This is our last day in Gondar and Christi and I had planned to visit the nearby Debre Birhan Selassie Church. However, Sayoum knows we want to visit the Omo Valley and he keeps talking about various options and showing us pictures. Sayoum is a rather good salesman and we are soon in deep negotiations. These are not short trips and neither are they cheap. The Omo Valley is a long way from nowhere. Travel is hard and a 4WD vehicle is de rigeur. If something goes wrong here then we will be in serious trouble. We need a reliable guide who speaks good English and who has a reliable vehicle. Neither of these things come cheap. Sayoum thinks we should do 14 days, we offer 8 and eventually compromise on 10. He shakes his complaining that we are missing out on so much and that there will be some unavoidably long travel days. He clearly thinks that he can squeeze a little more money out of Christi and I, but I’m already concerned by the existing price we have been quoted: 32,000 Birr. Even in the Ethiopian currency this seems a lot. I ask for a calculator to double-check my mental arithmetic and the number comes out the same: US$2,370. This does at least include accommodation and gas, but not food or tip. Our departure date depends on the availability of the guide, who is the best in the business we are assured.
While we wait for news of our Omo Valley excursion, Christi and I finally flag down a tuk-tuk for the short ride to Debre Birhan Selassie (Trinity at the Mount of Light) Church, 2 km north-east of Gondar. This church is arguably the most famous in Ethiopia, although not for its exterior appearance, which is a bland rectangular box dating to the reign of Yohannes I (1667-1682). The interior murals are, however, truly magnificent. It has even been suggested that the church was built specifically to house one of the most iconic of religious artefacts, the Ark of the Covenant. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church would have you believe that the Ark is in fact currently displayed in a church in Axsum, but since only monks are allowed inside, believers have to take this claim on faith. The interior artwork of Debre Birhan Selassie Church is attributed to the 17th century artist Haile Meskel. There are depictions of Mohammed, emperors, hell, Saint George and the Dragon, but his most impressive work are the winged angels that adorn the ceiling. Each has a different, enigmatic, appearance and some wag coined the phrase the African Mona Lisa’s – all 104 of them.
One can only hope there is nothing enigmatic about our trip to the Omo Valley – apart from the tribes that live there, of course.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching tale of love and test tubes.
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