Welcome To Dangila

This past month I had the privilege of hosting my mom, dad and brother in Dangila for three days.  When I was planning our Ethiopia-section of their time in Africa, I thought about all the historical places I wanted them to see- Lalibela, Gondar, Bahir Dar.  But when it really came down to booking how many days I wanted to spend in each place, I immediately knew I wanted them to spend the most time in Dangila.  Not only did I want them to experience my home, and way-of-life, but I wanted them to meet all my friends and drink more coffee than they could handle, just as I did when I first arrived!

Our time spent in Lalibela, Gondar, and Bahir Dar was fabulous.  The sites in Ethiopia are spectacular and one-of-a-kind, but my favorite part of having them here was the hospitality received in Dangila.  I knew I had some wonderful friends here, but the warm welcome they gave my family was so special and unrivaled.  The first night in Dangila, we were invited over to Ali and Billie’s house.

They used to live in my compound, but moved out a few months ago into a bigger house nearby.  We all sat in their living room and spoke in broken English, while I translated the rest of the details back and forth.  They served us a plateful of injera and wat; some of the best I’ve had in Ethiopia!  I was a little nervous about having my family taste Ethiopian food in a restaurant the first time, but at least there, you can openly say something doesn’t taste great.  At a friend’s home, it is a bit harder to reject the food!  Luckily, the food was well received by my family.  Thanks for being troopers family.   Then, as we were putting our plates down, satisfied by the delicious food, another round of plates came out!  That’s right, another plateful, but this time it was western food! Spaghetti, tomato sauce (with burbere spices of course) and bread; we all looked at each other with wide eyes.  We graciously accepted the second dinner and followed it by a coffee ceremony, although there was quite a bit of food left over.

The next night we had yet another two-course meal, featuring almost all the same foods! It was amazingly thoughtful how all my Ethiopian friends catered to our needs and welcomed us into their homes.  My favorite part of coming to my town was the night we first arrived, after the first marathon meal, my friends Tigist and Tewelde awaited us back near my house.  They were so excited about meeting my family, and they came bearing gifts.

They had an “Ethiopian” beaded bracelet for each of them, freshly made local bread, local-made potato chips, and Christmas cards for us!  It was the nicest thing.  Then they escorted my family back to their hotel on the main road.

It truly brought tears to my eyes.  The hospitality here and love I receive from all my Ethiopian friends is truly the reason I am still here.  They teach me something new every day about selflessness and generosity.

Family Safari

While I waited in the terminal for my 10AM flight to Tanzania to board, I had butterflies in my stomach. It wasn’t the flight I was anxious for, but three of its passengers that awaited me! Of course, nothing in Ethiopia goes as planned, and as I looked up from the book I was reading to scan the terminal for possible boarding information, I caught my brother’s eye. There was my family, going through security to join me in the terminal!

It was an epic reunion, filled with hugs and tears, and before I knew it time was flying by. Hours, which felt like days as time lead up to seeing them, turned into minutes. Before I knew it we were stepping into the humidity of Tanzania and our safari had begun. Lions, leopards, cheetahs, not to mention countless giraffes, elephants, zebras and wildebeests; It was like being thrown into The Lion King. While my brother will cringe as he reads about these Disney references (he also wasn’t my biggest fan when I sang “Hakuna Matata” while on safari), I can’t help but compare the safari to something unreal. Each day kept exceeding my wildest expectations.

We traveled from Kilimanjaro International airport to the Ngorongoro Crater, to Serengeti National Park, then retraced a bit to Tarangerie National Park, and finally wound up in West Kilimanjaro for a couple nights. On our first afternoon in the Serengeti, we drove right up beside two cheetahs.

 After a moment of watching them, the one other Range Rover in sight flashed their lights at our driver and just 100 yards away we saw a lion, and following his line-of-sight, there lay two more!

The next day in the Serengeti NP, we were driving along a side road when we spotted a group of at least 10 elephants on the horizon. We were the only car in sight, and decided to stop, turn off the engine and observe them for a bit. We watched in awe as they walked right towards us. Maybe twenty minutes later they crossed the road around our vehicle.

 Half were in front of us and half were behind us, and we were speechless. Later that day we pulled around this large rock formation and saw another car stopped, always a good sign that there is something to see. A leopard was perfectly perched on a branch overhanging the rock.

