People Who Live In Mud Houses…

The view over Gondar, Ethiopia

Today I returned home after a weekend in Gondar, where I had visited to finish a Peace Corps project with a couple other volunteers. Just over a week ago after returning from previous travels and training, I found myself in just about the complete opposite mood that I now find myself in, elated to be in Africa. This post will be a testimony to the real ups and downs of Peace Corps.

Last week I arrived back in Dangila after a fight with the airlines at 6am and continued problems with transportation as the day continued. The one-hour minibus ride back to Dangila from the airport in Bahir Dar was just about the worst event I’ve witnesses in Ethiopia so far. A fight between the man who takes money and a passenger broke out on the side of the road in a rural area which ended in stones being thrown and a window two seats away form me being shattered as we erratically pulled away from the fight. Shaken up already, I arrived back in Dangila to find gray skies, green grass and streets full of mud. I didn’t feel like I even recognized the town; it didn’t feel like the home I had been looking forward to returning to. Not to mention the layers of dust on everything in my house and the pile of dirt in my bedroom from the hole my dog dug in my mud walls. I guess people in mud houses… shouldn’t raise dogs?

The pile of dirt my dog had dug out of the wall.

Today the circumstances haven’t made the day seem any more bearable. On the bus ride I encountered the worst rain storm I’ve seen in a long time. All the phone lines were literally broken in half for several kilometers, trees were blown down, and rivers replaced the normal drainage ditches. Hail pounded down on the bus as the driver pulled full speed through flooded roads. At one point, the minibus (which I thought slowed down for nothing) actually came to a stop on the side of the road with several other buses. I asked in Amharic, “Is this normal for rainy season.”

He replied, “It is not,” with a slightly scared look on his face. Somehow pulling into Dangila the rain slowed down, and I enjoyed a cool walk home in the sprinkling rain. Shop owners and children yelled my name and asked me where I had been. I didn’t have a single person yell “ferengi,” and I suddenly remembered why I loved my town so much. I arrived just in time to run into the post office before it closed to find several wonderful letters from America, and on the walk home, I had a great conversation in Amharic with the children who hold my hands and walk me home. The kids who live in my compound anxiously greeted me and had many questions, which I happily answered. 

Then I actually had a moment of quiet to read the wonderful notes from home, which brought a tear to my eye. I could not ask for a better support system. Every postcard, letter and package brightens my day. Even email, when I am able to access the internet, is a wonderful connection to home. I am so happy and content with life right now. I am so blessed. Thank you for your mail, support and prayers. I am looking forward to settling down to spend some quality time in Dangila figuring out what exactly I can do to help. I couldn’t be happier. 

My dirty but loving dog.

Reading List

Since arriving in Ethiopia, just over 6 months ago, I have read quite a few books. Not as many as some people, in fact I hardly read at all during the first 10 weeks of training, but more pleasure reading than I had time for during all 4 years of college. Reading has becoming part of my every day routine, so I thought I would give you an idea of the kind of reading I have been doing.   

One read even inspired my dog’s name, Arbay. I was reading Robinson Crusoe when I got her, and decided to use a variation of the Amharic word for “Friday” because it was what Crusoe named his first friend. “Arbay” literally means “my Friday” which is perfect, because in many ways she is my best friend these days. (That isn’t supposed to sound pitiful, but wonderful, because everyone needs a dog who understands you on bad days!)

So far, I have read the following books: 

• Catcher In The Rye
  
• Into The Wild
• The Alchemist
• Robinson Crusoe
• 90 Minutes In Heaven
• Searching For God Knows What
• Three Cups of Tea
• First They Killed My Father
• Atlas Shrugged
• The Lost Boys of Sudan
• Mountains Beyond Mountains
• Twilight
• Shah of Shahs
• Do Hard Things

Currently I am reading the rest of the Twilight series and loving the recent recommendation (seriously, they are great books, you all should read them). There are several books on my shelf that have arrived in the mail in the past couple months that I will be picking up soon, but I am also up for other suggestions, so keep the books coming!
 
I have been loving inspiration non-fiction; it is motivating me through these tough days. All snail mail is appreciated, so keep the letters coming!

My First Ethiopian Travels

After IST (Peace Corps In-Service Training) in Sodere I was able to take my first trip in Ethiopia and I decided to head down south.  My friend Danielle and I were able to travel to Hawassa, Yirgalem and Lake Langano to visit other volunteers, do a little work, and have some well-deserved time off.  It seemed like a completely new world traveling south through green fields, even stopping on our way to Hawassa to buy fresh strawberries.  The city of Hawassa lies on a lake providing the perfect backdrop for sunsets and lots of wildlife to see.  Besides the massive stork-type birds found all over the city we were able to see goureza monkeys and we took a boat ride to see the hippos in Lake Hawassa.  At least eight hippos had their heads sticking up out of the water amongst the long grass.  Of course there were also a lot of new restaurants to try; countless places claiming true “ferengi food” and some even resembled food found in America!

After a quick visit in Hawassa we escaped to our friend Jordan’s town, Yirgalem, just one hour south.  Combining work and pleasure, we were able to take a look at Jordan’s host organization, the Beza Youth Center, and see another part of the south.  It was interesting the see another town with the supposed same population as my town, and yet it seemed so different.  Besides the surrounding forests, and green plants, Yirgalem is spread out to seem much bigger.  One night we took a hike into the forest to a lodge where we saw a hyena-feeding.  Three hyenas came within 20 feet of where we were sitting!

Lastly we visited Lake Langano on out way back up to Addis Ababa. Lake Langano is the only swimmable lake in the whole country, and I was excited to jump right in!  Although the water was mud-colored, the cool water was welcomed after the hot springs of Sodere.  We had a wonderful day swimming and kayaking around the lake, it almost seemed like we weren’t in Ethiopia for a day.

