On the Road to Alitena

There was another mass exodus to the football stadium to watch the Tigray U-15 team play against the Afar region team. Tigray won 5-0 and looked a very good team to take the overall country championship. A reader to this diary may think we have spent our time in Ethiopia just watching football matches, but the progress and personal development gained from this type of educational approach cannot be underestimated.

In the afternoon we took 17 children to the Monument Museum which is devoted to the most recent history of conflict in Ethiopia to gain political independence. These conflicts raged for 20 years during the 70s and 80s and were very brutal. The weapons used were more akin to that in use during WW1.

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On Friday we hired a bus and took 20 of the older boys on a trip to Alitena. The selection process was more or less dictated by how many boys had an ID card as we had to pass through military checkpoints on the way. Alitena is just 20 miles from the Eritrea border and the Ethiopian military are concerned that infiltrators will sabotage major events for the Ethiopian Year 2000 celebrations that are due to take place on the 11th September 2007 UK date which corresponds to 1st January 2000 in Ethiopia.

The road through the towns from Mekelle to Alitena takes you through some breathtaking landscape. Alitena is 3000 metres above sea level and can only be reached by a winding dirt track road which twists and turns down the mountain side. I have never been so frightened in all my life and as I was sitting in the front seat next to the driver I could see and anticipate every detour he was making and how little room for error he had in picking the right tracks.

Many of the Daughters of Charity Sisters in Tigray come from the Alitena town and surrounding villages. Alitena has a population of about 3500 and is totally Catholic. This is quite remarkable when you consider the Catholic population in Ethiopia is around 1-2% of the country population. There is a 165-year old Catholic Church and a seminary. All the boys and the Sisters had dinner outside by candlelight as the entire town had a power cut. Midway through the meal a girl came over to one of the Sisters as she had heard a cry from the hills. When someone dies in the mountains the surviving relative calls out the dead person’s name and the message echoes across the entire region, bouncing off mountains and reaching for miles. The sisters recognised the name and said it was an old man. For a few moments everyone was silent and it was a very strange feeling, especially as we were all outside in almost total darkness but for a few candles on the tables, looking up at the black outline of the mountain peaks against the sky, wondering where the house was situated.

Tommy Dobbin
25th August 2007