Ethiopian Shopping and Food

Shopping in Ethiopia is limited, but what you can get is bright, beautiful and versatile. The scarves and cotton in Ethiopia are unique and bold, which makes it irresistible to pass up. One is never enough.

Did you know that the Rasatari Movement all began in Ethiopia? The Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I, was considered a reincarnation of Jesus. As a result, there was a movement that took place in Jamaica to support this belief. In addition to this, if you are a true follower of Rasta, you smoke weed. This is considered a sacrament for the soul. How many teenagers would quickly convert on that principle alone?

My handsome man amongst all the overpriced African junk a tourist could want.

If the trip didn't go as well as planed, I could have come home in a fancy casket. Luckily, all was well and I have a photo to share with the mortuary when my day finally comes.

The spoils of our trip modeled by my sweet children. They made quite the entrance to church this Friday. I believe Sedona wore her dress for at least 4 days straight.

FOOD

Ethiopian food is incredibly unique. I honestly can't think of a similar food out there. It has such a distinct, different taste that it is hard to liken it to any other culture. Injera is served every day, all day long. It is a flatbread that is spongy and sour. It has a vinegary acidic flavor, which is definitely an acquired taste. The Ethiopian people are true to their food and don't deviate much from that. I don't think you can buy another type of food in all of Ethiopia. It is injera on the bottom, injera on the side, topped off with a little more injera.

I was skeptical at first about the food. It may have been that it was served with a raw meat dish that is typically eaten with the injera. It didn't do much for me, but Axel was sold. The 'wat' (stew) that you eat with it was delicious though. I grew to like all of it. The whole meal came with a nasty orange drink that tasted twice as bad as any horrible tasting cough syrup that you have ever choked down. Rarely do I spit anything out, but that drink was just not my friend. I later found out it was because it was basically highly concentrated alcohol. Glad to know my taste buds are still working.

Ethiopia is also well known for its coffee. From what I understand, it is one of the best producers of coffee in the world. This was evident with all the peudo-Starbucks shops throughout Addis. Even the inside of the coffee shop was trying very hard to convince you that it could just try to take over the Seattle giant. Maybe.

Our favorite night in Addis was at a cultural center where they served you injera with all sorts of different shades of poop dishes. Poop looking or not, it was delicious. There was also plenty of African cultural dancing to keep you from remembering that the beef was not cooked and there are still starving people in Africa.

Sitting with a few less dollars in our pocket, a bag full of clothes and scarves, and a full belly. Two very happy tourist!

Ethiopian Eucalyptus

While on Entoto mountain we explored the beautiful eucalyptus forest. The green was the most vibrant I have ever seen. I felt like I was in a J.J.R Tolkien book. There were no fairies to be found, but I am not ruling out that we may have squished a few on our way down.

The strange thing about this forest was that there were no birds to be seen. Apparently, the potency of the eucalyptus is unfavorable to fowl and they avoid even going remotely near the area. The blasting Doha summers have the same effect, just less pretty.

Haile and Axel

We were led to a 'cave' while following two young boys throughout the forest. The cave itself was quite unremarkable, but the boys' excitement to share their finding was worth the trip. Apparently, this is a old soldier's fort, mud throne and all.

I was tempted to take some leaves back with me just to brew up my own decongestant. Then I realized spending $1.50 on Tiger Balm in almost any country around the world would be as equally as effective. Also less messy....and less questionable when going through customs in Doha.

Entoto Mountain

My friend, Wakanyi, who I met in Nepal, used to live in Ethiopia. She moved just one month before we arrived. I was so sad that we didn't get to see her, but she was so incredibly kind to make a schedule for us while we were visiting Addis Ababa. We even got to hire her old driver. He knew all the special spots and took us straight there.

One of those special spots was Entoto Mountain. The mountain is the highest peak in the Addis Ababa region. It is about 3, 200 meters above sea level. The drive is absolutely beautiful (if you can avoid, the tree branches, cows, sheep, and children) and the greenery was gorgeous.

At the top of the mountain you will find several churches and monasteries. It is believed that the Arc of the Covenant makes its way to one of the churches every year. One of the Ethiopian pastors on June 25, 2009 told the world that he would unveil the Arc of the Covenant the following day. However, on June 26, 2009 he said he decided not to and that his testimony of the existence of the Arc should be enough. I guess that is enough for me, why wouldn't I believe?

It is commonly known that the Arc of the Covenant was housed in Axim, which is in the north of Ethiopia. We were very tempted to make our way up to Axim, but sadly, for the sake of time, we had to shave off that expedition. Yet another reason to visit again. Next time we will explore with Harrison Ford, and if Shia LaBeouf works on his acting skills and becomes less annoying he can tag along as well.

Me and Haile, our trusted driver and friend

The old king's palace is also located at the top of the Entoto Mountain. It is humble, to say the least, but has classic style. Oh, how I wish I could renovate.

This colorful house was actually where they kept the king's wife's body after she died. She is no longer there, but man, if you can get over the stench, what a great place to take a photo.

Our visit was blissful and the scenery was gorgeous. It was worth the climb and the best part is yet to come: the eucalyptus forest.

Oil Paintings Oct 2011

This is Axel again. So I guess we are now private, which Terah informs me actually means that only she and I are going to read these anymore. That's OK. I only really write to her anyways. And now I guess I can break out all those swimsuit paintings I have done of Terah (JK hun!)...