Overall the trip triggered my travel bug and has made me start to mentally plan my future adventures around Ethiopia.  This country is so vast, full of different places to visit.  I can’t wait to see more.

Fitting into Dangila

There have been several incidents last month that happened in my daily life here that make me think, “I can do this. Dangila really is my home now.” Just writing that is sort of scary actually, admitting this town in Ethiopia is “home,” but I am loving life here for many different reasons. This blog is going to be several recent stories from life in Dangila before IST.



Coffee on the Porch

Last weekend the wife of my landlord came home for a visit. She goes to school in Bahir Dar and is rarely in Dangila, so I was happy to see her walk through the gate on Saturday morning. Within a couple of hours of when she arrives home, she usually prepares a coffee ceremony and invites a couple of neighbors over. I was not surprised when she came knocking on my door late that morning telling me to drink coffee. I was surprised that the coffee ceremony was on the front porch of the house. I thought to myself, “what a fun change of scenery!” The front gate of the compound remained open for the incoming neighbors, and plenty of people passing by the gate turned their heads as they walked to stare at my unusual presence.

A couple days later I was meeting with my Amharic tutor when he said, “You drank coffee on the porch.” While he meant this as a question, he said it as a statement. I began thinking, “He’s never been to my house. Does he even know where I live? How did he see me on the porch? Maybe he walked by and didn’t say ‘hi?’” I was puzzled to say the least. Finally, he says, “Yes, it was St. Mary’s birthday. It is customary to have a coffee ceremony on your veranda.” I celebrated St. Mary’s birthday and didn’t even know it!

I Am a Funny Girl

The HAPCO office where I work has three other employees: my supervisor, my counterpart, and our secretary. One day we were using the town’s car to visit five different primary schools in Dangila to assess their Anti-AIDS clubs. We had driven out to a very rural area to start, and made our way back to the urban-most area of town. It was just my supervisor, my counterpart and me, along with the driver, and since my co-workers speak decent English, I tend to speak in English to them. In the middle of our trip we were driving on a bumpy dirt road when my supervisor, Tilahun, points across a field to a dirt road no different than the one we were on and says, “The school is over there on the dusty road.”

I look perplexed and said, “Tilahun, which road is not dusty?”

They laughed and laughed and laughed. Almost every day at work now, a month later, Tilahun will tell me, “When I think of this day I always laugh. ‘Which road is not dusty?’ You are a funny girl!”

Dryer Sheets

I recently requested my mom to send me some dryer sheets in the mail. I have no dryer, or washing machine; I hand wash and line dry each item of clothes I wear, trust me. I made the request because my puppy always has a static-cling thing going on, so the dryer sheets come in handy to make sure she isn’t a complete dirt magnet. I have been using them for a couple weeks now when I examined the box I have been pulling the sheets out of—it pictures a clothesline drying clothes. I think to myself, “whoa! Can I use these with line-drying my clothes?” Oh, silly me… no, you cannot. The only instructions on the box are for a drying machine.

I have come to the conclusion that this advertising was suppose to appear as quaint or charming. I would not usually describe my washing days are charming, but there is something delightful about looking at a clothesline full of your clean clothes, admiring your work. I still am not quite sure why you would put this picture on the packaging though. I suppose it is more appealing than the picture of a dryer?

Hot Water and Monkeys

Anyone who goes to the resort in Sodere, Ethiopia would surely conclude that there are two defining novelties available: hot water and monkeys.  Upon first arriving I was thinking, “Gosh, I get hot water for ten days in a resort filled with monkeys!” But I soon realized that those simple descriptions do not fully encompass Sodere.  A more detailed description would describe scalding water and mischievous monkeys. 

For the past 10 days I have been at IST (In-Service Training) which Peace Corps held for all 37 volunteers left from my training group in Sodere.  The training was filled with practical advice and good times, but it was definitely different than I expected.  Sodere is located about 2.5 hours southeast from the capital of Ethiopia.  It advertises an Olympic-sized swimming pool with diving boards and lies beside a peaceful river.  I will begin by saying that it was a lovely break from my town and I really enjoyed it, but I also found it funny how many of the anticipated amenities were unappreciated.  When arriving, one of the first things to hit me was the dry heat.  While living in the rolling hills near Bahir Dar I sometimes forget how close to the equator I am here, but winding down into the valley where Sodere is located, I was quickly reminded that I am in Africa.  Ten days ago all the volunteers happily exited the buses while admiring the surrounding mountains and colorful plants.

We climbed the stairs to put our luggage in our respective rooms and soon found that opening the door to the porch meant fending off families of monkeys.  Later we found ourselves with our first break of the training, wanting nothing more than to jump in that Olympic-sized swimming pool.  It didn’t take us long to find out that the hot spring water we anticipated in our showers also filled the swimming pool.  It seems that the only water available in all of Sodere is this scalding hot water, with no cold water faucet to balance it out.  So we found ourselves in one of the hottest towns imaginable surrounded by unlimited scalding water.  We couldn’t even open our doors to let our rooms cool off because the brave monkeys would prance in to steal things!

 
Luckily the air cooled off a little at night, making swimming enjoyable and sleeping bearable.  The monkeys, when they weren't sneaking in your room or chasing you down the open-air hallways, were actually adorable.  The little babies would cling to the mothers’ stomachs and the younger ones would chase each other through the trees like children on a jungle gym.  We also enjoyed daily “ice cream” with lunch, which was quite a treat.  It definitely wasn’t Baskin Robbins, but it was cold!  We started referring to variations by color instead of flavor, because brown may not be chocolate, but rather just sugary with a hint of flavor.  I have to say the pink and yellow combination was my favorite.

Overall a great week with great friends and I even learned a thing or two!