Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia by Haile Rebecca G

Author:Haile, Rebecca G.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2007-05-01T05:00:00+00:00

During the short ride from Kibran Gabriel back to the hotel dock, the sky began to darken over the lake. Stars appeared one after the other on the deep blue stage, faint at first and then brighter, opening acts for the flat white moon that soon suspended itself before us. We motored along in silence, the only boat out on the lake, all three of us lost in private reverie. Land and the lights of Bahr Dar were well in sight when Yohannes broke the quiet.

“Ribka,” he said, pointing up to the blue-black sky, “Do you believe that men have traveled to the moon?”

“Of course they have,” I answered, surprised at the question. I told him that astronauts had traveled into space many times, even throwing in a description—as best I could in Amharic—of the research station (the “bet”) the United States had left permanently up in space. But Yohannes was not persuaded.

“I do not believe that they have done it,” he countered. “No. I only believe what I can see with my own eyes or what I can touch with my hands, and I can’t see how it is possible to travel as far as the moon.” With that, he relaxed back into the rudder with the demeanor of a man who knows he has good common sense on his side.

The seven or eight hours we had just spent together had been all about churches and monasteries and the enduring nature of religious traditions and the promise of faith. So I, in turn, asked him about God, whom he had not seen or touched but in whom he had nevertheless placed his faith. How did God differ from a trip to the moon?

Yohannes may have paused, but if he did it was only for a second. “Ah, but faith,” he shrugged, “faith is different.”

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