village, that was once the capital of the country but is now struggling to cope with all of the tourists. Took us 25 minutes on a largely dirt road to climb a kilometre in elevation to the village, but I had a smile on my fact the whole time. It's gorgeous, and it's the Ethiopia I was hoping to see. The harvest has just finished, so every family is preparing a threshing floor in their front yard, while the young boys herd the cattle around with their sticks.

A few minutes at the hotel, which is modest but lovely, to drop my gear, and we headed off to see the close by rock churches, starting with the northern group.

I think we saw a total of five, though I wasn't always sure where one finished and the next one started. They are not cave churches, which are far more common, but monolithic rock churches, which means that they are not joined to the rest of the hill, and you can walk right around the base. Built in the 10th and 11th centuries, the legend goes that the builders laboured during the day, and the angels kept working at night, so that it was finished in two years. Recent carbon dating estimates that it actually took closer to 200 years.

Like most orthodox churches, every thing has it's symbolism. Things come in 12s for the apostles, 10s for the commandments, 3s for the trinity and so on and so on. There were at least 6 types of crosses (latin, crusader etc etc), and if I try to remember it all I'll only get it wrong. Surprisingly, we were able to climb all over the churches, and take photographs of everything and anybody. As long as we took our shoes off inside, and didn't go into the Holy of Holies in each church, we were free to explore. One day that will change I'm sure but its a nice change.

First up was the largest - Biete Medhani Alem - surrounded by a moat like structure for security, and hermit's caves hollowed out of the surrounding walls, followed by all of its chapels and other close by churches. Shoes off and shoes on. By the end of it, I could pick the early ones and the late ones, and identify the various influences. An essential life skill. I was told that they are expecting around 400,000 pilgrims for orthodox Christmas in a few weeks, and you won't be able to see the buildings for the bodies.

Then it was a short walk to St George's Church, the most recent and famous, but quite small. It's generally renowned as the peak of the architectural progression, and the top of it is at ground level. Took a walk across the hills and through the village back to the hotel for lunch. Out came the sandals. We had another 5 churches to see in the afternoon.

The afternoon was off to the eastern group of churches just a short drive away. Most of them were constructed early on, at the start of the 10th century, but Biete Gabriel was probably the nicest of the lot. Very small, but architecturally advanced, and a good one to finish on. A great day in a lovely spot.

To my delight, the hotel has free wifi, so I spent the late afternoon trying to make sense of everything that I'd seen.

For those of you who are looking for news about Mandy, we were finally able to Skype last night, and tonight. She, and her baggage, arrived safely in Nairobi. Mandy spent yesterday morning preparing and rehearsing, and the afternoon buying books and materials at the local mall. Her first teaching day was today. She dealt with three of her four topics, with the other one tomorrow.

As is usual in Africa, her day had a running start. When she turned up to set everything up, the place was all locked up, and she had to sit in the taxi until somebody arrived with a key. At the advertised start time, there was one person there. An hour later there were ten, and so she started. By the end of the first session it was up to 24, and by lunchtime she had 53. Of course, when you are explaining theory first, and then doing practical exercises, there's a fundamental problem if you turn up an hour late. Anyway, most people were there for lunch, which in typical African fashion finally arrived at 3:30. The finish time was correspondingly tardy, so I suppose they got their correct dose.

Mandy seemed pleased with the way it had all gone, and is looking forward to tomorrow's session, and then spending the afternoon with some of the senior teachers doing some mentoring.