Emperor Haile Selassie was a beloved leader of Ethiopia from 1930-1974, before and after the Italian occupation. His body is entombed in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is why I ended up there on a Tuesday evening with 4 other ORBIS volunteers.
We got there at dusk, but our cab driver persuaded the gate-keepers to let us into the grounds even though it was getting late. Then the gate-keepers persuaded the priest to take us into the cathedral itself. He silently unlocked the massive hardwood doors and let us in.
We then had a rather creepy, silent, dark, after-hours-esque tour led by the priest, who only turned on a single lightbulb in the entire cavernous chapel, and led us to the tomb without saying a word.
But that wasn't the truly strange part of the experience.
At the end, the priest personally walked us to the exit then broke his silence by frankly telling us that he would need a generous tip before he would unlock the doors to release us from the church.
Ultimately, we had to give him about $100 to get him to let us out of there.
In the future, I'd love to be able to refer to this story as the time I was held hostage in an African cathedral by a sinister clergyman.
All kidding aside, I'm sure there must have been some sort of fundamental misunderstanding on our part. I'm sure he'll put the money toward a good cause.
That's really bizarre! It's nice of you to give him the benefit of the doubt. I still think you can DEFINITELY refer to this as your African Cathedral Hostage Experience.
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