some pictures, finally

so I finally put some pictures up online. I didn't take as many pictures on this trip as past times, because I wanted to be able to just spend time with my friends over there. But, I still found time to take a few...so here they are, enjoy and let me know what you think.

Ethiopia 2008

back safely

I arrived safely (though one suitcase short...it's schedule to come today) on Wednesday night. The trip wasn't too bad. Virgin Atlantic has personal TVs on each of the seats where you can watch a whole list of movies. So, between that, reading and sleeping the trip went relatively quickly. Though I did almost miss my flight in London, if I had been another 15 or 20 minutes I don't think I would have made it. But I did, and I'm back now.
It's always hard for me to leave my friends in Ethiopia. I have become so close to them, especially on this trip. So it was really hard to say goodbye to them again. I feel pretty confident that I will be returning within the year, hopefully for good - or at least a long time.
Now comes the hard part: preparing to move there. I have some things I need to do, such as become ESL (English as a Second Language) certified, work more on my Amharic, and of course get rid of these loans. I'm hoping that the time passes relatively quick and I can get back to Ethiopia soon.

My laptop with all my pictures is in the lost bag. Once that shows up, I'll try to upload some pictures to the blog.

That's all folks.

the hardest day

Well, my trip has come to an end. Today was my last full day in Ethiopia, I leave tomorrow around lunchtime. I always hate the goodbyes, especially when I don't even want to leave.

 

This morning we went to Sendafa. It was a bit busy, we had to hand out some more salt and vitamins to the kids, then we had a meeting with a water official, then we saw one of the existing wells (Andre and Felix, from Water Missions International, had some work that they wanted to do on it), then it was off to the Beke church to see how the construction was going. After that we came back to Addis. I rested this afternoon and started to pack.

Later in the afternoon I went out for a machiatto with Ruth and then I invited everyone out to dinner. We had a nice time at dinner, though I would have liked to stay with all of them longer. I think some of them are going to try to come to the airport to see me off tomorrow, so that will be nice.

But I'm really having a hard time leaving, I know I've said it before and I'm sorry for being repetitive. It's just that it was so hard for me to be away from here and from these people over the last year and I am not looking forward to dealing with that again. I know it's good for me to come back, mostly because I have a lot of stuff that I need to do in order to finish preparing to move here. But that doesn't make it any easier.

 

Well, it's past midnight here, and considering I have a long trip tomorrow I should get some rest.

See you all soon.

Tebareku.

just a quick note

I don't really have a whole lot to update on. But I have a few extra minutes today, so I thought I'd send something.

 

I have mostly been thinking about what it will be like coming back to America. I know I keep saying this, but it's going to be really difficult. I keep thinking about how much I wish I could just stay here. I know that I need to come back and continue working to pay off my loans, to become ESL certified and do some other preperations for moving here. But, especially these last few days, I have been able to envision what living here would be like - and I don't want to give it up. It's really hard for me to be able to see this, to have it within my reach - but to have to put it on hold for another year. I guess a year isn't so long and I'm sure it will be over before I know it...

 

It's still been raining a lot here. Everyday for the last week or so we have gotten rain, and not just a little bit, but a lot. Last night there was some minor flooding on the roads. Even as I am typing this it has just started raining. Most people would assume that the rain is a good thing, and maybe in a way it is. Though it may start to cause some problems for the crops. The wheat and teff grains should be drying out now, but if they continue to get wet the crops might be ruined. People here are starting to get worried about that. Those two grans are used almost every day for Ethiopians - so if there is a shortage it might be a problem. We will see what happens.

 

Tomorrow I will go to Sendafa in the morning. It will be my last time there on this trip. Luckily it seems as if I will have quite a bit of time to walk around and possibly even visit some old friends there. In the evening I invited all my friends here out to dinner. We are going to go to Karamara, which is a cultural Ethiopian restaurant. I took them all there last year and it was a really nice time.

 

Well, it's about time for lunch so I should get going.

Hope all is well back in America and nobody is getting too stressed about the election...

some stories i haven't had time to post...

