My Most Embarrassing Moment Revealed

November 2^nd, 2007

This morning was a whirlwind and I needed to scream. We went to school at 8:30 to see the flag-raising. Each grade lines up neatly for it. A different child is selected each day to raise the flag and they sing the Oromo anthem while it’s being done. The kindergarteners were so cute because they waved to us practically the whole time. I sometimes wish I could teach the younger ones.

It’s really disturbing because the teachers actually do use the sticks to whip the children! The first day that I was at class, I walked in just as they were whipping the late children on the leg with a piece of plastic. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and wondered what I was doing there. One girl cried and Matthewos consoled her by saying, “auzosh.”

Before my class started we asked Teka for next week’s lesson plan. Kate and I can’t even explain our frustration with how communication was going. Although we’d explain that we weren’t actual teachers, he still didn’t seem to get a clue. We wish there was more communication between FH in Uganda, FH in Addis, FH here, and the school. We just need to clear expectations from the beginning. Maybe that’s asking too much. I don’t know. Then we talked to Kassa for a while. He explained that he needed a lap top for the school because eventually they will get electricity. Personally I think they need copiers as well. He’s going to make a list of things they need. Hopefully Kate and I can figure out a way to get these things to them. He told us not to send things to the government for them because the government can decide to do whatever they want with the things we send. All of the needs of the school are so overwhelming. I hope I can fulfill those wishes somehow. Kassa said I didn’t need to teach my second class because I was too tired. I wasn’t too tired, but I didn’t mind not teaching. I think he just wanted to talk to us longer. During the class I did teach today Teka left partway through, so I was alone with no one to translate if they didn’t understand me.

Kassa’s daughter hung out with us most of the time and she was really cute. He and his daughter talked us to the compound and on the way we asked him about the hitting. He said that he knows it’s bad to hit the children, but there are reasons why it is still done. One is because most of the parents hit their children in order to discipline them. Consequently, they don’t think that the children are being disciplined if they ask them if they got hit that day and they didn’t. Secondly, a lot of the children will not obey unless they are hit because that is how they’ve always been disciplined. Kassa holds meetings with parents and tells them about the repercussions of hitting their children, so hopefully it will some day become an obsolete method of discipline in the home and in the schools. Sometimes changes have to be made slowly. I can’t help but wonder if it would be effective to stop the hitting immediately.

This afternoon we drove to the pink school and also saw Desta’s water project. Desta is in charge of water and sanitation. We saw an adult class which was being taught literacy. The building they were using used to be an office but it was changed into a classroom. A couple boys had some small balls which they were using for football and volleyball. I played volleyball with one of the boys. He was pretty good and it was a lot of fun. Then we went to the water pump which is the source of water for all the people in the area. Crazy! I think we interrupted a man showering. Luckily, he had shorts on. Then we played football (soccer) with tons of children. We played with a real football this time. One of the children was hilarious. He was probably the smallest child there and he kept stopping the ball and picking it up. He wanted to be the center of attention at all times. He would get low with his hands on his knees. We decided he was a natural goal keeper. Whenever I tried to give him a high 5 he would duck. He probably thought I was going to hit him, which is really sad. Finally, I was able to show him that I wasn’t going to hit him and he gave me a high 5. I love playing with the children and I wish I could do it more while we’re here. That is when I am happiest.

I hear the baying of the donkeys. They always sound like they’re dying or being tortured. Kate and I joke that we can’t sleep until we hear a donkey baying. It’s like our good night call. Andy gave us an assignment to find out which animal you would rather or rather not meet on the road. So far donkeys and cattle seem the most annoying. But goats seem to scurry pretty fast. I think I would rather meet a goat and would rather not meet cattle. I’m going to miss not seeing animals around, just hanging out in the middle of the road, when I return to the states.

Oh and how can I forget this?! Kate and I were on our way to school. A clinic right sits outside of our compound and men and women are always standing and sitting in front of it. Children were walking to school in front of me and behind me. Suddenly, my skirt falls to my knees! I quickly pull it back up. Kate sees me tugging on it and is like, “what?!” I start laughing hysterically because it’s hilarious. But at the same time, I start crying because I’m humiliated. And they weren’t the kind of tears that come from laughing too hard. They were tears of humiliation. I was thinking that the children wouldn’t respect me and that people would think of me of the white laughing-stock of the school from that day forth. I wanted to go back to the compound and crawl back into bed. But I didn’t. Kate consoled me and laughed at the same time. We both were in shock, but thought it was hilarious at the same time. Luckily, I was wearing my spandex under the skirt. I couldn’t believe that this would happen to me in a society where showing your thighs is completely taboo.

