The Ethiopian Minstrel

I am sitting in a mini taxi and it is full to the floorboards. Friday afternoons are a bad time to cross town. The drivers like to wait until the seats are full and people are sitting on the wheel wells before they shove off to the next stop. A 10 minute drive by Bingham vehicle turns into a 45 minute commute by mini taxi, but it only cost 1.75 EBirr (less than .25 USD). From Bingham its probably only 3 or 4 km across town to my destination, my first music lesson. Riding by mini taxi is like riding in the old days in the Patton's old Suburban: its overcrowded with people of all ages, the seats are faded/patched/springless, the exterior is riddled with dents and perhaps even bullets, some of the windows dont handcrank up and it has its own patent-pending intake system which reroutes the exhaust back into the car. So of course, I am right at home, even though I am sandwiched inbetween two Ethiopians, partially sitting on the lap of the guy to my right.

At the back of the old building's third story, there is a small dark room with instruments strewn about and students tinkering on keyboards or other stringed instruments. The tall man with a doctor's lab coat shakes my hand and introduces himself as Samuel, the owner/teacher. I tell him I want to play the one stringer. He looks at me blankly, obviously confused. So, I gesture to the spike fiddle on the wall. He smiles. He lifts it from the wall and tucks it into his armpit. He draws the bow across the string and in my mind, I am thinking to myself "man, that sounds terrible." Of course, I tell him eagerly I want to learn how to play it. Its hard to know how well he understands English.

At that moment, the power comes back on and I realize now why we had been standing in the dark. The room is now lit up normal and he writes down for me the instrument name: Masinko. A few minutes later and I have my very own 1-stringed instrument tucked in my arm and the body between my legs. Its sound great, just like a 4th grader on a cheap violin missing a quarter of the strings. But I am encouraged, because lessons are 10 EBirr an hour. For less than 1.25 USD an hour, I can learn how to play this beautiful instrument with one string! As I leave with Lesson #1 complete, the power flickers back off.

Thankfully, I didn't have to ride a mini taxi back to Bingham with the Masinko in my lap. But walking down the street with one of these fiddles may have had some locals thinking I was a traveling bard singing the songs of Orpheus as I traverse the globe. As Betsy drove by, I leapt into the Suzuki minivan before anyone asks me to perform, and back to Bingham we bound.

DC

Utility Update: Although we have lost power routinely on Sunday afternoons for approximately 3 hours at a time, we have never lost water until today. As soon as it went out, several teacher/neighbors called us to suggest we fill up every container we have before the tank goes dry. As they said, it could be two hours or two months before it comes back on. We ll let you know the next time we take a shower.