safari, so good

Living in Africa affords one great opportunities for travel, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to take advantage of that.

Cape Town from Table Mountain!

My latest excursion took me to the continent’s south, specifically, South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. I spent the first few days exploring Cape Town and then set out on an overland safari trek from Johannesburg through Botswana and ending in Victoria Falls. I can’t really think of any way to describe it outside of the usual cliché adjectives. Amazing. Beautiful. Stunning. Fantastic.

I won’t bore you with the details, but here are some highlights of the trip:

• Upgrade to business class on my first leg of the trip (from Addis to Dubai). Leg room! Tablecloth! Free champagne! Thanks, Emirates!
• Cape Town. All of it.
• Bush camping in the Okavango Delta.
• Lions! Lions!
• Availability of snack foods. Chips, nuts, fruit snacks. Amazing.
• Our safari nicknames: collectively, we were the Snack Pack, though we each had individual “bush names.” Mine? Wildebeest, because I could never see the damn animals without my glasses. Apparently, they have poor eyesight, too.
• Warthog meat. Holy delicious.
• Soweto bike tour. Awesome way to see the township.
• Apartheid Museum. Intense.

 

If you’d like to see some pictures, here’s my album on facebook. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and one I probably wouldn’t have taken if I weren’t living in Ethiopia.

 

Cheers.

home, harlem shaking and harar

One hundred ninety volunteers. Two days. One hotel.

All volunteer conference.

Peace Corps Ethiopia held its first AVC over St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Surprisingly, it went smoothly (no one was administratively separated anyway).

Two kind of awesome things came from the conference. First, I found out my COS (close of service) date: July 22. That means I get to leave Ethiopia on that day. I probably won’t be heading home right away, but don’t worry, I’ll be back in time for State Fair.

The other kind of awesome thing is the video below. It’s Harlem Shake on steroids, PC/E style. Give it a look and try to find me amid the chaos.

Less than four months and I’ll be home. I’m doing a little jig. Or at least a Harlem shake.

Cheers.

P.S. Post-AVC, The Good Doctor and I took a short trip to Harar. Check out the photos.

here’s how

I get asked often about what I’m doing in Ethiopia, in Peace Corps. Not in the “How the hell did they let you in?” way (usually), but “What the hell do you do every day?” er, way. The answer is: all kinds of things.

Almost as often, though, I get asked, “How can I help?”

From where you guys are sitting and reading this, the easiest way to help out a PCV (as far as work goes) is through donations. While I don’t have any projects that need funding, there are some amazing PCVs who have projects that could use some money, if you’re so inclined.

 

For example:

Karin’s microenterprise development project for women in her community

Ben’s Kids For Kids project focused on fostering creativity among his community’s youth by producing educational music videos

Inge’s literacy program and library development project

Ryan’s refurbishment of a local youth center in his rural community

Berdette’s effort to provide teacher training and kindergarten classes to low income families in her community

If you’re in the giving mood and none of these projects strike your fancy, you can always make a donation to the Peace Corps Ethiopia country fund, which provides small grants to volunteers for trainings and smaller projects.

 

Even if you can’t donate, reading about these projects could give you some idea of the variety of work that is happening here in Ethiopia. You could also forward the info to anyone who you think would be interested.

I know that not everyone can donate. We’re inundated with emails and facebook statuses imploring us to give to this charity, that fundraiser, his or her campaign, whatever. I just wanted to give you the option, you know, if you’re one of those people who at some point asked me, “How can I help?”

Cheers.

highlight of the highlands

Lalibela.

I finally made it. If you don’t know, the rock-hewn churches found in Lalibela are one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ethiopia and a UNESCO world heritage site. The intricately designed churches are carved from the rock. It’s like an Ethiopian Orthodox Petra. And it is found in my neck of the woods, but I hadn’t made the trip until now.

In many ways, as my site mate and fellow traveler Sarah pointed out, the trip was like a condensed version of our Peace Corps experience: somewhat stressful and frustrating (flat tires, farenji prices, cramped buses, annoying people) but ultimately worth it.