Now you wonder, ‘how did the skirt fall down?’ there are many factors which contributed to this untimely disaster. First, the skirt was already a loose skirt. Secondly, the skirt hadn’t’ been put in the drier for months so it has slowly gotten bigger. Thirdly, I had lost a little bit of weight since I had arrived there because of my dislike of the food. People always ask me if I have a most embarrassing moment and I usually say I don’t. But now, thanks to that skirt (which I haven’t worn since), I have one. I can tell you that I now do not ever wear a skirt without spandex underneath them.

Hospital Horrors

November 1^st, 2007

Yesterday morning Kate woke up really sick. She had terrible, deep, sharp stomach pains. So we decided to go to Nekemt. It was Binyam, Getachew, Matthewos, Kate and I. I told Massamo to tell the school director and Teka why we weren’t coming to class. So we left on the bumpy road some time after 7 am. It was torture hearing and watching Kate next to me she would clench up her body every few minutes. We were all praying, but she was saying “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” the whole way. Afterwards she described it as probably being as painful as labor contractions although she’s never felt them before. I felt so bad and wanted to do something for her. I held her hand when a bad ‘contraction’ came, she would squeeze it harder. Since we were all so worried, it was a very serious and long drive.

When we finally arrived there, a crowd of people, probably close to a hundred of them, was waiting to get in. they all stood outside the gate of the hospital pressed up against the gate. Matthewos got out and talked to the guard and we were instantly let in. then as we walked into the building there were crowds of people in the hall. There was almost no walking space. Since Kate could barely hold herself up, she was being helped by Matthewos and they could barely get through the crowd. I felt so bad because those people were probably there for a long time and they probably wouldn’t get helped that day, and we, as white people, just waltz right in and get helped. It made me feel like it was a case of white privilege. I hope it wasn’t. I mean, she really did need to get helped quickly, but how many of the people needed to be helped just as bad? They probably walked there from miles and miles around since it’s the only hospital for miles around. They probably carried their sick loved ones there. Who knows how long and how many trials they had to overcome to get there? Yet they didn’t complain as we passed them. So as we walked into one of the rooms, I started to cry because of the moral dilemma and overwhelming feelings I had. The floors were dirty, parts of the building were falling apart, and it smelled strange. But I guess all hospitals kind of have a weird smell. There were nurses and doctors everywhere in their white coats. Since there were a lot of young people, I think that some of them might have been medical students.

Kate was asked a few questions, but not many. Then all of a sudden they were ushering her into another room and a nurse was pulling out a needle. I didn’t hear what it was so I was really confused and started freaking out in my head. “What are they doing with that needle? What is it? Is it clean?” They pulled Kate behind a curtain. I went in with her and held her hand. Getachew held her while they pulled down her pants a little and stuck the needle in her behind. Later I found out it was a pain killer. Kate said that she had noticed that the nurse didn’t have gloves on and hoped that she would clean the area that the needle was thrust into. She did clean the area, so that was good. But she still wasn’t wearing gloves.

Then they ushered her to another location and said she needed to use the bathroom. At first we were shown to some tin huts in some tall grass, but Matthewos said that that would be too traumatic for her right now. So they showed her into a nurse’s bathroom. She gave a stool sample, which I would not have wanted to do if I was her. We went to the doctor’s office and he asked her what her symptoms were. It was difficult for us to understand his English, but we got through. It was kind of awkward because there were maybe 5 men in the room and he lifted up her shirt. He just showed her stomach, but still, I felt like it would have been a bit awkward for her. We waited patiently as they tested the stool. Kate’s painkiller was working, so she was much more coherent at this point. Now she was just sleepy and wanted to go to bed. Finally the results came and the paper said ‘many motile bacteria’ so they told her to take supro which she already owned, so that was good. She’s just not supposed to take it unless a doctor tells her to. It took us forever to finally reach the compound, but when we did, Kate slept for a long time and woke up feeling a lot better. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much of an appetite.

As Kate rested, I went to the coffee fields with Getachew and Binyam. As Getch paid the people, I sat in the Land Rover for 2 hours. At first I sat there uncomfortably while people crowded around the Rover and stared at me. But eventually I realized I was going to be there a while, so I interacted with the people out of the window. There were many children that I talked to especially. Binyam didn’t know much Oromifa, but he helped to translate a little. I learned a few words in Oromifa, such as ‘kotu’ which means come, ‘mucha’ which means baby, and ‘inyaata’ which means food. There was a small boy who was super cute and I kept touching his hair. He kept ducking. Then a note was passed to me. I looked around to see who it was. It was a girl who quickly hid behind a tree. The note said:

Can you talking Oromo language?

