A Visit to Kechene Pottery.

One day we had the chance to have our wonderful friend, Selemnah, drive our family around for the whole morning...we could go anywhere and we asked him to take us to a pottery and the market place. After driving through Addis for a while, dodging donkeys and cattle, we headed into the Northern section of the town. Selemnah informed us that this was traditionally known as the Jewish Quarter, and many of the Jewish people were skilled at crafts including basket weaving and pottery.

The pottery that we arrived at was a Women's Co-operative, something that I am always glad to support. The women were able to work the hours that they chose, the more they worked, the more they were paid and they also could negotiate their rates etc. They sold their pottery to the market stalls. It was cool to actually go right to the site where they were making the pots instead of buying them from a middle man on a market stall..

As we walked into the dimly lit room, we were met by a circle of women in the middle of a meeting, trying to negotiate for a bigger plot of land to build a new pottery works on. They agreed that we could come in and look around and of course, buy their pottery.

This picture was taken as we left. I went around and shook hands (and kissed that gorgeous little baby!!) We asked Selemnah to translate for us and told the women that their pottery was stunning and that we would be giving it as gifts in Canada...and also that we would let people know about them. (which I am now doing!)
They were so delighted.










This is the display room and it was so hard to choose what to buy and what to leave behind. It was beautiful. There were traditional coffee services, stunning bowls, plates and serving platters.
A lot of the pieces were decorated, it was all hand painted in the most intricate designs. The lady in the picture was one of the painters and she said that the smaller pieces took only about 15 minutes to complete!
We then toured the pottery works which were extremely rough and basic and it was amazing that such beauty could emerge from these squalid little sheds, stuck in the middle of a muddy compound behind an old fence.











As we left, a little group of children magically appeared, as is the case all over Addis...they just appear out of thin air!
They were delighted to pose for me in front of the pottery gates and a couple of the younger ones pretended to be karate champs or something similarly heroic. They screamed with laughter when I showed them this picture!
We gave them fruit bars and granola as we left.













Here is a little glimpse of the road we drove down to find the pottery...























...and the sign telling us that we had found it.


We left the pottery works to go to the market place which I will tell you about in my next post.

(PS...Not one of the many pieces of pottery that we bought got broken on the long journey home...proof of Dave's expert packing!)

Hi there..a few people have asked me for the site address of Hope International that I wrote about a couple of posts back.
(I am delighted not only because people are interested in Hope because of what they read here, but because people are reading this!)
Anyway, here is the link. Check them out...again...they are AWESOME!!!!

www.hope-international.com

Sodiere Hot Springs (Part Two)

OK, first of all, I'm sorry about these huge delays in between posts. I have been busy but that's no excuse!

Anyway, back to the Hot Springs.
As we drove into the resort area, I noticed that it was beautifully situated with profusions of exotic flowers everywhere. It was like a calming oasis in the middle of a red, sun-baked wilderness. After the long, dusty and hot bus ride, it was a welcome relief to stagger out and head into the restaurant for lunch.
There was a traditional dining area set behind screens and an open, more informal area (where we ate) at the front, overlooking a small pool and lovely gardens.

This is the traditional dining room. In the corner, it was all set up for a coffee ceremony with rushes spread on the floor.

Here is Ayana sat at the big table with a menu...she ended up eating some injera dipped in various sauces from our plates.

After the meal which was really good and a lovely long glass of chilled Mirinda, (Ethiopia's equivalent to Orange Crush which is totally addicting) we piled back in the van and headed off to the actual pools fed by the Hot Springs.

En route, we made a little stop to look at and feed a troop of monkeys that were (literally) hanging out beside the road.

As we went into the bathing area, we noticed that there was a beautiful, large pool complete with diving boards and a tiny shallow area that was cordoned off. It was similar to a little kids pool attached to an adult pool here in Canada. The big, spacious pool had about ten people in it, all hanging onto the side. There were a couple of adults swimming lengths. The tiny, shallow pool was completely full of people, adults and children, so crowded that they were basically all standing still as there was no room to even breathe.

