***Warning! Explicit lyrics ahead!***
Car Six is the Party Car. I'd heard rumors about Besel's preferred playlist while he was driving, but hadn't experienced first hand. It was time to see (or hear) what all the hubbub was about.
The rumor going around the group was that Besel liked to play a song that can only be called "The Licking Song." Or that's what everyone else was calling it.
Sure enough, Gary and Cathy and I get into the car at 9 a.m. and Besel turns his stereo on, and there it is.
"Baby I want to lick you 'til you come. Owwww. Lick you up, lick you down, lick you until you come." Repeat, repeat, repeat. Insert some soul talk along those same lines and you can see what all the fuss was about.
There is some debate about whether Besel even understands what the song is about, since his English is very limited. Some thought he might be seeing what reaction he would get, others that he had no clue.
After that was over, it was Michael Jackson, some older R and B, and Whitney Houston, so who knows?
After all the licking, we arrived at the Stalae Park. These are huge tomb indicators, carved from solid granite, that date from Ethiopia's per-Christian era. The largest stalae measures 30 meters long (or high - there is some debate about whether it was actually ever erected). The tops of the most important stalae have an Axum style symbol. It is seen everywhere here: on the tombs of Haile Selassie and his wife, as lamp designs in hotels, as coat hooks, they are everywhere. Thought to perhaps symbolize the worship of the sun and moon, they are a pre-Jewish and Christian symbol.
During the Italian occupation, the second-largest stelae was taken to Rome. It was carved into three blocks for easy transport and reassembled in the Piazza. It was only returned in 2005.
Our guide said that only 5% of the sites in and around Axum have been excavated. It is amazing to think what could still be under there.
We went into one of the tombs and saw a very early arch. The tomb entrances were often given a false door to frustrate grave robbers.
As we emerged from the tomb, Cathy and I saw that a huge amount of people all dressed in white had gathered in from of the park. They were nearly silent except for an occasional horn. They had colorful umbrellas arranged in a processional of sorts. It was a funeral. They turned and walked en masse towards the church, the men leading and carrying the body, and the women following. The men then went into the church compound and the women stayed outside, some congregated at the church doors and squatted in groups. Then the keening started. Quiet sobbing and a low level moaning from the group. It was very powerful and deeply emotional. I only took pictures of the crowd as they turned to walk away. There are no pictures of the women. That will just have to be something that stays in my head. It would have been disrespectful to do anything else.
A woman in our group went over with another couple, who also did not take pictures, and she started shooing. These women can see us, we are obviously tourists, and they are mourning. The couple told her to not take pictures, and she said, "Why not?" It is painfully obvious that some people see others only as entertainment. The world is a place to be checked off a list, the people treated as if they are zoo animals. It is shameful.
Each and every person I've photographed has given me their permission, and I've tried to compliment or converse or connect with them in some way. I quickly learned the word for "pretty," and a hand over the heart and a slight bow or head nod, or a "thank you" will open so many doors.
Today was also a rough day for the group. Throw 20 random people in a group and drag them around Ethiopia for 12 days and someone is bound to get on your nerves. We have two people that are obviously the annoying ones (one is the lady mentioned above), and it has become evident that everyone has had enough. On day one Claude, who is bald, said, "Everyone will have at least one bad hair day, even me." Today was that day.
But Besel's good humor helped things somewhat.
We continued on, with "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Thriller" as our soundtrack, to the Enzana stone. This is something along the lines of Ethiopia's Rosetta Stone. It is housed in a little stone shack, with one guard standing sentry. Claude said that the guard had been there for years, since he started doing the Ethiopia tours. And he looked it.
The slab is inscribed on three sides. One side is Greek. One side is written in Ge'ez, which is the ancient language of Axum and is what is still used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The third side is in Sabaean (remember the Queen of Sheba? That's her turf.). The tablet dates back to the 4th century. It is quite lovely and was discovered by some farmers in the field. They are still discovering things almost daily here.
Just yesterday, in the parking lot of one of the tomb sites, a bus was backing up and the tire got stuck, then broke through the ground, and they saw that there was a man made void underneath. When we got there, they were securing the hole with stakes and barbed wire. You've never seen so many tourists excited about a hole in the ground.
The Tombs of Kaleb and Gebre Meskel are pretty uneventful. There are some impressive crosses and stone masonry in them. The potentiality of the hole in the parking lot was much more enticing.
As Besel played "Twisting the Night Away," we drove up to the remains of the
Palace of the Queen of Sheba. I showed Besel how to twist in the parking lot. I'm sure he found that hilarious.
The palace is really a reconstruction based on the foundation that has been excavated on this spot. They tried to use the local stone, and the building technique is what they think it was way back when. A lot of the stone houses in this area probably contain original stone from the palace. When a farmer goes to build his home, he uses the materials that are close by - be it trees or the crumbling ruin of the Palace of the Queen of Sheba.
