Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia [ጅማ አባ ጅፋር]

 [@ Djibouti Port]

Jimma is one of the zones of the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. Jimma is named for the former Kingdom of Jimma, which was absorbed into the former province of Kaffa in 1932. Jimma is bordered on the south by the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, the northwest by Illubabor, on the north by Misraq Welega, and on the northeast by Mirab Shewa; part of the boundary with Misraq Shewa is defined by the Gibe River. The highest point in this zone is Mount Maigudo (2,386 m). Towns and cities in Jimma include Agaro, Genet and Saqqa [Reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimma_Zone]

Abba Jifar Palace June 2011

Picture taken from Jimma Museum

Moti Abba Jifar II was King of the Gibe Kingdom of Jimma (1878–1932)

Abba Jifar II a member of the Oromo people, the son of Abba Gomol and Queen Gumiti. He had several wives: Queen Limmiti, who was the daughter of the King of Limmu-Ennarea; Queen Minjo, the daughter of the King of Kaffa; and Queen Sapertiti, also from Limmu-Ennarea

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Jifar_II]

        Mostly I plan my visits so it could be economical and today I will share how I manage to go to different places with least cost possible. As I said previously my objective is to inspire those of you who think that money is a barrier to travel. Of course you need money to travel but you can travel if you save for a year or two depending on your income. The only problem we have is that we don’t have the culture of planning at all. Hence, when you want to do anything its seems impossible. So please just  try a little and you will see what you can do, how about you do some reading about the area you leave  in and  things to do or see in the vicinity? Believe me there is a lot we don’t know about the things to do in the city you leave.

I like meeting people and maintain contact with all my friends, colleagues and any one I met along. So while checking on friends or colleagues I will get the information that some of them have traveled out of Addis for work or for business so I will ask if they are going to stay for a while, whether they are going back to the place again, then I will do my research on the exact place they said they have traveled or moved and squeeze my plan towards them. Hence I planned my trip for June 2011 G.C.

My trip to Jimma is a good example of for the point I mentioned above. A good friend of mine joined Jimma University as an instructor, as I told you I mostly keep on checking on friends and if there is anything new. So one day I called him we talked and I learnt that he was on semester break.  So I bought my ‘Salam Bus’ Ticket  and I went to Jimma.

Gibe bereha'[ጊቤ በረሃ] June 2011

I had an amazing view starting from the morning sunrise as the bus leaves Addis Ababa; we stopped by at welkite for branch. After couple of hours we headed in to the ‘Gibe bereha’ after we passed several villages and cities we arrived at Jimma safe and sound.

June 2011

City view from Abba Jifar Palace [Yifru]

Jimma Cinema

I met my friend and we walked around for a while and we had our dinner then we called it a day. The next morning after we had our breakfast we went to piazza, there is this famous café at the corner and their macchiato is a killer! So we had this amazing macchiato then we head to the museum which is about 10 min walk from the café.  We leant that some of the souvenir and equipments of the Aba Jifar have been moved from the Palace to the museum for convinces. And there are also souvenir and cultural equipments’ which describe the cultural heritages of the region in general. In the afternoon we stopped by the cinema hall and we visited the Jimma University as well.

City Square

Jimma museum 

 The next morning we went to one of the restaurant around the campus and ordered some food to go. After we carried our food and water we started walking to the great palace of Aba Jifar, which is about 5 Km from the gate of Juma University. We walked through the villages around and feeling the fresh breeze. After we visited the compound and the palace of Abba Jifar we took our lunch, we sat for a while wondering the view and the calmness of the area. Finally we started walking back to the university.

Wooden case used to carry clothes
 kept in the Palace[June 2011]

Bed of Abba Jifar found in the Palace
kept in the palace[June 2011]

It was quite a great time I had on my stay at Jimma. Centeral Hotel,’ ዝናሽ ጠጅ ቤት’ are quite a nice place I saw on my stay.   One of  the things  I love most about traveling is that you get to see and interact with the people leaving there, and they will show you places to see, eat , and go to as an outsider to their town and if you are wise enough you will get very useful information by going to the places they like most. Eat with them, drink and play with them then you will learn a lot. It’s not how fancy they are or not but when you give credit to them, and to the things they do, they will feel at ease and tell you many things before you even ask them.

Thank you for your time. I hope you had some insight, please send me your feed back, comment or any question and share it if you find it helpful.

