November 4,
Starting at 5AM, and hour before dawn, white robes began to filter through the traffic circle beneath the balcony of our hotel room, all on their way to the Tekla Church. There were many beggars sitting around the circle and I was impressed at the frequency in which a person would stop to give change. I was able to video tape this.
About 6:30 (:30 ethiopian time) we headed down the street to the Tekla Church where Deacon Tamrat had invited us. Kibron was waiting downstairs to take us; he escorted our group to the church.
Walking up to the church on a rocky dirt road there were many crippled people begging, and many others dressed in beautiful white scarves on their way to church as well. Lining the road were women trying to sell vegetables and herbs.
Approaching the church I began to hear chanting, which is produced by a megaphone attached to the front of the church. The yard surrounding the church was full of people clothed in white. Circling the round church is a tiled, porch-like area. One side is for women, the other for men. Kibron showed us where to stand, but the men in our group didn’t realize that they were on the female side, and had to be moved back over to the mens’ side.
Since we were on the porch and very close to the church, we took our shoes off, which is what all the Ethiopians had done. The church is too sacred to allow shoes to be worn.
The other 2 girls in our group didn’t stay long and went back to the hotel. I understand why; We couldn’t actually understand what was being said, and there are so many rules that we do not know (which is further compounded by not knowing the language- we can’t ask!)
I stayed, though, and an elderly woman who was standing next to me adjusted my head scarf in the proper way (to represent a cross) and then helped me know when to kneel, lift hands, touch your forehead to the floor.
There would be chanting, and then a different section of the chant would begin, marked by either a different singer, cadence, or an increase or decrease in rhythm. At that point, the church attendees knew when to kneel, touch their foreheads to the ground, or join in the singing.
The woman standing next to me also motioned to me to touch the pillar of the church (which I was standing by). I noticed that many women were touching some part of the church- I believe this is done for the same reason as when people walk by the church and kiss the gates- a sign of respect and recognition of holiness.
There was also a priest or two walking by with a golden Ethiopian cross, which he would press to the forehead of a person’s face, then bring down to their lips for the cross to be kissed.
After about an hour and a half, Tamrat the deacon came up to me, took my shoulders, then kissed the air next to my left cheek, then right, then left again, which is a traditional way of Ethiopian greetings.
Then he asked me where the rest of the group had gone, and I didn’t know what to say- he was a little concerned because he wanted us to go to a coffee ceremony with the chairperson of the church at 8AM.
I should say at this point that although Tamrat speaks English, he nods a lot when he doesn’t actually fully understand what I am saying, and sometimes this causes miscommunications, like for example what time he wants me (or in this case the group) to be someplace. But he tries extremely hard and has gone out of his way to help me.
He asked me to go back to the hotel and get the rest of the group, and he repeated “Don’t Late, Don’t Late” several times. So, I walked as quickly as possible to the hotel, but the group had already changed clothing and thought that Tamrat had said the ceremony wasn’t until 9, so they weren’t very quick about leaving, even though I told them about the “Don’t Late”
So, we ended up getting back to the church about 20 after 8 (our time, 2 Ethiopian time) and the first question Deacon Tamrat asked was “Why Late?”
He seemed upset, but as soon as the boys apologized, Deacon Tamrat said, that’s ok, don’t worry about it. Then he proceeded to give us a tour of the church. He walked us by the women’s section, and then through the men’s, and eventually he led us into the church after he placed all of our shoes in a box by the entrance.
Surprisingly(to me), the inside of the church was not even half full, although outside people were packed around and crowded from the church to the gates, which was a much larger area than the inside of the church. There was thin brown carpet lining the floor, and a few wooden pews- two columns and about 10 benches on each side.
The benches face a circular structure that is also round. This is called the temple, and there are three red curtains. I asked Tamrat what was inside, and he said, “The covenant” but no one is allowed to go inside of the curtains except for the priest.
The priest on the inside was also wearing white robes with silver thread scrolling, and he wore a back hat.
Tamrat took us around the church, pointing to the painted wooden panels that make up the temple and explained the biblical scenes depicted through the paintings.
The biggest point that Tamrat expresses is “Father, Son, Holy Ghost, One God.” He said this quite frequently and with great excitement.
The scenes were quite similar to the types of scenes depicted in stained glass windows in Europe, but the painting is much brighter and the shapes of the faces are different, with darker, wider, and more almond shaped eyes. Mary is shown in blue robes.
There were scenes depicting beheadings, satan (which was a big gray demon with horns, slanted eyes, a dark red tongue and pointy teeth, as well as the first miracle (water into wine) and several scenes depicting Paul, John, James, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and others.
After the tour of the inside of the church, Tamrat escorted us to the benches in front of the church. There were people already sitting there, who probably needed the bench more than we did, but Tamrat insisted and so we all smooshed together in front of the church and listened to the preaching of the gospel (in Amharic). The preacher acknowledged us and welcomed us through the microphone he was using to preach to the crowd.
After certain pauses by the preacher, the crowd would make a high pitched “ee ee ee ee” call, which I think might be a type of acknowledgement.
He preached for about an hour and a half, and the priests we were sitting between explained from time to time what was being discussed, which was basically about how God would do great things in your life and how he could heal people, and also that you could only have one wife, not two, and you could not get divorced.
Then we all stood and faced the church (which means we turned around) and a prayer was sung, and the entire congregation (right word??) joined in. I got a recording of this. I also got a recording of most of the preaching, but the preaching lasted 3 hours and my recorder only lasts about 2 and a half.
Then announcements were made, and then a theology student who spoke English (slightly better than Tamrat) told us again how welcome we were and that we were their honored guests, and that Christianity reaches beyond borders.
Afterwards it was a matter of shaking hands and embracing the many priests (9 in total) and deacons. Tamrat then escorted us to the office of the clergy for another coffee ceremony (our second in two days!). The woman serving the coffee put three huge scoops of sugar into our cups (our cups are rather small).
We were also brought cups of water. Tamrat and a priest joined us and shortly afterwards three very large rounds of thick bread, wrapped in newspapers. The bread was torn in half, a half given to each group of people (the clergy, J&J, me and D). The bread was so big and so filling it was difficult to finish it, but the priests kept encouraging us to eat more.
The priest seemed concerned that we didn’t like the coffee, so we reassured him several times saying “Good! Good!” The priest does not speak much English.”
We talked a lot about Ethiopian culture. Tamrat said, “You enjoy Ethiopian coffee. Ceremony is part of culture, it is good.” And we explained that to us Ethiopia had shown us so much hospitality that it was difficult to accept, because where we come from, you are supposed to do things for yourself.
The priest asked us all to write our names down, and he was very happy that we all had Christian names. Then he asked us if we had any children, and when we said no, he asked (and was translated through Tamrat, who was also curious,) “Why not? What is the reason?” They were also surprised to find that D and J were unmarried, and again wanted to know what the reason for this was.
Then the priest told us (through Tamrat) to wait until we got rich to have children, because in Africa people were always marrying and having children and having more than 2 children makes them poor. So, he told us to only have 2 children.
The priest spoke for about 5 minutes and when Tamrat translated I think we only got a small sliver of what was actually said.
Frustrations:
I wish I spoke Tigrinya. I am loosing a lot of information that would be very valuable.
Also, my computer power cord was chewed by a puppy the night before I left and I have to spend several minutes fairly frequently adjusting the cord to that power can get through.
Also, while I don’t think anyone in the hotel would steal anything, they leave the keys in a box on the floor while they are cleaning, and it just makes a little nervous with my laptop and research all in the room.

