8/29
This week has without a doubt been my most productive week
here. Typing that I feel a little bad
because I still have not done that much for US standards. Like I said in my last entry, it is hard to
get any major things done here because of all the red tape, but I have been
working on that and actually making some head way. I have finished my proposals for the banana
disease project (doesn't look like I actually needed that one), and the
beekeeping proposal is all but done, one more field needs to be filled out and
I can submit it. I was in the office
writting the 8/27 blog post and right after I finished it two white guys walked
by my office door. I feel bad because of
all the complaining we do a lot of us volunteers have realized that when we see
a forenji we stare right along with the habesha. It is weird because we go weeks or months
without seeing anyone other than Ethiopians, so to see someone else is just
weird to us. So I admit it, I
stared...for a while. Then when one of
them looked over all I could do was wave.
I missed them when they left their meeting and went to to gorge. The next day they came back and I got
permission to go with them; I found out they were with an NGO from
Holland. They were a documentary film
crew checking on the sustainability of the project. The NGO had distributed goats during the big
drought (you know, the one that whenever a volunteer told you they were going
to Ethiopia, you asked isn't that the place with all the starving kids, ya that
drought) and they wanted to know if the people were still keeping goats. They allowed me to go into the gorge with
them, so while they were filming my counterpart and I went to the kabele
leaders and discussed the beekeeping and banana disease projects. They were interested in both, but in
particular the banana disease. They said
they were going to pick a date for me to come and do the training. They also said they were going to invite all
the banana farmers in the kabele. That
means that if every farmer comes to the training I will have about 150 people
learning from me at one time. These
people are coming to listen to me try and help them prevent a huge loss of
income, income that they can't afford to lose.
So no pressure or anything! Today
I met with some of the staff at my office to discuss the beekeeping project so
we could determine budget, scheduling, persons to invite, etc. They are all for it and have all but handed
me the money for the program. They were
even trying to get me to do the training next week, which I am totally happy to
do, but I still have to create an apiary (the place where you keep bees), get
bee suits made for the practical part of the training, get supplies to teach
people how to make transitional hives, find bees to do the transfer part of the
training, and besides, it isn't the right time of the year to actually start
moving the bees. So I have talked them
down from the next week idea, but they still want to do a two part training so
I can do most of the training very soon, and finish the practical aspects in a
few months. They have me planning on an
eighty person training, with help from my two counterparts to translate, a two
day course with equal parts technical and practical training. So between now and the actual training I have
to: firm up my budget, turn in a proposal, get the materials to create my
apiary, (hopefully) find bees I can buy and move to my apiary, (hopefully) have
my powerpoint translated into the local language, get at least one local
material bee suit made as an example, buy the supplies I can not get here in my
hub town and have them transported here, meet with the people who will attend
the training, meet with the local beekeeper cooperative, find out how many
people from my office want to have the training, and train my counterparts who
are going to help me so they are better prepared for the material we will
present. Needless to say I am really
happy I am not training next week! But I
have to say, I am a lot happier with this than with not having enough to
do. Getting things going has been a long
wait, but now it seems like things are coming together.
Anyway I said I got a lot of stuff done this week so I
should explain. Along with meeting with
the kabele leaders about the banana disease, and the Ag office about the
beekeeping, I: had a local material hive tool made, got the first half of a
beekeepers suit made, got both of my proposals written, sorted and went through
the documents for the GAD comittee, sorted and went through all the documents I
got about the banana disease during IST, planted seeds to use at my apiary,
found an alloe plant during my trip to balo habebe and planted that in a
container at my house, weeded my garden, and almost cut my finger off...
Well I guess that part isn't really an accomplishment. It really isn't a very fun story I am afraid,
while in the gorge with the NGO the people we had the meeting with took us to
get some sugarcane. After we got back I
was in my room using my pocket knife to cut and eat it. I was trying to split a piece and went all
the way through it and into my finger. I
went to the clinic to have some stitches but the doctors had gone home. Thankfully it wasn't nearly as bad as it
could have been so I bandaged it well, and started taking antibiotics. After a little though I have decided it will
be less risky to just let it heal on it's own and get a nice scar from it
rather than risk the sanitation here.
Anyway, I once again feel the need to appologize for my
rambling and am going to quit typing at this point. For those of you still reading this you have
the patients of a saint. I do feel
obliged to keep up with the moral of the story thing I have going so I will add
this.
For those of you who have gotten this far I want you to
think of this. To often we complain
about having too much to do in the States.
We never feel like we have enough time for all the things we have to
do. But why is that necessarily a bad
thing? The other day I was at work and
my coworker was asleep at his desk, I know that isn't unheard of in the US, but
it wasn't like he had something to do and was just tired from a night out. There are no nights out in this town because
there isn't anything to do at night. He
really had nothing to do, no work that he was really responsible for at that
point that needed to be done, he really just had nothing better to do. So sometimes you really will need to just
slow down and breathe, but when you do also decide to be thankful that you have
something to give you purpose.
8/27
Sorry mom, I will never get into politics (like you ever
thought I would). My opinion changes day
to day, but for the last week or so my least favorite thing is dealing with the
beurocricy. I swear, every project I
want to do I have to type this up, ask these people, propose to this group, and
get stamps (no less than three) on every document I create. It is even more difficult, because with a
lack of power or internet I can not email anything or even call someone to get
approval. It is all one on one with
people who are rarely in the office.
But, I am finally on the right path.
I have gotten my counterparts sufficiently involved and they are
starting to really help me get the wheels rolling. We are in the process of getting the
community groups together that we are going to work with, and then getting
approval for the projects from the staff.
