7/18
Well, I am afraid there really isn't a lot to talk
about. I have told you over and over how
little I have to do. This week was the
example of that. It truly has been
boring. I started putting together my
community needs assessment (CNA); it is supposed to help me determine the
problems that I would be able to work on while living here. Since I already have my major projects in
mind though it really will not likely get me far. From seeing the initial results of my survey
the only things that are really being brought up are infrastructure problems
like power and water which are beyond my reach anyway. I had to get some information to put in the
paper the other day, sadly it only took about twenty minutes to get so it
really did not keep me occupied. That
has been the highlight of my week so far.
Tomorrow I will be in Robe to get some internet and Devin is going to
let me help in some work he has on the hives he is working on. I am glad to be able to get even a little
more hands on practice; hopefully soon I will be able to get started on work
here in Gassera. The power has been
pretty consistent this week, a relief since I have been able to keep my
computer charged so I can watch movies in my excess of down town. Even so I have finished a few books just this
week and got halfway through another one just today. The water has been as bad as usual though,
this week we have had good water pressure once that I know of, it was so bad my
landlord actually had to get water from me!
Still, I have gotten into a good water management regiment, plus I keep
100liters of water in my house so I know I have enough. Well, I don't know what else to talk about
right now, I hope you enjoyed the thrilling tales of the water and power
problems. If I still have anyone reading
thank you for putting up with this and...maybe you should pick up a hobby ;)
P.S. Two weeks till we will be in Addis and should be able
to chat a lot better.
7/10
Things that go bump in the night. Thankfully I have the gift to sleep like a
rock. In some cases, like trying to wake
up to an alarm, this is a problem. But,
in Ethiopia it is most definitely a gift.
Since I live in a rural area there is not a lot of traffic, still, I do
live off the main road so there is some traffic, and there have been several
instances where a truck will drive by.
Once there was a dump truck bringing a load of rocks that they dumped at
the house across the street from me.
Now, that wouldn't be so weird, except they did all this at two o'clock
in the morning! On a rare occasion I
will have trouble sleeping, sometimes it is because I was asleep and had to
wake up at midnight to go get water, since it often only comes in the middle of
the night, or the rare bout of random insomnia.
This post is so I can tell you the strange and unusual noises of
Ethiopia.
Shortly after the sun goes down, 8 or 9 o'clock pm:
This is the hour of the hyena. Now my landlord swears there are no hyenas in
Gassera. I think she must have been
being too literal, because while living in Butajira you become more than
familiar with the noise of the jib (Ethiopian name for hyena). In Gassera there must not be a big
population, because only occasionally do you hear them. Regardless of if the job is out though, this
is a common time for the feral dogs to start up the howling. The dogs can go anywhere from a few minutes
to the early hours of the morning. It is
also common that when the power is on the local shops and, for some strange
reason, the barber shop will play music loudly.
Both Ethiopian music and older pop music.
Between 9pm and 4 am:
This is the random time.
Sometimes there will be the random bus or truck who, of course, feels
the need to honk their horns and wake everyone up. Or the dogs will randomly start howling, I
have several times opened to door to fuss at the compound dog, who for some
reason thinks that when he howls he should literally do it on my door
step. For those of you who are not
familiar with goats, you should know that they make some strange noises. There was one morning I almost ran out the
door because I thought someone was yelling HELP over and over again. When I woke up enough I remembered that
"help" is an English word and is not something an Ethiopian yelled. I quickly figured out that it was a goat
after that. They also make a weird
belching noise, and VERY loudly. This
seems to be the noise they make when they want to impress a lady goat. They also have a tendency to rub against the
corrugated metal fence that surrounds my compound, making it sound like someone
is trying to climb the fence. All of
these are some of the random noises that happen in a typical night.
Between 4am and 6am:
My favorite time of the morning (sarcasm). I don't know how Ethiopians feel, but to me
this is the worst time to be woken up.
