pecha kucha Ethiopia

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• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  On the left, I was able to peek through a hole in the gate and get this photo of the inside courtyard of my dad’s old house. He says it looks just the same. If I was able to turn to the right, inside the gate, I would have seen the site of this photo on the right of my dad with the neighborhood monkey.

• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  I had a book with my dad’s photos in it. The locals saw us taking photos in this decidedly non-touristic location, and were curious. They recognized the locations in my dad’s photos. I could tell, even though none of them spoke English!

• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  The house in the back of these photos is the house my dad lived in in Addis. On the left, his roommate Charlie stands out front. I am standing in front on the right photo. Again, not much has changed. Even the gate is there. It’s only been painted and wood added to the top section.

• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  This is the main street near the house where my dad lived in Addis. You can see not much has changed. On top is his image, on bottom is mine. The telephone pole in his is the same exact pole that stands there today. The two buildings behind the pole are still there - looks like they have simply been painted. My dad tells me the building to the left of the open area (which is the top of the 70 steps leading down to the piazza), used to be a latrine....maybe it still is?

• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  My dad saw the queen when he was in Ethiopia. You can see he got pretty close to her. He took the photo from the stairs of the building on the right. I took that photo. The building used to be Haile Selassie’s home. I went to see his bathroom inside (no photos allowed).

• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  We finally arrived back in Addis at the end of our trip and I went to work searching out the locations of some of my dad’s photos from the 60s. Here is the main square in the Piazza area. My dad’s image is at top, mine is at bottom. You can see the two buildings at right are still there. There is an Ethiopian Airlines ad on top of the curved part of the building in the middle on both my photo and my dad’s. My dad’s bank was in the building on the right.

• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  I was fascinated by these shops -- and also afraid to take a really descriptive shot. They are raw meat vendors. Always painted like this with a white building, painted with a red band on the bottom and a red cross. Inside the window is a wooden ladder-like rack on which is flayed an entire cow carcass. Sometimes there are also organs hung from hooks. You go up to the window and choose your cut and they slice it off for you and serve it with some berebere (powdered spice mixture).

• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  Of the many little things I noticed about Ethiopia, one of my favorite things was the walking sticks. All the village men, and some women, had them. On the left is a photo my dad took of an old man on the road. On the right is my image of a guy in Bahir Dar using his stick to carry the chickens (alive) that he just bought at the market. Note the shoes: In my dad’s day, many people didn’t wear shoes. And the old man he photographed is wearing leather thong sandals. The guy in my photo wears plastic sandals. Plastic has made it possible for people to have shoes! Incidentally, no one wears flip-flops. Too dangerous when walking on all those rocks.

• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  Religion is very visible in Ethiopia and the symbols and rites of orthodox Christianity are everywhere. They are very devout people. On the left is my dad’s photo of priests at a Timkat (Epiphany) ceremony. On the right is my image of the paintings on the church wall in a monastery on one of the islands on Lake Tana. I thought it was Saint George, who is a very prevalent saint in Ethiopia. However on second glance, I think it’s just a conqueror, but the image uses the same visual convention used to depict George, thus my confusion.

• + jolifanta 2 years ago

  This is there the ark of the covenant rests. Ethiopians believe that they have the ark here in Axum. It was taken from Israel by King Menelik I, who was ostensibly the bastard son of King Solomon. No one can see the ark. Only a single priest who is chosen to guard it can see it. And he cannot leave the complex. Women are not allowed in the complex either, which is why my photo is from far away.

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