Tuesday, 9 Apr 2013 | Views [374] | Scholarship Entry
In Ethiopia, mastering how to tear off the right amount of communal injera and propel the morsels into your mouth without tasting your berbere-stained fingers scores big points. The contrast of my guide Gitachew’s smile against the shadowy gojo bet served ... Read more >
Tags: Travel Writing Scholarship 2013
Tuesday, 29 May 2012 | Views [511]
Ah, Ethiopia…So much to abhor, but much more to adore. I'll have to review my previous entries, because I might have said this about each country I’ve visited thus far, but Ethiopia really has been my favorite destination of them all. ... Read more >
Friday, 25 May 2012 | Views [327]
Leaving Axum after more time than I really needed there, I struck up a conversation with four Americans on my flight to Gondar, a town of around a quarter-million that was also a great dynastic capital and now serves as the gateway to the Simien Mountains ... Read more >
Tuesday, 15 May 2012 | Views [382]
If Varanasi, India was the most exotic destination I have ever visited, it has now been trumped by Axum, Ethiopia. I wanted to see "real" Africa, and that's exactly what I got…limited or no access to almost every resource, abject poverty, clouds ... Read more >
Friday, 11 May 2012 | Views [295]
Boarding the Bombardier 400 Turboprop in Addis, I was surrounded by tourists, all of us cramming into the tiny craft to see the same thing, the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. For the first time in 8 weeks, I happened to come across a fellow state-mate, ... Read more >
Tuesday, 8 May 2012 | Views [256]
Just over a century ago, Empress Taitu asked her husband, Menelik II for a house beyond the walls of his mountain fortress in a verdant valley with natural hot springs and a comfortable climate. She called this abode "Addis Ababa", meaning, “New ... Read more >