The churches are amazing. The history is fascinating. King Lalibela wanted to (or by God was instructed to) build a New Jerusalem. Each of the main eleven churches has a different meaning or relevance. You can find the “tombs” of Adam and Eve, Jesus, and the three wise men. The most famous of all the churches (or, as our guide, Efram, put it, “the highlight of Ethiopia”), St George, represents Noah’s Ark. There is a River Jordan. There also is one church, Golgotha, of which is said that merely stepping inside is a ticket to heaven. Women aren’t allowed in, naturally.

So I may not get into heaven, but at least I made it to Lalibela.

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Cheers.

welcome to lethiopiah – debub gets down and other cultural craziness

What a week. Bahir Dar hosted Ethiopia’s annual Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Celebration. I bounced from event to event, enjoying the music, dancing and general merriment.

Bahir Dar really spruced itself up for the event. New sidewalks, a mostly finished huge stadium, benches and garbage cans installed, freshly painted crosswalks and lines in the road. And flags. Flags everywhere.

Here’s a video of some of the celebrations.

 

If you’re not on facebook, here are the photos I posted. I even have a dress on (!) in some of them.

Cheers.

election dejection (but my guy won)

It was bittersweet celebrating the election results alone in a hotel room in Addis. My guy (and girl) won, so I wanted to be with people who were as happy about that as I was. On the other hand, if he hadn’t, that hotel room in Ethiopia, a few thousand miles away from the election epicenter, is the place I would’ve wanted to be most.

That sort of encapsulates how I felt about being in another country during a presidential year. I was happy to be away from the constant election noise, the ceaseless ads, the meaningless arguments, the acrimony. But I missed discussing politics with my politically inclined friends and family. The late night coffee sessions complaining about the latest gaffe (or celebrating it), talking about the issues that matter most to us, predicting the outcomes if the other guy wins.

I (mostly) missed putting in the hard work, knocking on doors, making phone calls to help my guy get re-elected. I missed that camaraderie I was starting to feel with my fellow union members before I left, knowing we were fighting for something real, something worth fighting for.

Now I’m missing the celebration at home. I sat in my hotel room and watched the fuzzy picture of Al Jazeera on my 14-inch TV, waiting for his speech. I felt this overwhelming need to be with people, to hug a stranger standing next to me at an election night party, to be at George Webb’s talking to my dad and sisters about how close it really was, prognosticating about the 2016 election.

But it’s sweet, too, being here, listening to people talk about American politics, some with more knowledge than lots of Americans. Many marvel at the voting process. My friend at the Ethiopian Mapping Agency said he and some friends were debating when Ethiopia will have elections like in America. (His prediction: 40 years.)

He also talked about what he had been hearing from Ethiopian friends in the US, many of whom thought the president didn’t do enough in Africa to curtail human rights violations or press censorship. He didn’t do what he was promised, they said. Hearing that perspective is always enlightening.

Sometimes in the US we forget amid the spats, the long lines, the attempts at vote suppression, problems at the polling places, recounts, etc.,  that we’re a model democracy for the developing world. I feel an enormous pressure to live up to that somehow, and I know when I go home, I want to be a part of perfecting the system, ensuring our rights and maintaining our legacy as a free and fair democracy.

 

Some random thoughts about the election (Sorry to get political in the blog, but part of LethiopiaH is Leah, and me likey the politics. This will be the only time, I promise. Peace Corps disclaimer applies.)

 

• I think Romney is a mostly good guy (aside from all the lying) though out of touch (“I’m friends with NASCAR owners,” anyone?), and I think at another point in time he could’ve been a decent if underwhelming president, but the climate of the GOP is toxic to anyone remotely moderate, and he paid for that by trying to be someone he’s not. Sad, really.

• You can’t expect to win a national election if you can’t even win either of your “home” states. And so much for Ryan energizing the GOP vote in WI. Is the GOP gonna pick that guy to run for prez in four years? Oy.

