What has happened here?

(Yesterday's post – accidentally appearing after today's! J

I came, I saw, I experienced, I fell in love! J This has happened to me so many times now! I'm this Canadian who keeps falling in love with very un-Canadian countries, peoples and ways of life. First it was India, back when I was a follower of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who I still respect more than any other person in this world. Being in India, immersed in the mystery and wisdom, yet poverty and disease, I was attracted and repulsed, but in the end very in love. More recently I spent time in China, again being impacted by the mystery and ancient wisdom, yet the poverty, disease and spiritual hunger of a people raised during the cultural revolution. In the end I was very much in love and happily would go there again for a protracted period of time. Last winter when I got to Ghana, it was again the same thing – in fact I thought I was back in India, it was so familiar to me what I was seeing: the air pollution, the dirt, poverty and disease, yet a vibrant, strong, virile people whose drive towards life is an expression of the ancient life force that emanates from the land. Three lands, three civilizations, three ways of being quite foreign to a Canadian and yet I felt so at home. Now here in Ethiopia it is starting all over again. But first let me tell you a bit about Ethiopia itself.

Ethiopia shares quite a bit with Ghana but has some very distinct differences as well. They are both very Christian with a sizeable Moslem minority, but Ethiopia is an ancient civilization, and both its Christian and Moslem roots go deeper and further back than in Ghana. In fact The Prophet Mohammed declared that Jihad would never be declared against Ethiopia, because the Ethiopian Christian king protected his family members when the rulers of the pagan city which he had offended with his new teaching and path, came with gifts asking for them. The king on listening to what they believed (the Mohammedites and the Pagans) said that the Mohammedites were closer to his beliefs, they were his guests, and that they were welcome to stay with him. So Ethiopia ever since has had a certain level of tolerance between their Christians, Moslems and traditional religionists. Although Ethiopia like Afghanistan has been conquered, it has never been colonized; Ethiopia like China went through a communist period (only 17 years), but it has shaken it off as a dark chapter in its history, not having suffered the same dislocation from its traditions and spirituality as happened in China. So today, Ethiopia is modernizing rapidly, and while much of the infrastructure has been delivered through international aid and development channels, today business is taking off in many sectors. But as it modernizes, the government is also working hard to support its poor, creating jobs like Street Parking Payment workers, and building thousands of low-cost, basic multi-story condominiums as it flattens one story slums. Ethiopia today is a multi-faith society that is opening up increasingly to investment and the modernization of its agriculturally-based economy. It is a place of opportunity for those with business skills and capital, a relatively stable society in which corruption is not such a feature of life as it is in so many other developing countries.

Whatever the case, again, I have seen, I have been repulsed by the air pollution, dirt and disease and yet I am deeply attracted to this place, to these people, to their food, to what it means to live and work here. So do come over here sometime and see for yourself about why it is that so many people like me, once they've been here, are bitten, changed, and never the same.