After all the celebrations ...

So what happened after our ceremony on Friday? Well reality hit all of us pretty hard; at least it did for me. I was so nervous the following morning. My stomach started hurting as soon as I woke up because I knew I would be myself in less than an hour. At 8am, buses took us to the various bus stations in Addis Ababa (depending on where in Ethiopia our sites were) and dropped us off. We were all alone after that. All that was going on in my head was, “Helena, I sure hope you were paying attention during training because you’re on your own from this point on.”

The bus stations here can be pretty frightening at first. As soon as we got off the bus from the hotel, all these people came up to me yelling, “Where are you go? Where are you go?” Once you tell them where you want to go, Butajira in my case, they take you in the direction where those buses are. They physically grab your arm and pull you to where they want you to go. I’m not sure what the specific name for these guys is. Their job is to fill up the buses. They get commission for every person they get on a bus. That’s why as soon as they find someone going in the direction they want they get a hold of you and make sure you follow them, hence the arm pulling. I was prepared for this since we had to do this during our demystification visits. It was just that this time, I had to do it by myself instead of just following an experienced Volunteer. There is so much yelling and moving in the bus stations it all seems extremely unorganized and chaotic, yet similar to the market, there is some system in place that the locals understand. These bus stations are also notorious for pickpocketing, therefore you have to be very mindful of all of you belongings and hold on to them tight.

Back to Saturday morning, I was taken to the correct bus and able to finally relax once I sat down. Now, there is no specific time that the bus leaves at. You have to wait until all of the seats are filled before leaving so I sat on that bus for over an hour. This is the part that kills me. Butajira should only take about two and a half hours to get to from Addis, yet I didn’t get there until after 1pm. Once the bus finally took off at 9:30am, getting out of Addis was a pain. Traffic there is terrible and there doesn’t seem to be any road or traffic laws so cars, trucks, and buses are just going in whichever direction they feel like. I try not to pay attention so I don’t start freaking out. Also, the bus driver stopped at least three times to pick up something to eat for himself and get a drink. No one seems to be in a rush at all. They are all taking their time, stopping whenever they feel like it. And if anyone needs to use the bathroom just tell the driver. He will stop for you to go on the side of the road. Safe to say I will not be doing any unnecessary traveling to avoid this mess. I’m trying to learn to be more patient though, seeing as how I have to live here for the next 2 years. I better get used to it.  

Finally, I made it back to Butajira. I’ve been used to having 57 ferenji (foreigner in Amharic) in this town for over 2 months so being back in Butajira alone felt a bit lonely. I walked to my new home though. Of course, my house is completely empty. I had no idea where to start. I’ve been here for almost a week now and I still have almost nothing that I need. My floors are cement so I also need to get some plastic flooring. And where do I get all this stuff? There’s no supermarket or home supplies store where you can get everything you need. Instead of dealing with this on my first day back in Butajira, I walked over to my host family’s home. They have really gone above and beyond their duties as a host family. Since training is over they are no longer getting paid by Peace Corps to take care of me however, they insisted that I stay the night until I got myself settled since I didn’t even have a mattress to sleep on. For 2 nights I slept over and they fed me. I’m not sure what I would of done without them.     

Swearing-In Ceremony

It’s official… we’re Peace Corps Volunteers. Out of the 58 that arrived in Ethiopia on July 3^rd, 57 of us made it through training. I’m so proud of us. It seemed like we would never get through 11 weeks, but we did. And as I sit here in my new home without any of the people I trained with I can say that time really does fly. So let me explain our swearing in ceremony. 

It took place on Friday, September 20^th at the US embassy in Addis Ababa. Our Peace Corps country director, Greg Engle, gave a speech. Then, three Peace Corps trainees gave remarks in the respective languages that we have learned in training, Amharic, Afan Oromo, and Tigrigna. The US Ambassador-Designate, Patricia M. Haslach was present and each one of us walked on stage to shake her hand along with our country director’s. As all the speeches were made, I couldn’t help recognizing what we had accomplished.

The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960 when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged the students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. Out of that inspiration an agency arose out of the federal government devoted to world peace and friendship. Since that time, Peace Corps has served in 139 countries. There are hundreds of organizations working in international development that are similar to the Peace Corps. What makes Peace Corps unique from the rest of those organizations is that volunteers live with the communities they help. They live just like the people around them in very similar environments. Peace Corps volunteers are out in the field 24/7. So as I sat listening to our director and ambassador explain the meaning of the Peace Corps and its mission I had to hold back tears because I couldn’t believe that I was part of such a huge legacy and important mission.