Today I was thinking of some stories that I haven't had time to post, and I think it's about time I shared them with you.

 

Let me start with what has, by far, been the most amazing story about this trip. I wanted to post this sooner, but Frew asked me not to because he was afraid people would me mad with him or worried for me or something like that (Frew tends to worry a lot, especially about me...he always thinks i'll be robbed, or something like that...).

I'm not sure how many of you remember, but last year when the team from LWCC was here they had a bus accident on the way to Sendafa. Those in the bus said it was a miracle, they said that it felt like the bus had already tipped over and should have fallen but it felt like something (or someone) pushed it back upright. They nearly rolled over a cliff and after that almost ran into some trees. Miraculously nobody was hurt, not even a scratch or a bruise.

Well, we had a similar experience on Tuesday. The week prior we were having some car trouble, the steering wheel and the gear shifter were both shaking when we hit about 65 km/h (40 mph). So we took the car to Frew's mechanic and spent the whole day there. They rotated the tires, worked on the axle and all seemed fine. In fact, there weren't really any problems for about a week. Then came Tuesday. We were on the way to Sendafa and were in sight of the sign that says "Welcome to Sendafa". All of the sudden it felt like we were dragging something. There was a loud noise and it sounded like there may have been a large rock wedged underneath the car. Frew immediately stopped the car and we got out. We found that the rear drivers side tire had completely fallen off. All of the lug nuts were gone and the tire was wedged under the wheel well. The dragging sound that we heard was the brake dragging along the road. What was amazing is that nobody panicked. Actually, I remember that my reaction was "oh, the tire fell off. guess we should jack up the car and put it back on". It didn't even cross my mind the severity of the situation. Frew's jack wasn't working, so him and I walked into Sendafa to a tire repair shop next to the Central Hotel. We rode back to the car on a horse cart and the guy from the shop jacked up the car and put the tire back on. When he saw the car and where we had lost the tire he said "there must have been someone very religious in this car because you all should have died". That's when I realized it could have turned out much worse.

When we looked at the road it was only about 10 feet from where we started skidding on the brake and where the car stopped. It was a completely flat part of the road without any potholes (which is very, very, very rare on the road to Sendafa). Actually, the road to Sendafa is under quite a bit of construction. There are detours off the road onto a dirt road every once in a while. We had just passed one of these, maybe 100 feet, when the tire fell off. If it had happened at almost any other part of the road the situation would have been much worse. It was a miracle that none of us were hurt. We found out the next day that there had been a bus accident on the outskirts of Addis Ababa where the bus lost a wheel. 18 people died. We were incredibly lucky. Or was it a miracle?

The best part about this story is that we didn't even let it stop us from doing the work we were supposed to do that day. We hired a horse cart to bring all of the iodized salt and multivitamins into Sendafa and we carried them around the village and handed them out to the kids in our program while the car was being fixed.

The car is now back in top notch condition. We put brand new tires on yesterday. We had them tighten them as tight as possible. We checked it again this morning. And again before we left Sendafa. All was fine. Even the shaking in the steering wheel and gear shifter is fixed. So, what could have been bad has turned out to be something quite good.

 

The rest of what I want to share isn't as drastic and often does not have as good of an ending as that story. But, I'll share it nonetheless.

 

Two days back I was with Frew, Eshete and Birhanu at the mechanics. After that was done we were on our way back home and we drove on the street where Frew started Yenoh Merkeb (Noah's Ark, it's the organization that the Sendafa project is a part of). The other part of Yenoh Merkeb is to help prostitutes in Addis Ababa - they send the women through business school and help them get set up in a business other than prostitution. The stories of these women are incredibly sad and prostitution is quite rampant in Ethiopia, especially Addis Ababa. I remember one night I was with Frew and we were coming home late from the Semien Hotel (which is where the LWCC teams stay when they are here). We paused at a stop sign and about 4 or 5 prostitutes started running to our car looking for work. Many times these prostitutes will do a trick for 50 Ethiopian cents, or maybe one birr. This is about 5 or 10 US cents.