But, it seems like every Ethiopian who likes to make noise is up at this
time. Around 5 am every morning someone
walks around with what I assume to be a tire rim and a piece of steel and bangs
it to make a bell. I am not sure what
that noise is supposed to signal, but I assure you if I had to get up to it
every morning I would have words with the person making the noise. Then at 5 or 5:30, I thankfully have not been
up enough to remember exactly what time, the Muslims have a call to
prayer. Now if you have ever been in a
predominantly Muslim town you know that the noise produced from the speakers
placed strategically around the mosque to get the furthers and widest possible
effect is other worldly. I am not sure
what they are saying, but it is said very loudly. Since there are three mosques in my town all
shouting this call from different directions it is impossible to miss. At 6 o'clock every morning there is my compound
wake up call. Someone comes and bangs on
my compound door and wall every morning.
Since no-one gets up at this time I am really not sure the reason. Finally at 7am sharp, if there is power, the
music starts up again, even if there is not the buses start honking the horn
and the buses door guy starts calling out ROBE ROBE ROBE, the name of the town
they are going to. I am not sure why they
feel they need to shout, since it is the only bus that leaves Gassera at 7 am
it is hard for people not to know where they are going. On the rare occasion one of the shops will
feel the need to start the music a little early, maybe six or six thirty. Those are the days that really start me out
in a bad mood. Then there are of course
the goats again, they are waking up, and the fence faces the morning sun just
right to reflect the sun perfectly to warm them in the morning. One goat and I know each other very well
because as I open the compound door every morning I have to step over him as he
suns himself in front of the door. And
keep in mind all the random noises; this part of the morning is fair game for
any and all of those as well.
So tonight when you go to bed, just stop and listen. Chances are you won't hear anything, and just
stop and thank the city ordinances for their amazing use of noise nuisance laws
that keep you asleep and comfortable through the night.
In ways of just a general update, the rainy season has
started. It has not been bad so far,
only a few afternoon showers. The
farmers are upset because their crops need water, and since the rain is the
only source for people in my town no water means crops may fail. The power has been more consistent
lately. We have had power for the late
morning and late afternoon every day since Sunday. However, the water is another story. Last Thursday the water went out. It did not return until late last night. I ended up having to send a jerry can to be
filled from the local well. That means
the guys going around town with a donkey cart came to our house, got the jerry
cans from my landlord, took them to the well, then returned them filled later
in the afternoon. This has been the only
source of water for the town for over a week, and it has been common to see
three or four carts every few hundred meters loaded down with jerry cans. The price of the jerry cans has also gone up
at the market, because people have been buying them all up to fetch water
with. It has been my first real water
shortage and a learning experience. As
soon as the price goes down I will be buying several more jerry cans.
I have been doing a lot of work getting some bee keeping
stuff in order. I gave some instructions
to be relayed to the apiary in the gorge, and have brushed up on all the
documents I had. I am almost finished
typing up the training manual I plan to use.
All I need now is to get the visuals added. Next I need to get permission to set up a
personal apiary at the FTC (farmer training center), and permission to do some
inspections at the local farmer cooperative apiary so I can see the state of
the hives there. Next Monday I have a
coworker scheduled to go to the gorge and collect a sample of the diseased
bananas. When he gets back I am going to
prepare a gram stain of the sample and attempt to determine if there is a
bacterial or fungal agent infecting the plants.
If there is the next stage will be to get permission and funds to take a
sample to a lab to get it grown out and the species identified so we can form
an appropriate treatment for them.
Finally I am also working on my CNA (community needs assessment), I have
created a survey, and now I need to start polling the community to see what my
future projects should be. So far all
the things they want fixed are far out of my reach for me in the two years I
will be here. Things like the
intermittent power, and lack of water, are not my specialty to be sure. But, it is nice to finally have things to do;
keeping busy has absolutely improved my mood and made the days go by
faster. In a few short weeks all of G10
will return to Addis Ababa to attend out in service training. It will be nice to see all my friends I have
been more or less out of contact with, and I cannot WAIT to get some good
forenji food! Until then I will keep
trying to get things together for the bee keeping project, work on my CNA, and
enjoy the power while it lasts!