That was a set straight from The Lion King. Moments after arriving, the beautiful animal stood up and wandered back off the branch to rest in privacy I suppose. Lunchtime was approaching, so we decided to park there and eat our boxed lunches while waiting to see another glimpse of the leopard. With binoculars you could see the unmistakable leopard print through the brush. Just before we gave up waiting, he decided to grace us with his presence again, going back to prone position on the branch.

One of the last days, when we were staying in private game reserve in West Kilimanjaro, in the nicest tent I’ve ever stepped foot in, we had a little scare. We piled into an open-air range rover and headed out for a morning game drive. The lack of walls between me and animals that could attack me didn’t faze me at first, I was anxious to see them up close! We spotted our first group of elephants outside a National Park and we approached with excitement. Our guide, used to NP animals instructed the more inexperienced driver to pull up close… the elephant swung his trunk, flopped his ears, and made a noise that made us wish were movingin the opposite direction (as I snapped pictures, obviously)…and the driver stalled the vehicle.

 

 We all survived the weeklong safari in Tanzania, and had an adventure of a lifetime! It would have been a wonderful vacation all on its own, but as it was, it was just the beginning of ours!

Tanzania Day 1

This video shows the highlights from Day 1 in Tanzania... only to be followed by 6 more incredible days. More pictures will be posted soon. For now, enjoy the video!

One Year Later

I can’t believe it is already December 11th. I kind of thought this day would never come! Tomorrow morning I meet my mom, dad, and brother aboard a plane to Tanzania. This also marks the only blog post so far that I have posted myself. A little behind-the-scenes information I don’t think I’ve mentioned- blogger doesn’t work in Ethiopia, so my mom posts all my blogs for me. Since my family is already en route (I actually just received an email from them from Cairo) I am posting this one first hand from the comforts of fast-ish satellite from the Peace Corps office.

Since I last updated, so much has happened. The countryside itself exemplifies the changes around me. It seems like overnight the fields and hillsides of bright green have faded once again to bold yellow, ready for harvesting. Water, which I forgot to mention has been consistently available in Dangila, is now again starting to disappear for a few days at a time. Electricity too, which was reliable for a few months after rainy season, is beginning to have outages across the country. And Peace Corps has finished its seasonal change as well; all PCVs from Group 1 have closed service and in a week Group 3 will swear in.

Just after Thanksgiving I was fortunate enough to be invited by a Muslim neighbor to celebrate the Arafa holiday. As I sat around eating injera, listening to prayers and drinking coffee I wondered if any non-Muslim in Dangila had ever been invited to celebrate with them, and I felt so honored. Then I celebrated World AIDS Day in my town, where HAPCO had organized a field-day of sorts, including a 100m girls’ race. Of course, I had to run in it. My town would have it no other way. I was prepared to get smoked, until the women lined up beside me wearing skirts and some wearing no shoes. I wound up getting second place, and was called a lion in Amharic for the remainder of the day.

Lining up to run the race on World AIDS Day.

The crowd on World AIDS Day in Dangila.

I had been invited to spend this past week in Assela with Group 3 trainees, so I came in a few days early to Addis to prepare for the cooking session my friend Danielle and I were in charge of. I had the privilege during those few days last weekend to say goodbye to my dear friend Jordan, who decided to go home early. It was very bittersweet to see him go, but I completely understand his decision. His presence in Ethiopia will be dearly missed.

I also had to say goodbye to the group of 10 boys in Dangila (mentioned in previous posts). When I return back to town they will have returned to live with their families. I went over the night before leaving town to say goodbye and could barely hold back my tears as they each said goodbye to me. They will still be living in town, but I won’t be able to dependable see all of them every day, and I am going to miss those boys so much. As much as I’ve told them how much I love all of them I think they will never realize how much of an impact the 10 of them have made on me.

This past week I stayed in Assela, and spend the days visiting the trainees in their satellite villages with the technical trainer and two other volunteers. I had a lot of fun with the other PCVs and getting to know the new group. Although I saw them for a brief visit when they were still jetlagged, I really enjoyed getting to know them this week. Just yesterday Danielle and I were able to do a cooking demonstration for them, showing them how to create a stove-top dutch oven, and make some delicious home cooking!

