Week Five

Ashenda, the cry of every girl in the Tigray region. Let me explain. Ashenda in Tigrinya means ‘tall green grass’. This grass is used either to spread on floors of homes and shops as a welcome to people or some of the girls actually make grass skirts from it. Ashenda marks the end of a fasting period of two weeks known as Filseta, a Christian Orthodox way of celebrating the Assumption of Mary.The girls get new dresses and shoes, wear makeup and jewellery, sing and beat on a small drum known as a kebero. They collect money from people as they pass, ignore them at your peril, they will chase you down the street singing their displeasure at you and generally shaming you into it. When you give them money, they sing all the blessings they can think of. It was the most animated I have seen the girls here since I arrived in Mekelle. They were so excited because for one day in the whole year, this is about them. An un-inhibited celebration of girlhood. We were to witness the celebrations all over the Tigray region as we embarked on a road trip that was to take us eventually to Axum.

August 22, the end of fasting and to celebrate the feast of the Assumption the girls of Mekelle were out in force, beating their drums and singing until they had no voices left. We set out for a place called Alitiena. Every Catholic Priest and Nun we have met so far is from Alitiena. While Catholics make up only 1% of the population of Ethiopia, they are influential in their approach to practical, selfless and sustainable assistance of the poor here.

The scenery is stunning. Because this is the rainy season, everywhere is so green. It is hard to believe that in three to four short weeks all of this lushness will be again reduced to scorched earth. We saw many of the rock hewn churches of Tigray. They predate Lalibella by three centuries. The monastery at Debre Damo is inaccessible except by climbing ropes, a precarious journey in which the monks will assist you by pulling the rope up. Unless of course you’re a woman. Then they well allow you to ‘dangle’ at the end of the rope. Tempting as it was, we opted to give the dangling a miss!

The road itself is bumpy, narrow and fraught with danger as it is actually ‘missing’ in places. We had an excellent driver who works with ADCS (Adigrat Diocese Catholic Secretariat) based in Mekelle. He was very reassuring as we climbed up the mountain road, an ear popping and heart pounding 3,000 meters high, up and over the top and back down the other side. Scary stuff. We arrived in Alitiena sometime after dark to a very warm reception by the Sisters and the Vincentian Fathers who live and work in the most remote extreme place I have ever witnessed. The road actually ends there, after that any further destinations must be reached on foot. More climbing as it is a mountainous terrain with most pathways suitable only for donkeys. They have just recently been ‘switched on’, with electricity only becoming available in the past five months. It was a very clear and beautiful night sky and the stars were burning more brightly than I had ever seen them. As I was gazing up, the assistant Parish Priest was explaining how local people could tell the time by looking at the stars.

Daylight brought the most astonishing views. People here live in stone houses set into the side of mountains. It looks like they are living in a quarry. We got a tour of the kindergarten, the school the Vincentians established in 1892 and is said to be the oldest school in Ethiopia. We also visited the clinic the sisters from the Daughters of Charity run, providing medical services for up to 30,000 people. With no doctors here, they frequently have to refer people to the hospital in Adigrat.

Alitiena is a three hour hike from the Eritrean border and was in the front line for the war. The mountains have been stripped bare and people hid out in the caves while shells pounded their homes and livelihoods. While the buildings bear the visible scars of the war, the people are burdened with the invisible ones. Life is extremely hard here with little or no means of generating an income, they are very reliant on aid.

Then we made the trek to Axum, six hours through the most amazing, stunning scenery ever. It was great to see St Mary’s of Zion where the Arc of the Covenant resides having been brought there from Jerusalem by the Queen of Sheba. We also went to see King Kalebs tomb, where I was chased by a bat. I would like to say it was a dignified exit, but in truth I ran, screaming, like…. a bat out of hell, much to the merriment of the locals, the driver, the guide and Anna. A brief stop off at the Don Bosco School in Adwa and we were on our way back to Mekelle for our last week with the children.