This street that Frew showed me where they started Yenoh Merkeb is one of the worst parts in Addis. It is right next to a military camp and the soldiers in these camps always support a lot of prostitution. Frew told me that most of the women on that street were prostitutes, and there were so many women. They each have a tiny little house, probably not much larger than the bed and they have a curtain on the front. When the curtain is closed, it means that they are with someone. When it is open, they are available and are often sitting outside simply waiting for customers. They do this the whole day. It was quite a long street and I saw more of these small houses than I cared to. It was so sad.

 

In other news we visited Maeza today, the little girl in Sendafa who is HIV positive and who is quite sick right now. I went with Frew and we gave her some powdered milk to help give her some strength. He also said she is very anemic and so we gave her some liquid vitamins that included iron. She seemed to be a little bit better today, she was able to get out of bed for a minute or two. But she is so thin compared to when I saw her last year, it really just breaks your heart to look at her.

 

I think I should end with something a bit happier than these stories. I cooked some of the famous Butera pasta sauce for dinner last night. I started cooking it on Wednesday evening. Yesterday I added the meatballs and potatoes and let it cook for most of the day. We had it with penne pasta, parmigiano reggiano and ricotta cheeses and a side salad. Everyone loved it. We were all joking that Frew sat at the table for a record amount of time (normally he rushes through dinner and then goes and relaxes on the couch). Ruth said it was the best meal she ever had (though I don't quite believe that). I was really happy to be able to give something to them, because this family is always giving so much to me.

 

That's all for now. I'll try to update another time or two before I leave. Though I'm only here another 4 days and I want to spend as much time as possible with the people here.

 

Ciao, tebareku (God bless you)

only a few more days

Sorry for not posting the last few days. I'm trying to spend more time with the people here since I have only a few more days left (I leave on Wednesday the 5th). It's been really hard for me to start preparing to move back to America, I'm definitely not ready to go. I have become so close to everyone here. I know I said all this before. But it's all I seem to think about as I am starting to prepare to come home (or is it leave my home?...).

 

I have two more days in Sendafa, tomorrow and Tuesday. I remember this feeling last year, it's so sad for me that it's going to be about another year till I will see it again. When I was in Sendafa this past Tuesday we passed around some of the multi-vitamins and iodized salt to the children. The kids in Sendafa are so wonderful. One girl, who was 10 years old, carried the bags of salt around on her back (they weighed 30-40lbs). I kept asking her to let me carry it (ihbakish, ihbakish: please, please) but she wouldn't let me, she really wanted to help. She walked around with us until we were finished. There was also a group of kids that always walked with us and would take turns holding my hands. So sweet.

 

That reminds me. Maybe I already shared this story, if I did, I'm sorry. I think this was last Friday, but I might be wrong. We had finished our work in Sendafa and we were helping Andre who is from Water Missions International (the organization who is helping us to drill the well in Sendafa). We were at the site where the drill is going to be and all of us except Frew were sitting in the car with the doors open. We were parked along a dirt road that appeared to go all the way to the top of mountains in the distance. And on this road was a young boy, maybe 10 or 12 years old. He was walking his cow. His pockets were overstuffed with fresh pea pods. As he drew nearer to the car he said "Hi, how are you?!" to me and I responded "dehna, ante dehna neh?" (which is Amharic for "I'm fine, and how are you?"). He started laughing, guess he didn't expect me to speak Amharic. He continued to walk even closer. And then stopped rather close to the car and started eating the peas. Eshete asked him "are you going to sell the peas, or just eat them all?" The boy responded: "why should I sell them? I have all that I need". He then gave us the rest of his peas as a gift and then went on his way. What an amazing response. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

 

Tomorrow we are handing out more vitamins and salt. I can't wait. It's such a nice time because you get to see the kids, and it gives you a chance to walk through the village - which has always been one of my favorite parts. Actually, I have been having this thought that when I live here I want to take a taxi to the edge of Addis Ababa and walk the whole way to Sendafa and then spend the day walking around the village. The countryside out there is so beautiful and I think it would be quite an interesting walk. Especially to walk around Sendafa the whole day without any real agenda would be really nice too. We'll see if it happens.

