Day 192 - Lalibela Rock Churches - Ceremony of Labinos
Friday, January 11th, 2019
Today we woke without a plan but I still rushed everyone to go downstairs for breakfast because I understood last night that breakfast was served until 8:00. We made it to the dining room half an hour later and the deacon was waiting for us. He told us that he had been waiting for an hour to give us a tour. I apologized for the misunderstanding but I told him that I hadn’t contacted him because we still didn’t know if we wanted to take the tour. I don’t like the pressure but the truth is that if we are only staying here for 3 nights, we needed to get started. I told him that we would take the tour but to give us time to finish breakfast first.
No one was feeling great. Gregory was still recovering and now Sunshine had a sore throat but we decided to go for it.
We only wanted to visit few churches but the deacon told us that it would be $50 each, whether you visit one or all the churches. Daniel was not happy about it but I made everyone see that if we had come this far, we needed to see these churches. We finally left the house around 9:30 with Agu, our guide. He told us that he had studied history and also had finished his studies to become a priest but he was still thinking about changing jobs because being a tour guide is a pretty good living. He walked with a swagger and with pride. I noticed that not too many people knew or recognized him but then I learned that each church has at least 20 priests each, plus many deacons like him.
I took advantage and asked many questions, mostly about the people, their schools, the children's education and so on. I told Sunshine and Daniel to ask at least two questions each. Anyway, we made it to the first church and Agu took his job seriously and started to explain about the church.
We visited 4 or 5 churches because most of them are very small and close to each other. There were very impressive, especially when you think that they were carved from solid stone, first the outside and the interior! We had to take off our shoes to enter the churches. I’m glad I was wearing socks because the carpets were very dirty. At the exit we tipped the guy who "watched" our shoes but the deacon asked us to give him more. He told us that his fee was actually $2.00. I know is not much but I didn’t want to experience the constant harassment that we experienced in Egypt with "tourist prices."
I don’t remember the order of the churches that we saw. At one point, he took us to St. Labinos because they were having a celebration for the saint who had made a miracle of creating a spring with his staff and a second miracle, that he died three years later on the same day. That didn't sound like much of a miracle, but the ceremony was very interesting. There were many priests lined up in two lines and they were clapping and moving slowly from front to back and then back to front. While that was going on to one side of the church, we could see priests with fancy, colorful yellow robes exiting the church, one of them swinging a censer, another holding the painting of St. Labinos, another holding a big golden cross and still others holding equally fancy and colorful umbrellas to shield the procession from the sun.
The ceremony went on for a while and the procession went outside. We saw many men and women kissing the dirt after the image of Labinos passed by. Other men were blowing a horn and another group of younger men was chanting a different tune than the priest and some of them were playing the drums. It seemed a bit chaotic, and we weren't sure which group to pay attention to.
When we went outside, the deacon called me to go with him and we stood right in front. I was thrilled because I could film all this action right in front of me. Well, if you know me, you can guess what happened -- I found out too late that I wasn’t filming at all! I still cannot believe it. Grrr, I’m so mad at myself. At least I got a few good pictures and a beautiful experience. It was very moving to see all these people come together to pray and at one point the pace and the chanting got faster and when it did, many of the women started ululating as well as clapping. I had a special moment with God and I thanked Him for letting me feel Him close with this community.
It got really hot and I couldn’t see my family so I told the deacon that it was time to leave. We found Gregory and the kids sitting on rough hewn benches under the shade of the trees with many women and children. It was a lovely picture! Gregory was playing with a little boy who was crying but stopped when he put Gregory's reading glasses on. So cute!
We left that church to go to the most amazing church, St. George, which is carved in the shape of a Greek cross. It was more impressive from the outside than the inside, but still, just to imagine the effort it would take is unbelievable!
It was getting late -- actually, it was almost 1:00pm and everything closes at noon for lunch. We took some pictures and we were ready to go when the kids spotted some monkeys walking by the church. They got very excited and we had to wait for them to take more pictures.
The deacon asked us if we wanted to take a bajaj (tuk tuk) back home. I did but everyone else wanted to walk so we walked.
We paid the deacon and headed to the little store in the hotel to buy a beer and soda for the kids. [Gregory's note: am I one of the kids? Or did we buy beer for the kids? Oh, I get it -- we bought beer for me and soda for the kids.]
It was the best Pepsi I have had in a while! [Apparently we bought beer and soda for everyone.] We went to our room to rest for a bit and later went downstairs for lunch. Of course, Gregory wanted to go somewhere besides the hotel, to explore and find something "local" but none of us wanted to leave the comfort of the hotel. The food in the hotel is good and clean so no need to go looking for small local restaurants with dirt floors and flies. Gregory calls me a snob for this but I think it is natural to want to eat in a clean place.
[Gregory's note: the local restaurants have local people and that's what this trip is all about. And as Lili herself later learned, they don't have flies. Or dirt floors. One thing for sure, we never met any locals at our hotel where we ate alone in a plain dining room that could have been anywhere.]
