Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/140546
•pg_23-32__BMT_pg3-58 6/21/13 9:35 PM Page 27 Yaw Frederick Davis with AAU students aerospace engineer in town on business and who has traveled back and forth to Ethiopia for several years. Recently, Davis, 50, started the non-profit Pan African Technical Association that helps to teach science and technology to students at St. Joseph's School at Meskel Square in Addis. Like Getachew, Davis agreed that, "The glorious and impressive history of Ethiopia has been overshadowed by the slanted media coverage of the 1970s droughts that occurred in Ethiopia. As a result, Ethiopia is negatively known more worldwide for the suffering caused by the droughts than for its wonderful history." To counter this image, Davis has arranged goodwill and educational tours to some of Ethiopia's most important sites since 2011. Proceeds from the tours support PATA's Saturday Science and Technology Academy at St. Joseph's. Davis noted, "Our guests visit sights such as Lalibela (called the second Jerusalem) with its breathtaking rock-hewn churches built by Emperor Lalibela. They also visit the 2,000year-old obelisk in Axum, the ancient home of Queen Makada, who was better known as the Queen of Sheba. They also explore the wondrous castles of Gondar, built the people of Gondar and Emperor Fasilides in the 17th century." Through Davis, I met the best tour guide in all of Addis, 86-year-old, Tadele Bitul Kibrat, the founder and owner of Duka Travel Tours and Lodges, which conducts historical and cultural tours, as well as bird-watching, fishing and pilgrimage tours. One of Addis' most prominent native sons and businessmen, Kibrat is a renown structural engineer who was instrumental in overseeing the return of one of the famous Axum obelisks, or stelae, (giant tombstones) that was stolen by Italy in 1937 and kept for nearly 70 years. A renaissance man who speaks and writes eight languages, including Amharic, English, Italian, French, Swedish and Spanish, Engineer Tadele, as Kibrat likes to be called, took me to some of Addis' most famous sites, providing a history lesson from the perspective of a man who clearly loves his native country. Touring the city, we saw construction going on everywhere, evidence of Ethiopia's vibrant building boom, and Engineer Tadele explained that the nation's late Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, is credited with turning Ethiopia into one of Africa's fastest growing economies. This was echoed by Addis Gessesse and Sosina Shiferaw, owners of the Lions Den Hotel, a boutique hotel with 16 suites, who recently returned home to Ethiopia after living for more than 35 years in the U.S. According to Gessesse, a business manager for the children of Bob and Rita Marley, "Our late prime minister gave a lot of confidence to the people. The construction boon in Addis is the highest in the country. People have confidence in what is happening here. Ninety percent of what is being built is owned by Ethiopians. Foreigners cannot directly own land, so very few come from the outside and build here." Gessesse noted that his wife previously worked as an accountant for Marriott Hotel, and the two owned a restaurant in New York City for nearly 18 years. "However, when we decided to move back home and raise our daughter, 10, and son 13, we knew it was the right thing to do based on what is happening here, economically." Out of 52 hotels in Addis, the Lions Den Hotel is rated 3, and the #1 budget hotel. Ethiopia has more world heritage sites than any other country in Africa, and B M & T ••• May/June 2013 ••• www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 27