Back from the wedding

Good new: The wedding was a success; my daughter is now married! A great time was had by all and I got to spend time with some wonderful people (including my other kids).
I hope you’ll forgive me for not sharing wedding photos with y’all. Instead, I’ll tell you about another place I visited in Ethiopia: Gondar, sometimes called the “Camelot of Africa,” and I’m dedicating this post to one of my regular readers: Milana.
Gondar is famous for its castles, of which here are some views:



These castles, of which there are several, were damaged during wars with Sudanese Darwishes and when the British bombed them, during WWII, in order to dislodge the Italians, who were using them as their military base.
The evening of my arrival, a couple of NGO workers and my guide visited some local nightclubs so that we could see traditional song and dance. Each part of Ethiopia has its own dancing styles, and here they tend to dance with their shoulders. Here’s a video clip from one of the clubs we visited. Sorry about the quality; the lighting was challenging:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyL7ORvDIbU&w=560&h=315]
The two NGO workers mentioned that they’d never seen anything like this Rwanda, where they work. In most of black Africa, local traditions are typically lost as soon as people move to cities – though I’m sure they’re dusted off and practiced for special occasions such as weddings or funerals.
Gondar is also home to the famous Debre Birhan Salasie church. Though badly in need of restoration in many places, the artwork is still impressive. Here are some views of the interior:




In Ethiopian art, holy people are always depicted full face or three-quarter view, while evil people are shown in profile. I noticed that evil people are also always depicted with pug noses, while the righteous are shown with straight noses.
Here are two employees from the hotel I stayed at in Gondar. I could tell they were nice people, because they posed in full face and three-quarter face:

This concludes my very brief account of Gondar, the Camelot of Africa.