Laresa's Adventures in Ethiopia as a Peace Corps Volunteer: Happy New Year's!!! It's now 2006!

Happy New Year! For those of you who didn't know it is now 2006 and New Years eve is really on September 10, my birthday. That is according to the Ethiopian calendar, yet another thing to get confused about. But it makes for a good celebration and since it fell on a Wednesday that means no work for the whole week. For my birthday I had a fun day of exploring the woods and finally finding an elusive waterfall I had been searching for. It was so refreshing to be out in the woods, with two fellow PCV’s, exploring new gorgeous terrain, undisturbed. The waterfall was about 100 feet high tucked in a narrow canyon. As we traveled farther upstream the walls got tighter showing beautiful unique columnar rock formations. Even the plants were stunning and exotic looking and I was in nature geek heaven! The grand finale was founding a patch of wild bamboo that I had been hoping to see as well.

For dinner my other Peace Corps friends came over and they cooked me a delicious Mexican burrito meal- beans, veggie taco mix, and cheese! (Thank you Erik!) In celebration for the New Year we burned the traditional “chuba”, three bundles of Eucalyptus branches and my compound family joined the fun. What a lovely day.

The next day, New Year’s Day, we were making breakfast when a swarm of girls showed up at my door singing and dancing. As the tradition goes kids go door to door singing and giving flowers (or more commonly hand drawings of flowers), in exchange for a little money. I opened my door and they flooded into my little home singing, dancing and drumming away! Then the celebration continued for the next few days eating the celebratory doro wat (a delicious spicy chicken sauce) and drinking copious amounts of buna (coffee). The custom is that guests get the most food so I have eaten enormous amounts of injera and other foods. Today I even ate, and mostly enjoyed gunfo the traditional barley paste. A true sign that I am adapting. This afternoon I spent at my counterpart Gobezie’s home chatting and listening to a group of women all in Amharic. Small joyful steps. A refreshing affirmation of the kindness and generosity of the people here.

Another fun tidbit was yesterday afternoon I was having buna with my compound family when big hail storm hit. We sat cozily around the charcoal stove drinking coffee listening to the torrent outside. When I left all the gutter drain pipes had piles of hail that looked just like snow. My 8 year old neighbor Emabet and I had fun throwing snow balls and freezing our hands! Next time I will try to make a snowman here in Ethiopia! Imagine that!

Good thing for lovely personal interactions, the true meaning of being a Peace Corps Volunteer. Tomorrow I continue the uphill climb of trying to do something work like and productive….