Hike to the Hole-in-the-Wall Church

When the team and I first arrived in Mekele, capital city of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, we had a day off. Lacking the inevitable travel fatigue this early into our journey, we decided to use our free time for some sightseeing. We stopped in at the tour office next to our hotel and were advised to take a trip to visit some of the region's rock-hewn churches. As Ethiopia is famous for its ancient Christian churches carved out of rock in myriad ways, we thought this sounded like a good cultural activity.

The highlight, said our guide before departure, would be the Abuna Yemata church, carved out of a cliff on the side of a giant monolith. Skeptically, we asked about the extent of the trek to the church. "Don't worry, anybody can do it," he said.

We drove out of the city in a minibus, down gravel roads winding through the highland plateaus of Tigray. The scenery was beautiful - huge rock ridges and sweeping valleys rich with dark soil and golden stone. This photo, taken from the road, is a typical view in the Tigrayan highlands:



We arrived at the site and met a few more guides ... guides-cum-militia, apparently, as one carried a dull, old axe for protection as he walked along with us, and another stood stationed outside our vehicle to make sure nothing was stolen or bothered. Good, sturdy Ethiopians, these two:



While they looked up for the climb, I'm not entirely sure the rest of us were. Having arrived a week or two prior in Ethiopia, our poor sea-level lungs were still not used to the elevation - 7000' or higher up in these highlands. It's a pretty serious change in altitude when you're not used to it - and that's just when you're standing still. Suffice it to say that looking at the following task in front of us was no joke:



Learning that we were climbing about halfway up the largest rock to reach the church (I know, "What church?!") didn't stop us. Our guides moved among the rocky terrain like mountain goats and we did our best to stumble along behind on the rough paths. As we climbed higher, we were treated to sweeping views of the valley - truly breathtaking (or was the breathtaking from the altitude and the hiking?).



After gaining about 1500 feet, we reached the end of the path - and looked up to a sheer, creviced rock wall. I wish I had thought to take out my camera - and I would've had I known what I was getting into. With the help of our nimble and experienced guides, up we went, hand over foot by the small holds in the rock, up one cliff and then another, until we were perched on the side of a giant rock monolith. Here is a break before the last scramble - you can just about see the church entrance up above the bushes:



After our final ascent, we tiptoed around a 2" wide ledge around the side of the cliff to reach the entrance to Abuna Yemata church - basically a small cave carved out of the side of a mountain 1500 feet in the air. The priest awaited us.




Inside the church we found original 4th century frescoes, telling the story of the original nine Syrian apostles and an Ethiopian prophet who delivered Christianity to Ethiopia. Persecuted by Muslim rulers in the 4th century, the first Ethiopian Christians carved hidden churches out of rock and mountain, creating a small and hidden faith that grew suddenly with the rise of the Axumite kings. The bible pictured below is written in the ancient Ge'ez language.




Despite the grueling and dangerous climb, the trip was fantastic. Between the views and the glimpse into Ethiopian history, it was one of the more unforgettable parts of my Ethiopia experience.

No blogging in Ethiopia ... or is there?

"Hello after a long hiatus" seems to be a common theme of this blog, no? When I arrived in Ethiopia I found that Blogspot was blocked. The Ethiopian Government is, shall we say, quite involved in internet communications in country - so some websites are limited. However, after a month and a half, it now seems that I can access my blog - so here we go with another catch up!

I've been in country for six weeks now and it has been a great experience thus far. We spent our first week at the US Embassy learning about US Government operations here, particularly an overview of USAID but also information about the State Department and some other key agencies. I'm part of a group of 18 interns (17 still standing, with one gone home due to some combination of altitude sickness, heart problems and schistosomiasis), mostly grad students, mostly in international development programs but with other fields represented including public health, business, communications, public administration, etc. It's a great group and we're having a lot of fun.

I'm part of a team of four working on an evaluation of a USAID emergency food assistance program. Emily (masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown), Mary (masters in International Development from Johns Hopkins) and Rocco (masters in Public Administration from University of Vermont) are fantastic teammates - I'm lucky to be paired up with them and really enjoying having such a talented team.

Our first week also included development of an evaluation methodology and data collection tools (surveys, focus group discussion guides, etc.) to prep for our weeks of fieldwork. It also involved a crash course in the program we're evaluating, food aid in Ethiopia, and USAID's strategy for food assistance programming ... and meetings with five NGO partners who implement the program (CARE International, Save the Children UK, Catholic Relief Services, Food For The Hungry and the Relief Society of Tigray) to prepare for our visits to each organization's sites. Suffice it to say that we had very full brains after week one!

In late June we headed out for a month of fieldwork. We started in Ethiopia's Tigray region, in the north of the country. After a week's work around Mekele city, we headed south for a week in the town of Woldiya (a glorified truck stop) and continued on to the city of Lalibela, home of Ethiopia's famous rock-hewn churches. After an extra week in Lalibela to do some initial data management and report writing, we headed back to Addis Ababa for a week at the Embassy for briefings.

Saturday, we head off for another three weeks in the field, doing additional site visits and data collection in the Oromiya region, Dire Dawa municipality, and the Southern Nations, Nationalities & People's Region (SNNPR) in the south of the country.

It has been fantastic to travel throughout the country, meeting emergency food aid beneficiaries and learning about the way the program is helping them. Ethiopia has been well known for its food insecurity in past years, and the recurrence of bad weather and persistent spikes in global food prices continue to take their toll on poor farming communities. The food USAID is providing helps people to survive times of severe food shortage, and we are learning a great deal about how the program works and how beneficiaries are using the food they receive.

That's it as a brief overview - I'll do my best to play catch-up on the details of the past few weeks as long as I maintain blog access!