Holy Nile water

  Sakala, Ethiopia
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The boys wanted to take us on a journey - to a small town called Sakala that Ethiopians consider to be a "holy" place. Its a small spring known by few foreigners (and thankfully hasn't yet made it to the Lonely Planet) that is the source of the Nile. It was a 4 hour bus journey so we hopped on the bus (after Kirsty and Robel had fun tying our bags to the roof!) and set off.


Along the way the bus stopped over at a remote town where the road to Sakala verred off. We stepped off the bus and were immediately surrounded by kids and adults alike, all amazed at the chance to see a real live ferangi close up and in person. We ventured to have a look at the market and one stall owner came in close to show us the corn he was selling. Everyone took this as a chance to come in for a closer look and before we knew it, we were surrounded by at least 50 people, who had formed a circle around us. It was slightly scary to be surrounded by so many people, so saying our goodbyes, at the first possible chance we headed back to the comfort of the bus. The bus was locked shut while the driver had some lunch so we had to stand outside on full show. Kids and adults alike gathered from all directions to simply stop and stare. We smiled back. Some of the local boys decided enough was enough, and got to chasing off the kids by hitting them with sticks!

After another hour in a tightly packed bus, this time with a small girl on my knee, we arrived at the small village of Sakala. Again, we were a source of utter amazment to all at the village. In the short walk to our hotel we were once again surrounded by adults and kids all dressed in green. We dumped our bags in our room (cheapest yet... at $0.35 each!) and walked through the village towards the spring, at all times followed by a huge amount of children - 27 at one stage!! As we were about to head down the hill to the spring, a priest came up to Tadele and Robel and started talking angrily to them. Others came and joined in the discussion, and we were told to come again in the morning. As the spring is a holy place, we had to fast before we visited (we had eaten some breakfast that morning) and also were told we must make a sizeable donation to the church.


That night we walked around the village. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Small restaurants in mud houses. Kids playing 'table billiards' (where you THROW the billiard balls). A barbar's shop (a generator supplies electricity between 6pm and 9pm). And everywhere people wearing their green blankets. Tadele took me to the local bar where we sat in silence (me wrapped in a green blanket borrowed from the owner) with the village people watching a DVD of Ethiopian music while drinking home-made vodka. A very surreal experience.

The next morning we woke up bright and early, and armed with the necessary documents (and an empty stomach) headed back to the spring. This time we were allowed down the hill, and found there about 30 people standing or sitting by a small stream. Behind them, was a long line of plastic water bottles waiting for the priest to fill them with holy water. We were only there for about 5 minutes before someone started shouting angrily in our direction, and so we decided to walk on, following the river up to a bridge downstream. To us, it just looked like a small stream, but to them, it was a very holy place where they came to be blessed and cured, and they were doing their best to (rightly) protect it.


We were, yet again, followed by many. On the hour walk up stream through fields and by wells the number of followers grew until by the time we got to the bridge, we counted more than 50 women, men and children. They were happy just to simply follow and watch us, with a few making conversation. It is so difficult to put in words what a surreal experience it was... we smiled, made simple conversation, and simply enjoyed the attention.


3 bus journeys and 6 hours later, we arrived back in Bahir Dar absolutely exhausted, but extremely honoured that we had the chance to visit such a holy place. That night we said our very sad goodbyes to Robele and Tadele who had taken such good care of us, and the next morning boarded a minibus for Gondor.