mancala

We caught a local bus from Mekelle to Hawzien this morning which took about 3 hours through some stunning scenery. At the bus station a young man spotted the only "ferenji" for miles around and offered to show us some Tigrayan rock churches during our stay. He walked with us to our hotel and left his phone number.

In the afternoon we walked out of town to Geralta Lodge, a rather posh hotel (this is where all the other "ferenji" were staying). Our young man appeared and walked with us and we all had a drink together in the bar before he spied some other potential clients and left us to our own devices.

We walked up into the hills around the Lodge from where there was a good view over the surrounding countryside. I spotted this game of mancala but into the rock. This game is popular all over the world but apparently the oldest evidence of it is in Ethiopia, where a playing board from the 6th century was found in Axum.