No matter. Try try.

What your name?

- and –

My name is Mulu Daneli

I keep it in my journal. I was touched by her desire to get to know me, but I couldn’t understand why she kept hiding. I tried to get her to talk to my face and she finally did when I said, “Mulu, kotu” (Mulu, come). I let some of the children touch my hair which was really exciting for them. On the way there we picked up some women who Getch said were arguing about whether my hair was real or not. Ha ha! It feels funny to be such an anomaly to the people. It was a really great time to just hang out with the people. Sometimes I feel so separated from the people when we are in our compound.

This morning I taught the class about adverbs. Exciting, exciting. Sometimes I wondered why the heck I was up there and sometimes I was fine. But I felt so inadequate. I love talking to the children on a more personal level I wish I could do that more. I don’t like standing in front of people, telling them things, and acting like I have all the answers. I had tea with some teachers and returned home.

I played Frisbee with some of the men from my compound and from the Belo project. I love watching people’s reactions and seeing how they catch the Frisbee. It’s so entertaining. One man hops into the air with his legs together every time he catches the Frisbee no matter how low or high it is thrown to him. Getch seems to get stuck on one leg as he reaches for the Frisbee. He often makes funny noises as well. Binyam likes to have it tossed to him high so he can leap up into the air and catch it with two hands. Matthews comments as he throws it, like, “ok, here we go. Yeah. Nope.” I can’t even describe it.

We said goodbye to Massamo and Getch because they are going to Addis. Getch will be back sometime next week, but we’re not sure when. I was really sad that they were going because those were the two whom I felt most comfortable with and had many good conversations with. We joked around with them a lot too. It feels like people we get to know best are always leaving us.

Classroom Conditions

October 30^th, 2007

Yesterday morning Kate woke up very sick so she didn’t do devotions with me as we had planned. Every morning we have devotions as a group on the compound and that morning we were supposed to lead it. I felt so bad for her! We both decided that our stomachs are so bad that we should have a doctor living here. Hee. The devotions went fine. I read from Luke – the passage of sewing seeds. They enjoyed the devotion and it was relevant to what they are doing in Sasiga.

Afterwards I went to class and observed Teka teach 8^th grade. I talked to Kasshun for a while and observed his biology class. I visited the kindergarten class which was adorable. Kassa said it wasn’t facilitated. Instead, the parents pay 2 birr (there are 9 birr to a dollar) so their children can come. The children are advised to bring food because they aren’t used to being away from home and food for so many hours in a day. They are usually 5 and 6 years old, but there are a couple 4-year-olds.

I saw their library which is small and the books are falling apart. The men who showed it to me said that they don’t have any books for teachers to teach from. They only have students’ books. Also, most of their books are very old. Then Kassa showed me their materials room. There were charts and other visuals which the teachers can use to help instruct. One thing I’ve noticed is the materials here such as bookshelves, file folders, and things such as that which will help organize their books and materials. I want to help somehow when I return to the states. Maybe I can start a fund for them so we can send them money or materials. They need them so bad.

I was shocked to see the rooms that they taught in. they were essentially mud and stick rooms with uneven, dirt floors. They didn’t have window panes, but only wooden shutters to open and close to let in light. There was barely any light in that room even if the windows were open. I could barely see the students. I don’t know how they read or write in these conditions. There are a few buildings which FH and USAID helped to build that are really nice, but the rest of them are terrible. The ones that FH and USAID helped build have actual windows, they’re made of cement, they have real floors, and there’s enough light to see in them. Hopefully they can receive enough funds to make more of those some day. The government needs to make education a priority.

I met many teachers and conversed with them for a short time. As a result of such a full day and I was exhausted when I returned to the compound. Communication exhausts a person when he or she is in a new culture. I was dragged from one thing to another with no clue as to when I would be leaving. So I was there from 9 am to 1 pm. When I came back Kate was still sick. We were afraid she might have to go to Nekemt to see the doctor the next day. I took a long nap and so did Kate. Soon afterwards, Kate felt better and I was relieved. I didn’t want her to go to Nekemt. I also didn’t want to miss out on class and other activities.