We went to the side, found some chairs in the shade, and then the braver members of our group emerged from the changing rooms and stood looking at the two pools...mmmm...tiny pool crowded with people OR a lovely big empty pool with diving boards. My son could not believe his luck as he ran with joy and dove into the big pool, hauled himself out and ran over to the diving boards. He climbed up and waited behind three big Ethiopian teenagers. He waited and waited as they just stood and stared at the water and then he asked if he could go past them. They looked at him in complete shock and moved aside. As he jumped off with a loud "YEAH", they covered their mouths with their hands, their eyes as big as dinner plates. I'm still not sure whether they were scared for Joshua or horrified that his mother was at the side cheering her son on in this madness. (Of course, my camera battery ran out at this point so I can not show pictures.)

We then realised that the Ethiopian people were scared of water...of course not all are...but we asked Deb and she confirmed that most Ethiopian people do not have the chance to go swimming and the rivers etc are often crocodile infested. Remember that the Hot Springs are for the wealthy only, and it is a rare thing to go swimming as a recreational activity. Hence, everybody crowded into a shallow little pool and almost had a heart attack when a little 9 yr old boy calmly jumped off the high diving board.

Soon Joshua had a little fan club going, with a line up of teenage boys all hanging onto the side and cheering as he jumped into the water. Joshua LOVES to perform so he was doing starfish jumps and flips to the awe of his followers. Selemnah had accompanied us and he was not scared of the water, jumping in with Josh and having a great time.

It was actually quite relaxing for me, which is not often the case at a swimming pool. Usually, I am constantly scanning the water to make sure that I can see my kids the whole time. Here, I just sat and could easily spot my little blonde son and my daughters in the middle of crowds of Ethiopian people!

Ayana went into the water with Erin and Megan and loved it, but Moses sat out with me and did one of his famous exploding diapers. He was covered from head to foot and so was the stroller. I will say no more on this other than it is truly a unique African experience to change an awful diaper with one hand and to swat clouds of flies off with the other hand.

The drive home was wonderful until we hit Addis. There was a huge traffic jam and major congestion throughout the whole city because people had heard that gas prices were going up the next day...so every taxi, bus and car was out filling up at the lower price. We crawled through Addis with a bus load of very tired, hungry and fed up children adding an extra TWO HOURS onto the already long and hot trip. We loved the day but were so relieved to see the guest house, and the food we ordered in tasted extra special that night!

Immunization...

Taking a little break from Sodiere Hot Springs to let you know that Ayana and Moses had their first round of "catch up" immunizations today.
I don't know how you feel about immunizations, (I have a couple of friends that don't "agree"), but I have to say that I feel it is a privilege to be able to have a shot and be immunized from a childhood disease. When you see kids dying from very preventable things in third world countries, I think that we are so lucky to have the luxury of protecting our children. There, that is my only rant I promise...I could go on, but I won't.
I started the morning with them both in the bath getting washed with divine Winnie The Pooh soap, the smell is so delicious and they looked adorable in new little outfits. I wanted them to look great for their first trip to Public Health.
Of course, they had other plans and Moses did an explosive diarrhea diaper just minutes before we needed to leave, covering his entire outfit and Ayana had an accident (very rare actually) and was crying because she was wet. Needless to say, they were put into whatever was clean and ready to grab out of the closet and they didn't smell too sweet. Such is parenting.

When it was our turn, the nurse was trying to talk to Ayana, and she was saying "Ow" (not sure of spelling) which means "yes" in Amharic, but the nurse thought that she was scared and was saying "ow" for pain. She was repeatedly telling her everything would be OK, and she kept telling me how brave Ayana was. Eventually I just had to tell her that Ayana was actually just saying "yes" to everything and wasn't really aware that she was getting shots because I can't explain that to her yet.
Then Ayana said "shinti" which means that she needs to go to the bathroom. I was putting Moses into the stroller and so couldn't get to her right away and Ayana kept saying shinti and the nurse kept saying, "yes, shh for the sleeping babies, shh" Again I had to say that she meant bathroom, it was funny.
Ayana really screamed the place down and would only be comforted by sitting in my lap with her face buried into my shoulder...sobbing "mama, mama"
Although I was sad that she was hurting, I was happy to see her look to me for comfort and reassurance.
Moses did his famous grin in between shots and the nurse and student nurse both said that children don't usually smile and coo during immunizations. He then promptly screamed so loud for his next shot that my ears hurt.
He did enjoy batting a little bell right out of the nurses hands though, the sound it made as it rolled away was highly entertaining for him. He also enjoyed chewing up and spitting out the schedule for their next shots.
The nurse was really wonderful and so helpful and lovely with the kids, she made the whole experience as positive as a trip to the clinic could be. I have her card to specifically request her next time.
So, that was my day.

