GRE, GER & COS

Life in Peace Corps is filled with acronyms, and this week was nothing less. Saturday I woke up bright and early to take the GRE at Addis Ababa University. Sunday I participated in the Great Ethiopian Run along with 35,000 other people. And finally the past few days have been spent at one of the finest resorts in Ethiopia at my group’s Close-of-Service conference. A weekend I anticipated and looked forward to as a test of both mind and body followed by a week of relaxing, and almost all went as expected, a rarity here!

This great weekend I had anticipated for several months turned into a weekend I was dreading last week because I felt unprepared.  I had hardly studied for the exam and only ran twice since back at Ethiopian altitude. Test of mind and body? I feared failure at both. All I can say in hindsight is that I finished both, and I’m proud of it! The exam went well, although it will be a while to find out the results, as Ethiopia is one of the few testing centers in the world that still uses paper tests. The run was a bit rough, but I’m grateful for fellow PCV and neighbor Emily who stuck with me the whole time, and proud to say I didn’t walk a step.  That’s a hard thing to accomplish in a crowd of 35,000 people! The run was unlike anything I could quite imagine; a sea of unattractive yellow and green tshirts all heading in the same direction. Being surrounded by a crowd of thousands of Ethiopian is a legitimate nightmare of mine, but thankfully this day the focus was not on me.

The feeling of accomplishment an hour and nineteen minutes later was unmatched. And the feeling of camaraderie with the fellow racers kept all of us smiling for the whole day as we passed each other in the streets.  The scene was chaos, and yet it worked in a uniquely Ethiopian way. A hole in the road big enough to swallow a racer was simply blocked by some kid standing in front of it. The walkers, well, they walked in the middle of the road, of course, and you just had to find a side path to pass them. At one point kids chased after me yelling for me to give them my bottle of water (this happens all the time in Ethiopia, but come on, I am running!). An old lady dressed in traditional clothes decided to cross the road during the run, and no one stopped her. And one of my favorite things I overheard was an Ethiopian couple running and one said to the other, in Amharic, “There is no winner.” Exactly.

The day after the run the 28 volunteers remaining from my group were relaxing at Kuriftu, a fabulous resort an hour south of Addis. I had no complaints as I was having a manicure, pedicure and massage! We all had a wonderful last Peace Corps conference together, learning about how to adjust back to America after life in Ethiopia and spending time all together for the last time on PC’s dime! COSing (Closing Service) happens over a two or three month period, because we all will have medical exams and plenty of administrative paperwork, so only about five volunteers can leave in any given week. We all applied for COS dates and depending on availability were given the date we wanted, or something close to it. Two of my friends, Danielle and Kyle, and I will COS on January 13, 2010, officially two years, one month and eleven days after leaving home.

Volunteers start leaving in just about a week from now, so the goodbyes were definitely becoming reality. After our getaway to Kuriftu, we arrived back in Addis on Thanksgiving Day, and we had planned a special dinner together at the Sheraton buffet! I’m not sure why it took me so long to go eat at the Sheraton buffet, well, maybe because it costs about seven days salary to eat that one meal, but it was worth every dime. I’ve never had sushi at my Thanksgiving dinner before, but I could seriously get use to it.  After we were all stuffed to the brim, we rolled ourselves out of the fancy hotel and back to our semi-regular hot shower hotel and said some heartfelt goodbyes.  It’s hard to believe that I won’t see these people for a really long time, and it’s even harder to imagine trying to recognize all of them with access to hair straightens, real make up and maybe even exposed shoulders! Let the nostalgia begin…

Traveling Home

The past month I’ve been out of Dangila on vacation and it’s been a whirlwind of activities. I’m now back “home” in Dangila, exhausted and a bit confused.  I looked forward to this trip for so long that it’s hard to realize that it’s actually over. Now I only have two months left in Peace Corps. It’s amazing how time sneaks up on you like that.

At home with my family!

