Things Ato Tefaro said

Ato means Mr.
Tefera is the guest house manager. Call it middle management in the CHS system.  been with CHS for 5 years in various jobs.  very nice. Meets people atnthe airport, rides with us to the office, keeps the cooks on task, helps us get a taxi. Of course it took us two days to figure out who he was because he didnt introduce himself or give us his title or anything like that which is so Ethiopian. He is probably in his sixties. Short. Yellow teeth. Quiet. Pretty good English but you have to lean in to hear him. His English is way better than my Amharic.

So I have my father's trait of being prone to talking to strangers and asking every question under the sun.  Way leads unto way and I learn that he is an elder at his church, which is a very big deal here. His church is evidently a Protestant church.  Next thing I know we are comparing bibles---ours both have 66 books, but he says many churches here believe in 15 extra books.  I ask about the Arc of the Covenant, Ally and I had read that some believe it to be in Ethiopia. Myth he says. Not supported anywhere in the bible he says. How did the gospel come to ehtiopia I ask.  He points us to Acts 8.  Its right there in the text yall!  Ehtiopian eunuch goes to Jerulsaem to worship. he is basically the prime minister under a Queen Candace. He is sitting in his chariot reading from Isaiah when the Holy Spirit prompts Phillip to approach him. Go read the rest -- its pretty cool. Who knew.  I studied Acts a few years ago so I must have read it, but no recollection whatsoever.
Ok. Then he says Haille Sellassie, the much celebrated emperor and king of ethiopia from the 1930's until the communist regimes took over in the 1970,s  claimed  lineage from King Solomon. The story goes that Queen Sheba went up the Nile to visit King Solomon (this part true) and came back pregnant -- and Sellassie said he was descendant. Tefera says bogus. You can't  make this stuff up!!!
We did see Sellassie's tomb though. 100 birr for foreigners to get it in. 3 birr for ethiopians. Says it right there on the sign.

Later I learned from our new companions that the entire Rastafarian religion believes that Haile Sellassie was the second coming and is God. Evidently he went to visit Jamaica, and thousands(including a 7 year old Bob Marley)saw the scourge of the nails of the cross on his hands. Furthermore his arrival ended a terrible drought. Sellassie never made these claims and evidently there aren't many rasta's here.

While I am at it. The priest over at the Christian Orthodox church started up the loudspeaker chant at 3 am the other night and went until 8 am. I think I posted earlier that I kind of liked the prayers.

I take it all back. 

Why do prayers need to be blasted over loudspeakers?