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….

Waterfall fun!

Canyon adventuring

Secret canyon

Birthday celebrations at my home

The dancing girls, also in my home

Snow? Holy hail balls!

A few photos of August

My lovely little compound calf Pearl decided she like the taste of my drapes. Moments later she walked into the house and pranced over into my room. Whoops.

My little buddy I found in my garden. Did you know Ethiopians are terrified of frogs! 

A lovely moment of peace (before the storm) at the nature club along the Tagona River

Last week I rode my bike up to the Bale Beauty Nature Club site to collect a few trees for my compound "mom". Here is my "gobez" duct- tape way of transporting them back the 5km- yay for cardboard boxes. (And for my new electric kettle that heats water in a jiffy!)

Yesterday I had the unexpected joy of dashing into the Senetti Plateau with my local PC environment friends. 

Ah the wonders of Giant Lobelia on the Plateau. 

As we hiked back to the car we hustled to avoid the huge menacing storm approaching. Driving away the storm hit and soon the entire plateau was coated in hail. It was beautiful all white mixed with the red dirt road. So close to snow- I was delighted!

The amazing pizza I just ate!!! WOW! (Whoda thunk you can cook pizza in a skillet!)

The latest version of my yard, thanks to my bored landlord Afork. Complete with hammock in the back. My own little bit of paradise. (maybe he needs a spoon to keep him happy- ha! so bad!)

A glimpse of a perfect day

Thursday August 29, 2013

Long distracted, drifting, returning, drifting, returning, meditation

Friendly hellos

Quick easy banking, while a lady shows me the funny graphic on her phone

Elderly man praying with a mala

Good timing meeting a smiling Gobezie

Spontaneous inspiring meeting with a previously “door closed” project to plant trees and grow seeds

Warm greetings with good people

Bee boxes on the porch leading to blossoming project potential

Smiling at a young girl bring a beam of joy

Serendipitous buna with new University environment teacher, fun enlightened political discussion

Surprise package from Erik!

Friendly conversation with shimageles (elder men)

A kind offer from a stranger to carry my package results in meeting smart (English speaking) environment teacher at the Senetti elementary, more great future potential

Pearl, the calf, letting me stroke her neck

An afternoon of rainstorms drinking freshly hand roasted buna

Beeecoming a bee expert cozily by studying documents

Stomping in mud puddles with some kids in my 2 dollar Habasha plastic boots

Thoughts of how much I love being in Ethiopia as I walk down the street

Making the most kick ass pizza with garden spinach and cilantro (and cheese and salami!) that makes me utter expletives in delight

Skyping with Erik

Content gratuitous peaceful meditation

Apathy and Confidence

Sunday August 25, 2013

This weekend was spent with my good friends and fellow Peace Corps Volunteers at their new home. They recently moved sites, away from their tiny town of 4,000 to the nearby University town of Robe, 14 km from Goba. We had a nice time sitting and talking, largely about the challenges that Ethiopia and we face. In is in this mood that I continue the reflection.

First on my mind is the continued impact of government dictated careers. I mentioned before that an Ethiopians career is determined by their high school test scores, sending them to a preselected university to study a preselected field. (And sadly the ones who fail the test are assigned the job of being elementary and middle school teachers). Once you graduate, or if, as the majority of girls face sexual harassment from their professors, if lucky you are assigned a government job somewhere in the country. This can mean getting placed in the smallest of towns, away from your family, doing a job that you have no interest in.  Hense the apathy and lack of enthusiasm to do work.

This is what I see every time I climb the hill in Goba to check in at the Agricultural Office, bored, uninspired people biding their time at their job. Everyone sees the huge challenges the country faces so a common solution is to attend the endless administrative meetings to discuss and debate the issues. Which, from what I have been told, rarely accomplish anything. Yikes. This is one of the many reasons that I continue to struggle in finding any sort of real work project.

When you have been commanded and directed your whole life it is no wonder that when someone (a small female ferengi) asks you what you think and how you would address an issue that the answer would be a blank stare or to blame the government.  Why is it so much easier to come up with excuses rather than solutions? As I reflect on my own internal metamorphosis I think part of the answer is confidence. The inner belief that you are valuable, intelligent, special and fully capable to not only survive but to thrive in life. If everyone felt this, the world would be a different place.