Going back to America was a bit overwhelming but not quite like I expected.  I think I expected reverse culture shock, change, and maybe a realization about how I’ve changed.  Instead, what I found was home, almost exactly as I left it.  My biggest fear in signing up for Peace Corps was that scary two-year commitment. I was signing up for two year away from everything I know and love, and signing away my first two years after university to something vastly different than I ever expected I’d be doing.  Everyone dreams about the future, and for me I dreamed while in university that I would graduate, move to a new city, get a job, discover true independence, and grow up a bit.  In theory, I did just that except where I am now is nothing like I dreamed. The main difference here is that I didn’t have my support system to lean on. Support came; I don’t deny that, but sometimes letters and emails once a month don’t compare to long phone conversations, warm hugs, and words of support from people that truly know what you’re going through.

As the day of my flight neared I began to worry that things would be different.  I feared before I left two years ago that I would miss out on so many things back home, and that fear came back as I was returning. What if I missed too much? What if everything and everyone I know grew in different directions? What if the person I am today doesn’t fit so nicely back in that cozy little spot I left two years ago?  But home was exactly as I remember it. Friends, family, neighbors and pets all greeted me with love.  I’ve changed, although I’m still discovering how. And my friends also have changed, as I imagined. But we still all fit back together.

And Arbay settled nicely into her new home in America!

Two thoughts came into my mind quite often, and the friends that were with me know them, I’m sure, because I mentioned them often. First was, “Why are there so many choices?!” Choices come from freedom, I get that, but they are so overwhelming! Everywhere I went people were forcing me to make decisions and not easy ones. I think maybe if you have a routine you are used to making all your daily decisions and don’t need to think about them each day you make them, but for me it was all new again. Communion: wine, juice or community cup? Dog food: chicken, salmon, beef, or vegan (really?)? Movie theaters: 24 movie options?! And don’t even get me started on the bread aisle at the grocery store.

The other thought I couldn’t get out of my mind was, “How can this place even be on the same planet as Ethiopia?” It amazes me that in half a day on an airplane you can arrive in a place so vastly different than the place you’re in. And it doesn’t even take half a day in most cases. Earth seems so small sometimes, and yet problems on the other side seem so easy to ignore, until you’ve seen them and lived with them. You can’t un-live or un-see the type of things that I’ve seen here. After two years I almost became numb to the differences in lifestyles, but you cannot ignore those differences when you see both extremes on the same day. Traveling home after being in Ethiopia for this long allowed me to see both of these places, both of my homes, with new eyes.  I’m so grateful for the things I know and the things I’ve learned. I pray that I don’t ever forget them, but I know already that I cannot.

First Impressions

It’s still too soon to process the transition to America, but for now I thought I’d list all my first impressions and things that I was surprised by/forgot existed.

•    Eating with my left hand (in Ethiopia it isn’t culturally appropriate)
•    Saying “ishee” (“ok” in Amharic)
•    Having all menu items actually available
•    Going barefoot
•    Sprinklers
•    Car washes
•    Always saying “thank you” (not cultural in Ethiopia)
•    Everything is normal- that’s weird
•    Picking up dog poop
•    Sleeping in. Having quietness.
•    Being a face in the crowd
•    Realizing how HARD life is in Ethiopia. Life here can be hard too, but a different kind of hard. Always being “on” in Ethiopia and knowing people are always watching is draining. It’s just so nice to be “off.” Peace Corps really is a 24-7 job.
•    Indoor carpeting in public places
•    Choices!

The samples lady at Costco was announcing, “Give it a try.  Fully cooked, just heat it and eat it!”  I thought, really? Are those qualities you want in your food? Frozen and processed? Hmmm. Guess I view food differently now that I’ve seen what “fresh” can really mean.

Another day, a little boy walked up to my friend and me eating ice cream outside Baskin Robbins with Arbay, my dog, tied up under the table. He asked, “May I pet her?” WHAT? My wild dog? You aren’t afraid of her? I love how Americans love dogs. I forgot dogs are treated so well here! It made my day (which is a big deal considering I was also eating ice cream for the first time)!

More thoughts to come…