Cultural Tourism

Yesterday, Dereje and I visited the Adagar Museum in Harar. It is a
rather small place, but preserves a number of authentic and valuable
cultural artifacts of traditional Harari householders. We were given a
tour, in English, by a very nice young man who, every once in a while,
would pause in his explanation and say, quite sincerely, "Did you get
it?" Adagar Museum is a preserved Harar house-of-old. The walls, made
primarily of limestone, would have kept the residents cool during the
hot days and warm in the cool evenings--a climate I've grown accustomed
to in my short time here.
The first room we entered was where the family would spend most of their
time. An elaborately decorated and multi-leveled platform with throw
pillows is where the head of the house and his grown sons would sit,
with the highest platform reserved for holy men. Behind it were shelves
for the Qu'ran and other books that they would study, as well as wooden
plaques showing their achievements in these studies. On the wall nearest
the head of the household was a spear, which he could use to deal with
any disturbances outside. On the other side of the room is where the
women would sit, with a lower platform for any children. Above the door
were posts that were used to display rolled carpets, always an odd
number of them. As the guide explained, with some help from Dereje,
since the people recognized 9 planets in our universe, even numbers were
not used as a rule. Houses would have between 7 and 15 of these rolled
carpets depending on their ranking, and since this house had 11, it
showed that the residents were of very high standing; 15 reserved for
kings, and 13 for holy men.
Other rooms in the house were for food storage (although the kitchen was
located in a different structure), a bedroom, and a special honeymoon
bedroom which was later used for childbirth. The museum had decorated
its walls with wooden serving bowls of various sizes, from very large
serving bowls to small individual serving bowls. Another cultural
artifact I found interesting was a clay pot covered with what looked
like an overturned basket made of twigs; by placing children's clothes
over the basket and setting a small fire to burn an incense, the smoke
that was produced would keep insects away and protect the children's
sensitive skin from bites.