This morning I taught English in class. I had thought that I would get a couple days of observation, but nope, I had to wing it. We read from a passage in the work book and I defined some bold words for them. It was strange for me because I had never done anything like this before, with so many eyes on me. They drank in every word (that they could understand) and they were silent. I was so glad that Kate was there sitting in the front row so I could use her for examples and so she could say, “tell them the page number.” My brain doesn’t completely work when I’m in front of the class, so I forget obvious things like that. Then we observed the 7^th grade class. We had tea with a few teachers and I taught again even though I thought I only had one class period today. We answered some questions about he passage concerning the comparison of Ethiopian and British cultures. They seemed interested, but I am by no means an expert on British culture. They wanted to know so much. They wanted to know where English came from in America. But I am also no history major! They think I know so much! It is true that I am more educated than most of the people than they know, which is an overwhelming thought. They really do think very highly of us.

Fortunately Teka said my teaching was done well. Hopefully I will continue to improve. Kate and I are most worried about the grammar since we don’t know how to teach it. We just speak it naturally. When we returned to the compound, many children followed and stood outside the gate. A few were girls from my class. They wanted us to take their photos. An old woman came by and wanted a photo too. She was pretty funny and kept kissing our hands. She kept asking “Akem” which means 'how are you' or 'hello.' Then we would answer “Naga” which was one of the answers you can say. But she kept insisting we say “feya” instead.

Kate and I watched the cook, Tanagne, make injera (which is the bread I hate). It’s more difficult than it looks. It’s made out of teff. The teff is bought already pounded in Nekemt and water is added. It looks like pancake mix. She scoops batter out and pours it onto the large, round skillet over the fire. When I tried it, I made it very lopsided. But she kindly kept saying, “konjo” which is "beautiful" in Amharic. I laughed at my creation anyway. Then she takes the bread off of the skillet quickly with her hands and lets it cool on the basket lid. When she takes it off, the fire licks at her around the sides and she often gets burned. The smoke escapes out of an opening in the roof, the doorway, and the window, but not well enough. It still smells like horrible burning chemicals, soot covers us, and the fire climbs upwards to burn the tin walls. It doesn’t seem safe. Kate and I were wondering why they haven’t made her one of those newer fancy stoves. I want to make her one, but I don’t know if it’s possible. We don’t think it’s fair that the community gets new stoves, but she doesn’t. Of course we haven’t been there, so we don’t know the whole story.

Kate and I have been having such a difficult time here. We just want to go home. It was especially hard because we both had a really good dream last night. We both dreamed that we married our boyfriends! Crazy. I also dreamed that I was at home and it was Christmas time. Dreams like that make it super had to get up in the morning when you’re not in the place you want to be. We also don’t like the food (except for a couple things), so we are losing weight. The men are noticing we don’t each much either. They might even get us spaghetti from Nekemt for us. It’s cute how concerned they are. But we don’t want to change what they eat just for our sakes.

Who are you and what are you doing here?