I have my proposals typed up, and my beekeeping manual (that I will
probably not get to use because of the lack of power) created. I have plans for how I am going to proceed,
and have even started getting some local material equipment created. It is almost the new year here. In September Ethiopia will celebrate and then
the schools start back up. I still have
to get a letter written up from the Agriculture office so I can work with the
Education office, but the schools seem very excited for me to work with
them. At this point it is possible that
I will have EIGHT clubs. If nothing else
that should keep me more than busy. Soon
I will start working on the process of getting my horse as well. Still more letters and papers, and approvals
I have to get for that. Mainly just from
the property owner though, I apparently have to have a signed contract with the
people saying who will have what responsibility, etc. Then I have to get hay delivered, then I have
to get grain, then I have to get a saddle, then I have to find where I can get
vaccines for it, on and on. The thing I
have for you all to think on today is this.
Don't take for granted the fact that with a few phone calls, some emails,
and one supermarket later you can have for many things a program started. For me it has been three and a half months of
talking to people about what I want to do, of designing, etc, and I am just now
on the verge of actually having something started. So take a second, and think about all the
modern conveniences you have right there at your finger tips. The computers, wifi, cars, email, and
supermarkets that we complain so much about the five minute drive, or how slow
our one generation old iphones are going.
8/23
IST is over, we all are back to site at this point (with the
exception of those who went on vacation after training), since I was elected to
the GAD comittee I stayed in Addis till Monday morning. I arrived back to site around lunch time on
Tuesday, for some reason I was in a particularly good mood going back. I am not sure why, but I am trying to make it
stick. I am doing pretty well in that
area, since I have been back I have had things to do. For those of you who know me I don't do well
if there is nothing to keep me busy, so being able to at least plan things is
good for me. Since I have been back I
have nearly completed the plan development for working on the banana diseas,
read about a dozen manuals, anything from scientific papers about the banana
disease, to lesson plans for the GAD comittee.
I have planted cuttings of flowers I took from Holeta, some rosmary my
coworker gave me, and some seeds to plant at the FTC when I get approval to do
the beekeeping trainings. I have weeded
one of the beds of my garden (two more to go), and attempted my first
re-batching of soap (it didn't go so well).
Today I went to the market with my counterpart and bought some stuff for
beekeeping, plus had a blacksmith make a hive tool for me. All of this, plus watching a couple movies
and playing some frisbee with the neighbor kids. I am just worried now that I am going so fast
that I am going to run out of stuff to do.
For now though I am going to focus on getting stuff started because like
all beuraucratic work I have to go through all the "proper" channels,
cross all my t's and dot all my i's so I am trying to make sure I don't step on
anyone's toes, or offend anyone.
Hopefully soon I will have some stuff actually going, have a horse (oh
did I mention I am getting a horse) and that will give me something fun to do
on the weekends!
I hope all of you guys back in the states are doing
well. I think about you all every
day. I wish just for a day you all could
come see this place, it is so different from being there, yet the similarities
are there too. Just as something to
leave you with. Before IST I had to do a
community needs assessment, it was a lot of boring questions and answers and
wasn't worth much since I already knew the projects I was going to work
on. But the thing that really impressed
me was that one of the questions I asked was what are you most proud of living
here in Gassera. Every-single-time the
answer was the sense of community. If
there was one thing I could bring back from Ethiopia, it would be how everyone
here knows each other, how they all know about each others children, about
their lives, and are willing to help each other. So let me give you a task, a challenge if you
will. Try this week to go up to one
person in your neighborhood that you don't know. Find out about them and their lives. I am sure most of you won't but even here I
am going to try to, and if I can do it in a country where I can't speak the
language how hard is it really for you to?
8/9
So today is the second and final day of our beekeeping
training. It has been interesting so
far, despite the fact that the expert who is teaching the class is not good at
lecturing. Devin came in for the
training and taught one of the lectures before lunch so that was
interesting. We are all tired though, a
week of classes, and going out every night will wear you down. On top of that we have class till 8:30pm so
we can do a bee transfer from a traditional hive to a transitional. It will be fun, but we won't get back to
Addis till some time tomorrow. They did
say they are giving us the bee suits after we finish the training. I have also been collecting seeds and
cuttings from the plants they have planted here in Holeta, so hopefully when I
get back I will be able to start my apiary preperaions as soon as I finish
training. Then our counterparts are
getting into town tomorrow so we will get no rest. On the plus side I will get to stay in Addis
for a few days extra because of the GAD committee. There will be a bunch of people I know in
Addis still so I am sure we will only be minimally productive.
Another week and I will be heading back to site. I am in some ways anxious to get back, and in
other ways I am dreading it. It is going
to be rough getting to spend time with all these guys, then go back to only
having a few people I talk to.
8/8
So we are almost half done with training. Today we are at Holeta Bee reserch center
learning about beekeeping in Ethiopia. I
have been explaining a lot of the things that the master keeper has left out or
not explained well. Today we are
learning basics and going to do some bee product processing. Tomorrow we will be transfering bees from a
traditional hive to a transitional hive.
I am excited to be able to ask my questions that I haven't had answered
yet, and even more excited to get back to site and get them started. We have been hanging out a lot and saying
goodbyes to G7s. We also had elections
for the different groups. I was elected
to GAD (gender and development) comittee!
I am excited to get to working on promoting equality in Ethiopia and to
help show other volunteers how to make a difference for women rights, and
rights of all people.
On Ebola: So far there is nothing to worry about. There have been no instances where any PC
volunteers in Ethiopia have come into contact with Ebola, and at this point,
the PC staff is monitoring the situation, but does not feel it is a threat for
us. As IST comes to a close next week
please keep all the volunteers in mind.
Going back to site is one of the most difficult time for volunteers
service. Leaving our friends and the
comforts of Addis is hard, and it is a very common time for volunteers to have
difficulties.
