Mark Urban's Travels - Ethiopia

Mark first thanked Dr. Greg Herrera for helping him with his audio-visual for his slide show. He mentioned that he had spent a two-week trip to Ethiopia. First, he gave out some facts: Ethiopia is a land-locked country with access to other Arab countries and Egypt. It is the 10^th largest country in Africa and twice the size of Texas and France. Its main crop is coffee.  Coffee originated in Yemen 500-800 A.D.

 

Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa – except for a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy, it was never colonized. It’s G.D.P. is under $1000.

 

It is a country with high elevation and the capitol is Addis Ababa at 7.726 feet. Ethiopia’s population is estimated at 105 million and the Oromo is their largest ethnic group with the Amhara second. The Amhara have been politically dominant since the 13^th century. Their religious majority is Ethiopian Orthodox Christians (Coptic Christians) followed by a size-able Muslim minority and the others – Protestants and a very small minority who follow traditional beliefs.

 

Mark’s trip consisted of a circle going from Addis Ababa to other interesting sites and then back to the Capitol. He showed us some interesting churches, for instance, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Debre Berhan Selassie Church Gondor, built in the late 1700s.

 

He showed us pictures of the Lalibela Rock Hewn Churches which are amazingly carved completely from one solid block of stone (sand stone) both inside and out and completely functional! Also, we saw European looking Gondar Palaces.

 

Mark traveled to Simien Mountains National Park which is located near Gondor and is very mountainous (10,000 feet) and saw Gelada monkeys/baboons which are unique to Ethiopia.

Mark went to Bale Mountains National Park which is an Oromo region and has various ecosystems, a high mountain 14,350 feet (similar to Mt. Whitney), and home of the Ethiopian wolf, which is the rarest and most endangered canine species in the world with only 500 to 1000 remaining.

 

Mark then told us about visiting a museum there and seeing the bones of “Lucy”, discovered in 1975 and 3.2 million years old. And “Ardi”, whose remains are estimated at 4.4 million years old and was discovered in Ethiopia in 1992-94 in Ethiopia.

 

When they were there, political unrest occurred, which caused them to alter their plans a little bit, when they got back to Addis Ababa, the prime minister had resigned.

 

Mark said that since they left Ethiopia, there has been a lot of ethnic violence. Two weeks ago, attacks near Addis by Oromos killed 25 people. Clashes between Oromos and ethnic Gedeos in southern Ethiopia have caused nearly 1 million people to flee the area. In July, there were clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Bale Mountain area where they stayed.

 

President Greg surprised everyone by saying that “in honor of Mark's presentation”, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library.

Mark first thanked Dr. Greg Herrera for helping him with his audio-visual for his slide show. He mentioned that he had spent a two-week trip to Ethiopia. First, he gave out some facts: Ethiopia is a land-locked country with access to other Arab countries and Egypt. It is the 10^th largest country in Africa and twice the size of Texas and France. Its main crop is coffee.  Coffee originated in Yemen 500-800 A.D.

 

Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa – except for a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy, it was never colonized. It’s G.D.P. is under $1000.

 

It is a country with high elevation and the capitol is Addis Ababa at 7.726 feet. Ethiopia’s population is estimated at 105 million and the Oromo is their largest ethnic group with the Amhara second. The Amhara have been politically dominant since the 13^th century. Their religious majority is Ethiopian Orthodox Christians (Coptic Christians) followed by a size-able Muslim minority and the others – Protestants and a very small minority who follow traditional beliefs.

 

Mark’s trip consisted of a circle going from Addis Ababa to other interesting sites and then back to the Capitol. He showed us some interesting churches, for instance, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Debre Berhan Selassie Church Gondor, built in the late 1700s.

 

He showed us pictures of the Lalibela Rock Hewn Churches which are amazingly carved completely from one solid block of stone (sand stone) both inside and out and completely functional! Also, we saw European looking Gondar Palaces.

 

Mark traveled to Simien Mountains National Park which is located near Gondor and is very mountainous (10,000 feet) and saw Gelada monkeys/baboons which are unique to Ethiopia.

Mark went to Bale Mountains National Park which is an Oromo region and has various ecosystems, a high mountain 14,350 feet (similar to Mt. Whitney), and home of the Ethiopian wolf, which is the rarest and most endangered canine species in the world with only 500 to 1000 remaining.

 

Mark then told us about visiting a museum there and seeing the bones of “Lucy”, discovered in 1975 and 3.2 million years old. And “Ardi”, whose remains are estimated at 4.4 million years old and was discovered in Ethiopia in 1992-94 in Ethiopia.

 

When they were there, political unrest occurred, which caused them to alter their plans a little bit, when they got back to Addis Ababa, the prime minister had resigned.

 

Mark said that since they left Ethiopia, there has been a lot of ethnic violence. Two weeks ago, attacks near Addis by Oromos killed 25 people. Clashes between Oromos and ethnic Gedeos in southern Ethiopia have caused nearly 1 million people to flee the area. In July, there were clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Bale Mountain area where they stayed.

 

President Greg surprised everyone by saying that “in honor of Mark's presentation”, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library.