On the plus side:
It makes people very happy when we wear the head scarfs. The lady in the market below our hotel (Seti Market) pointed to me and said “Good” and I have had that reaction from several people, from the receptionist to just random people on the street. Also they have been very nice about adjusting it for me.
I got some fairly good recordings, which is good, and I didn’t do any flash photography today, which is also good. I’m going to try and talk to Tamrat about possibly having him escort me while I take just a few photographs, if I explain my purpose is to show people back home what their services are like. I’ll respect his answers either way.
The other person at the coffee ceremony was a monk, according to Tamrat.

Tamrat explained that the church directly adjacent to Tekla church has been there for over 150 years, so that even though they built the new church (which took 5 years to build) they would never destroy the old church, because that would be a “Treason.”
5PM
Went back to church for what we were told was the English version. It was not in English, but what a wonderful experience.
Tamrat let us to a special bench at the front of the church (the older church), and the priest welcomed us all and the audience clapped. The priest spoke for about an hour (I wish I knew what he was saying!) until about sunset. Tamrat, true to his word, gave us about a 5 minute recap of what the sermon was about, which was basically ‘father son and holy ghost one god” and also the differences between the protestants and the Orthodox Church.
Then singing began (I think I got some really good recordings!)
There was a drum strapped around a musician’s neck. One end was very large, the other small, with heads stretched across both sides so that one end was a deep sound and the other more highly pitched. The drummer would hit the deep end once, following by two faster hits on the higher pitched head.
After some time there was also the bell instrument which was shown to me earlier when Tamrat was giving us a tour

When it became dark, a priest walked around giving everyone a tiny strand of wax that was a candle, and each person used their neighbor’s candle to light their own. Tamrat told us that the fire is supposed to represent Heaven.
Audience participation increased- there was clapping, and also the high pitched “ee ee ee ee ee ee” cries at certain points in the chant. People also began to sway from side to side, and the musicians and singers formed a circle and began to walk around in a circle around the drum. The audience joined in the singing at this point.
When the song was close to being finished, a priest came by and collected the remainder of the candles. People began to file out of the church doors, and dozens of children ran up to us and we kissed the air next to their cheeks and shook all of their hands.
Tamrat wants to come over to our hotel tomorrow at 5 o’clock to talk some more.