The pilgrims come in droves. They come by foot, by vehicle and by air to the many churches and monasteries scattered around the once ancient Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. They seek piety in their communing, but it is in the very density of their shared pilgrimage that dangerous diseases like cholera tend to thrive.
Chief among the pilgrimages is the feast of the archangel Gabriel, celebrated in July and December by followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Along with festivities in individual churches, the major celebration ignites the small town of Kulubi, in the eastern Hararghe Zone of Oromia Region, where tens of thousands of pilgrims from within the country and abroad descend on Kulubi St Gabriel church.
...