October 27th, 2007
Thursday, when we arrived in Sasiga at the compound, almost none of the men who lived on the compound were there because they were in Nekemt. But we got to meet the cook who is lovely and very young and cooking for all those men! I’m sure she’s happy that Kate and I are there are fellow women.
The accommodations here aren’t everything we expected, but they’re still good. It is a beautiful compound with much shade. It is made up of many small buildings that used to be government office buildings. There are many plants and flowers as well. There’s a separate building for showers and a separate building for toilets. We didn’t learn that until yesterday that we had been sing the men’s toilet all along and there was a much nicer one behind it. The men’s was a squatty potty and the women’s was a regular toilet. We learned that because a man almost walked in on me. Ha ha.
We hung out and talked for a long time. Then Kate and I took a much-needed nap. Once again we talked and Kate told horror stories about insects and nature while everyone else cringed in horror. But all of a sudden I felt sick again! So I left the table and puked on the ground over and over while Tekle, Kate, and Kidus fussed over me like mother hens – rubbing my back, getting water for me, getting a chair for me, and a cold cloth for me. They said things like, “Aozush” which means “you will be ok,” or “be strong.” I think I’ll remember that word best. If I don’t learn anything else, I’ll learn that word. I finally walked around a bit and placed a chair in a clearing where I could see the moon. As I looked at the moon, it was strange because I felt like God was using the moon to heal me. He was showing me that he cared. It was so bright that I could barely se any stars despite the lack of city lights. Tekle and Kidus came by to talk to me and make sure I was ok at different times. I was as long as I kept looking up at the moon. Tekle called a doctor and the country director to ask what we should do. It was very sweet. They even contemplated bringing me back, but I said that I would get over this sickness because it wasn’t serious. Also, traveling is the worst thing I can do when I’m sick! Andy told me to fast the next day, so I decided to take his advice. Hopefully it will kill whatever it was making me sick.
That night Kate threw up too because she had been watching me puke. The whole time I had been wondering if she could really be around while I threw and be perfectly fine. I know I couldn’t do it. The next morning we both felt fine. I fasted until dinnertime. The three men who drove us there left the compound in the morning to see a different project and they won’t be back until they pick us up at the end of practicum. It’s so sad because we enjoyed their company a lot. Tekle will be a good father. It is crazy how he is spending so much time with us and he just got married 2 weeks ago! He said that she was ok and that they would take a true honeymoon later. I’m really glad.
That morning we went to the school. While we were there, the teachers had sticks and kept threatening the students with them when they were staring at Kate and me. I think that the school director said that it is illegal to actually use them, but it still scares the students. I hope they don’t actually use the sticks on the children. That would be sad. We found that nothing was organized concerning our teaching and no one knew why we were there. Ha. They thought we were teachers. Ha, ha, HA! There has obviously been a lack of communication. But we finally figured it out. Kate and I will be teaching two different grades, but beside the same teacher. It’s crazy because the teacher instructs 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades! So many students! I will teach 8th and Kate will teach 7th. They way that they figured out who would teach what grade was so ask who was the oldest. So as the older of the two of us, I am teaching the older students. Of course they both (Matthewos and the school director) thought I was the younger one. We will observe the first couple days and then help teach and possibly teach by ourselves with the teacher looking in to make sure there’s discipline and to make sure we’re doing ok. I am a bit nervous, but it will be ok. I hope. There will be 130 students in each class! Another obvious lack of communication because we thought we would be teaching 85 students. Ha! The school is very near to our compound. We can see it from there, so it’s a nice short walk. Many children were playing volleyball in the schoolyard and I longed to play with them.
After lunch, we visited a project site. They built tables made of wood and covered them with clay. Then they set up bricks to start making a stove. The finished product will be a stove on top of the table. The traditional way here that people cook is over an open fire inside their stick homes. This is bad for many reasons:
1. The cook (which is usually the mother) and the children get easily burnt.
2. It is not fuel efficient because it is so open.
3. There is much smoke inhalation.
4. The house could be easily burnt down.
5. It keeps the house dirty with all the soot.
6. The food could easily be knocked off of the fire.
7. The cook has to bend over in order to use them.
The new stoves will remedy all these problems. Plus, FH is teaching the people how to build them instead of building the stoves for them. This way they can continue building them without needing anyone from the outside. The stove is covered and has an outlet outside for smoke. I thought that this was an amazing, practical way to help the people.
Kate and I had a good discussion with Getachew and Massamo about the Rwandan genocide. I was surprised with their interest. We’ve had many great talks about how the international community views the US too. Matthewos said he likes Canada better because it’s more peaceful in its international relations. The US is so nosy. I couldn’t help but agree. Maybe it’s not so bad that I’ll be living there. I do love my country, but I agree that our international relations need some help. I thought it was really good learning about other people’s points of view in other countries.
That evening (yesterday) we had another nap before dinner. After dinner Kate and Getachew took turns playing guitar. Getachew has a cool Ethiopian style voice. When Kate played, she and I would sing. Then Getachew recorded us on his cell phone singing “How Great is our God.” he played it back and it was so weird hearing my own voice. It has been a long time. It was a relaxing, enjoyable evening.
This morning Matthewos took us to the market in the village. He said that people come from miles away on foot to bring their goods, food, and animals to sell. It was definitely interesting to see. I couldn’t believe that they walked so far. I don’t feel many Americans would do that. They wouldn’t even be expected to. We had a good discussion with Matthewos during lunch. He said that he wanted Kate and me to talk to the young women of the community about their freedom and rights. Most women are not treated equally to men and are not as educated. They are usually forced to marry at young ages – as young as 12! He said that if they had role models they would be able o speak their minds after we share our experiences. Kate and I think it’s good, but it’s a little overwhelming to put that much pressure on us. I guess I’ve never thought of myself as a role model and having so much of an influence over people’s lives. We’ll see how that goes.
This afternoon we will be walking to the river. Oh by the way, Kate saw a goat slaughtered. We will be eating it tonight. I couldn’t watch. Originally, she was going to slaughter it herself, but she saw the goat tied up to the pole and she couldn’t do it. I watched it get tied up, but then I had to leave. She watched and said she wished she didn’t. She thought it would be one clean cut that would kill it, but they had to saw through its neck several times. Ugh! I’m so glad I didn’t watch.
Our cook is amazing because she makes home roasted, pounded, and steeped coffee! She does every step and we get to watch. She does this 2 times a day on the porch after meals and she decorates around the fire with ferns and poinsettias. I can’t believe all the cooking she does with all the tools that she has to use. Her whole life is cooking for all these men.

