May 2007 Ethiopia I

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Subject: TTT - The Trumble Travels - May 2007 Ethiopia I

I arrived in Ethiopia on Saturday night, May 12. I had a much better trip into Ethiopia than I did last time (in March when I flew from Rwanda to Ethiopia I got quite sick on the plane…I took a picture of one of the vomit bags I used…If you’d like to see it, just let me know). Anyway, on Sunday morning Habtu and Bamrot took me to church at the International Evangelical Church. The service was conducted in English and the pastor is an American. After church we went to a pizza place. The pizza was good but not particularly exotic (no eggs on it or anything like that).

From the restaurant we walked to the National Museum but on the way I negotiated some with a vendor over some watches and sunglasses. We were unable to reach an agreement on price. Some of the watches for sale by this vendor had images of Osama Bin Laden on them…others had the image of one famous soccer player or another. Most were just normal watches without the image of anyone on them (the watches I was negotiating over were “normal” watches). When I was in high school I kind of adapted a watch so that it had an image of RoboCop on it. Remember RoboCop? (“Murphy, it’s you.” “Where is Clarence Boddicker?” --the guy who played Clarence Boddicker was the same actor who later played the Dad on That Seventies Show). But, we digress.

At the National Museum there are several Ethiopian things including “Lucy”, the famous skeleton of what some people believe to be a 3.2 million year old human ancestor (I don’t believe it). Anyway, we saw Lucy. There was also some thrones of past Ethiopian emperors including Haile Selassie I who was Ethiopia’s last emperor before the Communists took over in the early 1970s. Selassie was emperor for more than 40 years. Selassie is believed by Rastafarians to be the Messiah and part of the Trinity. There was other stuff at the museum too but most of it is not pictured here.


Those are some really cool, pizza knives, though.

Avocado, Passion, Mango, and Pineapple Juice…not too bad.

Some Coptic folks

The National Museum

“Foreingners” cost 5 times as much as Ethiopians to visit the museum but 10 Birr is still less than $1.25. Everybody makes mistakes…

Lucy – the complete skeleton on the far right shows the parts of Lucy that had to be reconstructed. The dark parts show the parts that were found.

Haile Sellasie I’s throne

Crowns

Communist Art

Uganda May 2007

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2007
Subject: TTT The Trumble Travels - Uganda May 2007

Hello again. On Thursday morning I arrived in Uganda and then on Saturday evening I flew to Ethiopia. My short stay in Uganda was nice. In Uganda English is the language spoken by most folks but of course they have their own accent and phrasing. One of the interesting things to me is that when people would greet me they would often say, “You’re welcome” which to me would be a normal response to saying “Thank you” to someone but what they are saying is “You are welcome here”.

Hotel observations
The hotel I stayed at was quite nice. Interestingly, my room was behind two doors (there were 3 rooms that shared kind of a kitchen and living room area so there was one door into the common area and then another door into my room). I had two keys, one for each door. The thing is that when you lock the doors there is no way to unlock them without a key so if there were a fire or some emergency and you had to get out of the doors you’d have to manage the locks with a key or become toast. This hotel is under the same ownership as the place I stayed when I was previously in Uganda and it was the same thing there as well. In fact, during that previous stay, I was taking a nap and my roommate (Scott Todd) didn’t realize I was in the room (there were separate bedrooms) and he locked the door and took the keys and so I was locked in. So, when I went to leave and didn’t have a key I had to go out a balcony sliding glass door or something (in that room it was a real option…in the room I had this past week there was also a balcony off of the common area but it didn’t really go anywhere unless you wanted to take a dive to the ground from the 3rd floor).

Another interesting thing is that when you leave the hotel you drop the key off with the front desk and then when you come back you tell them which room you’re in and they give you the key but they never ask for your name or any identification or anything. You just say a room number and they produce the key for it…doesn’t seem real secure somehow but it seems to work out.

Finally, Africans don’t seem to believe in shower curtains/doors the way we do in the States. I had a little shower “wall” (kind of like a shower door) that covered maybe 40% of the space but if water sprays beyond that, it just goes on the floor. In Ghana and Tanzania I experienced showers with no curtain or door at all. Oh well.

