Weaving Tales and Baskets

This past Tuesday, our Edot class had the pleasure of having a special guest - Sophia - come to our class and share stories of her grandmother's life as a coffee farmer in Ethiopia. She shared, for example, the excitement she recalled of waking up and seeing the black and white colobus monkeys playing outside her window when she visited her grandmother. Sophia speaks Amharic, and was able to share with us that the word for a fast in Amharic is exactly the same as in Hebrew - "tzom." We had learned that Amharic and the ritual language of Ge'ez (used both by Jews and Christians) were Semitic languages, and this was certainly brought home by Sophia. Another example - the Amharic word for blessing is "beraka" and in Hebrew it's "b'racha." Sophia knew about the Beta Yisrael and the Sigd Festival, and we discovered that the foods they eat in Ethiopia, such as injera bread, 'wat' (stews) and dabo kolo snacks (which we'll be preparing  this coming week), were also eaten by the Beta Yisrael. Interestingly, Sophia shared that many Ethiopian men and women wear costumes similar to those worn by Yemenite men and women. Many scholars believe that the earliest members of the Beta Yisrael community came across the narrow stretch of the Red Sea from Yemen.

Our Edot students were able to share what they had learned about the Beta Yisrael with Sophia

Yesterday, the students were given the opportunity to weave baskets - very simple versions of those woven by the Beta Yisrael community to earn their livelihood. Weaving dried reeds that had to be constantly moistened to give them flexibility is not an easy task, but the students were persistent and a few actually completed their baskets. Since most didn't, we'll continue this activity in a couple of weeks, after our Sigd Festival.

First, eleven reed spokes had to be anchored to the wooden base of the basket

Then longer pieces of reed were woven in and out of the spokes

It wasn't as easy as it sounds, and a helping  hand from Josh or a TA was very welcome

Everyone found a comfortable position in which to hold the basket while weaving

You had to focus on keeping track of the spokes and not weaving them by mistake into the pattern

Each basket took on its own shape - some students became so involved in weaving, that they didn't realize the session had ended

A few students wished they could weave the baskets all day

The most important lesson learned during the activity, was how hard it must have been for the basket weavers in the Beta Yisrael community to weave all day, in order to earn the little they could from tourists and other Ethiopian people. The baskets they wove are beautiful - indeed, many are works of art. Now our Edot students can truly appreciate the skill and intense focus needed to produce just one basket.