Jerusalem, the Holy Land

One of the best benefits of being a sailor is traveling around, getting the chance to experience different cultures and test verities of cousins My ship called one of Israeli ports, Port of Ashdod and I had a chance to go out and visit the epic historic place like Church of the Holy Sepulcher (ቤተልሔም), Golgotha, Mount of Olives (GeteSemeani), Wailing Wall. the Tomb Of King David, and Israeli  & Palestine border

Jerusalem is a city in the Middle East, located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea

Old city

The Wailing wall

First the taxi took us to the Palestine boarder and told us to switch to another taxi and that he will be waiting for us around the boarder. The Palestine taxi driver took us Church of the Holy Sepulcher (ቤተልሔም), the birth place of our Lord Jesus Christ, lucky me!! Unfortunately it was December 16^thand Christmas was on 24^th December, so I had the chance to see the Christmas tree preparation at the gate of the Bethlehem, what a coincidence to be in Jesus Christ’s birthplace by late December such a blessing.  

Church of Nativity(Bethelehem)

After we finished our visit at Bethlehem which lies in Palestine our diver took us back to the boarder and we meet our former taxi, and we headed to Golgotha, The place where Jesus Christ was crucified (የተገነዘበት እና የተቀበረበት) there are many many things to see with in Golgotha, There are different sections within the church which are dedicated for service and mass prayers, among them are Ethiopian Orthodox section, Egyptian Coptic Orthodox section, Indian Orthodox Section, and so forth. In addition to that there is Ethiopian church with in the rare end of the big church.

After Golegota we went to Dare Sultan Monastery, which solely dedicated for Ethiopian monk, nuns and priests who reside in Jerusalem. It’s very disturbing to see the compound the Church, the monks and nuns leaving in such a poor condition.

Golgotha(The Garden Tomb)

Then we proceed to a the Place where Saint Merry Passed away, Currently Catholic Church Owens the place Since 1910 G.C and then we went to See the Tomb of King David, which is located in side  A Jewish church, and we proceeded to see Mount of olives (ጌቴ ሰማኒ), The city have preserved the old culture and antique buildings. We have seen lots of historic and cultural sites. Finally we went to the Wailing Wall, the holy place for the Jewish People. You will be amazed how the Jewish people dress, walk and talk in a decent manner. It needs a lot of hard work and commitment to preserve the heritage and culture for this long without mixing and modifying it with the modern culture. So hates off to our fellow people.

Panoramic view to the City of Jerusalem

Finally we visited the Ala-Aqsa mosque and the panoramic view of the city of Jerusalem. It’s really a unique adventure and feeling to walk in the city where our lord Jesus Christ has walked back in the days. For us it’s a blessing and a wonderful place to see but for the locales it’s just another day to accomplish daily life.

Pillars preserved from the early ages (1st Century)

Statue of King David
[the Tomb is in the Jewish Church behind the wall]

 You can write a comment, feedback and questions in the drop box and contact me through berhaum@gmail.com please don't hesitate to share my blog if you find it helpful. For those of you who want to read in your language, please Select the language you want from the drop box of Translate on the right column of the page.
I will take you to Jimma, Oromiya on my next stop. Thank you for your time!

ጨለቆት ስላሴ

Chalacot or Chelekot ,Tigray Region of Ethiopia [ጨለቆት ስላሴ : ትግራይ ኢትዮጵያ]

       While I was studying at Mek’ele Univesity, I have traveled to many places in the Northern part of Ethiopia, My first trip was, a trip to chalacko Selassie Church. When Mek’ele University was relocated, It came to the out skirt of the city, Arid’ compound. There is a Church Called Endayesus Campus which have been there for decades. So the campus included the Church to its compound.I couldn't find the exact time Endayesus church was built but its more than a century, The Italian army established their fort near the Endayesus church above Mek'ele in October 1895. After the re-occupation of Ambalage’ in late 1895, the fort was besieged by Ethiopian troops, who cut the Italians' water supply. There is this amazing Italian cemetery with in the vicinity of the Church (I will write about it some other time)

Endayesus Church till recent years

Endayesu Church in the old days (Before MU relocation)

Endayesus Church compound around 1997 E.C

Current  New Cathedral of Endayesu Church

Italian Solders Cemetery 

So the Sunday school at Endayesus Church has a department for travel and I was a member and participant.

 Sunday, ታሀሳስ 1996 ዓ ም (28^th December 2003G.C) we had a trip to ChalakotSelassis, Chalacot or Chelekot is a village in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Enderta woreda of the DebubMisraqawi (Southeastern) Zone, 10 kilometers north of Antalo and 17 kilometers south of Mek'ele.

       We were divided in to 19 groups each group has 20 students so totally about 380 students had participated in this trip. After the committee has arranged the food and water by Saturday night,Sunday around 0345 AM we gathered at the gate of the Campus and then we hit the road by walking at 0400 AM, on our way there was a discussion among each group about campus life, brotherhood, giving services to the Church and receiving services from the church, hymns and spiritual songs and we arrived at Chalakot Selassie around 1000 AM which was  about six hours of continuous and moderate walking.