Uganda has a lot of poverty and so people struggle to get by without many of the luxuries to which we’re accustomed in the West. Bicycles are a common mode of transporting goods and many people carry things on their heads. Lots of people cook over a fire (or coals).

Anyway, my short stay in Uganda was good. Here are some pictures:

Kampala, Uganda

Check out some pictures of folks carrying stuff on their heads. Imagine the balance that it takes as well as the strength of their necks!

Bicycles being used for hauling stuff

Lots of bananas on a truck

Lunch is provided for the staff each day. This would be a typical lunch (and is what I had on Thursday).

Container where the mashed plantain stuff comes from. Those are banana or plantain leaves.

Supper on Friday night. Hamburger with egg.

Soccer game

Do you ever wonder, “Dan, do you do any work when you’re on these trips?” Are your initials FK? (you know who you are).

Here’s some pictures that may help you feel better.

London May 2007

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Subject: The Trumble Travels - London May 2007

Greetings!

As I write this I am in the Heathrow Airport in London. I’m on my way to Africa (Uganda and Ethiopia) but I had a long layover today so I took advantage of that time and headed into town. I would have had a bit more time but the flight out of Chicago was delayed by about 3 and a half hours. In the end they had to get us a different plane because the one we were going to fly on ingested one or more birds into an engine and thus it was not flyable.


The Brits talk funny. Instead of “Exit”, their signs say “Way out”


The birds in the below picture and the sign were in two different places but they both kind of fit the theme.


I rode on The Tube for this is what one does when one needs to get around in London.


Big Ben is a “316ft clock-tower was completed between 1858-59.Big Ben is named, probably, after Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works.” (according to this website: http://www.travellondon.com/templates/attractions/gallery_bigben.html)

Westminster Abbey

The St. James’s Square area has Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Parliament building. There are several statues around the area. One of Winston Churchill, one of George Canning (yeah, I don’t know who he is either), and others. However, who would expect to see Honest Abe honored similarly? Anyway, here is Honest Abe and me.

Presumably number 10 Downing Street is down there somewhere. I did not see Tony Blair.

Trafalgar Square (my camera was not dealing with the bright light very well).

I’m not sure you’re supposed to take pictures in the National Gallery but I didn’t notice any signs saying you couldn’t. Here is one by Michelangelo of John the Baptist’s head after King Harrod ordered the head. Some of the pictures are pretty tough like this.

There were also works by Raphael, Da Vinci, Bellini, Rubens, Coreggio, Veronese and a whole bunch of others.

London Tower

The Tower Bridge

I ate at the Anchor Tap, an English Pub.

I had Steak & Kidney Pudding. It was pretty decent. Check it out, when you cut a hole through the pudding stuff it’s kind of hollow like a little igloo. There were hunks of meat inside (maybe steak and kidney?). The pub is on Horselydown Lane.

More Unique Ethiopia Stuff - March 2007

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007
Subject: The Trumble Travels - More Unique Ethiopia Stuff - March 2007

This TTT focuses on some of the unique stuff related to Ethiopia and has less human interest kinds of stuff.

As mentioned in a previous message, Ethiopia was never colonized like the rest of Africa; therefore it has avoided some of the western colonial influences that have impacted other nations. Amharic is the main language in Ethiopia and has its own special alphabet. Ethiopia uses the Julien calendar which consists of twelve 30-day months plus a 13th month of 5 or 6 days (depending on whether it is a leap year or not). Ethiopia is also on a slightly different year. In Ethiopia it is 1999 and September 11 is the beginning of a new millennium (Y2K-ET anyone?)

Time is counted in 12 hour chunks of time with 1:00 coinciding with 7:00 am on the time-keeping system I’m used to (so, a “9 to 5” job would be a 3:00-11:00 job to an Ethiopian). So, if American Idol is on at 8:00 in the evening, that would be 2:00 to an Ethiopian (as a bit of a side note, did you know that there is an “Ethiopian Idol” and “West African” Idol and maybe others?).

Ethiopia is the headquarters of the African Union (kind of like the United Nations but just for Africa). Addis Ababa also has many embassies from other countries.