 

Well, I should probably get some sleep. Long day tomorrow.

Hope all is well with each of you.

which country is foreign?

I have had a rather strange thought the last few days. Or rather, a lack of thought. I don't know how to put it into words. But I have not been thinking of my life in America. It seems to me that my life in America is very distant, very strange and foreign and that my life here, in Ethiopia, is the one that is natural - the one that feels like home. I can't explain it, it shouldn't be this way. I should feel out of place here, I should feel as if it is an inconvenience - right? I mean, an American shouldn't enjoy living here. But I do, I really do. And I am grateful for that.

But it makes it really hard to leave. I have about one week left so I am having to start figuring out what all I need to do in this last week. Trying to spend time with friends before I go, etc. But it's really difficult. I have become so close to everyone here, much more so than last time and I really don't want to say goodbye. I plan on moving here within a year, but it feels so far away - especially when I am not all that thrilled to return to America. It's really tempting to not get on the airplane on November 5th, and in all honesty I probably wouldn't if it weren't for having to pay off my college loans (it's a bit easier to make money in America than in Ethiopia). It's so frustrating that money is the only thing keeping me away from Ethiopia - it seems like such a trivial thing. But if all goes well I will have my loans paid off in the next few months and can start building my plans to return here. I believe it will happen, I don't see why it wouldn't.

 

I also haven't been able to stop thinking about Maeza, the little girl who is HIV positive that I wrote about last time. It's so hard for me to see the deterioration of life that the disease causes. Especially in a child. I know I already said this on my last post, but I can't seem to get it out of my head. Why is the world so unfair? And how is it that in America it is so easy for us to distance ourselves from these problems. We go to Wal-Mart to save a few bucks, but don't give a second thought to the people that are working in sweatshops to make that product. We buy the non-fair-trade coffee and don't even realize that the coffee farmers aren't even making enough money to live on. In fact, here in Ethiopia many of the coffee farms are being cut down in order to plant chat (which is a local hallucinogenic) because the farmers can get more money for the chat than they can for the coffee. Why is it so easy for us to distance ourselves from these problems? Maybe because we don't see it everyday as we are walking to school, work, etc? But should that be the reason we don't think of something? There are people suffering all around the world and I think it's time for us to realize it. And it's time for us to stop causing the problems and start working to fix the problems. We cannot continue to live our lives at the expense of those in the third world.

a few more days

I guess I haven't updated in a few days. I have been keeping busy the last couple of days. Ruth showed me a few places around Addis this week because the school where she teaches was closed for the week. So, I got to see the national history museum, a place where they make really nice silk fabric, we went out to a few cafes to drink machiatto's, she had me try some cultural foods I hadn't had before. It was really a nice week, I got to experience what it would be like to live here more than I had on other trips. So, it was great.

 

Today we went to Sendafa again. We passed out wheat, soap and toiletries to some of our HIV patients. I got to see some people I had met on previous trips, like Woineshet. It's always a little bit strange trying to get used to how they do things during the rest of the year when the LWCC teams are not here. It is much more fast paced and Frew is always concerned about getting things done really quickly. So, we are not really able to visit people in their homes much. It's a bit frustrating for me, because that has always been one of my favorite parts. But, he said that next week I will have more of a chance to do that.

 

Today was quite busy because there was a guy, Andre, who is here from Water Missions International. They are an organization that we are teaming up with to provide a well for Sendafa. He is here to survey how it could all happen and figure out where is a good place to drill, how deep the water is, how the water pipe system is in Sendafa, etc. So, he was in Sendafa today and we had to help him with some things. It was a bit hectic of a day, but it was still really nice.

 

There was a sad part though. Last year when I was here I got to meet a little girl, Meaza, who is HIV positive. If I remember correctly she is about 8 or 9 years old maybe. Last time I saw her she was in decent health - by which I mean she was up and moving around. She laughed with us last time and didn't seem too sick. This time however she was laying in bed, she had lost a lot of weight since I last saw here. She really looked sick. It was really difficult for me to see. Somehow it is much harder to deal with a child who has HIV than an adult. Because the child made no decision that caused the disease. It seems so unfair, so backwards to how the world should work. But there it is, right in front of me. A little girl who doesn't have much hope. How do you cope with that? How can it do anything but break your heart to see it? I was at a loss of words, it was really difficult for me.