Now I am back in Addis Ababa, and ready as ever to see my family tomorrow! Since I last updated I also passed my one year mark since leaving America. It has been a wonderful year filled with opportunities I could have never imagined a year ago, and I have grown exponentially from them. Thank you to everyone here and in America who has supported me on this adventure. I feel so loved and blessed. I will try to update about my month-long family adventure along the way, as I am sure our reunion abroad the plane tomorrow will be quite a scene!

Twice the Thankfulness

I recently celebrated my first Thanksgiving in Ethiopia, quite an experience. Those of us around Bahir Dar decided to celebrate the holiday with as much replicated food as possible. We split up the list of non-perishable food items to have sent from home, and agreed to try to substitute Ethiopian equivalents for the rest. I was also fortunate enough to have a “Thanksgiving box” arrive the week before, and decided to make a feast in my town for my Ethiopian friends (Thanks Mrs. W).

My celebration began the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I woke up early and began heating my dutch oven. My only method of baking here, you place a big pot on your stovetop with several empty tuna cans inside where you then place the item you are baking on top of the cans and close the pot with a lid. Sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, and even cans of turkey were each prepared one-at-a-time in my slow little MacGyver-ed oven.

I invited five friends to come over at 2pm, and by 1:30pm found my house as clean as it has ever been. My curtain was taken down to serve as a table cloth and candles were placed on the table set for six. I never knew my house could feel so homey. Coupled with the smell of my favorite foods and I was in heaven. Guests arrived somewhat on-time and I introduced each new dish to them and made them serve themselves (something that they are not used to). In Ethiopia you are typically served by the host, who scoops the food onto your plate, so serving your own food, and particularly going back for seconds and helping yourself, was something I had to force them to do. We each said what we were thankful for, and had a wonderful American meal together.
My favorite discussion was having them comment on the similarities and differences of the holiday to Ethiopian holidays. The sweet potato to them looked with a thick local wat, shiro tegabeno. The gravy looked like its thinner version, shiro fesis. And the stuffing I realized, as I told them about how it was made, is like a local wat, dabbo ferfer, which consists of torn up bread and spices. It was very entertaining to hear them compare the foods and cultures. They also added that the only two things this holiday needed to become Ethiopian are coffee and injera!
My real holiday was celebrated in Bahir Dar surrounded by Americans, some Europeans, and a few Ethiopian friends. Chickens were cooked (bought live at the market the day before), pies were baked, and all the fixins’ were in attendance. It was definitely a celebration to be thankful for. Both communities, Ethiopians in Dangila, and foreigners in surrounding towns are wonderful support groups. While making the feast wasn’t quite as easy as going to the local supermarket and buying everything for the occasion, the additional work added to the enjoyment. I am so grateful for this support system in country and my support system holding me together from across the globe. Thank you.

 

Farewells and New Faces

About a week ago all the volunteers were able to welcome their new site neighbors from Peace Corps Group 3 during their week-long site visit. I am very excited that two nearby towns will have volunteers from the new group. Towns just twenty minutes north of Dangila, and thirty minutes south, by bus, welcomed new volunteers! It just so happened that the new group had their Site Visit week during many of Group 1 volunteer’s last week at site. While this makes for a convenient handoff of furniture and goods for sites with replacement volunteers, it also was a dose of reality about all the changes taking place. The whirlwind of transition all around me is hard to absorb from my viewpoint in the eye of the storm. I was able to say goodbye to a couple of Group 1 friends during the week, and the farewells were certainly hard to take. Seeing neighbors, and confidants, depart from this adventure was bitter sweet. They will be missed. It is a turning point in my time here; changing from second-in-command to leaders-of-the-pack. Now it is my group’s turn to dole out advice and pretend we know what we’re doing. And in many ways I don’t feel ready to do that. But I also realize that it is just part of the Peace Corps lifecycle, and it is a required step so that one day I too will return to America… or somewhere. With all of this change, and the approach of the one-year mark away from home, I am happy to report that I am finding my place in the world. I still cannot describe a “typical day” and I haven’t a clue what I want to do upon finishing my service, but I like the pace of life here, and couldn’t imagine leaving quite yet. That being said, one year away from my family has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to endure. And in less than a month now I have the privilege of introducing my family to Ethiopia (and visiting Tanzania and Egypt with them!). It is a trip of a lifetime, and cannot wait to reunite with them, have an adventure, and show them my new home.

