Market day in Lalibela was Saturday, so we we're lucky to be there. We told Abeba, our church guide, that we had been to other African markets and so felt comfortable going alone, without him. He asked if we had ever been to an Ethiopian market and we said no, just the Merkato in Addis. He said it would be different and he was right! We were happy to be a threesome. When you hire a church guide in Lalibela, they are with you for a full two days for 500 birr, or $50. He was very helpful in teaching us how to deal with young boys who wanted to steal from us and how to barter in Ethiopia. The hills were full of people heading to market with all sorts of things to sell, from chickens to tej to donkeys. There was excitement in the air!
We stopped and I bought a wool hat for Eliah from this man. It needs serious cleaning before wearing.
There were hundreds of goats.
The first section of the market had chickens...
eggs...
donkeys...
sheep and goats...
cattle...
rope...
So cute! We wanted to buy them both, for Adam and Ali's twins :)
The green cup on the stick indicates the homebrew is ready!
The hides...
This man walked 4 hours to go to the market, and the round container is his lunch box. He also needed to walk 4 hours home. After learning about the lunch boxes, we saw them everywhere.
The tej, which is a very fine grain used to make injera, a pancake like bread which is a staple of the Ethiopians. I've tried it many times over the past six years, and really don't care for it, and I'm not a picky eater!
Maize...
Coffee pots...I bought two, one black and one brown, and hope they make it home in one piece.
Belaynesh, Abebe's wife made injera with a variety of bean and vegetable dishes. She is wearing the traditional clothing.
Belaynesh taught us how to make coffee the traditional way, sort of! First you roast the beans.
If you love coffee, you know how good this smelled.
Then she ground them with a mortar and pestle. Then, for some reason, she reached down into an electric grinder, scooped up a handful of ground coffee, and put it in the pot of water. So, I'm not really sure what that was about, but this is a picture of our nee coffee pot that came from the market. She wanted to season it, including heating it, before we took it home. The coffee was delicious.
These are Abebe and Belaynesh's twins, which is probably the reason we were invitied to their home in the first place. Abebe talked about his three year old twin girls, Meklit & Merawit. We talked about our soon to be born twin grandchildren. In Ethiopia, twins are a blessing. This picture was tsken just after a fight, which evidently is a common occura ce. He said they love and hate each other, and can't be separated. One of them just bit the other. Abebe can't always tell them apart, and needs to look on the left leg of one of them for a big birthmark, which he showed us.
After the picture of the girls was taken, Nolaw was jealous and went into the bedroom to build something so he could have his picture taken. He is 8 years old and very sweet.
Such a great family and so generous to invite us into their home. We left with our new coffee pot and they gave us a bag of Tomoca ground coffee.
On the walk home we saw kids playing foosball, pool, football and pingpong.
We wondered if we were contributing to the local economy or to child exploitation? 4 birr for a shoe cleaning, about 20 cents.
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