The church is surrounded by a tall grove of eucalyptus. The dome appears wrapped in branches and the rows of sculpted saints who guard the dome are lost in the leaves. But the tall, naked trunks of the trees revealed the cemetery, where each Sunday morning Ethiopians dressed in traditional white cotton garments drift like spirits among the large, cradle-shaped gravestones of the churchyard. The church walls and ceiling are sealed with rich, graphic frescoes of Ethiopian and Christian history. The government guide, Teara, pointed to the figure of Abuna Tekle Haimenot.
Angels surround the doorways.
Their faces stand in rows on the ceilings, their ears like wings, and they stare down with large infant's eyes etched in black kohl. A monk named Abbe Hailemeskel painted the interior of this small Sistine Chapel. I pictured the priest prone on a scaffold, his arms aching with pain as he colored the black kohl that surrounded the angels' eyes. He gathered the colors for his paintings from the rocks, soil, and plants that surrounded the city, and from the blood of animals. Easter in Ethiopia is like Christmas elsewhere.