Back to Finding Work

Since my raffle project ended a few weeks ago, life has slowed down considerably. I am falling back into my routines in town, making the rounds to have coffee with neighbors I haven’t hung out with in a while. Work is slow again, but I’m dealing with a lot of little projects including teaching the high school anti-AIDS club, trying to get funding for a group of commercial sex workers to start a restaurant, and my favorite, playing with these ten boys who are living in a house together for three months.

This house, funded by CVM, is supposed to take these ten boys, between 12-14 years old, and improve their behavior. Some are troubled children, most are missing at least one parent, and they all have been working on the streets, selling peanuts and lottery tickets to help support themselves. For three months they live together and are not suppose to go anywhere besides school, including visits to their families. Meaning, in some ways, they are each other’s family for three months, and in turn, I’ve come to think of them as family too. They have been living together for two months now, and I find myself going to hangout with them almost daily now that my raffle project is finished.
 

One of my favorite parts of going to play with the boys is that they love my dog. I have so much fun watching them run around with her. She gets to be a puppy with them, and that makes me happy. The boys also have one girl, Tigist, who cooks food for them and supervises them. I have come to adore Tigist, who is about my age, and respect her so much, because as much as I enjoy playing with the boys on occasion, taking care of the little troublemakers would be out of my league. She is such a strong woman and our friendship, even though it is completely in Amharic, is so special to me.

Chaotic Success

This past week has been chaotic, frustrating, overwhelming but more than anything, it has been rewarding. My HIV testing raffle program began on Monday, and every day this week brought new challenges and surprise adventures. During an average week in Dangila right around 100 people get tested for HIV at the health center. When I first proposed this raffle system to my supervisor he predicted that with this incentive maybe 150 people would get tested during the week. And while I thought his prediction was low, I decided that I would be happy with any small increase in numbers to show that the project made a difference. Monday morning I was at the health center at 8:30am when it opened ready to usher the crowd to the testing rooms. When I arrived there were already people waiting to be tested and thus began my week of chaotic errands around town. It seemed like every moment was filled with one thing or another, but every time I would check back with the health center staff the number of people tested continued to put a childish grin on my face. The first day alone brought in 163 people to be tested! I prayed that it wasn’t a fluke, and that people continued to flood the health center. At the beginning of the week, I was continuing promotional activities with the anti-AIDS clubs, towards the middle of the week I started organizing the raffle drawing ceremony which was to take place on Friday afternoon, and throughout the whole week I was trying to arrange the health workers’ lunch. You see, each day there were two staff members working the HIV testing room: one lab technician and one counselor. They agreed to work through their hour lunch break for this week and we agreed to bring them lunch to the health center, which they would eat quickly when there was a gap between patients. I took it upon myself to arrange their lunch everyday, which turned into having friends help cook Ethiopian food at my house, meanwhile my propane tank ran out, adding to the chaos.

Last week I was able to visit the flag ceremony at the preparatory school (grades 11-12) for both the morning and afternoon shifts to announce the program, but I wasn’t able to work with the high school (grades 9-10) staff until Tuesday of this week. I met with the new teacher in charge of the anti-AIDS club and he agreed to announce about the program at the flag ceremony, but I knew that if I was to join him that the program would get a lot more attention. Therefore, Tuesday afternoon I showed up to the ceremony, which turned out semi-successful. You see, flag ceremony is all the students lined up in rows according to their homeroom class in a big field facing the flag; over 3,000 students in each grade! They sing the anthem, raise/lower the flag (morning session and afternoon session), and have daily announcements. Tuesday afternoon the loudspeaker used to allow the thousands of students standing in the field to hear us had already been locked up for the day. Some students were able to hear the announcement though and we hoped word would spread. The next morning at 7:30am I walked with Maritu, the helper girl on my compound, to the 9th-graders flag ceremony where we were going to announce it to the other half of the high school. As the students all line up and start gawking at my presence, my teacher-friend, who was going to help me announce, tells me that since it has been raining so heavy lately, after rainy season is suppose to be over, it is ruining the tef crop, so they are about to announce (after my program announcement) that there isn’t going to be school for a week so that the rural kids can help their families with harvesting. Ethiopian version of a snow day! I watched the students all dressed in teal uniforms pile out of the school compound, excited about their week of freedom, and I hoped some of them were heading to the health center. I waited a few hours and then stopped by to bring more raffle tickets and as I rounded the corner to the HIV testing room, the health center compound was overflowing with students! My supervisor was there taking names of people waiting, trying to organize the crowd, and I almost didn’t believe it when he told me he’d written down over 200 names before 10am.

