St. Gabriel's Feast Day, a Birthday Celebration, an Equestrian Outing, and a Bit of Prayer

This past Tuesday, July 26th, was the Feast of St. Gabriel for the Ethiopian Orthodox.  I've come to discover that the Archangels are huge in the Ethiopian Orthodox Faith.  The devotion is a bit more than I've been previously exposed, and it is somewhat refreshing to see so much laud given to the angels.  If I had to pinpoint the major saints and religious figures focused upon in Ethiopian Christianity, I would say that they would be Jesus (for obvious reasons), Our Lady, St. George, and the Archangels.  The picture below is an Ethiopian icon of St. Gabriel the Archangel.

Festivities were plentiful throughout Addis, including in the office.  Birkti decorated our office floor with some sare grass that is typically used for the Ethiopian coffee cermonies.  She also baked some hambasha bread specific to the Feast Day and lit a candle that burned on her desk for the entirety of the day, or at least until it burnt out.  I've attached a couple photos from our office just to give a taste of what exactly happened that day.

Aside from being a rather important day in the Church calendar, it was also Fikirte's birthday.  She is a temporary employee whose role is data entry.  So, she works usually for CNHDE when there are surveys from the village cluster to be entered into databases.  Anyway, we celebrated her birth without a birthday cake but with some birthday Ethiopian snacks including roasted barley seeds, bananas, some other miscellaneous munchies and some birthday rolls.  See photo below for an idea of the festivities in the office.

After all of the celebrations in the office were finished and the work week at MVP ended, Sarah and I headed to a rural area approximately 30 minutes outside of Addis for a horseback tour of the Sululta plains.  Our experience was rather enjoyable as we saw the village and the people living there from a perspective other through a car window.  We actually rode through the plains and were meandering about with the farmers and their animals grazing there.  If anyone is in Addis and is interested in having the same experience, the website for the stables is here.  Here are a few pictures from our excursion through the Sululta plains.

On Sunday I finally found one of the very elusive Catholic Churches in Ethiopia, seven weeks after my arrival.  It is about 5km, or 3 miles, from our house.  Laura and I made our way to some uncharted territory (at least for us) in Addis.  I was networked with a Catholic Relief Service Program Director here in Addis Ababa who is actually from the Philadelphia area and is now doing his stint of work for CRS here.  After a bit of confusion with directions, Laura and I located our Mass buddy and made it to the Church in time for the English Mass that morning.  Since most of the Ethiopian Christian population is Orthodox, the Catholic Church was populated by mostly foreigners but also by a number of Ethiopians.  The choir members were Ethiopian, and they sang beautifully.  The church itself was very pretty.  I was so happy to have finally found my way back to Mass.  I don't know if I will ever feel as though I "belong" here; however, for me, finding a place where I can pray comfortably gives me a way to make Addis more of a temporary home.