I find myself comparing again between Ethiopia and America. In America HIV is a problem, but we have access to the drugs and the education to stop it from being as terrible as it is here. The gov't here will not allow the new medications to come in, so they are using the medications here that we used to use in America some time ago. They work, but not nearly as well. You have no idea how much this disease affects people in Africa until you see it, and when you do it is so hard to deal with. I can't imagine what it must feel like, knowing that you have this disease - knowing that you will probably be outcast from your community, that your chances of survival for a long time are slim. It's really a terrible and difficult thing to deal with.

 

I'll leave you with that. Sorry to leave you on such a sad note, but sometimes I think it's good to be reminded how fragile life is. And also how good we have it in America.

water, again

So, I've heard that some of you are very concerned with my drinking the water. I'm really not that worried about it. I have heard that the public drinking water in Addis has gotten much better recently. Also, many of my Ethiopian friends have told me that they know many foreigners who have drank the water for a long time and had no problem. I have been drinking it for a few days now with no problem. I know many of you will not agree with this decision, but it's the one I made. With my plans to eventually move here I will have to drink the water at some point as I don't want to rely only on bottled water for a few years. Also, Dr. Frew had suggested that I try it in the first place because he was sure that I wouldn't be sick from it. Given that he is worried about most everything else (I am never allowed out of site of one of the Ethiopians that we work with here, and he is even careful with the food I eat because he doesn't want me to be sick) I am sure that he would not recommend it unless he thought that it was absolutely safe.

Frew told me that the water that was said to be contaminated was kept in unclean containers and this is mostly what causes the bacteria to form. But, the water in the city is chlorinated (I know, you will say it's not enough) and therefore is generally pretty safe. Maybe I will get sick, but what is life without risks? And in all honesty, I'm in Ethioipa - that's a risk in and of itself. So, I'm a risk taker - always have been, probably always will be. Yes, I'm stubborn too. Ha. I appreciate all of your concern, I really do. But this is the decision I have made based on the knowledge I have gained and the knowledge of the Ethiopian's around me (including Drs and nurses). So, pray for me, send me good vibes, whatever you like - I am content with my decision and will continue drinking the water unless I find a significant reason not to.

 

In other news, tomorrow I go to Sendafa for the second time of the trip. We will distribute some wheat to the HIV patients (probably along with some other basic supplies). Frew will see some patients at the clinic. Birhanu will work on the construction of the new church in Beke (Mom - Hanna's dad is the preacher there. Also, I got to say hello to Hanna briefly the other day and I told her that you said hello. She was very excited and said to tell you hello as well. Her father says that she asks about "Vince and Carolyn a lot"). Ruth is coming with us tomorrow, I will most likely work with her and Shewayerged on distributing the wheat. I think Eshete is probably working on micro-financing. So, it will be a very busy day. But should prove to be a pretty nice one.

 

Not sure what else I will do tomorrow, Frew wants me to learn more Amharic (he is a strict teacher), he also wants to take me to a nice restaurant. And I think Ruth wants to take me to the museum where Lucy is displayed (Lucy is the oldest human skeleton that has been found in the world. Actually, Lucy is on tour in the U.S. right now - but they have an exact replica). We will see, should be a busy day regardless. Luckily buna (coffee) is cheap and delicious over here.

 

Time for bed now, ciao!

 

weddings

Ethiopian weddings are something else. Today I went to a wedding of
some people who are members of Yenoh Merkeb (Noah's Ark, the parent
NGO of the PAAV program). I had met them one year back when they
helped us to translate during the Living Word trip last summer.
Actually, this was a double wedding. The groom in one of the couples
and the bride in the other were brother and sister. I was told that
this is not common, but when it is easy to do they may have a double
wedding like this to save some money. It was nice because they also
invited me to the pre-wedding party. It is for close friends and
family and it is a chance to see the bride and groom and wish them
well. Since these people are part of Yenoh Merkeb, they invited Frew
and the rest of the PAAV staff to this and I was invited along as
well. It was very nice, some injera and wat. Some singing and dancing.
I didn't understand most of the words, but it was still nice.

