Tag Archives: Ethiopia

July 10, 2014 · 4:32 pm

Hosting Radio Show Tonight

10 July People to People Radio Show Recording.

I have the honor to host the People to People Radio show tonight:

Topic: Maternal Knowledge and Attitudes, Focusing on Pregnancy Nutrition
Guest: Divya L. Selvakumar, consultant, nutrition specialist, and adjunct faculty member at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. Divya is currently doing her Walden University doctoral research in Northern Ethiopia. She is also the Founder and Director of American Hindu World Service, working in Nigeria.

Please join People to People’s radio show – Thursdays at 6:00 pm Pacific Time (9:00 pm Eastern Time). Access the weekly show online http://www.blogtalkradio.com/p2pglobalradioshow/ or phone 646-595-4742 each Thursday evening. Your questions and comments for this Global Health Forum will be welcome. Comments and suggestions for discussion topics can go in email to info@peoplepeople.org or be posted to People to People’s Facebook page. If you are unable to tune in live, please access recordings of all shows at your convenience – using the link provided on the People To People Global Radio Show Blogtalkradio web page.

Photo Copyright Divya L. Selvakumar 2014

19 October 2019: Links Updated.

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Tagged as Africa, Ethiopia, teaching

June 3, 2014 · 2:54 pm

Ethiopian Icons

My Episcopal home church in Saratoga, California, is spare in design – with most of the color coming from huge stained glass windows by Mark Adams. Visiting Ethiopian Orthodox churches and the Ethiopian Ethnological Museum last month presented me with the new world of brightly colored Ethiopian icons. Some were new and others were ancient but the color palette, style, and topics were similar regardless of age.

The icon topic that was very surprising to me was the Trinity (as seen in the last photo below). In my Protestant Christian faith tradition, Jesus is commonly represented in art but only rarely are God and the Holy Spirit shown, except symbolically (such as when the Holy Spirit is shown as a dove). Ethiopian icons showing the Trinity as three mature, identical, kingly men with haloes sitting in a row were disturbing.

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Tagged as Africa, Episcopal church, Ethiopia, John, Theology

May 29, 2014 · 1:50 pm

People to People Radio: US Ambassador to Ethiopia Patricia M. Haslach Interview

I just got back from a trip to Ethiopia during which I was honored to interview US Ambassador to Ethiopia, Patricia M. Haslach, on behalf of People To People Radio. Check out her advice to women and girls in the just-posted video. Thanks to my husband John Plocher for managing the recording and processing!

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Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Ethiopia, John, Mentoring, TechWomen

May 29, 2014 · 1:00 pm

Traditional Ethiopian Furniture

Prior to my recent trip to Ethiopia, I had no awareness of traditional Ethiopian furniture. So the sophisticated execution and elegant designs on display in the Ethnological Museum in Addis Ababa came as a very pleasant surprise. Once I had seen the museum collection, I was able to go through my photos from the entire journey to find similar furniture in current use. Unfortunately, some museum examples were in reflective glass cases in rooms with big bright windows – so my photos leave much to be desired (as in the case of the covered-basket-table or mesob immediately below). Basket-tables when not in use are covered with a fitted cloth case – as can be seen in the very bottom photo.

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Tagged as Africa, Ethiopia

May 28, 2014 · 4:53 pm

Ethiopian Art, Crafts, and Icons

I was going to write a “Crafts in Ethiopia” blog entry like my Crafts in Rwanda entry from February. Then I realized that in Ethiopia there is heavy overlap between art, craft, and religious icons. Some of the works I brought home are between these categories. For example, if the two paintings on goat skin above were not religious in content, I would consider them crafts; however, because one is depicts Saint George and the other represents the Holy Trinity, and both are heavily inspired in design by ancient icons still in active church use, I am not sure into what category they fall.

The image below of coffee drinkers is clearly craft – even though its media, design, and execution are very similar to the paintings above. The baskets, woven scarves, and jewelry items pictured below are also crafts. The silver cross ear rings and bracelet are something else – maybe religious crafts? The great variety, symbolism, and social importance of Ethiopian Orthodox crosses puts them in another category.

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Tagged as Africa, Ethiopia, Theology

May 28, 2014 · 11:37 am

Great Ethiopian Food: Injera and Coffee

Ethiopian coffee is some of the best in the world. According to the displays in the delightful Ethnological Museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is the original home of the Coffee Aribica plant, and the word coffee refers to the Ethiopian province of Kaffa. We enjoyed the coffee ceremony which formalizes the roasting, grinding, and serving of the beverage.

While in Ethiopia last week, John and I regularly ate meals on injera (a sourdough-risen flatbread with a unique, slightly spongy texture traditionally made out of indigenous teff flour), followed by wonderful coffee, sometimes accompanied by popcorn. Injera is served either in rolls or as the platter for a variety of wat or tsebhi (stew). We particularly liked the fasting (non-meat) wat – largely made from lentils or chickpeas. We often drank St. George beer with the meal (or Ambo sparkling water), with coffee after.

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Tagged as Africa, Ethiopia, John

May 26, 2014 · 3:33 pm

Lalibela, Ethiopia

15 years ago in California, I bought a silver cross inspired in design by Bet Giorgis, the Church of St. George, in Lalibela Ethiopia. A few days ago, John and I finally visited Lalibela and saw the inspiring medieval monolithic cave churches in this World Heritage Site for ourselves. Mostly built in the 12th century, Lalibela today is a major tourist and pilgrimage site, featuring good food (especially at the Mountain View Hotel, and the interestingly modern Ben Abeba restaurant) and comfortable hotels with lovely views.

John and I only had one day to visit Lalibela. After the early morning flight from Addis, we saw the cave church at Na’akueto La’ab, the northwestern church group, and Bet Giorgis. The building outsides are well maintained, and the churches themselves are in active use by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Inside are ancient painting and icons, worn rugs, big drums, and benches. Long curtains protect the holy space – inside of which is a replica of the tablets in the original Ark of the Covenant – itself said to be in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion (in the town of Axum in the Tigray Province, Ethiopia). There are remains of frescoes on some church walls plus elaborate ceiling carvings. The churches vary in size and design but all are carved from red basalt below ground level – from the living rock.