“you look like movie star. you are very fat.”

“thanks,” i said.  the boy smiled, proud of  his english compliment, and skipped down the cobblestone road, towards town.

i like to think he meant “strong”, but i have been eating a lot of injera.  like, a lot.  at least two times a day.  i haven’t been able to work it into my breakfast plans yet, a time when many Ethiopians have “firfir”, which is injera, mixed with injera, which one scoops up with…wait for it….injera.  guaranteed to make a movie star out of anyone.

i am in lalibella, in northern ethiopia.  i came here a few days ago to see more of the country.   lalibella is Christian ethiopia’s spiritual home.  it sits high on a mountain, swirling with clouds, and from its rock are carved several impossible churches.  some are connected through labyrinthine tunnels, others in caves miles from town, made of rock and marble and wood surrounded by a countryside dotted with mud huts.  the most impressive, st george’s church, would be unseen if you lied on your stomach, flat against the rock.  as you stood, though, you would see the top etched with a large cross, then watch the ground fall away to show deep walls that had been scratched from the hard stone a thousand years ago, and finally, a large church, with men in white muslin robes moving into and out of its many doors many metres below.

king lalibella built the churches with the help of angels, or so many people here believe. one can understand the temptation.  there is significance to each, its pillars, its crosses, the impossible location.  christians from all over the country make a pilgrimage to this holyholy place, to connect, to give thanks.  when one walks through the town, the scent of frankinsence heavy in the air,  you can hear the constant chant of students repeating their biblical lessons to the priest.  christopher hitchens, when he titled his book “god is not great”, must have neglected to visit ethiopia.  here god is great, has been for more than a thousand years, and worked through the hearts of men to move mountains.

lalibella

church of st. george, lalibella, ethiopa