Lalibela

One of 13 rock hewn churches in Lalibela. Amazingly tall!!!

5)Lalibela-
2,630m high- amid rocky mountains you will find 13 rock hewn churches- together these churches make up the Orthodox holy land. Indescribable is what this city is. Legends abound about how angels constructed the churches... When you see these churches you actually begin to believe the legends. How can I explain them? The churches are carved into the ground. They are surrounded by walkways and courtyards, the sides of which are cut into hermit cells and stone tombs. One tomb still holds a body, hundreds of years old, but which hasn't decomposed!!! The churches are massive, ornately painted or carved inside. They are connected by an underground tunnel you can actually use. Every detail of the construction was intentional and symbolic.
Around 15,000 pilgrims, mostly poor rural people- came to Lalibela for Ethiopian Christmas. They walked the steep mountain, took buses, whatever... they lined the streets (literally) begging, slept on the church grounds and prayed all day. The women would enter the chanting rooms, pick up a drum and begin singing their praises. They did the traditional shoulder shaking dance and praised God, asked forgiveness, tried to excuse their loved ones who couldn't come. It was powerful.
Outside families undressed and bathed in holy water. Some would shriek and flail around as the holy water killed the devil within them. I watched a woman undress, her family tie a rope around her and drop her into a 10m deep fertility pool. The woman couldn't swim. Under water she said her prayers for a child, finally the family members pulled up the rope, the woman coughed up water and onlookers cheered.
I have seriously not done Lalibela justice... it is one place you must all visit, my words fail to describe it. It is too powerful, too full of faith and mysteries...

Rooftop view of one of 13 churches in Lalibela. (Do you see that it was built in the shape of a cross?

4) The rest of my trip was plagued with beggars, young guides who want money or sex and too much time on buses. It is unfortunate but by the end of the trip I didn't want to have anything to do with anyone!
--> I'm sick of people feeling entitled to my money, food, etc. simply because I am a foreigner. I'm sick of feeling guilty about others' poverty. I'm sick of being tricked out of money by false stories.
-->I'm sick of people thinking I will sleep with them since that is what they see on the movies. I'm sick of boys telling me inappropriate stories and alluding to topics I want nothing to do with! I'm sick of men asking for my e-mail before they even know my name. I'm sick of people telling me they love, when they obviously don't!
--> I'm sick of people suggesting I be their sponsor. I'm sick of fruit vendors trying to marry me off to their brothers for a US VISA. I'm sick of women asking if I have brothers they can marry
And most of all I'm sick of my current attitude. To you all I must sound insensitive, but really people have no shame and EXPECT everything from you as a foreigner. I want to trust people. I want to have conversations and make friends for the sake of having conversation and making friends... but it seems that that just isn't possible when people are so poor and so desperate to find a way out of poverty and this country!
I heard plan after plan of how whichever Ethiopian I was talking to was going to the US. Brothers are arranging fake marriages with their sisters in the states, people are paying thousands for a fake marriage, people are sending their children to be adopted by friends and families in the States. Young boys are learning Eritrean accents, history, etc., running away to refugee camps, if they are passed off as Eritrean, they get to enter the States as refugees!

A man in Lalibela weaving scarves