The actual ceremony is very similar to an American wedding. The pastor
gives a sermon about marriage, they exchange vows and rings. One thing
that was different was that they signed the marriage certificate as
part of the ceremony. And it seemed like a total of 3 extra people had
to sign it other than the married couple. There was some singing and
dancing as well. But, the main difference that I noticed between an
Ethiopian wedding and an American is the size. My guess is that there
were about 2,000 people at the ceremony and about 1,000 at the
reception. They said that this was the common size. It was a lot of
fun. I remember a few years back when I was in Hungary I went to a
wedding as well. I have always found it interesting seeing how other
cultures have their different ceremonies for the different rites of
passage.

That's about all that I have to report from today. The wedding took
the whole day. We left for the pre-wedding party at 10:30 or 11 and
didn't arrive back home until about 8pm. At that point we ate some
dinner, watched some TV and now I am typing this. And now I am going
to bed. We have a few errands to run tomorrow to prepare for going to
Sendafa on Tuesday.

Tebarek!

Amharic

Sorry if I repeat myself on this blog. I am not actually able to login
to the blog site, or even look at it. I'm thinking that it is blocked
in this country for some reason. I will explain when I get home. So, I
am emailing to the blog and it automatically posts. But, sometimes I
may end up repeating myself, so please forgive me.

I have been working on learning Amharic these last few days. I have
memorized most of the characters, but now I need to learn all of the
variations. Which number about 300 I think. So, it may take some time.
But I think that certainly by next year when I return I will have the
alphabet memorized and the pronunciations as well. Then, it will be
much easier for me to learn words and how to speak and read. It will
be very nice when I am able to speak it, because right now I often
feel out of place when people are speaking. I think the experience
here would be much richer if I knew the language. So, for now, that is
priority number one.

Tomorrow I am going to another wedding. The wedding is of someone who
is part of Frew's organization (Yenoh Merkeb, which mean Noah's Ark).
It should be a nice time, because I will know more people at the
wedding and I won't feel as much out of place as the one I went to the
other day. Also, I am sure that the injera and wat will be very good
there (though, all of the food I have eaten so far has been
wonderful).

I have been drinking the water with no problem, in fact I just had two
glasses at lunch a few minutes ago and I feel fine. You don't realize
how much you take things for granted until you cannot have them. So,
when I thought that I had to only drink bottled water it was a huge
burden. I was always having to make sure that I had enough around for
drinking, brushing teeth, etc. Even taking a shower was difficult
because I thought that I would not be able to swallow even a few
drops.
Another thing that was something I realized I was taking for granted
back home was showers. Many of you are probably laughing because you
realize that I don't shower everyday. But here, the shower happens
once per week. So, I had not taken a shower since I arrived here until
last night. And even then I almost didn't get to take one because the
hot water had run out. But more came rather quick so I was able. Right
now it is very dusty and dry here, the rainy season ended about 3 or 4
weeks back and it has been rather hot since then, so it all dried up
in the city. Although, the country is still a bit more wet than here.
Because it is so dusty, it is impossible to stay clean. We had the car
washed, and the next day it was extremely dirty again. Even driving
around you are constantly breathing in dirt and dust.

I have been thinking a lot about the things I don't even think about
at home, things I take for granted. The ability to communicate with
99% of people you come in contact with, fast and reliable internet,
knowing the customs, having easy access to water (the water has been
shut off in this part of the city all day today). It is amazing how
easy we have it in America, and we don't even realize it! Trips to
Ethiopia are a constant reminder of this and I believe that it has
given me a positive perspective in which to live.

I think thats about it. I hope you are all enjoying Autumn. It is my
favorite season, especially the month of October. So, I am a little
bit sad that I am missing it. Although I can't complain, the weather
here has been extraordinary. Cool mornings, hot days, cold nights.