More scenes from our journey to Sodiere...

Lots of horses pulling little carts like taxis and also working as you can see here.

Typical scene of a lady driving a donkey along. Maybe she is going to market...

Some of the ever present, beautiful children of Ethiopia...running to catch up with the bus.

Some Scenes on our Way to Sodiere...




Donkeys are loaded up with incredibly huge burdens.

You have to watch where you step!

A typical house in the country...

(Very impressed with this shot as it was taken by my daughter sticking the camera out of the bus window and clicking randomly. Not bad!)

Blogger is only letting me load three pictures at a time and so I will do another post with three more.

A Fun Daytrip... (Part One)

On Saturday 26th August the whole group set off on a daytrip to one of Ethiopia's famous tourist areas...Sodiere Hot Springs. Actually, Joanne and Rick didn't get to go as the deadly tummy bug had hit Joanne...we promised to take lots of pictures... :(

The Hot Springs are located about 4 hours drive south from Addis Ababa, I was really excited to go as it meant seeing a part of Ethiopia that I had not seen yet. Spirits were high as we all trooped onto the bus, little snacks were neatly tucked into backpacks and water bottles were lined up.

Addis Ababa is at a very high elevation (can't remember what it is right now, but will get back to you with that info!) and so being in the middle of rainy season, the weather was actually quite cool and blustery. However, as we drove out of Addis and headed South, the temp picked up and the scenery started to change. We passed acres of industrial looking compounds which turned into mile upon mile of agricultural land. Fields were bursting with crops ripe for harvest and stunning flowers bloomed in profusion. I asked Deb (our trip leaderand agency director) if it was unusually green and she agreed that it was the most green/lush she had seen in ten years. She went on to remind us that there was terrible flooding further South which was displacing people and destroying land.

I thought again about this being a land of contrast...more rain than usual had turned the area we drove through into a paradise, but the excess rain further South was causing death and destruction.

We stopped at a beautiful lake and took a break (picture above...note how green!) As we walked around part of the lake we were followed by a group of young guys in a boat slowly edging along the waters edge. They were asking if we wanted a ride in the boat, only 5 Birr (CHEAP) and they would take us right around the lake. Selemnah, our driver and friend just started to laugh and laugh and then told us maybe not to go in the boat. We all agreed that it had probably last had a safety check circa 1900 and I had visions of us getting to the middle of the lake, without life jackets and the boat starting to sink. I asked Selemnah if there were cocodiles, "Of course" was his reply.

We continued onto Sodiere, with the heat rising and the scenery again changing. It became more rocky and dusty as we wove into the valleys and chugged up through the hills. We started to come across lots of traditional huts, and clusters of tiny mud houses making up little villages, home to the farmers working the fields. As we entered towns, the bus would slow down and crowds of children would suddenly appear as if out of thin air, pushing their hands through open windows offering everything from tissue paper to baby alligators for us to buy. It actually came as quite a shock to be confronted with a baby turtle being thrust into my face, it's wrinkled legs frantically waving back and forth. Little beady eyes stared balefully at me as if to say, "Buy me or let me go..please" Of course, the children on the bus were highly entertained. One boy in the crowd was wearing a Manchester United T. shirt. It was so incongrous to me, I was in the middle of Ethiopia and there was Man Utd! (I am English for those that don't know and grew up very near Manchester...my brother is a dedicated Man U fan!) I pointed to him with a thumbs up sign and said "Man U!!" He totally understood, pointing at his T. shirt and laughing. (On the way home, we again passed the same crowd of kids. Suddenly there was a knock on my window as we slowed and there was the Man U fan waving at me and shouting Man U, Man U! Funny.)

We finally arrived at Sodiere and had to pass through a check point to get in. I need to explain that the Hot Springs are for VERY wealthy Ethiopians and tourists, nobody else would ever have the means to get all the way there and then pay the entrance fee, just to go... and ...do nothing but have fun? Life in Ethiopia is too hard for that and so we were quite concious of the fact that we were very priviledged to even be there.

(Part Two will be posted shortly)

I will quickly show you some pictures of the countryside etc...I'll have to open another post though :)