We Do Not Know Ethiopia: Bahir Dar

We do not know Ethiopia. We have been here but a few days, and we only have some small impression. This is a kind place, friendly smiles are everywhere. As our journey progresses, we will have a fuller impression. Thus far, we have left Addis Ababa and traveled north, staying one night in Debre Markos (Church of St Mark) and spent thee days in Bahir Dar on Lake Tana.

Impressions are useful and hard to get over. There useful side can provide comfort (people in Ethiopia are honest and friendly). The hard to get over aspect of impressions are mostly negative. Ethiopia in my lifetime came into focus as a mass starvation of the 1980’s. Apparently, this is when it came to the world’s attention also. The millions who died in then Ethiopian famine left a legacy which is hard for us to face. Yet, this legacy is pervasive in the identity of what we see in Ethiopia today.