Car Six is the Party Car. I'd heard rumors about Besel's preferred playlist while he was driving, but hadn't experienced first hand. It was time to see (or hear) what all the hubbub was about.
The rumor going around the group was that Besel liked to play a song that can only be called "The Licking Song." Or that's what everyone else was calling it.
Sure enough, Gary and Cathy and I get into the car at 9 a.m. and Besel turns his stereo on, and there it is.
"Baby I want to lick you 'til you come. Owwww. Lick you up, lick you down, lick you until you come." Repeat, repeat, repeat. Insert some soul talk along those same lines and you can see what all the fuss was about.
There is some debate about whether Besel even understands what the song is about, since his English is very limited. Some thought he might be seeing what reaction he would get, others that he had no clue.
After that was over, it was Michael Jackson, some older R and B, and Whitney Houston, so who knows?
After all the licking, we arrived at the Stalae Park. These are huge tomb indicators, carved from solid granite, that date from Ethiopia's per-Christian era. The largest stalae measures 30 meters long (or high - there is some debate about whether it was actually ever erected). The tops of the most important stalae have an Axum style symbol. It is seen everywhere here: on the tombs of Haile Selassie and his wife, as lamp designs in hotels, as coat hooks, they are everywhere. Thought to perhaps symbolize the worship of the sun and moon, they are a pre-Jewish and Christian symbol.
During the Italian occupation, the second-largest stelae was taken to Rome. It was carved into three blocks for easy transport and reassembled in the Piazza. It was only returned in 2005.
Our guide said that only 5% of the sites in and around Axum have been excavated. It is amazing to think what could still be under there.
We went into one of the tombs and saw a very early arch. The tomb entrances were often given a false door to frustrate grave robbers.
As we emerged from the tomb, Cathy and I saw that a huge amount of people all dressed in white had gathered in from of the park. They were nearly silent except for an occasional horn. They had colorful umbrellas arranged in a processional of sorts. It was a funeral. They turned and walked en masse towards the church, the men leading and carrying the body, and the women following. The men then went into the church compound and the women stayed outside, some congregated at the church doors and squatted in groups. Then the keening started. Quiet sobbing and a low level moaning from the group. It was very powerful and deeply emotional. I only took pictures of the crowd as they turned to walk away. There are no pictures of the women. That will just have to be something that stays in my head. It would have been disrespectful to do anything else.
A woman in our group went over with another couple, who also did not take pictures, and she started shooing. These women can see us, we are obviously tourists, and they are mourning. The couple told her to not take pictures, and she said, "Why not?" It is painfully obvious that some people see others only as entertainment. The world is a place to be checked off a list, the people treated as if they are zoo animals. It is shameful.
Each and every person I've photographed has given me their permission, and I've tried to compliment or converse or connect with them in some way. I quickly learned the word for "pretty," and a hand over the heart and a slight bow or head nod, or a "thank you" will open so many doors.
Today was also a rough day for the group. Throw 20 random people in a group and drag them around Ethiopia for 12 days and someone is bound to get on your nerves. We have two people that are obviously the annoying ones (one is the lady mentioned above), and it has become evident that everyone has had enough. On day one Claude, who is bald, said, "Everyone will have at least one bad hair day, even me." Today was that day.
But Besel's good humor helped things somewhat.
We continued on, with "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Thriller" as our soundtrack, to the Enzana stone. This is something along the lines of Ethiopia's Rosetta Stone. It is housed in a little stone shack, with one guard standing sentry. Claude said that the guard had been there for years, since he started doing the Ethiopia tours. And he looked it.
The slab is inscribed on three sides. One side is Greek. One side is written in Ge'ez, which is the ancient language of Axum and is what is still used by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The third side is in Sabaean (remember the Queen of Sheba? That's her turf.). The tablet dates back to the 4th century. It is quite lovely and was discovered by some farmers in the field. They are still discovering things almost daily here.
Just yesterday, in the parking lot of one of the tomb sites, a bus was backing up and the tire got stuck, then broke through the ground, and they saw that there was a man made void underneath. When we got there, they were securing the hole with stakes and barbed wire. You've never seen so many tourists excited about a hole in the ground.
The Tombs of Kaleb and Gebre Meskel are pretty uneventful. There are some impressive crosses and stone masonry in them. The potentiality of the hole in the parking lot was much more enticing.
As Besel played "Twisting the Night Away," we drove up to the remains of the
Palace of the Queen of Sheba. I showed Besel how to twist in the parking lot. I'm sure he found that hilarious.
The palace is really a reconstruction based on the foundation that has been excavated on this spot. They tried to use the local stone, and the building technique is what they think it was way back when. A lot of the stone houses in this area probably contain original stone from the palace. When a farmer goes to build his home, he uses the materials that are close by - be it trees or the crumbling ruin of the Palace of the Queen of Sheba.
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