• I thought Mitt’s concession speech was lackluster. I remember being moved by McCain’s four years ago. Romney just seemed annoyed to me.

• Tammy Baldwin! I couldn’t be happier.

• Bachmann just managed to squeak it out, huh? Disappointing.

• So many good results on ballot initiatives, from MN to ME, WA, CO, MD. Makes we wonder if that god-awful anti-gay WI constitutional amendment from 2006 would have passed in 2012.

• Seriously, Florida, you’ve had 12 years to get your shit together. What is the deal?

• Sadly, I didn’t get to vote. (I know!) My ballot doesn’t come via email anymore, and I didn’t get my ballot in the mail in time to vote before I left to head down south. I found out about the federal ballot thing too late. Thanks, WI, for bailing me out.

• I don’t know if I can ever again get as excited about a candidate as I have been about Obama. Unless Cory Booker runs. Is 2016 too soon? What about a Feingold/Booker ticket? Ok, that might do the trick.

• If your way of winning an election is to STOP people from voting and to gerrymander districts, please stop calling yourself the party of freedom and democracy. It’s pathetic.

• I’m excited to come home next year and get to work putting Scott Walker out of work. 2014!

• And finally, I think both sides need to embrace reality in the next four years.
  • Repubs: The world is not going to end, the US isn’t going to become a communist state, and things will definitely not be as bad as you keep saying they will be. Just calm down. And maybe, you know, try to work with the man for a change.
  • Dems: Remember that Obama can’t do anything alone. He will not singlehandedly stop climate change, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, armed conflict, and he can’t singlehandedly get the economy pumping again. He’s working with a divided government and an opposition party that wants him to fail, just like (much of) his first term. Cut the guy a little slack.

Cheers.

 

meskel and more

In September, Ethiopians celebrated a couple of holidays. The first was the Ethiopian New Year, on September 11. The second was Meskel, or the finding of the true cross, an important holiday for Orthodox Ethiopians.

Meskel Square

For Meskel, I was in Addis working on a project with the Ethiopian Mapping Agency. I was lucky enough to be put up in a hotel near Meskel Square, where, appropriately, there is a huge Meskel celebration every year.

I went, heeding some advice from my friends at the mapping agency. Only brought the essentials. No money, no ID, shoved my phone in my bra. Yeah, it looked funny. Took my camera because you have to bring a camera, right? I gripped it tight and staked a spot at a rail across from the square to take some photos. Within two minutes I was essentially trapped, the crowd closing in all around me. But no worries, it just meant I wasn’t going anywhere. I settled in for the show.

It was an amazing experience. I can only describe it as a cross between a Fourth of July celebration and New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

The flames

Thousands of people cram in the square as they wait for the big event – the ball drop – the lighting of a massive pile of wood, which when lit points the way to the true cross with its smoke. (At least I think that’s the significance). The tension is palpable.

While they wait, spectators are treated to a Fourth of July-like parade of entertainment featuring singers, priests, and…priests and singers. Ok, so there’s not a whole lot of variation, but the highlights included a roving troupe of kazoo-horn playing church children and a makeshift Ethiopian flag covered ark, much like the one Noah floated on for forty days and forty nights. You know, except for all the animals. And the rain. And the wood. Ok, it was just a truck covered with an ark-shaped frame. But still pretty cool.

Other events that occurred while I stood at my rail for two hours: a woman’s hair caught on fire, a man tried to pickpocket me (Ha, sucka!), and a man who had climbed a tree to get a better view fell out. He was ok.

Gross. Just gross.

On to the New Year. So it’s 2005 in Ethiopia. Finally. Melkam Addis Amet (belatedly)! I celebrated with my landlady and her family. It was much like a normal Ethiopian holiday, only I witnessed the sheep slaughter for the first time. Disgusting. I also texted my friend Joanna constantly, the highlights of which you can read here.

Not much else to say about that, I suppose. Didn’t really make any resolutions, except maybe do some project this year, you know? And enjoy the time I have left here, which isn’t that long (!) actually – nine months.

So Happy New Year! Cheers!