Six Months Left

Only six months left!!!  It is hard to believe we have already been here twenty-one months, it has gone by really fast.  I am considering extending in a few places for different reasons.  But, the closer to the deadline the more I am leaning towards finishing my service and moving onto the next stage of my life, whatever that may be.  It is also hard to imagine all the things that are going on in the states.  People getting engaged, having babies, and of course getting really drunk on GOOD alcohol. 
Looking ahead I am trying to prioritize what I need to get done, what I want to get done, and what probably won't get done.  I am still going to play with my bees, but with this little time left and them not doing as well as I would like, due to the lack of trees for food I think, I am not thinking that I will be able to do all the stuff I wanted to.  Still I have learned a LOT since working on them here and I still have plenty to continue learning.  I have been able recently to work more directly with farmers which is one of the things I always wanted.  They seem to be realizing the resource I can be to help them, I just wish it had happened sooner.  Still I have made all the mistakes that they are making now and I am happy to get in there with them and help them avoid making my mistakes. 
I haven't started working with the schools this year.  I should have if I had wanted to but, I can't decide.  In many aspects working with the school was one of the most rewarding things I did, and in others it was by far the most frustrating.  I am happy to say that I met some kids that really were awesome and I was happy to work with and I hope in one way or another I helped them, but trying to get the clubs started, getting kids to attend, getting translators and counterparts, is all very difficult and time consuming.  Not like I have any lack of time on my hands.  Finally camps, as many of you know I just directed a small community camp at my site, I think it went really well but of course could be improved upon.  But I am torn on if I want to try and do one more before the end of my service.  There are two big barriers I see being difficult to overcome.  First is translators, while I can get community members to fascilitate some of the sessions we would need someone there to help us for the sessions we lead, as well as the general instructions etc.  The person that helped us last time just went to university and is one of the students I was so happy to work with.  The second is finances, due to recent rule changes in the way PC Ethiopia does grants it is very hard for us to get small amounts of money, like what I need to pay for snacks, this rule change comes to the dismay of many of us as we are in fact being encouraged to do small community camps by PC but unable to get support.  If I can overcome these two big difficulties though I may very well try to do one more small camp. 
In recent personal news I FINALLY have a horse.  And by I, I mean we.  My site mate and I finally took the plunge to get the horse together.  That way when I leave he will have a home and I don't have to worry about trying to get him to a good home.  I think technically he is actually a pony though, the horses in Ethiopia are really small.  He is about average for the area and still only 13 hands and 276kg (608lbs).  We named him Sargaent Shriver after the first director of PC.  Thankfully he is really patient, while I have ridden a horse a very few times, my site mate had never before he came here so there has been a bit of a learning curve.  But, we are learning, and enjoying having him.  I would be willing to bet he is happy to be with us seeing has he has put on over 25lbs in the week we have had him.  When we first bought him we were unable to buy a saddle since all the materials weren't available at the market.  So for the first week we were riding bareback.  It was the first time in my life riding bareback and I am not sad at all to have a saddle now.  I also am not sure I will ever be able to have children after this...  I also did my first jump on a horse.  It was just a tiny ditch and not much to speak of, the somewhat impressive part was that I did it at a canter, riding bareback, and stayed seated even though I didn't realize Sarge had decided to jump it till mid jump.  It did earn me the applause of the people watching which was pretty funny though.  I don't know if you still read this Donna, but if you do thank you for letting me tag along with you riding, without the stuff I learned from you I probably wouldn't have been able to even get this far. 
The next few months are going to be interesting, I am going to addis this week for a Gender and Development (GAD) committee meeting.  Then there is Halloween, then some good beekeeping time, then  the holidays really get started.  The new volunteers will be incoming, we will have our Close of Service conference, then we will be outbound.  I have to remember to breathe in November, because after that I won't be able to.