Ethiopia! A land unique for its place in Christianity, her foundation predates all denominations! The only Church that can trace her roots before St.Paul ( the church of St. Peter and St. James), I plan to go and study what it takes to be a deacon in this church in the most continuously inhabited places in Ethiopia, Aksum.
My first destination in Ethiopia is Addis Ababa, the capital, inhabited by some 4 million people and containing over 200 churches, I spend about two months getting my visa situation out of the way. Upon completion I head to Aksum's St. Mary's Cathedral where the true Ark of the covenant is housed in a chapel and where the school of St. Yared is located, I begin my journey to study the deaconate. In every church deacons are trained in three subjects: Nebab/literacy, Tselotat/prayers, and Qedase/liturgy and in that order. Now although I'm in my early 20's most students I was learning with ranged from age 5-7, you could imagine looking at a lineup of kids reading with a giant in the middle with a beard as long as some of the ancient church fathers, a hilarious site for many. Attending the school, I'm sent to a poetry teacher who teaches Nebab, the Nebab bet is where most Ethiopians become literate, starting from Abugida I work my way up to reading my first piece of literature, the letter of John! The letter of John/Mal'ekta Yohanes is your first piece of literature and probably the hardest, you are given the manuscript and taught three strategic reading styles namely: kutser, werd, and kum. Each reading style is different and designed to help you to read the main reading style Qum Nebab, once students practice the letter of John we graduated to the New Testament/Hadis Chidan. The general time it takes is a couple months to complete and students learn the prayers/Tselotat at the same time. Once completed the struggle gets harder with the introduction of the most important book; the Psalms of David. 150 chapters I try blazing through the book ( not recommended) reading 5 chapters a day thus completing the book in about one month, I could say the most refreshing and peaceful time was reading the psalms which oddly enough I'm still reading daily. Literacy throughout the history of the Church was give much priority, although not in the vernacular of the people, where most people were quite familiar with the psalms and NT it could be said many people had them memorized. Although learning how to read is easy, the hardest part of being in the school is communication, most if not all teachers do not speak English so I had to learn the common language as I went along, Tigrinya ( northern Ethiopic language closest related to the liturgical/poetic language Ge'ez). 4months later I have completed Nebab and the Tselotat, 2/3s of the Gibre-dukena and ready to attend the Qedase bet!
Nebab was something else, it's a different approach than what westerners are used to in education centres even me myself born and raised in Toronto, Canada I can say it definitely is refreshing and amazing to experience different teaching and study methods that have been used for thousands of years. Today I take with me something more valuable than money from Aksum and that is literacy In the holiest language to the Ag'azi people...that is literacy in the Ge'ez language.
....till' next time.
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