What goes bump in the night.

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!