The Coptic Church claims more adherents in Ethiopia than any other church or religion. The Scriptural cannon that they use includes all of the Bible that we use plus the Apocrypha plus several additional books like Enoch and Jubilees. The Ark of the Covenant is supposedly in Coptic hands at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. Coptic Christians follow dietary rules that have similarities to those found in Judaism.

Legend has it that the Queen of Sheba was impregnated by Solomon. The son she bore, Menelik I, became the first Emperor of Ethiopia and thus the line of Ethiopian Emperors was thought to descend from Solomon. In 1930, the 225th Emperor in this line, Haile Salassie I was crowned.

Something I learned on this trip was the connection between Ethiopia and Rastafarians (think Jamaica, Bob Marley, dreadlocks, and reggae music). Rastas believe that Haile Selassie I, is the messiah and part of the Trinity. At the time he was the only independent black head of state. Ethiopian Emperors since 980 B.C. had the titles King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Anyway, he was seen to be the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Some even believe Melchizedek and Jesus to be previous incarnations of Selasisie. Before taking his new name as emperor he was known as Ras Tafari Mokonnen. This is where the name “Rastafari” comes from.

Rastas believe that Ethiopia is Zion and you can sometimes see the colors of the Ethiopian flag (red, gold, and green) in their clothing. Haile Selassie I did not claim to be the messiah. He died in 1975 which is problematic if you believe him to be the messiah (not all Rastas accept the fact of his death).

Sources for my information include the following sites:

http://www.answers.com/topic/ethiopian-orthodox-tewahedo-church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Sheba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafari_movement

Amharic Stuff




A Coptic Church


Coptic Christians with a Coptic church in the background.

African Union Stuff

Embassy Stuff

A place where we stopped for a coffee. Also pictured is Dawit, Compassion Ethiopia Country Director, his wife, and Habtu.

Tanzania - March 2007

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Subject: The Trumble Travels - Tanzania - March 2007

Jambo from Tanzania!

On Sunday I flew from Ethiopia to Tanzania. The flight was fine (no need to use the air sickness bag this time!). I was picked up at the Kilimanjaro airport by Horace and Christian and taken about 40-45 KM into Arusha, the city where Compassion’s office is located. After checking into the hotel some of us ate together and I had Chinese (that makes 11 countries where I’ve eaten Chinese food).

After lunch some of us went to the Arusha National Park, a large park where exotic African creatures roam about freely. There were monkeys, baboons, guinea fowl, giraffes, water buck, zebras, buffalo, warthogs, flamingoes and dik diks (something like a really small deer). Some of them were too far away for me to get much in the way of meaningful pictures but some turned out okay. We drove around the park for maybe 2 hours before heading back. On the way back we stopped by a church that is one of Compassion’s church partners and the Sunday evening service was still going on. We ended up in the service a bit and I spoke briefly while Christian translated (Swahili is the main language here).

On Monday Horace and I ate at Steers, a hamburger place (it’s a chain out of South Africa). I had an Egg Burger…pretty good.

The weather is warm here (a bit too warm for my tastes) but overall it is quite nice and the people are very gracious. I was in the breakfast area of the hotel on Tuesday sitting at a 4-person table when another American asked if she could join me. It turns out that she is from North Carolina but she and her husband run an orphanage in Tanzania and she is trying to get legal to practice law in Tanzania (she can already practice in the UK). Anyway, kind of an interesting story, she met her Chilean husband while they were studying Chinese in Taiwan, they lived in mainland China for 4 years and Hong Kong for 6. They have adopted a child from Ethiopia, one from South Africa, one from Tanzania and have had a birth child within the past year.

So, I leave for home this afternoon. I fly from Arusha to Nairobi, Kenya where I catch a flight that will stop briefly in Uganda on the way to Brussels, then it’s on to Chicago and home on Thursday night (if all goes according to the current schedule).

Unless there is some particularly noteworthy happenings on the way home, there will be just one other TTT message related to this trip (more on Ethiopia). That will not get sent until I’m back in the States.

Arrival in Tanzania

Stoney Tangawizi – a soft drink

The Park

The fellow with the gun accompanied us. He didn’t have to use the gun.

Zebras

Warthog

Giraffes

Water Bucks and Zebras

Dan & a giraffe

Giraffe

Steers – a burger place

Dan at Compassion’s office in Tanzania