Mulay and Jodie

Mulay, Habte and Girma

Drink up, drinkas!

Habte and Mulay

We'd spent five days together—six for me and Jochen—so our Christmas Day celebration in Lalibela made for a bittersweet final night.

At dinner, we toasted each other's freshly-scrubbed faces and clean clothes. Such a relief. Mulay mentioned his disappointment that we never drank on the trek—a bit confusing to the rest of us as we'd had a few beers each and every night. But in Mulay's eyes, we never got drunk as proper Westerners do.

Roha Café was decent, but truthfully the homecooked food on the trek was better. After the weak rendition of spaghetti I'd had for lunch, I decided to keep it simple with tomato soup and fries, but even this could have been much better. More beers, please.

While we loved having Habte along, Girma's inclusion was a little odd. Despite touring the churches with him earlier, I felt that he was an outsider. A few more drinks fixed that.

We piled into Habte's van to climb the winding uphill road to Askeleh Tej House, near the main church cluster. Jessie, Nina and Jodie were on all short jaunts in Ethiopia as part of longer trips through Africa, so their inexperience with tej, Ethiopian home-brewed honey wine, was understandable. But Jochen, with his extra week hanging out in Addis—how had he never come across it? Despite the pounding hangover I endured after bar-hopping with Peter in Gondar, I was a fan and happily ordered several.

Mulay had been dying to share a G&T with the representative of the Crown, but when the huge bottle of gin arrived with 12 ounces of tonic, Nina blanched. It was the only bit of mixer available in the whole joint.

A withered, alcohol-stinking man sat next to me babbling about my various charms. It was sort of funny at first through my own tej haze, but soon it became disturbing and Girma jumped up to switch seats.

Jodie and Nina

Jess and Habte

Nina, Habte and Jochen

The tej house I'd visited in Gondar was dark and small, Peter and I the sole patrons sitting in the courtyard portioning our giant bottle into the little flasks. This place was more upscale and tourist-oriented, with the tej pre-poured and entertainment provided in the form of music and shoulder-dancing. Mulay and Habte were huge fans. Exhorting us to join in, we stalled for a bit because of the other tourists watching. But the alcohol took over and soon we were all wriggling our way across the dance floor.

The old man reappeared after I'd hit the dance floor. I suppose there's only so much deterrence three young Ethiopian men can provide to a very determined drunk. He was soon led away by the police.

We thoroughly embarrassed ourselves for a few hours in front of all Askeleh's guests, including trekkers that Mulay would be guiding in a couple days. With Habte thankfully driving our drunk asses back to our various hotels, Jessie and I said goodbye to Nina, made plans to meet Jochen and Jodie for their last breakfast in the country, and promised Mulay and Habte we'd see them during our additional day in Lalibela.

Christmas Day was a long one...it was hard to believe we'd woken up in the mountains, trekked through the fields, visited a school full of excitable students, explored Lalibela's northern cluster of rock-hewn churches AND had such a drunken evening of dancing all in one day. Ethiopia proved again to be full of surprises.

<   previous      •      next   >