A few photos of my latest activities...

 Selfie on top of my local view spot with lovely storm clouds in the distance

Classic Peace Corps moment- riding a gari out to the monastery with my doro bet materials

The almost finished doro bet one week after bringing the supplies

Aba Kenfa showing how they make the wooden crosses that every Orthodox Christian wears as a necklace

Posing inside the 2nd portable doro bet with my dear friend Elsabet (who is my exact age but looks 50)

You never know what the day will bring...

(I posted this at the end of April but was advised by Peace Corps to remove it, I think now that things have settled down I will post it, but know that I am not adding more information due to the lack of freedom of speech in this country and for my own safety...)
Phew what a day. And as it ends I am grateful to be alive and in such a beautiful place with so many kind people. Today I ate breakfast with my site mate Nora, who has one month before the end of her service. We shared ambasha (a delicious fresh flat bread) and “special fool” (a spicy bean and egg dish) and drank some bun aba watet (coffee with milk), and loz chai (tea with peanut butter). I then went up to the Ag office and was happily informed that Tenadesta, Salomon and I were scheduled to do a garden training with some local farmers for this Friday. Finally! With enough patience and persistence the Ag office folks are finally realizing I have something to offer them. So next I went around town gathering odd things like used coffee grounds, wood ash and charcoal powder from local shops that will be used for the soil amendments in the training.

After quickly going to the big muddy Wednesday market to buy onions, carrots, chard, and bananas I ate lunch and hopped on a mini bus to go to Robe hoping to use some fast internet. I am trying to take an online Buddhism philosophy class but its turning out to be very frustrating trying to download audio files. (Funny in trying to learn to be more patient through Buddhism I get very frustrated with the computers).

In Robe I said hello to my mini bus driver friend then walked around the corner to get a bajaj (motorcycle taxi) into the main part of town. I realized something was wrong when none of the drivers wanted to go to town. I finally found one that would take me part way and when I got out of the bajaj I saw a lot of people standing around looking down the road towards a huge mass of people about 200 meters away. In that moment I also saw that the internet shop was closed, along with every other shop on the road. A kind man spoke to me saying the university students were protesting and a moment later the mass broke out and started running towards us. That triggered everyone else to run, turning off onto side streets to avoid getting caught up into the mass of people.

 I started running/speed walking down the road back to the bus station when I heard gun shots. At that point I darted off the main road and waited for a moment with my heart racing. During that scary moment when everyone was running several people were very kind to me in inviting me into their shops to hide, or to go down the side street. I could have hid but I wanted to be out of there so I walked as fast as I could away from the crowd to go back to Goba. As I got farther away I still heard gun shots and the women had fear on their faces, while the young men seemed excited. Go figure.  The phone network stopped working (potentially the government blocking it) and I was glad to get a bus out of there quickly. Phew!

Evidently in the last few days there have been country wide protests at many universities about how the government suppresses the Oromo people which account for more than 30% of the population. It goes much deeper than that but people here are very hesitant to talk about it. I’m curious to see the news on TV but am guessing none of this is being reported (the government owns the TV network). Online I read that several people have died- police and students. Two months ago, in Addis Erik and I visited the “Red Terror” Museum telling the story of the military government that controlled Ethiopia in the 70’s and 80’s. Over 500,000 people were killed during that time to a brutally suppressive regime. In my time here I have often reflected on how much that affects the way people behave today.  History can be so very haunting.

Overall the longer I live in Ethiopia the safer I feel but today I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Now I’m happily safe in my little cozy home drinking tea and about to prepare for an environment/ English class I will teach tomorrow. Stay tuned for my post on Italy, I’m slowly working on it. Things have been surprisingly busy in Goba since I returned last week.

As always- send emails, letters and love if you have a moment! 

Return of the Doro

Why hello internet world. It’s been a long time! Tafach! (Amharic for “you disappeared”, which I hear often when I haven’t seen someone for a while)

I’ve been trying to think of something to write for a while but I guess I’m having writers block. (Or feel that my life here in Ethiopia is “normal” without much to report). Not anymore because I want to share my day with ya’ll. It is a part II story from my last “doro bet” fiasco. So now 3 months later the chickens are alive (minus two), and starting to lay eggs. Last week I bought a dozen big brown eggs from the monastery. A nice full circle feeling. But I was concerned because they are still in the tiny no air or light room that they were originally placed in. The doro bet I was building lay in the same state it was when I left it two months ago. But two weeks ago I devised a simple design using the remaining money I had from my grant to buy a few basic materials (metal roofing and chicken wire). So I got a gari ride from my friend Masai and delivered the materials and talked with the carpenter monk to explain my plan. I’m pretty darn sure he understood with the picture I had drawn what I had planned and by his smiling positive response. I left feeling up beat and that I hadn’t abandoned the project and that the chickens might just survive.

Last week I went back to check up with my new acquaintance Hasan (a Muslim guy who was happy to help the Orthodox Christian church, which was very nice) works for the Agricultural Office with rural co-op groups. Upon arrival I was happy and dismayed to see that they had done a ton of work- but made it to the original 3 x 6 meter size- huge and with lots more expensive roofing. Just when I think I have something figured out it turns out to be completely different from I you thought. Always. But I couldn’t be too frustrated because it was almost finished, mud walls and everything.

Hasan had been talking about building a simple triangle shaped fence system to keep the chickens in during the day while they foraged on grass and bugs and we decided to come back the next week to try to build it, which leads me to today. My dear friend at the monastery Elsabet (who is my exact age but looks over 50) greeted us and helped us get to work by introducing us to the “doro bet” crew- all women who in all truth are the ones who really do the work at the monastery while the men sit around and have visitors kiss their wooden crosses (slightly cynical tone but the truth).  First we had to find some wood which involved going into the woods and cutting down some pole size Eucalyptus trees. I really enjoyed working in the woods again hauling wood and cutting with my fancy ferengi saw.

The four women that worked with us were all very sweet and quickly warmed up to me and we really enjoyed “talking” and interacting. We worked all day, barely pausing for lunch, which on a funny side note shows the generosity of Ethiopians. I mentioned I was hungry then in the next 30 minutes 3 different people showed up with food and we soon had a little feast (of lots of dabi – a bread similar to injera and shiro- chickpea powder and spices). They served me a new type of tea that was made from roasted barley and was delicious! The day went fast and we actually finished building the project just as the sun was setting (beautiful pink clouds against the green fields and distant mountains). Of course we couldn’t leave until they then served us more food with a “desert” of fresh hot milk and sugar from one of their ten dairy cows.

Today was truly a delightful “Peace Corps” day largely because it was not me trying to convince others to work but another Ethiopian (who at one point was grumbling about the lazy work ethic of Ethiopians- ha so it’s not just me!). Now I also have more projects to look forward to in the future – Hasan wants to duplicate the easy doro bet design and teaching it to families in rural areas and who need a steady source of income. He might just be one of those rare people that are truly motivated to work and help other which is invaluable to making a project work here. Praise Allah!