Yirgalem Mahiteme (Pronounced ‘Yer’ ‘Golum’ - Yirg means ‘Stability’ and alem means ‘World’), a wonderful geographer from Addis, told me today the story of the pencil he loves to tell his students when they are finishing his class. I hadn’t heard it before so here it is:
He said, “Be like a good pencil as I send you out into the world.
1.The most important thing to remember is that what is on the inside is more important that what is on the outside – do not forget this.
2.You will do many great and wonderful deeds if you let yourself be held in the hand of someone else – humility, patience, and sacrifice lead to greatness.
3.At times you will experience difficulty and challenge and need to be sharpened – allow the sharpening of life experiences to make you better.
4.When you make mistakes, remember that things are never so bad and often can be corrected with an eraser.
5.Always leave your mark wherever life takes you – impact this world and the people who live in it.
Isn’t that great!
Yirgalem shared this with me as we exchange conversation on a boat in the middle of Lake Tana. He, like me, teaches the history and philosophy of geographic thought course and I was asking him to describe his pedagogical approach to the course. It was a tremendous and fruitful exchange. All of the geographers joined us on the boat to our destination – the big island of Lake Tana. We left shore at Bahir Dar in the far south. There are many islands and peninsulas and all of them have Orthodox Copitc monasteries, so we went to one of the most famous churches around the lake.
(image compliments of Google – do no harm)
This trip gave me a chance to interact with so many of the geographers on a more personal level – what a blast!
Once we went ashore and after hiking up the terrain of the island and passing many local vendors we arrived at a sort of old museum. Standing outside, inside one of the open windows were the original head crowns of many kings of Ethiopia, dating back to the twelfth century. Yes, just kinda sitting there with only one priest as the guard – that is the Ethiopian way. I knew a few of the stories of the kings, but nothing too detailed. It was a pleasant surprise to all of us. As I learn more about Ethiopian history, I will be able to reference those pictures as a base of visualization along with maps of this wonderful place.
Next we moved over to the church which was nearby. It was really amazing. I like to visit churches in different countries and really enjoyed my time in some churches in Spain. The detail of design, the art and iconography and the history are what appeal most to me. Ethiopia is no different. So many churches here are designed like the old destroyed Jewish temple in Jerusalem, with an outer court, and inner court and a Holy of Holies. This church was round with an outer courter all the way around the church. In the inner courts, the Holy of Holies was protected not by a curtain, but instead by a H U G E four walled structure with a door on each wall. The walls went high to the ceiling and were covered with art paintings of Biblical and Orthodox Christian scenes. It was totally different than anything I had ever witnessed. A priest walked us around the structure and described much of the art and kindly many of the Ethiopian geographers were kind enough to translate. It was a very nice experience and now when I see the island, I will be able to truly describe it to students and friends in detailed ways – thus the name of my blog – street credit geography. You see, I just want more and more street credit, so I can truly excel in the classroom with students relating geography to them in fresh and relevant ways. VP Henry, what do you think, can we purchase a nice boat to take students on for a summer and I can lead the excursions around the world to different ports of call?
We traveled back to the main land for a bite to eat. I taught the chair of the geography department in Addis, Desalegn Wana, how to play Rock-Paper-Scissors. He beat me straight up. It was fun and funny too.
In the afternoon, JB and I were to meet with the University President again, but things didn’t work out, so I took a nice nap. JB and Emma went and got some Ethiopian styled pizza and we had that for dinner while we did something different and watch the cycling movie of The Flying Scotsman. It was great and Johnathan and Betsy gave it to me as a gift. What kindness they show. Tomorrow is a big day as we continue significant GIS work in the workshop.
No comments:
Post a Comment