Breath-taking Ethiopian Landscape

October 25^th, 2007

So we left yesterday and we are finally in Sasiga. Our drive was long yesterday. We covered over 300 km. the road was only good part of the time, but the view was spectacular. It’s indescribable. So green, with rolling hills and many different colors of grass. It’s like patchwork. There were even yellow flowers that covered various patches of land. “Lion King” trees (actually called acacia) were everywhere as well. They’re flat-topped ones.

I sat in the front seat the whole way next to Kidus who is very chatty. I had some good talks with him, but he can be very exhausting. It’s probably a good thing I sat next to him or I would have been very bored and the drive would have felt even longer. We stopped for lunch at a random spot and had some really good meat with bread that Hannah made. Hannah was a young woman who traveled with us. She is an FH accountant. She is very beautiful with braids in her hair and curls on the ends and with a beautiful smile. Another woman named Zoudanash traveled with us as well. She had to sit in the very back with our luggage. She was really sweet.

We sang songs in the vehicle to entertain ourselves. We topped again and I chased after a horse that wouldn’t let me pet it. Meanwhile, Kate took pictures of the locals who were very excited to see themselves on the back of the camera. They probably only every see their reflections in water.

Our driver was called Tesfaye and he was really sweet. He was always concerned about our well-being. We stopped at a café which had a shell logo on it, which is quite humorous to me. Just when we started to drink our beverages, a bus pulled in. it took great pains trying to park and I foresaw what happened next. It scraped the side of our Land Cruiser and we could see the Land Cruiser shaking from the impact. The driver came out and wouldn’t apologize which infuriated Kidus. The driver said that things like that happen all the time. I thought that if things like that happen all the time to him that he shouldn’t be a driver! So Tesfaye, Tekle, and Kidus reasoned and argued with the driver in Amharic for a long time while us girls sat there wondering what they could possibly be talking about. Then the traffic police arrived. More arguing ensued. More confusion from my end. We finally left and Kidus said that the policeman must have been bribed because of the things he said. But it was finally worked out somehow. As we kept driving Tesfaye kept talking about the ‘accident’ because he was really upset. So I kept suggesting that we sing in order to forget about it. It worked sometimes. They would sing a song in Amharic and then Kate and I would sing a ‘ferenji’ song. Sometimes Kidus would join in because he speaks really good English and knows many English songs. Ferenji is what they call white people in Ethiopia. It is taking some getting used to since we are used to Muzungu which was what we were called in Uganda and Rwanda. Ferenji is derived from the word French.

When we were nearing Nekemt, which is the city nearest to Sasiga, I started to feel sick, so we pulled over. I though it was because I hadn’t eaten much, but I’m not so sure now. I ate an orange, which helped. When we arrived in Nekemt we stopped at a restaurant to eat and I had a little bit of rice. I could barely eat. That night Kate and I had a whole house to ourselves. It had three bedrooms and a bathroom with hot water. We went to bed early and at about sun up I felt sick so I had to get up. My heart was pounding and my stomach was queasy. I puked. I went outside to get some air and noticed the loud buzzing. I knew what it was right away. I had been forewarned of the bees. Sure enough, there were a few huge ones buzzing around the porch. In the distance I could hear roosters crowing, dogs barking, and birds chirping. As I stood on the porch I wanted to go home so bad. I finally felt well enough to sleep again.

After 9 am, the men picked us up and we went to breakfast. I drank tea and tried to get some food down. We met a few men who would be living at the compound we would be staying at in Sasiga. It took us forever to leave Nekemt because they kept stopping places to buy food and other things. Kate and I were anxious to get to Sasiga and to get out of the vehicle. But we kept to reminding ourselves again that “We’re in Africa, baby!” We were told that the drive should take 45 minutes to an hour, but we didn’t get to Sasiga until late afternoon. On the way we had to cross a couple streams in our vehicle. Kidus kept stepping out of the Land Cruiser to take photos of our vehicle on rough terrain. Tekle kept telling us ‘Dad jokes’ which are jokes that are pretty cheesy and ones that dads typically tell. He is a great guy who has helped us feel at home. He likes to say ‘your friends are there’ which is supposed to be from a movie.

Coffee, coffee, and more coffee

October 23^rd, 2007

We had a 2 hour flight using Ethiopian air to Addis Ababa. The food was good on the plane; better than the British Airlines food we had on our way to Uganda. I am staying at a Lutheran Norwegian guesthouse. We see a lot of Norwegian people. It’s funny because sometimes they’ll start talking to me in Norwegian because they think I’m Norwegian. I tell them I am mostly Norwegian.

