I visited an old man in the mountains near a rock hewn church to have a couple of protective amulets made. This is a tradition that stretches back hundreds of years, and involves a holy man writing a protective “spell” (usually biblical in nature) and written in either Amharic or Ge’ez. Once the protective phrases are written out, they are folded and placed inside of a small leather pouch that mimics the leather bibles Ethiopia is so well known for. Watching a grandfather teach his grandson to make these amulets was a rare window into an ancient and vanishing tradition. Sealed with glue from a local shrub and enclosed in goat skin, carefully crafted by a holy man in a place I won’t soon forget, the amulet is the result of singular craftsmanship. I now take it on all my journeys.