Red Berries and a Rock Church

Our team leaders were kind enough to give us a day off today.   Steven, Nicole, Bryce and I decided as a group to hike to the rock hewn church of St. Michael and see a panoramic view of Addis Ababa.  The hike had quite a gain in elevation.  I was pretty winded and tired so I blamed it on the altitude!

The hike started at the base of the temple of St. Michael, at which there was a market and many people selling vegetables, spices and other goods. 

Market stall at the base of our hike incase you need a sparkly umbrella.

Entrance to St. Michael's Temple.

We paid for a guide (who looked like Morgan Freeman), and he was dressed in a suit and came complete with a Kalishnikov rifle!  I question the need for the rifle as I always felt very safe when in Addis Ababa, I think it was just for show and a way to justify the cost of the guide. 

Even though the rifle was just for show, I was still to chicken to take a photo of our guard.
This sneaky photo from behind was all I got.
 Two seconds later, Steven got to hold the rifle!

The hike was gorgeous and took us up through a road and eventually into a eucalyptus forest.  At the top we noticed a fenced area with several modern buildings.  Behind the buildings we saw an outdoor Ethiopian Orthodox church service with familiars hymns being sung in Amharic.  Just past the gathered church-goers, was what appeared to be a field and some rocks.

Bryce hiking the road to the church of St. Michael.



Eucalyptus forest.
  I would crush the leaves in my hand to smell the refreshing menthol-like oils.



What was surprising is that those rocks used to be a church.  The structure dates back to 328 so it is over 1600 years old.  The craftmanship is incredible as the church is monolithic and made from one solid piece of stone.  The rock is approximately 7 meters high, and is a single unit - not a collection of large boulders.  It was really cool to imagine how they built this church, and to compare the architecture to the work of the Incas I saw in Peru. 

Rock hewn church of St. Michael.

The church used to have a roof and two levels, but the WWII bombing by the Italians destroyed part of the structure and the roof is no longer.  You can still clearly see the 7 windows that symbolize 7 angels and the 7 days of the week. 

There is a cavern in the rocks where it is believed the Arc of the Covenant was stored.  Although probably inappropriate - we were permitted to crawl into the cavern.  A once in a lifetime opportunity!

Cavern that supposedly hid the Arc of the Covenant.

Women weren't allowed into the sacred second floor room that was reserved for the priest and the king.  As a result - we could see a window that was used for baptisms.  The babies were passed in through this window to the priest, and were baptized while the parents waited outside.

As the rock-hewn church is on the top of a large hill, we were able to get a nice panoramic shot of Addis Ababa.

After our hike, we were hungry and thirsty.  We stopped at the only North American looking business that I noticed in Addis:  Kaldi's Coffee.  It looks surprisingly similar to another famous coffee chain that originated in Seattle.  However, the story behind Kaldi's is quite intriguing. 

Entrance to Kaldi's Coffee...hmmm..something familiar here...

Logo (no mermaid though).

Kaldi is known in Ethiopia as the first man to invent coffee.  The legend is that Kaldi, a goatherd, noticed his goats eating red berries.  The goats would get very energetic and would jump around after munching on the red berries.  Kaldi decided to try the berries himself, and was amazed at the increase in his energy levels.  When he approached the religious leader of his community with the berries, the leader was against eating the berries and threw them into the fire.  And there you have it...the first ever roasted coffee bean.

Some people say that Kaldi's Coffee houses originated first.  I am not sure if that is true or not.  We pondered this question over our machiattos and chai latte and a plate of french fries.  A small taste of home!

Nicole, Ketema and Zanner at Kaldi's.

Our drinks, YUM!

Our day of adventure was topped off with a nice dinner at a restaurant called Makush with Deb & Dr. Northcott.  Makush serves Italian food and is also an art gallery.  The chocolate mousse is to die for!

Tomorrow it is back to work, and I will be presenting a half-day training course on one of my favorite subjects: Project Management.