Ras Wolde Selassie made Chalacot his capital, and received Henry Salt there in 1810. The Ras built a palace in the village and the church Chelekot Selassie, which Philip Briggs described as an "architecturally impressive example of the circular tikul (ትኩል) styles of paintings" and "covered in beautiful 19th-century paintings".When Wolde Selassie died in Chalacot (1816), his nephew Walda Rufa'el sacked it.

        After we visited the church, the epic paintings and the spectacular views we had our lunch. Talking about lunch, it was quite a nice Ye Enjera Burger(የአንጀራ በርገር). Thanks to the catering staff at the campus, they prepared this special burger. In case you want to try it. Put one enjera on the plate then pour thick sauce or ‘shiro wet’(ሽሮ ወጥ) and put one more enjera on top and keep it is a cool place for a night, then you will get the burger we ate on my trip. After taking a little rest we resumed our journey back to the campus.

Back then I was using Kodak analogue camera, I don’t have most of the pictures I took as soft copy now. I will make time to scan and make them available or future references.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalacot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekelle_University

http://wikiedit.org/Ethiopia/Inda-Iyesus/1555010/

Thank you for your time! ከታላቅ ምስጋና ጋር!

I will see you in Jerusalem on my next stop.

Cape Cost, Ghana and Menagesha-Suba Natural forests,Oromiya, Ethiopia

13/07/18 [Djibouti Anchorage]

      Talking about Natural Forests, I have this amazing trip I had with my colleagues in 2010 and 2012. The former is a trip to one of the natural forests in Ghana and the latter is a trip I had to Suba Natural forest, Oromiya, Ethiopia.

      When I was attending my maritime studies at Accra, Ghana, I have traveled to different places, among them, is a trip to Cape Cost,(known as Gold Cost in the early days) and to Kakum Natural forest, one of the largest natural forests in Ghana.

Cape Coast - Wikipedia,   

 KakumNational Park - Wikipedia

Cape Cost Castel

Travel Ethiopia, Travel Africa, and Travel the World

My Name is Berhanu, I created this blog to share my travel experience with you and get passionate about traveling, culture and life in general. I have been travelling since the age of 13.I want to inspire people who have the ambition to travel but don’t have the idea how to begin due to different circumstances with respect to money, time and many more reasons.

Let me share you how I traveled for the first time:

I was at 7^th grade, and I was a member of a schoolclub called ‘Nature and Environmental conservation’ (Ye Akababai enkebekabena ena ye Tefetro kebebe’). The club mostly works on the school compound green with indigenous trees like Wanza, Shoal, Girara, Warka and so forth. So each of the club members will be gives a shade (Medeb’) which is 2.5m X 1m, he/she is expected to prepare the soil very finely and also put some compost like animal manure to breed the seed you want to plant. After you prepare the plot may be for two weeks then you will boil the seed and put it to the plot you prepared carefully. Then you will water it every other day depending on the type of seed you selected to plant. The seed will start to grow and step by step you will take it from the plot, plant and nurture it somewhere in the school compound, at the end of the semester 5 (five) students will be selected from each school and those selected from each schools with their respective supervisors will travel to Natural forest, National Museums, or research institutes in the vicinity.

I want to mentions our club supervisor and my Natural Science teacher Mr. Guta, he have played a great role in inspiring all the club members by working hard with us all the time and creating conducive environments’ at that time.

So lucky for me I was selected as one of the 5 students and had a chance to travel to Chilimo-Gaji Natural forest, which is located around Ginshi,West shoa, approximately about 100 Km away from the Addis Ababa. And I visited the natural forest and the wild life.

Chilimo gaji Forest zone map

Chilimo Gaji Forest

https://www.protectedplanet.net/chilimo-gaji-national-forest-priority-area

http://www.distancebetweencities.net/ginchi_oromia_ethiopia_and_addis-ababa_ethiopia/

I didn’t have money at the that time as I was a student, but I had the time and the will so I used it to my advantage. So I started traveling as 7^th grader and kept on traveling through the school clubs while I was at high school, University now and to the future as well. I have traveled across Ethiopia and some other centuries  as well so I would love to share my experiences on this blog and we are going to learn lots of things as we go along.

Seed

Seed breeding

Shade/Plot

Shade/Plot

                              

 I love traveling it makes me feel alive and get inspired. I will share some of my  experience on the coming posts, so some of you might start traveling and for those who do it may give you an insight. I would love to travel and learn a lot and I hope you will share your experiences with me as well.If you have any opinions and comments please let me know. Thank you for your time.

Tis Abay