Dehna hun, Dehna huni

p.s. Mike and Donna, the muzoch (bananas) have been awesome. I wish I
could bring some back for you guys.

in Sendafa once again

Today was my first day in Sendafa on this trip. It has been more than
one year since I have been there, so it was very nice to visit it
again. There is a lot of new construction of homes and they are also
completely re-doing the main road through Sendafa. We were not there
very long, I think only 3 hours or so. And we had some trouble getting
there, the car had some problem with the axle (we spent hours waiting
for it to be fixed once we got back to Addis). I got to see a
construction of a new church, see some of the micro-financing
recipients.

But the best part of today was getting to be with the entire PAAV
staff again. They are all such wonderful people and I always enjoy
spending time with them. I had seen everyone before today except
Ageritu, so I was glad to finally see her on this trip. She is a very
nice lady, a single mom who works on this project and goes to school
as well.

I think that I will go back to Sendafa about 4 or 5 more times on this
trip. They generally go about twice per week, as there is not much
need to go more than that. There is a chance that we will have to go
an extra day or two to hand out all of the multi-vitamins to the
children, but we will see.

One other bit of news today: I am able to drink the water. I had
always thought the water was un-treated and contained a lot of
bacteria that would make me sick. But, as it turns out, in Addis they
treat the water with chlorine like we do in the states. So, I brushed
my teeth with it and drank a half glass of it today without any
problems. I wish I had known this on my prior trips because it sure
would have made eating and taking showers much easier.

I am very tired right now, I have been waking up at 4am for some
reason the last few days and so I have not gotten much rest. Luckily
tomorrow I am able to sleep in since we do not have any plans.
Hopefully I actually do sleep in.

Will try to write more tomorrow.

Tebarek

another day....

This trip has been wonderful so far. I thought that it might take me a
few days, or even a week, to transition to living here again. But
there was no delay in transition, it was immediately after I stepped
off the plane. It has been wonderful seeing my friends again, as if I
never left. Also, the weather is nothing short of fantastic. Yesterday
was bright and sunny, probably in the mid 80s - but was rather cool in
the shade. Couldn't ask for more.

Yesterday I got to see Shewayerged (another staff member of our
project) and I also got to see my friend Ruth in the evening. I had
forgotten to email Ruth until a few days before I left telling her
that I would be coming and she still hadn't gotten the email yesterday
- so she was very surprised to hear that I was here. I went out with
her, Frew and Frehiwot for a walk and some buna (coffee) in the
evening. It was very nice. She has a new job and is very happy about
it, her old one was not so good.

Still haven't done much other than spending time with my host family
and friends, but it has been nice. One of the main reasons that I
wanted to come to Ethiopia this time was to re-connect with everyone
here, so this has been a wonderful time.

The food has been wonderful also. I really do love injera and wat
(Ethiopian cuisine). Also, the food sits very well with me - I have no
trouble with the spice. Actually, I feel better than I do on my diet
at home. Another great reason to be in Ethiopia!

Ethiopians are very concerned about the U.S. elections, I guess the
whole world is. I have been talking a lot about it with my friends
here and we have been watching the news quite a bit. Seems to be that
the world is a rather scary place right now (war in Somalia,
Thailand/Cambodia, stock markets falling...). So, Ethiopians are
hoping that if a good president gets elected in America things may get
better in the world. Not surprisingly, most Ethiopians seem to support
Barrack Obama - he seems to have a better plan at helping the rest of
the world than McCain does.

One main reason that they do not want McCain to be elected is that
they fear that he will do very similar things that Bush has done
militarily. This directly affects Ethiopia. You see, Ethiopia and the
U.S. are allies. But the main reason that the U.S. is allied with
Ethiopia is to use the military base here. From here they can launch
attacks to Somalia (which they continue to do) and also to the Middle
East. Also, the U.S. has supported the Ethiopian military, which many
of the Ethiopian people are afraid of. Many Ethiopians believe that if
the U.S. no longer needs the military base here and if they stop
supporting the Ethiopian military that the current political regime in
Ethiopia will change. This would be a wonderful thing if the power
changed hands, given that the current state of things is very
oppressive here.

