Timket
There are some people who say that you aren’t really swimming if you just stick your legs in the pool. If you want to swim, jump in. I was thinking about that as the crowd swept me up into a mass of sound and hundreds of people dressed in white.
Ahead of us, a truck mounted with amplifiers and loud speakers blasted the voices of riders singing hymns in Ge’ez as we slowly moved down the street. Behind the truck ran athletic looking young men carrying large rolls of red carpet and women throwing grass. The priests were supposed to walk on this surface when carrying the icons. It reminded me of the afombras I had seen in Central America during the Holy Week processions.
After the carpet layers came the priests. These were big men in heavy-looking robes. Attendants held ornate umbrellas over them, shielding the icons the men carried from the sun. The icons were about three feet tall and showed an image of Mary, or Jesus, or a saint. People ululated as the pictures passed them, clapping joyously.
Behind the icons, a single man walked backwards, waving palms, to indicate that it was okay to walk in the middle of the path again.
We progressed this way for about a mile. We eventually got to an open area near a stadium. Everyone crossed themselves and looked at the ground for a second as we reached the entrance. One had to jump about two feet to get to the main area where people talked, sang, bought snacks, and stood around together. The whole place had kind of a low-key, high population density fair atmosphere about it.
I stayed for a while and spoke with some of the people there. Then I made the walk back. After the streets had emptied of crowds, people had brought their disabled relatives to beg. I saw a man twisted by polio. I saw an old woman who appeared to be blind. A filthy child approached me and told me she and her small brother had no money for food. I had no small bills to give her and told her so. I would have bought her an orange, but there were no venders nearby. I gave her a generic plastic bottle of water I have repeatedly used. It was nothing special, but she cradled it like I had just given her a nice baby doll. Then she asked for money again.
When I came home, my maid had cooked me an obscene amount of food. I’ll have leftovers for days. I sat there and ate my dinner thoughtfully. Outside, the day drew to a close, another experience to remember.
