Life in Butajira ... so far

Gorge in Butajira next to my family's home

I’ve had a few people ask me what kind of environment I’m living in so I thought it might be good to write about my living conditions. I’m currently in training and as we have been reminded several times, we are not yet volunteers. We are still just trainees and will not become true volunteers until the swearing in ceremony at the embassy in mid-September so I can’t wait for that day. Training for our group is in Butajira which is about two and a half from the capital Addis Ababa. Unlike many of my friends and family assumed the weather here is not hot. It is currently the rainy season in Ethiopia (July – September). Average temperatures during the day have been in the 60s and it gets much colder at night. The altitude here is much higher than what I’m used to in Knoxville, so even if Ethiopia is close to the equator, we are pretty high up making it colder than what the majority of us expected. With all this rain, Butajira is very green with plenty of trees, grass, and huge hills that I have to walk up every day.

Gorge in Butajira next to my host family's home

                I am living with a host family in Kebele 1 (Kebele stands for community). There are 5 Kebeles in Butajira and our group has been dispersed all over these 5 communities. With it being the rainy season, the power will sometimes go out, but it doesn’t happen frequently and has not proven to be a huge problem… yet. My host family has running water however there is no indoor plumbing, so I’m sure you can guess what that means… I have to go outside to use the bathroom. Here the latrine is called the "shint bet". I’m slowly getting used to it. It was hard at first, but I have no choice. Each time I get done using it I’m so proud of myself, it feels like some sort of huge accomplishment. “Yeah, I used the shint bet with no problem today.” There is a shower room that is also outside. There is no hot water, but my host family has been kind enough to boil my water so I don’t use the shower head but instead take bucket baths. Even with the boiled water, taking a bucket bath outside in 60 degree weather is still cold. It is quite the process but I get better at it every time I take a shower. Practice makes perfect!

Gorge

                There is no internet at my host family’s house so I’ve been going to the hotels to get wifi and bunna (coffee). The main road of Butajira is paved and there are a couple cobblestone roads. The rest of Butajira is dirt and with the rain it’s mud. I’m very thankful for the hiking/waterproof shoes I bought right before getting here. When I walk out of my house I’m confronted with cows, goats, horses, roosters, and chicken so you constantly have to watch where you are going so you don’t run into a herd of cattle. I have a rooster right outside my window as well that doesn’t yell at the same time every day (my naïve, western self assumed that roosters woke up at the same time every day, some internal clock thing, but no, roosters are constantly cock-a-doodling at no specific time). There are also monkeys and it is totally normal to walk to my technical training session with a monkey on my left and a baby goat to my right.  

                The pictures I have posted are of the magnificent gorge right next to my house. The view is absolutely stunning and pictures do not do it justice. I’d love to try and get some quiet and relaxing reading time there however the children in the neighborhood are constantly surrounding us foreigners so getting any privacy outside the confines of your bedroom is practically impossible. Even so, Butajira is absolutely beautiful. I hope this blog post gives everyone a better idea of how I will be living for the next 8 weeks. We tend to forget how much we have living in a developed country and take a lot for granted so everyone realize how well you have it when you take your long hot shower tonight and you get to sit on a toilet!!

First Days in Country

Finally arrived in Ethiopia after what has felt like several days of traveling. From our staging event on July 1^st we took a bus from Philadelphia to JFK airport. Our first eight hour flight took us to Frankfurt. Once there we had a six hour layover. Our next flight stopped in Khartoum, Sudan after five hours to refuel. An hour later we were back in the air for another four hours before arriving in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Gathering fifty-eight people with two pieces of checked luggage each and a carry on was a bit hectic, but we managed to get everything together (no bags were lost surprisingly) and make it to our hotel. Even though we had gotten very little sleep over the past two days of travel, the seven hour time change and jet lag made us all pretty restless that night so the majority of us did not get much sleep.

                Next morning we were all up at 9am for our first meeting. It started off with introductions from the Peace Corps staff and then some basic information on safety and security and health issues for Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in Ethiopia. Later that morning we walked over to the Peace Corps headquarters (about a 20 minute walk from the hotel) where we had a picnic lunch in celebration of the 4^th of July. Next steps were logistic type stuff. We went around the office to get our pictures taken for our worker ID cards, we received SIM cards for our phones, did our medical interviews with the doctors (which did not end until 9pm for some of us), received money for our first three days in country, and finally end with group discussions with the Peace Corps Ethiopia Director to introduce ourselves. Safe to say we were kept pretty busy for the 4^th of July.

                Day 2 included some shots, our first Amharic lesson, but most importantly we met the Peer Support Network (PSN). This is a group of current PCVs elected by other PCVs to provide support for volunteers. It was great getting to meet these volunteers to get a perspective on what PCV life is like. They discussed all of the highs and lows that come with living in Ethiopia as a foreigner. Overall, the Peace Corps has an amazing support network of volunteers. Each one of us was assigned a PSN leader who we can talk to about pretty much anything.

                Right before leaving for Ethiopia I wasn’t sure about how my relationships would be with other volunteers. I wasn’t sure if we would be left off on our own, how many times we’d be able to see other volunteers, and how our relationships would be with volunteers from our group (G9 Education). Meeting everyone in G9, getting to know them a little bit and seeing the relationships that current PCVs have with one another has shown me that we are not alone in our service. Each one of our experiences will be different, however we are all there for one another. This new group of people that I have met will be my community for the next two years. They are the people that I will help get through their service and the people that will help me get through mine. Learning more about PCV life has proven how challenging it will, however we are not alone. I am full of emotions for what the next 27 months has in store. I am overwhelmed with both excitement and anxiety, however I am ready to embark on this journey and see what it holds for me.