What We Have Seen and Heard: Bringing Joel Home--Road Trip (Part 4)

(Nov 16th 2011)

After we got back from our hike up the mountain, we went for a tour in the monastery. It was under construction, but there was this monk who spent some time with us and told us all the stories of the paintings and stain glass and such. There was WAY too much for my little brain to hold on to, but here's a small piece of it. If you want to know more, ask Tony! He probably remembers way more than I do!!!

This is a painting of the Trinity. All three identical to show that all three are fully God.

The amazing windows. This one has Christ on the cross in the windows. You can kinda see his face just to the left of center in the picture.

This is the Saint who lost his leg praying. There are pictures of him all over the place and always with only one leg. He was admired for his devotion.

In the back of the room, there were windows on each side. The windows on this side tell the story of the Bible (or maybe just the OT, I can't remember), but here you can see Adam and Eve in the top left and Abraham offering a sacrifice in the bottom left and Moses and the Ten Commandments in the bottom right.

On the other side of the room were the same windows but with the disciples of Jesus on them. The 11 who were with Jesus on earth and then I think the 12th was Paul (again, ask Tony to be sure). Not sure which disciples these are....

The three of us with the monk who showed us around. His English was great! You could tell he shared the story of the pictures a LOT. It was obviously a memorized speech, but impressive none the less.

And with our driver too.

There was a museum here as well, but I couldn't take pictures because of the artifacts, but LOTS of crosses used for blessing and lots of Bibles and even the priests hats. This picture was taken from the balcony and is looking over a cemetery which seemed like a lovely garden. You can even sorta see a couple of guys relaxing in the garden. (There in yellow on the bottom right.)

The whole purpose for this trip out of the city was to see "The Gorge." Now, if you ever visit Ethiopia, there's a gorge with a supposedly Niagra-type waterfall that is about 6 hours out of the Addis. This is not that gorge and not that waterfall, but awesome anyway!