Instead we see 12 year old girls giving birth as a result of being raped, streets flooded due to lack of infrastructure, the disappearance of the last remaining 5% of Ethiopian forest, boredom, criticism and frustration….well maybe I’m projecting the last one. But things can be pretty dire here and sitting around trying to figure out how to help is quite a challenge. As I already mentioned I’m not working on a project, and am slowly trying to piece my information and contacts together to formulate something that will help. I knew this would be part of the process but it can be quite a head trip.

It means lots of free time in which to think, reflect and ponder. As well as meditate, of which I am doing and enjoying a lot. Which brings me back to reflecting on the question how do you cultivate confidence in yourself and others? Cultivate enthusiasm, determination, motivation?  I fluctuate between the answers of acceptance and inspiration. Acceptance of the complexity of how life is, of the many influences and factors that bring each of us to this moment, as it is. Balanced with the wisdom of inspired action, trying something new and being willing to fail, to learn, to grow. Imagination that a different reality is possible and that I, you, and we can make it happen. It is in finding this balance, the ebb and flow of action and reflection that I find myself.  A continual wave often pounding, sometimes easing me against the shore of perspective truth and insight.

But that is life right? No matter where we are. Or who we are. And when I drop the internal American “work = success” pressure I can relax and enjoy being here, being me, and seeing little changes.

In the meantime, when the tide is out and I am content I dink around in my garden, go for exploratory walks and try to study Amharic, knowing how crucial it is for connection and exchange. Or simple etiquette as my 70 year old, slightly perverted, neighbor Ato Kasai recently helped me learn the importance of pronouncing a rolling “r” when saying yibirdal “it is cold” to avoid the accidental embarrassment of saying yibidal “that was good sex”. Oops!

I also really enjoy baking things like cinnamon date bread, of which I am going to go eat a warm slice of right now.  (Thanks Dad for the walnuts and Mom for the coconut!)

The British Group

August 12, 2013

….so the English high school group…funny how things can fade from the mind so quickly. It’s been two weeks since they were here and reflecting back I wonder why I was so anxious and stressed at the time. Probably because I didn’t know it would all work out so well.

So a little background info- the Bale Beauty Nature Club is a local club that has some land (2.5 hectare) along the Tagona river, as well as a building in town that is used by students as a study hall and library. The club is largely run by a guy named Ayoub, who sadly has disappeared to America for the last month. (He had a two week visa, but has been there for over a month now…hum…). Fortunately his 2^nd in command guy Esmeal really stepped up and helped make the week a success, even while fasting during the day for Ramadam. The British group came with the assistance of a company that organizes “environment working vacations”, and this was a first time trial run for coming to Ethiopia. In total it was 7 high school girls, 2 teachers and a guy representing the company.

They showed up on a Saturday, the first real rainy day of the rain season. The original plan was for them to camp at the site but after sitting inside all day waiting for the rain to stop it was decided to have them stay in the class rooms at the club office. Lucky for them this was an option! Sunday we headed up to the site carrying paint, tools and a bag of compost (made by yours truly) ready to get to work. First I had one group work on finishing the compost toilet by splitting bamboo for siding, while the other group painted rocks yellow and made cairns to demarcate a trail. The day went smoothly and we all got a lot of work done.

The rest of the week was filled with pouring cement into molds to make fuel efficient stoves, shopping at the Wednesday market, picking Eucalyptus leaves for an essential oil processing plant, a tour of the medicinal plant seed bank, digging a garden at the club office, painting a mural and planting trees seeds to later give the community as an alternative fuel source (using the compost as an fertilizer). And to top it off on Friday a group of women came and performed some cultural dances and we had a big meat and veggie cookout over a fire as we continued to dance to the many different cultural songs. The group had a great time and I learned that I can be a good leader and organizer. I was with the group for the majority of the of the week and felt like a tour guide but also learned a lot and got some good work done.

