Bale Brits

Yay for another full circle. This time I had nothing to do with actually helping it come about but feel happy that I was able to observe. First, a little background refresher. Since I have been in Goba I have been trying to work with the Bale Beauty Nature Club which consists of 2.4 hectare of pristine land and a library/study room in town. Ayoub, the original leader and inspiration for the club “disappeared” in America last year and has yet to return. I have spent the past year, unsuccessfully, trying to find a way to keep the club going in a sustainable way that doesn’t just depend on dwindling local NGO donations. The main thing that is lacking is a person who will take leadership for the club and reinvigorate the community members. Or so I think.

But today I learned that the Ethiopian way of last minute planning can work out. A week ago Ayoub randomly called me saying that another group of students from England would be arriving soon to do a “volunteer vacation” to work with the club. (The same company that organizes this trip came last year and the work largely fell onto my sitemates and I, (see old blog post)). As much as I want to see this club survive I decided to not change my plans but to simply observe and help out a few days into the trip.

So I stuck with my plans and had a fabulous weekend climbing a mountain outside of Goba that I have been looking at since living here. I went with my friends Marit and Jan from Holland who work in Robe and who, like me, love outdoor adventures. The mountain had stunning views and it was so nice to camp, relax and hang out viewing Goba from a new perspective.

Anyway, back to today when I finally met the group from England and helped them plant some trees at the club property. The rest of the day I mostly just chatted with the leaders and helped them buy food, preparing for a trek into the Senetti and Bale Park. For me it was so refreshing to hear their positive views on Ethiopians and in particular the club members who stepped up and made their visit such a success. Out of thin air emerged three smart, motivated, English speaking Ethiopians who were very kind and were great guides in organizing good activities. I say emerged because like I said I have been trying to find guys like this for the past year to work with.

But long story short it was great to see how successful they pulled off this trip for the “Brits” and now I have some hope that the future of the club will continue due to this short one week event that will hopefully bring in enough foreign money to keep the club running. The “Brits” had a great visit and will encourage their company to continue bringing school groups to Goba and working with the nature club. For me it was also nice to see Ethiopia through their eyes for a day. They were so positive about the kindness of Ethiopians and how well they were treated by strangers. It’s sad that sometimes I forget to see this quality on a daily basis.

So again I am happy and humbled to see that things do work out without me. Life prevails and continues in ever unfolding and mysterious ways. Maybe not as planned or intended but nonetheless it moves forward.  

A few Bekoji Camp photos...

My homeroom girls "team Nigeria!"

Guiding the group through crazy tall bushes

My Goba "girls"

Jib bet, INDE!!! (Hyena den, oh my)

Team Nigeria classroom!

Glad to be home safe- this is such a sad common scene- supposedly everyone survived....

The finally finished doro bet- nice fence and happy chickens= yay!

Bekoji Camp GLOW - Year 2

Bekoji Camp GLOW year 2- check, finished, baka. Phew. This year was much different from last year’s camp even though it was in the same location, the Agricultural College in Bekoji. The big difference was that I was in a much more positive, confident head space (and not fighting a nasty head cold), and I took a much more active role in teaching. This year I also brought three girls, quiet but the only girls who spoke up during the 8^th grade English class that my new dear friend Tewabech teaches. Camp was also 6 full days with a very packed teaching schedule. Last year at the end of camp all us PCV’s commented at how amazed we were that nothing went majorly wrong. This year was not like that.

Well I take that back, nothing went majorly wrong but we had a lot of little fires to put out- like one of the girls fathers wanting to essentially kid nap her, another girl breaking out in hives from an infection and covering her lips with buna (coffee) grounds as a local “medicine”, no water for 4 days, a very gross shint bet (why do people poop on the ground 2 feet from the hole?), and a useless guide on our hike to a mountain. But despite all the chaos I can say that this was by far one of my most rewarding weeks here in Ethiopia.

Every morning I started out the day by teaching thirty 14-17 year old girls and a handful of female Ethiopia “counterparts” yoga. The first few days we were packed into the dining hall but got through without anyone getting kicked or stepped on. The second day I had to catch a rat that was running around freaking out the girls before the class could continue. But by the end of the week they all knew how to balance in Eagle Pose and loved saying “Namaste” at the end of class. They didn’t get the whole breathing part of yoga but they sure loved it nonetheless. Yay! For my first time teaching yoga it was a lot of fun.

My other big success was teaching salve making. Working with Tewabech who helped translate I talked about the different locally available medicinal herbs and their benefits. Next I showed them how to make salve – melting bees wax with oil and adding rosemary and Eucalyptus oil. It went really well and they hung onto every word!   I am now re-inspired to hopefully teach some women in Goba how to do this so they can start a small business for themselves. It really is a cool, simple way to make good natural medicines, that actually work (way better than buna or butter- the common treatments).

Finally each day for two hours I taught four girls “homeroom”, which was focused on English but soon morphed into doing fun art projects. At first I was terrified- I don’t know how to teach English- but I got creative and with the help of some teaching aids I ended up loving spending that time with the girls. As I got to know them I learned how eager they were to learn and how hard their lives are at home. One girl was the 10^th of 11 children, one was a seratenia (servant for another family), and another girl has only her mother (her Dad works in America). I totally fell in love with them- their innocence and motivation to learn, absorbing every word I said.

For our closing ceremony, a bonfire where each girl held a candle and spoke about what they appreciated, I told them how this had been one of the best, most rewarding and inspiring weeks in my two years of service in Ethiopia. Despite all the struggles I see in the country working with these girls gave me hope. Breaking and opening my heart at the same time.

Now I am back home, enjoying the simple life of washing clothes and drinking tea. Tomorrow I will treat myself to an adventure hike in the national park – its warthog and baboon season! Babies galore!