Not sure what is planned for today. I think that Frew wants to go
swimming, so we may end up doing that. I think we are also going to
start talking about what my long term job/goals could be when I end up
moving here.

Hope all is well with all of you back home.

p.s. I doubt that I'll be able to upload any pictures. I may try going
to a high-speed internet cafe next week if I can find one. But there
is no way that I would be able to upload any pictures from the home
computer. When I get back to the states I'll put them all online and
put a link on this blog.

back home

I forgot how slow dial-up connections are...this month will be a test of patience, ha.

Well, the trip over here was very smooth. The flight from Newark was delayed about an hour, but not a big deal. We got to London in about 6 1/2 hours and I had the whole day to walk around and relax a bit. It was really nice. I went to the Whole Foods in Kensington, which was quite amazing. They had about 6 or 7 different restaurants on the third floor - thank God for that discount card! Other than that I simply walked around London for the day.

I left London on another overnight flight and got in this morning to Ethiopia at 7:30am local time (12:30am in PA). I was greeted by my host, Dr. Frew as well as Birhanu and Eshete - both of whom are part of our NGO (Non-Government Organization) staff. We had a few errands to run, but we made sure to stop and grab a machiatto before we came home. They really do have some great coffee here and it is so nice to drink such fresh coffee (and so cheap too!)

Didn't really do much today, we visited the Ethiopian Dept. of Justice because Frew is working on renewing the NGO status with the government (apparently it is about to expire). He said it has been more than 2 weeks and they have still not completed the paperwork. It was supposed to be done by today, but was not.
The rest of my day I spent sleeping and spending time with Frew's boys. However, soon after I woke up Frew said that he and Frehiwot (his wife) and his father were going to a wedding. They invited me to go along, so of course I accepted the invitation.

Ethiopian weddings are quite a long process. First you have the initial ceremony which is thrown by both the bride and groom's family. Then, two days later you have a party thrown just by the bride's family and then two days after that another party by the groom's family (I think I got that in the right order...). So, today was the second party. It was quite nice. Lots of really good food, some nice music. I always enjoy seeing other culture's ceremonies, so this was really nice. On Sunday I am supposed to be going to another wedding (I wish Frew had told me to bring a suit!!).

The weather here is perfect. Today was in the upper 60s low 70s, it was cloudy for most of today which is why it was a bit cooler. But the rainy season finished about two weeks back. So the ground has not yet dried out completely and it has not yet gotten hot. Should be a lovely couple of weeks here.

It sure feels nice to be back here. As soon as I could see Ethiopia from the airplane - and even more once I stepped onto Ethiopian soil - I had this overwhelming sensation like I was coming back home. Everything seemed so familiar to me, even Amharic words that I had forgotten came flooding back into my head. In some strange way I felt as if I had been on vacation for the last year. It is a very nice feeling and wonderful to be surrounded by so many great people. Everyone was happy to see me and it was a sweet day of reuniting with friends.

It looks like I will not be going to Sendafa until Friday. Frew has a lot of work to catch up on because he was busy the last week or two with other things. So, we will spend most of our time in Addis. Which is actually a good thing because it will allow us some time to figure out what my long term job could be here (and since that's the main purpose of this trip it's good that we have time to do it).

I think that's all for now. I'm pretty tired so I'm going to try to get some more rest and hopefully tomorrow will be back normal (the trip over took 30 hours, and I couldn't fall asleep the whole way). Luckily my dad had given me some No-Jet-Lag...I'll tell you what, that product really works. When I landed I felt like it was 7:30 in the morning, when really I should have felt like it was in the middle of the night.

Ciao!

p.s. The blog website is not working for me currently. This post was supposed to be posted on Tuesday evening Pennsylvania time, but I couldn't get it to work. So, for now I will be emailing my mom the posts and she will be posting them. Hopefully that works better.

Some stuff from before...

Hello there,

Here's a few links to pictures from my previous trips...

Summer 2007

January 2007