After lunch, we went to our room and just relaxed. We tried to watch TV but again, most of the channels were religious ones or were in Amharic. We found a scary movie in English but I thought it was awful so we ended up watching The Jungle Book 2 in Amharic.For pictures please click here
Today we woke without a plan but I still rushed everyone to go downstairs for breakfast because I understood last night that breakfast was served until 8:00. We made it to the dining room half an hour later and the deacon was waiting for us. He told us that he had been waiting for an hour to give us a tour. I apologized for the misunderstanding but I told him that I hadn’t contacted him because we still didn’t know if we wanted to take the tour. I don’t like the pressure but the truth is that if we are only staying here for 3 nights, we needed to get started. I told him that we would take the tour but to give us time to finish breakfast first.
No one was feeling great. Gregory was still recovering and now Sunshine had a sore throat but we decided to go for it.
We only wanted to visit few churches but the deacon told us that it would be $50 each, whether you visit one or all the churches. Daniel was not happy about it but I made everyone see that if we had come this far, we needed to see these churches. We finally left the house around 9:30 with Agu, our guide. He told us that he had studied history and also had finished his studies to become a priest but he was still thinking about changing jobs because being a tour guide is a pretty good living. He walked with a swagger and with pride. I noticed that not too many people knew or recognized him but then I learned that each church has at least 20 priests each, plus many deacons like him.
I took advantage and asked many questions, mostly about the people, their schools, the children's education and so on. I told Sunshine and Daniel to ask at least two questions each. Anyway, we made it to the first church and Agu took his job seriously and started to explain about the church.
We visited 4 or 5 churches because most of them are very small and close to each other. There were very impressive, especially when you think that they were carved from solid stone, first the outside and the interior! We had to take off our shoes to enter the churches. I’m glad I was wearing socks because the carpets were very dirty. At the exit we tipped the guy who "watched" our shoes but the deacon asked us to give him more. He told us that his fee was actually $2.00. I know is not much but I didn’t want to experience the constant harassment that we experienced in Egypt with "tourist prices."
I don’t remember the order of the churches that we saw. At one point, he took us to St. Labinos because they were having a celebration for the saint who had made a miracle of creating a spring with his staff and a second miracle, that he died three years later on the same day. That didn't sound like much of a miracle, but the ceremony was very interesting. There were many priests lined up in two lines and they were clapping and moving slowly from front to back and then back to front. While that was going on to one side of the church, we could see priests with fancy, colorful yellow robes exiting the church, one of them swinging a censer, another holding the painting of St. Labinos, another holding a big golden cross and still others holding equally fancy and colorful umbrellas to shield the procession from the sun.
The ceremony went on for a while and the procession went outside. We saw many men and women kissing the dirt after the image of Labinos passed by. Other men were blowing a horn and another group of younger men was chanting a different tune than the priest and some of them were playing the drums. It seemed a bit chaotic, and we weren't sure which group to pay attention to.
When we went outside, the deacon called me to go with him and we stood right in front. I was thrilled because I could film all this action right in front of me. Well, if you know me, you can guess what happened -- I found out too late that I wasn’t filming at all! I still cannot believe it. Grrr, I’m so mad at myself. At least I got a few good pictures and a beautiful experience. It was very moving to see all these people come together to pray and at one point the pace and the chanting got faster and when it did, many of the women started ululating as well as clapping. I had a special moment with God and I thanked Him for letting me feel Him close with this community.
It got really hot and I couldn’t see my family so I told the deacon that it was time to leave. We found Gregory and the kids sitting on rough hewn benches under the shade of the trees with many women and children. It was a lovely picture! Gregory was playing with a little boy who was crying but stopped when he put Gregory's reading glasses on. So cute!
We left that church to go to the most amazing church, St. George, which is carved in the shape of a Greek cross. It was more impressive from the outside than the inside, but still, just to imagine the effort it would take is unbelievable!
It was getting late -- actually, it was almost 1:00pm and everything closes at noon for lunch. We took some pictures and we were ready to go when the kids spotted some monkeys walking by the church. They got very excited and we had to wait for them to take more pictures.
The deacon asked us if we wanted to take a bajaj (tuk tuk) back home. I did but everyone else wanted to walk so we walked.
We paid the deacon and headed to the little store in the hotel to buy a beer and soda for the kids. [Gregory's note: am I one of the kids? Or did we buy beer for the kids? Oh, I get it -- we bought beer for me and soda for the kids.]
It was the best Pepsi I have had in a while! [Apparently we bought beer and soda for everyone.] We went to our room to rest for a bit and later went downstairs for lunch. Of course, Gregory wanted to go somewhere besides the hotel, to explore and find something "local" but none of us wanted to leave the comfort of the hotel. The food in the hotel is good and clean so no need to go looking for small local restaurants with dirt floors and flies. Gregory calls me a snob for this but I think it is natural to want to eat in a clean place.
[Gregory's note: the local restaurants have local people and that's what this trip is all about. And as Lili herself later learned, they don't have flies. Or dirt floors. One thing for sure, we never met any locals at our hotel where we ate alone in a plain dining room that could have been anywhere.]
After lunch, we went to our room and just relaxed. We tried to watch TV but again, most of the channels were religious ones or were in Amharic. We found a scary movie in English but I thought it was awful so we ended up watching The Jungle Book 2 in Amharic.For pictures please click here
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2jcchMfxyCzx5nfC8
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