Natural Progression

Tuesday January 15, 2013                            

Today was a fabulous day so I figured I would capture it and share. It is not the norm when I feel like I am making progress, most days are slow and feel fairly unproductive for American standards. For example last Friday I did not do any “work” like making contacts and talking to people, but I did manage to go for a run. I only ran for 20 minutes which was tough at 9,000 ft but I had many people cheering me on which helped. The rest of the day I stayed at home dinking around and doing some research (thank goodness for the wonders of instant knowledge and resources from the Internet). I do feel very happy about the fact that I have established the pattern of going to the agriculture office after lunch so I generally have my mornings to meditate, read and wash the dinner dishes outside.

Today I actually went to the office in the morning (because yesterday everyone was in meetings) and Alemu, my great counterpart, and I talked with more people about the big Peace Corps introduction meeting I have tomorrow. It feels like there are many different people and projects I would like to work on so I am trying to meet and invite as many people as possible. We then walked 20 minutes across town and the river to the preparatory and technical high school. I guess high school is divided into grades 9 and 10, after which is a big test that pretty much determines Ethiopian students fate. If they pass the test they go on to preparatory school for the next two years which (theoretically) is taught in English and prepares them for a second big test which determines if they get to go to college or not. If they failed the first test they go to technical school and learn a trade like cooking, carpentry, mechanics and such.

Anyway so I met with the director of the preparatory school and the teacher who leads the Environment Club. Another side note- Ethiopian government requires all schools to have an environment club, but most are inactive or stagnant. The teacher in charge of the Nature Club, Abebe, whom I actually met previously at the bank, was very enthusiastic and invited me to attend a meeting they were coincidental having that afternoon. So after a nice lunch of injera, shiro wat (a chickpea sauce) and tomatoes with lemon with Alemu at his house I went back to the school by myself.

The meeting was a great experience. The students were very polite and nice and five of them ran the meeting as the elected officials. Their decision and discussion for the meeting was to have a buna (coffee) ceremony for me in two weeks. It was fun seeing how the meeting was organized and how the students interacted. Abebe helped guide it but took a more passive role, allowing the students to run it. So now I am excited to have contact with many students who are also excited to work with me doing various projects and learning more about natural resources and environmental protection. As I was reminded Bale National Park is the largest in Africa and has many indigenous species only living right here. So I was able to remind the students what an incredible place they live in. I know things will take time but this is another great start towards future projects. Abebe is also very happy to work with me and is very kind and knowledgeable.

So now I am at home after eating a yummy meal of mashed potatoes mixed with lentils, cabbage and onion. I sure am coming up with some wacky meal combinations but they are quite tasty and it is fun being creative with my ingredients. I realized back home I would look up a recipe then go to the store buy the ingredients, then cook. Here I look at my ingredients, try to find a recipe to match, then cook.

Tomorrow is my big introduction meeting so let’s hope it goes well as today did!!!