I am standing atop a mountain in Ethiopia. Before me stretch the ancient rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, structures so astonishing that centuries ago a Portuguese traveler wrote that his countrymen would never believe his descriptions. He was right.
Yet here they are. I have traveled thousands of miles to come here, to the Horn of Africa, to see this: churches carved into the bedrock, inspired by a king’s dream of heaven, built (so it is said) with the help of angels. I have done so because they are strange, amazing and beautiful. I am seeing something few Americans have seen.
This is what I am thinking when I feel a hand tug on my shirt. “Daddy,” says my 4-year-old son anxiously. “Daddy! I have to go.” Such is the life of a parent, whether in Virginia or in Ethiopia. I turn away from the miraculous churches. I sigh. “Okay, buddy. Let’s find a bathroom.”
True, when my wife, Shannon, and I first discussed a trip to East Africa, we considered leaving our boys, ages 9 and 4, in the States. But it seemed so obvious to us: Two boys growing up in the cocoon of Richmond could never truly understand the world unless they got out and saw it. We knew the trip would expand their intellectual horizons, not to mention our own. Friends and a few relatives perceived Ethiopia as a land of famine and disaster and warfare—all of which had been true until about 15 years ago. Since then, the country has been relatively peaceful. It has turned away from its former allies in Eastern Europe and has begun wooing the West, the United States in particular.
Ethiopia appealed to us because it is an ancient, peculiar place. It lives somehow outside the boundaries of the rest of the world. From the accounts we read, Ethiopia seemed like a fantastical combination of ancient monuments, biblical history and Indiana Jones. For the better part of its history, Ethiopia existed in isolation. For example, it uses the Julian calendar, which the rest of the world abandoned long ago, so the country just celebrated its Year 2000. Plus, I had some small sense of Ethiopian culture, having brushed against it while growing up near Washington, D.C. With at least 100,000 Ethiopian expatriates (some put the number at twice that), Virginia has the largest population of Ethiopians outside Ethiopia.
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