Cultural Day

December 7, 2012, was the best night, and possibly day ever (well, in Ethiopia at least)...there was cultural dress, lots of food, dancing (I might be getting pretty good at this Wolaitana dancing-haha!), and music, all surrounded by good company.

There were like 16 events (ok, I guess that’s a bit of an exaggeration) that all happened to fall on the same day:

1) We had a group of people staying on our compound for a few days (a total of approx. 12 – most of whom were priests) from the diocese office

2) It was Abba Larcher's birthday (He’s the priest on our compound)

3) The Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Celebrating Virgin Mary being conceived without sin)

4) Ethiopian national cultural day (or something like that…typical - I can never seem to get a clear understanding of just exactly what we are celebrating)

4) Because of the cultural day, we had a drama at the school...all the kids came dressed in their "cultural clothes" = really cool to see!  They performed different skits and dances...REALLY fun music and dance...maybe I was made for Africa after all!

5) Dinner with the religious communities of Soddo, followed by more food, music, and dancing!

Whew!  That’s kind of a lot for one day…Here’s the run-down...

We had a feast of a dinner the night before with our guests:


Our day started at 6:10am with Mass, to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

At approximately 8:00am, students gathered for the assembly at the flag poles.  When our students showed up decked in all their cultural clothes, there were about 4 or 5 of the boys who came wearing a cloth wrapped around their waist (knee length) chest with a few swatches of white dusty paint on, carrying what appeared to be a legitimate African spear (the long kind) ahhahaha! Definitely got some pics of that :)  Then we all walked down to the Youth Center for the talent show.  At one point in the show, they invited us up on stage and we showed off our best attempt at Wolaitana dancing with some of the other teachers!

The audience: Many of our students wore their cultural clothing.

The opening act: A group of students sing a song. I think it is about Ethiopia (as the girl in the middle has the Ethiopian flag around her) and its different regions (students are holding pictures of flags from different regions in Ethiopia). The big flag hanging down in the middle is of the Wolaita region.

A smaller group of students performing a Wolaitana dance.

More cultural dancing

Another group performed a comedic skit. The girl on the far right is preparing the coffee ceremony.

A group of our girls perform walk in a fashion show, displaying various cultural clothes.

Some of our students in their cultural clothes

Some of our students in their cultural clothes

Some students and teachers in their cultural clothes. I think the different outfits might represent the different regions.

Well then, at the end of all that (3 hours later) there was a coffee ceremony (our first one of the day) with some of our students and other teachers...followed by pictures with the teachers in their beautiful cultural dresses (I tried asking where they get them from because I would like to get one, to which they responded "in the stores"...well, that narrows it down!)

Paula and I sporting our attempt at "cultural clothes" (the Wolaita cultural colors are red, yellow, and black).

Me with a couple of our fellow teachers.

 We walked back up the hill, to have lunch (basically a feast!...plus a feast last night because we were eating with our guests) and singing to Abba for his birthday, complete with Paula's accompaniment on guitar:

Looks like lunch today consists of "Soddo" pizza (one of my favorite things we eat here), fried pieces of something (usually promises to be delicious), chicken, wat with hard boiled eggs, pasta al forno (I fondly refer to it as "pasta bake" - another one of my favorites), french fries, and salad

Left to right: Deacon Temesgen, Abba Larcher (birthday boy), Brother Desta, and Paula

After lunch we had a break for a couple of hours, so that was nice.  In the afternoon, I had a little jotanee (foosball) time with my girls (they are super cute, and I think I starting to get pretty good!  It’s definitely getting more competitive and gets a little intense sometimes - hahaha!  Plus, I have been teaching them one of the songs I know in Amharic (The kids at school taught me, so now I am teaching some of our Oratory kids.)

Then eventually once the evening rolled around, we had evening prayer followed by a short car ride over to dinner.  We all went for dinner at the Franciscans house here in Soddo...there was basically our guests + us + a representation from all other catholic religious communities in Soddo = a lot of priests and sisters (I sat on a couch and ate dinner between one of the Daughters of Charity sisters and one of the Missionaries of Charity sisters) they were sooo great, and dinner was delicious :)  *Note: Missionaries of Charity is the order that Blessed Mother Theresa started.  They are soooo cute!

After dinner, we went outside to this large open circular area, in the middle was a HUGE tree, which they have installed outdoor lights onto...there was a bench going around the entire circumference of the circle, on which we all sat...another coffee ceremony...and a lot more Wolaitana music and dancing…and they continued to feed us!

The lighted tree with people sitting on the surrounding bench

Cooking the meat

Coffee ceremony

There were ladies cooking pieces of meat in probably the biggest wok I've ever seen over a fire...and they KEPT offering us more food and drinks (complete with coffee ceremony) - like servers would come around and ask over and over if we wanted more (basically insisting)...then there was the rum!

A couple of the guys stood up in front, and everyone got quite as if there was to be an announcement.  They had a couple of bottles of rum, and they began some sort of announcement…like maybe there is going to be a toast.  Because it was all in Amharic, I couldn’t understand what they were saying, so I just sat there trying to pay attention.  Then suddenly I hear “Colorado!” (suddenly a word I understood)…I looked up, thinking “Hey, wait! I’m from Colorado!” (I get really excited over any little piece of home)…They, sure enough, were talking about/looking at me.  Apparently, they had chosen me to be the guest of honor and wanted me to come up to join them in the front.  So, I walked up there.  They handed me a bottle of rum, and wanted ME to give the toast!  Handing me the microphone, they said, “Just say a few words.”  Uuuuuuuhhhhhh…gulp!  What is one to say in such a situation (addressing a large group of priests and religious sisters, toasting with a bottle of rum, celebrating “Cultural Day”-still unsure of what that exactly even means, they have limited English skills and I have VERY limited Amharic skills)…ummmm, think fast!  So, I just ended up saying that I hoped for healing and transformation of all hearts present and of Soddo.  I guess it worked out ok, because they proceeded to serve me the first drink…more music and dancing...sheesh! Those priests know how to party!

...and I think that's all of my very fun day…I told Paula that we should have "Cultural Day" every day! ahaha :)