When we first arrived at the guesthouse, we talked to some people who were doing a 2 week missions trip doing cataract surgery. It was pretty interesting. They said that the operation takes 45 minutes here because of the lack of technology, but it usually takes 15 to 30 minutes in the states. They said that the people don’t even flinch when they give them the shot of anesthetic in their eye, but in the states, a lot of people squirm and cry and faint. There’s such a difference in pain tolerance and what people are afraid of. They played Norah Jones for the patients and gave them pillows for under their knees and comfortable beds, so they would fall asleep as they were being operated on. The beds are probably more comfortable than beds they usually sleep on.

We’ve been taken out to eat and to coffee many times. Practicum is not like I expected it to be, but of course we haven’t reached our practicum locations yet. We leave tomorrow morning. The country director of Ethiopia’s FH named Andy Barnes picked us up and we went on a long drive out into the country which was beautiful and drove a super bumpy rode up a hill. Then we hiked for a bit and saw amazing scenery which seemed so unreal and was definitely picture perfect. We also saw a monkey in a tree. Then we saw an antelope type animal which Andy said was classified as threatened, which means it’s in more danger than endangered species are. The reason why it’s endangered is because Ethiopia used to be mostly made of forest (maybe 66 percent) and now it has decreased a lot (to maybe 3 percent, but don’t quote me).

On one hand I’ve loved being in Addis Ababa and seeing the city and the churches and museums. On the other hand I know we will not see as much or experience as much at our practicum sites as the other girls will. It has been seeing all of the elaborate things that the Orthodox Church has made, but at the same time, I wonder if more money could have or should have been spent on helping people, such as the poor.

So far we love the donkeys because they are really cute to us. They have floppy ears and they carry huge loads without anyone leading them with a rope. They have really love IQs but they are so obedient. Maybe humans could learn a thing or two from them. Sometimes people are like donkeys. People can be stubborn, but so can donkeys.

Anyway, it has been fun getting to know Tekle, his wife Nunu, and Tekle’s friend Kidus. He is also Nunu’s brother. He is a crack up. I enjoyed our hike up the hill with Andy as well. The view was gorgeous and it’s always amazing to see people living so far away from the city without vehicles and yet they survive. That just shows how American I am! My mom [pointed out how I am in the least developed country in the world and my sister is in Manhattan, NY. It’s such a world of difference. We’ll have to compare stories.

Things are cheaper here – especially compared to Rwanda! You can eat a very filling meal for around 2 dollars. So crazy, but great. We went to church on Sunday and I wasn’t very impressed. It was an international church. I don’t like church, but I really didn’t like that one. It was just too westernized and stale. I preferred the churches we saw in Uganda and Rwanda. Jordan House and the one in Kibuye, especially. I realized that when I go to church I don’t really see God, but when I’m out in nature, I feel him and see him everywhere! I somehow need to see God in church and not be so judgmental. But I feel like it’s okay to not like church. After all, almost everything about it is man-made and based on culture, whereas nature is made by God and transcends cultural taste. Makes sense to me!

After church we went to coffee again at the Sheraton hotel. It was an amazing hotel! So huge and elaborate. I couldn’t help feeling a bit disgusted, but awed at the same time. But I can’t judge this country or its people. Apparently the Sheraton was the hotel that Beyoncé was staying at because she had a concert here last night. But we didn't get to see her. There was a guy named Kidus whom we hung out with. He is Tekle's friend. He saw her like 5 minutes before we got there. Pretty crazy. The reason why she is in Ethiopia is because she did a show for the new millennium. You know that Ethiopia has their own millennium don’t you? For them it’s the year 2000. They also have a different time system as well. 1 am for them is our 7 am because that is when their day starts. It’s so cool, but also confusing. It was funny because when we were on the airplane, the first thing the flight attendant said to us after she found out we were American was that Beyoncé had a concert in Addis Ababa. She asked us if we were going and we asked the price (knowing it would be ridiculous, even in Ethiopia). One ticket was over 100 dollars! We all just laughed and said no.

On Monday or Tuesday (time just runs together sometimes so I can’t remember) we went to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. I was able to get a little bit of food down but I didn’t eat the bread which is the worst part. It’s called Injera. I think it will be a slow process eating Ethiopian food. At that restaurant there was live traditional singing and dancing, which was beautiful. Then we had a coffee ceremony (not religious) where there was incense blowing right at me and popcorn to eat. I actually drank the coffee. It was really strong and I put too much sugar in it. Over all, it was a good night with all of our good conversations. Robert, a Canadian FH worker who has lived in Sasiga (where Kate and I will be) came to the dinner and we talked to him about our struggles and things we’ve learned about in Africa. Hopefully we’ll see him again.

