My Office and Co-Workers

This is my office, the office of Agriculture and Environment. The "developments" (what I basically was) work to train farmers on the best techniques and practices to improve the livelihood of the farmers and minimize the environmental impacts of the practices. The second picture shows some of my co-workers who accepted me without question, helped me to figure out how to live in Ethiopia, and made sure I knew when it was our turn to get water (very important I promise).  

Free Ranging Animals

In Ethiopia the animals all run free. Most of them are just considered an annoyance. But on a rare occasion you will find someone who actually likes them.

Muddy Bus Trap

What happens when you have one day of rain and the roads are made of dirt?  You get a muddy bus trap.  On the way home and the roads are nearly impassible.  It still remains to be seen if I can get home or not.

Public Transportation

This is our bus situation from site into Robe. Sorry the picture is blurry but the road doesn't cooperate well with pictures. What you can't see is that we are crammed into the back of the bus with six people on the bench instead of the logical number of five. But hey, why pass up a chance to make people uncomfortable and making thirty extra birr.

Town Where I Live- Gasera, Ethiopia

I was asked to take a picture of my town. This is one of the main roads with buildings holding shops, and a donkey cart on the left side.  On the right there are foosball table for the kids to play on, and sugar cane for a sweet treat. Straight ahead the bamboo baskets hold bananas and other fruit brought up from the gorge to be sold at the intersection of the two main roads.

Another View of Compound

This is the reverse view from the door of my house. The middle building is the shint bet(bathroom).

Where I Live

This is my compound. My house is in the back of the picture mostly blocked. The house directly in front is a food prep/storage room. The one on the left is my land ladiy's kotched. The water tank on the right is part of my land lady's brother's construction projects as are the piles of rocks and sand. On the near left is my chicken coup.