Friday afternoon we planned to start to draw raffle tickets around 3:30pm, so we set up speakers and prepared for the crowd to gather. I would guess over 300 people showed up for the drawing ceremony, and we waited past 3:30pm so that everyone wanting to be tested could get a ticket. When all was said and done 825 people were tested during the five-day raffle program. It was a great drawing ceremony, with an energetic crowd and organized committee helping us record the 144 prize-winning numbers.

I stood up front helping with the drawing and kept finding myself in awe of the crowd of people around me. These people are my Ethiopian family; this place is my home. The prizes were donated, along with many hours of promotional efforts. Getting HIV tested at the health center is always free and although I had to deal with some unhappy workers, whose workload I increased eight-fold, it didn’t cost Dangila a dime. I did a lot of walking around and running errands, but this wasn’t me. It was my idea, but my town’s contributions made this idea come to fruition; My Dangila family members were helping themselves. And that made me so proud to call Dangila home.

My Raffle Project

The last two weeks since returning to Dangila from travels, have been filled with what seems like more work than the previous eight months combined. I leave my house early in the morning and come back late in the afternoon absolutely exhausted, and still not completely sure what I have accomplished. Is this what it is like to actually have a 9-5 job?

My latest project, actually, my first real project, is underway and I could not be more excited. The idea for it came straight from my year spent as Fundraising Chair in college. I thought, what if I could get hotels and restaurants in town to donate prizes, like food and soda, and we could have a town raffle… and the only way to get a ticket is to be tested for HIV! It is a project that requires no outside funding, it is a way for businesses in town to give back, many people can get HIV tested, and people win prizes!

My supervisor thought it sounded like a great idea, and was completely willing to help me organize this program, but I was also very aware that it was my project. This is the first project I’ve started in Dangila where it was my idea from the start and my initiative that is running the show, rather than my presence being an addition to an already existing program. At the same time, I am trying to teach my counterparts to create a sustainable concept that could be repeated in the future without my help. While I was out of town nobody was working on the project, so I knew it would be two weeks filled with frantic organizing.

We started by making a list of around 20 businesses in town, and visiting each one to ask the owner for a donation. As we walked around town, we also stopped to ask additional places for donations, and wound up with over 26 places in town willing to donate to the raffle program. We split those prizes up (i.e. a single donation of a case of soft drinks would be given to 24 different people) and our list of prizes tallied over 130! Only two places said they couldn’t donate, and overall I was so impressed with everyone’s generosity.

Work is hard though because I still feel somewhat helpless with communication. Even the simplest tasks are made difficult because for the most part I still need help translating my concepts into Amharic, especially to explain a program like a raffle, which is unheard of here. They do have a lottery here though, so we have been comparing this program to that concept. After securing the prizes, we moved on to promotional activities, which proved to be just as challenging. First, I created a flyer and poster in English and my counterpart helped me translate and type them in Amharic. Next, we came up with places we would start advertising, and my job became so much easier with the help of the Anti-AIDS club in town. With a borrowed speaker and microphone, the club members started announcing the program along the main road in town. A few of my friends were also willing to help me go to the market to distribute flyers. And another friend who teaches at the preparatory school allowed me to come to the flag ceremony one day to help encourage the students to go get tested!

Just yesterday, as the campaign was in full swing, we set up the speakers near the road that leads to the market, which is biggest on Saturdays, and attracted quite a crowd of on-lookers. From there, one of the club members and I walked over to the market and decided to pass out flyers, which turned into yet another ridiculous scene. We happened to arrive right as some truck with a loudspeaker began to promote a trachoma campaign, and so as everyone looked over to see what was going on, they saw me, and formed the biggest and most aggressive crowd I’ve had to deal with yet in Dangila. You would have thought we were passing out money, not HIV flyers. While I loved everyone’s curiosity, I fear that the point was lost during this promotional outing. With people yelling “give me paper!” hands grabbing the flyers out of my arms, and some flyers being ripped in half by the impatient crowd, we decided to walk back to promote via speaker with the other club members.