In talking with them I learned that doing environment based working vacations is a hugely popular thing in England, especially for high school students and that it is a growing business. It was interesting for me to reflect on because, in truth, we did more work in this one week than I have done in the past six months. Idealistically it sounds great to come to a developing country to do volunteer work, but as I am learning, it’s not so simple. It takes a lot of time to organize and to identify what is really helpful and sustainable. Ethiopia is in the state it is due to many complicated reasons that a band aid and shovel won’t fix overnight.

For example a while ago I had the idea to plant trees along the main road in Goba. That idea stalled when I the town officials realized I didn’t have money to buy the trees and that they had some sort of plan to do it already. Now last week a crew of students were out digging holes all geared up to plant trees on the main road. Yesterday I spoke with the town official in charge and he said they might have some trees to plant, but not of the right species, and that next year they might have money to put fences around the trees….so we will see. I’m in the precarious position of being highly skeptical this will work, and not quite sure how to step in and assist. Yet another example of good intentions but misguided actions. Hum. I guess that’s part of my role here is to try to guide the actions to sustainable success.

Fortunately after weeks of doing other activities I feel like I am finally able to focus on some of my project ideas and feel like other doors keep opening. I will follow the momentum as long as it lasts.

On a side note I made the most amazing huckleberry coconut scones yesterday with berries provided by my dear friend Heather that she dried last year before I left Sandpoint, and I also received a lovely package of art and chocolate from the dear Emily Baker. Thank you dear friends and to my family for providing much appreciated mental support! Love to all!!!

Highlights

Hum where to begin…its been a few weeks on the rollercoaster but I will start with a high. One Monday everything came together- Frankfurt Zoological Society delivered all the materials I requested to make a composting toilet along with some extra money to buy the bamboo. In one swift moment I had everything needed to make the project happen. Yay! Then moments later a PCV friend called to say she was coming through Goba with some tourist friends from Norway headed up the Senetti plateau and did I want to join them. Heck yeah! An hour later I got picked up and we headed up into the beautiful mountains. It was great to have the freedom to stop where we wanted and see the unique landscape that I live so close to but is so hard to access. On the plateau it was really cold but fortunately not rainy and we went for a nice long stroll. The landscape is like the moon- flat and sparse. White lichen covered rocks blend in with white sagebrush plants, pock marked by shallow pools of water. A highlight was seeing the beautiful enormous endangered wattle crane. Only a few pairs fly all the way up from South Africa to breed on the cold plateau. Also by the end of the day we had spotted 6 Ethiopian wolves! One we watched stalk and finally pounce on a rodent only 30 meters away from the car! It’s amazing to see such an endangered species so easily and how they are unfazed by seeing cars. It was a much needed soul inspiring afternoon so close to Goba, only 1 hour drive. The evening was fun eating some cheese the  Norwegians had brought and drinking a few beers.

Wednesday fellow PCV’s Devin and Matt and I headed up to the nature club site and started work on the compost toilet. I went to the bamboo market, a big field full of mud and freshly cut bamboo and bartered to buy 8 bundles. The day was full of working hard carrying the bamboo and playing carpenter and by the end we had a useable beautiful shint bet….ready for a group of 10 English high school students and teachers arriving on Saturday. Stay tuned to find out how that all went…

New calf I named "Pearl" that lives on my compound

My new buddy!

Blooming Lobelia!

Underground spring flowing among Lobelia

Ethiopian Wolf stalking

Ethiopian Wolf not happy being watched

Waiting for the rodents to move

Digging! Persistence! 

Success!

Working with bamboo

The Compost Toilet Crew in front of the nicest toilet in Ethiopia

Tafatch

July 20, 2013

Well hello there! As I commonly hear in Ethiopia  “tafach”, meaning “you disappeared”.  My response “allow”, “I have”. And for many good reasons. But before I get into the past I want to talk about today. For the past week I have been sick with a nasty chest cold that left me drained with no energy, which always brings the added challenge of staying positive and out of my head. In the “Peace Corps Life Cycle” this is the slump period. But today I was finally feeling a little better and made myself strawberry crepes! My kind landlord gave me the strawberries, so I made the crepes and gave him some “ferengi cake” as I called it. This afternoon I finally made it out to my favorite river spot and sat watching the newly formed rapids and dark clouds pass in the distance.  Being outside always helps me find perspective and peace. I feel so lucky to have a beautiful spot to go to that is so close to my home.

