Ethiopia
I was working in Ethiopia's Rift Valley region with USAID and National Geographic MapGuides in 2011. These landscapes defy what you thought you knew about Ethiopia: they are green, with vast lakes filled with flamingoes and hippos, forests, waterfalls and extraordinary houses made of bamboo that shrink over the years as the termites munch through them.
On the island of Tulu Gudo, in Lake Ziway, I was invited to a wedding celebration. Here, the Zay people retreated with the Ark of the Coventant some nine centuries ago to protect it from a Jewish queen. While the Ark was eventually returned to its resting place in northern Ethiopia, the Zay never left. Extraordinarily, they remain here today, with their own language, and their devout orthodox religion, that holds the Ark of the Covenant in the most sacred regard.
On the island of Tulu Gudo, in Lake Ziway, I was invited to a wedding celebration. Here, the Zay people retreated with the Ark of the Coventant some nine centuries ago to protect it from a Jewish queen. While the Ark was eventually returned to its resting place in northern Ethiopia, the Zay never left. Extraordinarily, they remain here today, with their own language, and their devout orthodox religion, that holds the Ark of the Covenant in the most sacred regard.