With a buffer created by my fellow-promoters, the speaker promotion was a hit. We even had all the little kids have a mini dance contest while we were waiting, which made for some great videos! Overall, I could not have even begun to promote by myself, or shooed away the massive crowds! I am so thankful for all the help I have received while trying to pull this project together in two weeks. And I am even more excited to begin the raffle program, which commences tomorrow!

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure

I have been working on a big project for work recently that I will talk about soon, but for now I have two funny stories from Dangila that I just felt like I had to share.  I completely understand the concept of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” but I’m not sure I’m comfortable with it when it is referring to my actual trash.  In my compound we have a trash pit where all garbage is thrown.  When it was first dug, it was over the head of the man that was digging it, but over the past few months the trash has piled up to a level that is reachable from ground level, if you really wanted to reach it.  And apparently my neighbors really wanted to reach it.

I empty my bucket of trash every couple weeks, not really thinking about what I’m throwing away.  That is, until all the trash items I threw away one morning where displayed nicely in the back yard that afternoon.  My landlord’s eight-year-old daughter, and her friend, somehow dug out all my items that intrigued them from the trash pit.  Wrappers from cookies and pasta meals, and old cans of chicken even were set up in a shine-like fashion for all to see.  I’m sure they didn’t even consider it embarrassing to me, as a shine to my consumerism.  This happened right before I left for my trip to Tigray, three weeks ago, and still the items are displayed in the yard.

Just yesterday, I was walking down the street near my house, where most of the children know my name.  I was surprised to hear, “Ferengi! Ferengi!” yelled at me as these three little children eagerly ran up to me.  I looked at them shamefully and put my hands on my hips as I said in Amharic, “What is my name?”

They all looked at each other and almost simultaneously answered with three different responses:
“Ferengi?” one answered.
“Arbay?” another guessed (that is my dog’s name, haha).
“Jennifer!” the third exclaimed.

Arrival of Group 3

Last week I was invited to Assela to help with the Training of Trainers for Peace Corps’s third group of trainees.  Assela is located about 4 hours southeast of the capital, and it is where most of the Ethiopian runners train because of its elevation.  This was the third, and last week of the training to prepare the Ethiopian trainers.  You see, Amharic is not commonly taught as a second language to foreigners, and Ethiopian teaching methods consist of mainly writing lists of words on a chalkboard to be copied.  So, we had a lot of work to do to prepare the teachers!

Only 4 of the 14 teachers were returning from my group of training, but at least some of them had experience with Peace Corps previously.  One other volunteer and myself taught a few sessions on interactive teaching methods, and we listened to each teacher give a micro-lesson.  Overall it was a fun week getting to know the trainers, not to mention a week of hot showers and eating out!

The most exciting part of the week was actually my last hour and a half in Assela; it was what we had been preparing the teachers for all week: the arrival of group 3!  Since I was leaving early Sunday morning on a bus back to Dangila, I had to be in Addis, the capital, Saturday night, which means I had to leave Assela by around 3pm.  Since the volunteers didn’t arrive for the lunch program until 1:30pm, it was a very brief meeting, but exciting nonetheless.  It was so fun for me to be on the other side of things.  I have been there, I know the anxiety leading up to meeting your host family, I know the pressure of having to learn this difficult language, and I know the awkwardness of trying to understand this culture.  I have great memories of those events from last winter and I have grown so much in the past 10 months, but I don’t envy them.  I had a great experience, but I’m so glad that I’m past that.  Life if so vastly different at site than it is during training, and meeting the new group was a great reminder of how far I’ve come.

In November I will get to meet the volunteers placed near me when they visit for their site visit, and in December I get to spend another week in Assela helping with training, just before they are sworn-in as volunteers.  It is exciting to have 40 new Americans in-country!

Travels to Tigray

The twelve-year-old boy in charge of taking money on the mini-bus from Mekele to Wukro was very surprised when six foreigners hopped in.  He watched us carefully for a while, and eventually asked me a question in Amharic.  He curiously asked where we were going, and where we were from, and then I mentioned that we lived in Ethiopia.
“No you don’t,” he said.
“Yes we do,” I said, as I pointed at each person and said where he or she lives.
He continued to look at me with curious eyes as if he was calculating the possibility of what I had told him.  He still seemed very skeptical.
“Is it not possible?” I asked.
“It is possible,” he responded, “but it is not.”
 