White Water Rafting The Nile, Baby!

October 15th – October 18th
This week has been a relaxing week. We have been just hanging out and going shopping for things we need at practicum. I have enjoyed this time a lot. I feel like it was needed. The highlight of this week was definitely yesterday.
I could feel the butterflies in my stomach and the dread/excitement as I stared at the upcoming rapids. “I’m gonna die,” was the thought that frequented my mind. I was sitting on the left side in the front of a huge blue raft with a white paddle in my hand, a light pink helmet on my head, and a blue and yellow life jacket on my torso. There were 6 other people in the raft with me. One was the male Ugandan guide named Tutu, one was an aging man name Burt from the Netherlands and the other 4 were girls from my group. They were Kate, Camille, Charith, and Anna. Kate and I shared the front row. Tutu kept yelling things like, “Wicked Sweet” in his Ugandan accent, which I’m sure he learned from many American rafters that have come through.
Another thought that frequented my thoughts was that I was on the Nile, baby! So cool. The raft that I had chosen to ride was the mild raft because we didn’t want our raft to flip. I knew I would panic if I had a bunch of water in my mouth and nose and a raft on top of me. So I figured mild would work best. The guide started out with teaching us how to paddle, how to get back in the boat if we fell out, what commands he would use, and how we were to brace ourselves as we went through rapids. The first rapid that we encountered was a level 3 which is fun, but not very dangerous if you have a good guide. And we did. He had been doing this for 11 years. Later we encountered level 4s and 5s which looked really scary when you are just to raft them. But they were also the most fun. We never flipped because our guide was so good. He was able to steer us to the places in the rapid that made it so we wouldn’t flip. We greatly appreciated it. Every time we went on a rapid, Kate and I, since we were in the front row, got a bunch of water in the face, nose, and mouth. Fun stuff. We felt like we had swallowed half of the Nile by the time we were through.
As we watched other teams go down some of the higher level rapids, some of the guides would jump into the air and twirl as they went down them. They would often have to throw themselves forward too so they could land in the raft which had moved out from underneath them. It was pretty crazy, but cool. If I had to do this everyday, I would also figure out a way to make it more interesting. One of the guides was out of the raft and so our guide told his crew to paddle away from him, so they did. It was pretty funny. Many of times, especially toward the end, there was plenty of time to just float down the river and relax. So we would take off our helmets and jump out of the water so we could swim. It felt really good because the sun was beating upon our bodies when we sat on the raft. The scenery was very beautiful and the sky was beautiful. It was a perfect day for rafting.
Some of the other rafts flipped, but ours didn’t. I felt like we had just as much fun as everyone else, but we didn’t have to swallow as much water. The second to last rapid we went on was a level 5 and it had a 2 meter drop and then a bunch of other rapids along it, so it was super scary looking down for me as I sat in the front. My eyes widened and I yelled, “oh my gosh!” The girls in the other boat were yelling for us as they watched (because they had just gone down it before us). When we hit the bottom they cheered for us and I could tell they had seen my face. They were laughing at me. I didn’t mind.
Half way through we got to stop on a little island for a delicious lunch with nice wheat bread sandwiches, potato salad, and pineapple. It was a nice break for our tired bodies. Our group got especially tired because we only had 7 people to row and all the other ones had 11. Consequently, we were probably the slowest boat. It was still fun. After we were done with the sweet rafting trip I could tell that the top of my thighs were burnt from the sun. I thought I would be burnt other places too, but today, I can see that that is the only place I am burnt. I think that is because we don’t ever wear shorts here because it is inappropriate, so when we were able to on the rafting trip, they hadn’t seen sun in a long time! This morning I also woke up a little sore from paddling for hours and hours. The whole trip lasted seven or eight hours, plus there was a two hour drive there and a two hour drive back. It was a long day, so I ended up going to bed at 9 last night! Crazy.
So this might be my last blog for a while since I don’t know what the internet will be like in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the least developed country in the world. I still don’t know much about my practicum there, so I’m a little nervous, but I think I will survive. I’ve got my peanut butter, crackers, and cookies just in case I need to sustain myself while I’m there. For some reason I’m not excited about the food. Hmmm...I can’t imagine why. Hah. I do know that I’ll be teaching a classroom with Kate of about 85 students! Aaaaah! We will be teaching English. They said that they only have like 3 books for all of those students! I can tell that it will be very interesting. Then in the evening we will be able to help with CDP (Child Development Program) or other things that Food for the Hungry needs help with. Anyway, I’ll write as soon as I can. Later ya’ll.