Twenty-eight Days and Counting!

7/23

Only twenty-eight days till I fly out!  I am so excited to come home for a visit, I think about the beach (I mean my family...seeing family) every day!  I am also very curious if I put on weight.  My weight, even in Ethiopia, hasn't changed more than two or three pounds in years, not exaggerating, but all my friends that have gone home have ate themselves silly and gained weight.  I am a bit disappointed in myself, I was trying to get to a point where I had enough muscle to feel good about taking my shirt off on South Beach, but I would do well exercising every day, then go to a training and when I got back to site I would take a week or two extra before I started up again.  As you can imagine I still am not beach body ready, but not like that is actually going to stop me.  It is crazy to think I am about to be an UNCLE!  It is going to be a busy, and eventful month for sure!

But, before I even get back to America, I have a ton of work to do.  I still have one bee colony to transfer over to a transitional hive, I also am trying to strengthen the hive I already have, and I am happy to say I just completed another successful transfer.  That brings my number of modern hives to two, with one traditional still waiting to be moved over.  I also have not had any more issues with people disturbing my hives.  The Farmer Training Staff had to go out and talk to all of the farmers in the area, but it did the trick.  I wish it hadn't cost me 250 birr, but at least it is over.  I am really hoping that we get some good rains this year so I can get a good amount of honey.  Since people aren't listening to my training. I want to get a good harvest this year so I can put their faces in it and say "do what I told you and you can have this too!"  I also just got a grant approved by PC (THANK YOU,  JAMIE!) to do a small camp here in Gassera.  I am trying to get sixty students together to learn about gender equality, leadership, and sexual health/HIV prevention.  My site mate and I are also planning a bio-intensive garden training for women with HIV for the day before I leave to go to Addis to catch my flight.  Finally I am supposed to be putting together a training on how to run a proper stool test for the livestock office.  I have to admit, as easy as that is going to be I have been pretty lazy about getting it together.  Still, I feel like even if that is the only thing I do to help animals in this country it will at least be something.  So it is going to be a very interesting 28 days!

I also just finished a training on honey purification for international sale quality.  I think it went really well and I think the people I trained are really going to apply it, I hope.  While I was there I was shown a waterfall and of course I went for a nice dip.  It was amazing just to be swimming again!  Of course, I am still waiting to see what diseases I catch, but as of right now I am going to say TOTALLY worth it.  Don't worry though, when we complete service PC puts us on a regimen of drugs to kill every disease known to man so before I come home. It will be like a factory reset. 

So, for now, I am going to continue my back-breaking pace to get all this stuff done.  I am afraid that I am going to have to decrease my daily coffee breaks down to five or six now!

See you all soon!

Countdown!

7/10
It is hard to believe I only have eight and a half months left in my service!  I feel like time has flown and I have so much left I want to accomplish.  I don't even want to think about when I am going to have to say goodbye to all my friends, both PC and Ethiopian.  Although I will admit to already having started planning my going away party!  It has been an interesting couple of months.  I am glad I get to spend a little time away from Addis after all the time I have spent there recently.  I am excited about some upcoming events I am in the process of getting together.  I am working on getting a small community camp planned to teach students about HIV, and gender issues.  My site mate and I are also trying to get a training together to teach HIV positive women how to create a bio-intensive gardens at their house to help feed them and their families.  Of course, as usual, we will have to keep our fingers crossed that things come together like we are hoping or we even get them to happen at all.
There was an interesting event yesterday, some people were caught stealing from a house in one of the rural kabeles.  They were brought to the police station awaiting...whatever is going to happen to them (no one seemed to know what that would be).  But what really amazed me is that the accused were put on display in the police station compound.  It seemed to me that the whole town came out to see them and I was amazed when all of my coworkers went streaming out of the compound.  I know peoples photos are available after arrests in America, but this was the court of public opinion to the extreme.  I don't know if they were innocent or guilty, but people sure have made up their minds.  Not only that, but the rumors going around town were flabber ghasting.  I was told by my best Ethiopian friend that the accused has used magic to keep the house owners asleep while they stole from them.  Another person told me they blew marijuana in their faces to keep them from waking up.  Just what people would believe was incredible.  I don't know what people would do if they were innocent, but I sure hope they aren't because they are guilty in the eyes of the community. 
On a sadder note, one of my best friend's, in Gasera, sister just died.  I noticed he wasn't acting right, but wasn't sure what was wrong.  Then yesterday I was with some friends and he explained and invited us to come to the mourning.  I have been making sure to avoid any chance of having to go to a mourning since I got here, but of course, as he is a good friend, I felt I had too.  As much as I feel bad saying it, I was thankful to have missed the part where the family and friends wail and cry over the loss.  But I was glad to be there for my friend.  It was interesting seeing the differences and similarities between the cultures.  What I was invited to would most resemble a wake in America, but, the main difference being that here it lasts for about a week.  I arrived and, of course, there were the usual comments about the foreigner coming, then food, snacks, and coffee were served.  That was followed by just general conversation and I was surprised a fair amount of joking and laughing.  I was expecting a more somber mood, but at that point it had turned into just being there with the family for support, but an otherwise normal day.  I felt honored that even though he was going through all of the grief of losing a sister, that my friend still came to my defense when people were calling me a "forenji" and he told them not to call me that and that I was a "habesha" (Ethiopian). 
In Ethiopia we are constantly bombarded with the loss and tragedy, and poverty.  It can be hardening when every month you hear about your coworkers family, or neighbor's child, or friends sister dying.  The constant and multiple homeless people asking for money on the bus, and the homeless children can be overwhelming.  But, I think the worst part is the senselessness of it.  If I remember correctly, the average life span of people in rural areas is around fifty.  I was talking to my site mate yesterday about the horrible problem with blindness in this country.  You constantly see people who have lost their sight over a simple infection.  It is amazing that people still go blind from something so simple.  A tube of the ointment that would cure their infection costs about the price of a cup of coffee here.  That is twenty-five US cents!  I don't know why my friend's sister died, but I can't help but wonder if it was something simple, and easily treatable.  One of the things that has really been brought home to me this last year is the privilege we have in America.  I was brought up in a home where I never wanted.  I had everything I ever needed and most of what I wanted.  On top of that we have so many freedoms and we neglect most of them.  We have the freedom to vote for who we want but many of us never even register to vote much less actually cast a vote.  We have the right to a fair trial in court, the right to say and write what we want, and now the right to marry the person we love.  In many countries all over the world people don't have some, or even any of these rights and we don't give it a second thought.  If nothing else, I hope this is the thing that I keep with me for the rest of my life and remember never to take for granted again.