That was one of my favorite conversations I encountered on my trip to visit Tigray.  I eventually convinced him that it was the truth, and then he continued to ramble on for the rest of the trip about his favorite movies. 

It is amazing how each part of the country is vastly different from the others.  I was so impressed by the number of stone buildings replacing the mud walls that I am surrounded by in Amhara.  The soil was much sandier, and coupled with the sandstone houses, and dry countryside, everything appeared beige.  Tigray is the northeastern Region in Ethiopia, bordering Eritrea.  The first language of the region is Tigrinia, making it feel like a completely different country, not knowing a single word.  Luckily, for the ease of getting around, if you started a conversation in Amharic, people would often respond accordingly.

I was able to spend two nights in Mekele, and two around Axum, visiting many historical sites in each of those cities and in-between.  The history of Ethiopia is so rich, and at each site, I kept trying to imagine what the atmosphere would have been like thousands of years ago.  Castles, churches, monoliths; each had their own ancient tales.

While my stories are abundant, only pictures can tell the bulk of what I saw.  From the camel market in Mekele, to the church chiseled out of a mountain outside Wukro, to St. Mary’s Church in Axum, where it is believed that the Ark of the Covenant is still kept.  This beautiful country continues to amaze me.

 

Meskel Square

Last weekend I was all packed up and ready to leave for about a week to visit the northern part of Ethiopia, Tigray Region.  We left on an 11-hour bus trip to the capital city, Addis Ababa, to begin our journey and we were planning on flying out Sunday morning to Mekele, the capital of the Tigray Region.  I knew Sunday was the Meskel holiday, but I didn’t know that it was celebrated in Addis with a mass gathering in Meskel Square!  Since we were coincidentally there on Saturday afternoon, we decided to brave the crowd and experience Meskel the right way.

Three of us met up with our Ethiopian friend and started walking towards Meskel Square.  The main streets were blocked off and masses of Ethiopians were starting to gather.  It looked like downtown right before a baseball game.  We joined the flow of people and along the walk there was a glimpse of the normally bare Meskel Square that was now overflowing with people.  The Square is about the length of a football field; enclosed on one side by a half-oval of steps where people were crammed into, and open on the other side to the main road which was closed to traffic.  The square (which is actually not square, but a half-oval) and out into the street formed a stage filled with hundreds of performers and priest all dressed in white traditional clothes.

As with most mass-gatherings, it was a bit chaotic, and the only way in was now packed with people.  The crowd around us became more dense as we were being pushed towards the small opening in front of us.  Once through a security check and around a corner we realized that the only way to get into the raised section above us was to scale a 6-foot wall.  It seemed like this was the only option, so while clutching our bags and forming a chain we made our way to the wall and followed the Ethiopians in helping each other over.  At last there was no pushing.

We then followed a natural aisle through the masses of people and found a spot where we could peak over people to see the festivities down below.  Luckily in a crowd of Ethiopians I can actually see over most people!  There was a presentation from the Orthodox Pope, and performers dressed in red, yellow and green formed the shape of the Ethiopian flag.  After about an hour, around dusk, waxed rope used as candles was passed out among the crowd of people and the highlight of the Meskel holiday was about to take place: the bonfire!  In the middle of the square a huge pile of wood was being prepared for burning as the people started to pass their flame from candle-to-candle throughout the mass crowd.  The sky turned dark blue just as the candle light filled the square while groups of Ethiopians continued chanting and dancing.  Just as the whole crowd had received the passing flame, the bonfire was lit and fireworks were shot into the air.  The sky filled with smoke and the thousands of twinkling candles formed a sea of lights.  It was a truly majestic scene.  Not long after the fireworks stopped the crowd disseminated in what seemed like a much easier fashion than the initial wall-climbing fiasco.  It was such a great evening; one of my favorite days in Ethiopia.  I retract my former comment about all Ethiopian holidays seeming the same, because Meskel was different in many ways.  I loved celebrating in Addis, feeling like I was a part of something big and truly experiencing the Ethiopian culture in a new way.