The above was a portrait that kind of was inspired by VG's portrait I saw in the Mueso d'Orsey in Paris. His was so amazing, so subtle, so inspired. How the colors moved behind him and moved with him. I stood in front of that portrait and looked into his eyes for so long. Terah was great to keep the kids away so I could have some private time. What was he thinking? What drove his brilliance? Why does he affect me so much? I don't know, but I do know I had more than one or two tears in my eyes when I left. It is so great to think I get to go through my life trying to get close to what he was able to do and by doing so understand him better.
I have struggled for a long time with should I sign my stuff or not. I have often thought that I shouldn't and when I see how lame my writing of my name was, I was reassured I should just leave my paintings unsigned. But then I saw an artist who signed his stuff with his initials only and I thought perhaps that would be better. I played around with how it should look and the above is what I came up with. It is easy and sums me up I guess. And it has a bit of a Chinese look to it. JAB. John Axel Bromley.
This is a really big one of the SLC temple. I did one for Jane my sister and I really liked it. So I redid it for our family and this time I tried to make it a bit cleaner than the one I did for her. I spent my time on it and I really like how this one turned out. I am going to get it framed. Not many make it to that...
One of my four proudest piece of art I have ever done holding one she did of our family. Had to post this one of my Dilly Dilly Donut
Terah was able to not only save us 10K coming back from Utah but she was able to get us a bonus trip into Amsterdam for a layover that had enough time for me to make a pilgrimage to Van Gogh's museum there (see below post - it was amazing to watch her fight for it for over 8 hours and come out ahead!). One of the paintings I have always wanted to see was this one and it was there and in real life it was overpowering. Really, I just walked around that place awestruck like a kid in an all you can eat candy store. It was amazing and after seeing some there I hadn't done, I had to rush home and do them. This was one. He did a few of these, one with the colors and one with more white in the flowers. I did the one I saw.
THis was another one that totally took my breathe away in the VG museum. I knew I had to rush home and paint this one. But when I did it it looked all wrong. I had made the grass much more bright and kind of a pine tree green. I also had the whitish area behind the trees in yellow. Totally wrong and Terah took one look at it and said, make these changes. As she is always right when it comes to colors and what is wrong with my paintings, I mixed the paint how she told me to, painted it and this is what came out. I love it much more and especially the grass. This one is getting framed too.
Funny how I have my things I like to paint. Japanese art always comes back. This was one I did in the likeness of my two daughters. I put one reading a book as Heavah likes to read and Dona behind her.
THis huge painting was my 'climbing mount Everest'. I had this idea to paint the picture of Heavah at her baptism that Terah took of her with me behind her just before I baptized her. She had her smocked dress which Terah had made just for the baptism with a fuzzy sweater. I was in white but darker behind her - how do you paint an all white picture?. I also wanted to make it in the style of Seurat as I saw some of his work in the Museo d'Orsey as well and actually got a better appreciation for it. So I had what I wanted to do, but 1, I can't do faces or eyes, 2, I had never done pointialism and 3, if I got it wrong everyone would see it immediately as I would screw up one of my favorite pictures of my daughter and me. So for a long time after I drew it I just looked at it and didn't want to even start as I was so worried it wouldn't work. I went to go talk to the guy who got me started on all this (Brett Kearney) and who I respect so much as a painter. He gave me a piece of advice; just start. So I did. And the above is how it turned out after asking him for advice a 2nd time. I won't lie, I like it. I think it turned out well and now she will have a dress her mom made for her baptism and a painting of us done by me.
Her eyes took FOREVER before I felt like they were OK to move on. It is hard to try to add just enough dots of color but not too much. I don't know if I got it right or not, but I finally just gave up and followed Michalangelo's advice; art is never finished, it is simply abandoned. So true.
My hand. It was so hard to know what colors to do, what amounts to put... From a far it works I think.
I tried to make her dress have actual depth to it and make the sweater have the feeling like it was soft and thick.
When Terah and I were in Barcelona I saw a painting like this that looked so much like pioneers I thought I would do one like it with two boys and two girls on their way to SLC as the sun came up on the morning before they got there (symbolizing our four kids marching on the Shining Path to exaltation). I had to make it darker and darker to make the sunshine come out and try to give a feeling of a cold morning. I didn't get it the way I wanted it to. I should have used more grays and darks so the sun came out even more. I will try another one like it in the future. I need to practice using less color. I sometimes go too crazy on color. But it was a start. I bought the frame before and just stretched some canvas over the painting on it.
When we were in Jordan in Petra with the Petty's (LOVE THE PETTY'S!) we stayed at this hotel and had such a fun time talking about going to Petra, life and just hanging out. I don't have many friends because well, I really don't do friends well. I learned that when I was young and it has been true since - don't get me wrong, I do have them, but I go after quality, not quantity. Jason is one and I am really bummed out he had to leave Qatar. I did this in my style of tons of color. I tried to make the darker colors act like shadow. Don't know if it worked...
I did one of Terah in this style I loved. I knew I needed to do one of me. For the last three months I have been working out and on a all protein diet and I have lost about 20 lbs and gained muscle mass again. It is fun to start to get back to my days when I was working out 4 hours a day back before I got married while I was in SLC living at my mom's. I was pretty big back then (I maxed bench pressing at 400 lbs - now with my screwed up shoulders I stay with super light weights...). I am getting there. I would come home after working out with Terah and under one light I really liked how the shadows hit me. I made Terah take this picture of me and I did this one.

I am going to do the next one of Jesus like this and then a big square one and put each one of the kids faces in each quadrant in this style so we will have our whole family.

I am really happy with this picture. I makes me feel good about myself that my painting and my health is getting better. And since only Terah is going to read this, I guess I can say that and not worry about it!