Friday, January 13, 2023
It felt like Groundhog Day. We woke up at 3 A.M. to catch at 7 A.M. flight from Addis Ababa to Bahir Dar. That’s nearly the same schedule we did Wednesday a week ago to fly from
Raleigh to Addis Ababa. We boarded a propeller plane in Addis Ababa, and our daughter loved it. This was the first prop plane she flew. It was a quick 1 hour flight, traveling about the same distance from RDU to JFK in NYC.
Bahir Dar is a beautiful city of around 350,000 people that sits on the bank of Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile River. Lake Tana is 52 miles wide and 41 miles long and sits at an elevation of 5,866 ft. It is the highest lake in Africa. The world’s longest river, the Nile, is sourced from two lakes and rivers. One is Lake Tana in Ethiopia, the so-called Blue Nile River. The other is Lake Victoria, held in the countries of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania forming the White Nile River. The Blue Nile and White Nile Rivers meet in Khartoum, Sudan to form the Nile River that flows to Egypt.
We spent the day exploring the city and talking with local vendors. Dinner was at Food Way, where we ate whole Nile perch fish fried, directly from Lake Tana. We rode back to our hotel on the Ethiopian version of an Indian taxi called Tuk Tuk. It’s best described as a slightly larger version of Steve Urkel’s car from Family Matters. Jemonde thought Urkel’s car was a joke until he visited the BMW museum in Spartanburg, SC from his time working at Michelin Tire and learned that it was as BMW Isetta 300.
Fr. Jemonde, thank you for sharing your sabbatical adventures with us. The food sounds delicious the curried lamb, the fried fish. Tasty!
Fr. Jermonde,I am glad you guys are enjoying your Sabadical. Peace be with you.