Cultural Catch 22

One of my recent projects I started talking to my HAPCO counterparts about is a promotional campaign for people to get HIV tested.  That’s right, bringing my Communication degree skills to Dangila!  Let me explain some of the preliminary research I have been doing first...

At the health center in Dangila people with HIV can come get first-line ART medication for free.  This medication has only become available in Ethiopia a couple years ago, and it is changing HIV.  With the medication, HIV can be seen as a chronic illness, not the death sentence it used to be.  The problem is that in Ethiopia, there is still a huge stigma surrounding HIV and people don’t completely understand the drugs.  I have been reviewing some charts of ART patients in the health center and the problem seems to be that people aren’t starting ART soon enough, so it is not effective.  I realized that what I want to convey to the people of Dangila is that they need to be tested on a regular basis so that if they do have HIV, they can start ARTs at the appropriate stage to help prolong their life.

It was through all of this that I came up with the idea to have an advertising push for getting yourself tested.  Since it is free to be tested at the health center, it seems to me like an easy product to sell.  All they have to do is walk over there once every three months, get pricked by a needle, and wait 30 minutes for results.  I want people to realize that with ARTs available, there isn’t a death certificate attached to the disease; ART can extend your life, but you have to know that you have HIV in the early stages.

I got together with one of my good Ethiopian friends while HAPCO was in a meeting and we translated a sample flier into Amharic.  It wound up being so catchy; the translation was funny and engaging and I was very excited about printing them out and hanging them all over town! I presented the idea to my HAPCO supervisor after their meeting finished and ran into an unexpected wall.  The very religious people of Ethiopia don’t believe that medicine can extend your life, but rather only God can decide the number of days you will live.  So, basically, you can’t deliver the punch line of my flier; you can’t say ART extends your life.  This life-changing drug is available and you can pretty much only say “ART will relieve the pain of HIV,” which isn’t what it does.

 
I found myself caught in this loop of wanting to express to the Ethiopians the greatness of ART in order to reduce stigma around HIV, but not being able to convey how it can extend your life without insulting their religion and culture.  I just don’t get it.  I am religious and I agree that God has our days numbered before we were ever created.  I also believe that God created this world full of hidden wonders so that we can discover the world for ourselves.  One recent discovery, which I believe God allowed for and provided for, is ART.  It is the same concept as getting your infants vaccinated, which many Ethiopians do; you are using God-given medications to stop the diseases from killing you so that you can fulfill God’s purpose for your life!

 
But apparently all of that would be found insulting to their religion.  It doesn’t make sense to me, but I intend to figure out a way to communicate to the people how important it is to get tested without using the incentive of life-extending drugs.  Still working on it...

It’s 2002!

Happy New Year 2002!!  That’s right, Ethiopian calendar just saw the end of 2001, and I had the pleasure of helping ring in 2002... for the second time!  I spent part of the last week in Bahir Dar working on some PC projects with friends, but arrived back in Dangila on Saturday for the remainder of the festivities.  Friday was New Year’s Day, but since Orthodox Christians don’t eat meat on Wednesday or Fridays, much of the celebration was pushed to Saturday.  The odd thing about Ethiopian holidays is that most of them look the exact same.  I once again found myself sitting in the living room of various Ethiopians being fed qay wat (meat stew) with injera, refusing tela, the homemade alcohol, and downing far too many cups of coffee.  If I couldn’t read the computer-printed Amharic signs on the walls declaring what holiday it was, I probably wouldn’t be able to differentiate between them.  As opposed to in America where the Christmas tree, jack-o-lantern, or plastic eggs filled with candy indicate what holiday is being celebrated, in Ethiopia there is just a lot of eating meat and drinking coffee.  Apparently Hallmark hasn’t found this country yet.

The kids all make signs for the New Year though, which I helped out with in preparation for the holiday.  The signs read, “Enkutatash” which is a cultural way of saying, “Happy New Year” but it literally is welcoming in the flowers of the green season, as this is the time of year where everything is in blossom and rains are finally clearing.  I think the best part of the New Year is the fact that schools will be starting back next week! Not only do I enjoy working with some of the clubs in the schools, but that means the kids on the streets will have something to do besides knock on my door asking for candy.  I’m half joking-- I love walking with the kids in my neighborhood, even if their little hands are snot-covered, but I won’t mind them being in school for half the day either!