Long update

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.