After sitting a while a youngish man walked by singing a lovely song. I said hello and we started talking. It turns out he is really passionate about the environment and volunteering and helps to run a youth club in the summer time. We had a nice talk and then as we walked back he wanted to show me the location of the club. It was in a building I have been curious about for a while- from the outside it looks run down and abandoned but inside there were several rooms all with different “programs” going on. Randomly we went into one room where there was a meeting with the local HIV club. It had just begun and they were serving buna, popcorn and bread. As a fun fundraiser they had a game of passing a loop over a wire without touching the wire. If the loop touched the wire a light turned on. It cost 1 birr per try so of course I had to try. Then (as far as I could tell) the rest of the meeting was people reading poems, telling jokes or little stories. It was a beautiful sharing experience and inspiring to see people spending their Saturday afternoon in this way. It is always the random interactions that lead to wonderful new discoveries.

So now to back up to where I disappeared to. First I went to Addis for  a few days, mostly to eat good food, but also for a short meeting of the “Peer Support Network” group to talk about helping to train the newly arrived Group 9 volunteers. On the 4^th of July we had watermelon and lit sparklers and talked with the new trainees. It was neat seeing their enthusiasm and realizing how far I have come in the last 9 months. I am starting to feel confident in navigating around Addis; hoping on the Blue donkeys (line taxis) and arriving at my intended destination, finding the ferengi grocery stores, etc. Even travelling the 9 hour bus ride is fairly enjoyable. I love seeing the country and remembering that I live in Africa as I see classic mud huts, acacia trees and kids playing in the rivers. One image that stuck in my head was a group of colorfully dressed women in skirts and head scarves working at a cement factory carrying cinder blocks on their heads. So beautiful and hard working.Africa in a nutshell.

After my quick trip to Addis I turned around and headed to the all girls camp in Bekoji with my two campers. At the last minute I was able to pull together a contract taxi to take all 11 people from the Bale area to Bekoji, saving a big headache in travelling. The camp was a great success with 21 girls, 10 PCV’s, 4 Ethiopian counterparts and 2 junior helpers. It was held at the Agricultural College, which is closed for the summer, so we stayed in dorm style rooms and had the campus to ourselves. I was in a room with 4 girls and a lovely Ethiopian woman. At first the girls were very shy but over the week they opened up and quickly formed many new friendships and self confidence.

A success for me was at the last minute for the opening ceremony I had to fill in for the person who was supposed to lead it. I had no time to prepare but was able to wing it and lead the girls in an activity of writing on papers their “I can’ts”,  things they think they can’t do. (My example was saying before I came to Ethiopia I would have said I can’t speak in front of 30 people which I was doing at that moment). They then put them in an envelope and at the end of the week we burned them in a ceremonial closing bon fire.

I also led a session on meditation which I think went well. Another highlight was hiking to the top of a local mountain which was a big challenge for many of the girls in their skirts and little plastic slipper shoes. But they all made it and the sun even came out! It was a beautiful area with many different plants. The return part of the hike was through a maze of heather that was over our heads! Other activitiesof the week focused on nutrition, team building, peer pressure, and safe sex (where I learned that a common believe is rigorous exercise after sex will prevent pregnancy!). The closing ceremony was a touching and memorable experience. We made smores (oh yum!) and the girls taught us many great traditional African songs. Imagine chanting, drumming, and dancing around a fire and you get the idea. Classic Africa experience.

At the beginning of the week I was able to sneak out and visit my host family. It was great seeing them all, especially Abi the little 4 year old boy. In “talking” with them I was finally able to see an improvement in my language skills, something I don’t see on a daily basis. Sadly I was not able to connect with Tsion, the 9 year old girl because, as always, she was busy with chores. The rest of the week went quickly and by the time we got home to Goba I was exhausted. Luckily we again were able to contract a taxi and cruised home quickly and comfortably.

Now I continue to rest and recover, gearing up for building a composting toilet and other adventures…