After the ceremony there was a reception for volunteers and invited guests. We were treated to delicious foods, sushi and brownies to name a couple. If you ask certain Volunteers this may have been their favorite part of the event seeing as how we’ve been craving foreign food since about a week after we arrived in Ethiopia. I joked during training and said that the only thing that was getting me through hours of language classes and technical sessions was the rumor going around Peace Corps Ethiopia that we would get brownies at the swearing-in ceremony. Well, the rumor was true and those brownies tasted amazing.

As is tradition, a few current Volunteers took out the new Volunteers to celebrate that night. We all packed out bags since we were leaving early in the morning and put on our best outfits. We then went out in Addis Ababa to celebrate with drinks and dancing. Out of the 57 new volunteers, about 48 of us went out together. It was so nice to be with everyone in a non-stressful environment.  I think at one point all of us were dancing in the club, letting loose and getting a little crazy. 11 weeks of training will do that to you.

But it was a bittersweet day. Sweet because we had all made it through training and got to spend an amazing day together. Bitter because the next morning we would all be going our separate ways, and as new volunteers are not allowed to  leave their site for 3 months, we knew that none of us would see each other until our In-Service training, January 1^st, 2014. That date seems so far away, but as I’ve said plenty of times, time goes by very fast and if we all made it through training, I have no doubt that all of us can get through the next 3 months alone at site. Many of us have formed bonds that will last a lifetime. We will need each other more than ever the next 3 months as this will prove to be one of the most challenging periods of our lives thus far.    

Last Night at our Training Site

Week 11!! It’s finally here!! None of us thought we would ever reach the end of our training program yet here we are, packing up our suitcases, preparing to travel to our sites. I write this post on my last night with my host family. My neighbors (who are also hosting a trainee, Kassa) invited me to their bunna ceremony after dinner. As we were sitting on their veranda looking up at the moon, Kassa and I couldn’t help remembering our first night with our host families just a few weeks ago. I was so nervous that first day I thought I was going to cry. What got me through that first night was knowing that Kassa was next door going through the exact same thing. As we parted ways that first night to have dinner with our families, I remember us wanting to stay together. We didn’t want to be alone. I was so scared to have dinner with my host family. And tonight here we were, sitting comfortably on the porch with our families, ten weeks later. Tonight felt completely different than that first night and I’m so proud that I can say that. We made it through training. We did it!! There were moments, a lot of them occurring in the first few days, where I didn’t think I would make it. So I must also use this post to thank Kassa. With us being neighbors, Kassa and I often walked to and from trainings together talking through our many ups and downs. Thank you Kassa for being there for me!! I’m going to miss having you next door. We’ve already accomplished things that in the moment seemed impossible, such as living with an Ethiopian family that we knew absolutely nothing about.

Now as I have been assigned to Butajira, I do not have to move very far. I’ll be moving from Kebele 1 to Kebele 3 (a 20 minute walk from my host family’s house to my new home). I have to say, at first I wasn’t excited about staying here, but as we’ve come to our final days in technical sessions and language classes I’m pretty happy to be staying. It’s nice that I don’t have to move very far but most importantly, I won’t have to say goodbye to my host family. Living in someone’s home for 2 months, learning about their family and their culture brings you pretty close to them. I am so happy that I don’t have to say goodbye and that I will become closer to this wonderful family throughout the next two years. I cannot thank them enough for accepting me into their home and treating me like a daughter these past few weeks. They have given me a place to sleep, fed me many amazing Ethiopian dishes, and kept me healthy. They have taught me so much about Ethiopia as well and shown me how hospitable Ethiopians are. My host parents have informed we that whatever I need once I move out of their house, they will be there to help. My host mom and I are planning to do some shopping for my home next week when I come back from our swearing in ceremony in Addis Ababa.

With it being my last night in my host family’s home I am a mix of emotions. I’m both excited and nervous about starting the next 24 months, living on my own, in the middle of Ethiopia. Training has been pretty challenging. We’ve had our days scheduled for us from basically the time we get up to the time we go to sleep. We have been told what to do and where to go at almost every hour. After we swear in, all that will go away and we will be completely free. I’m a bit scared for this drastic transition…wait, no… I’m extremely scared!!! To be left in an Ethiopian town, on my own without any of the people I’ve gotten close to these past couple months is frightening. I feel like I was finally getting into the routine of training and living with a host family. As soon as I feel at ease however, I have to leave that comfort and kind of start all over. But even though being on my own and starting a new job in Ethiopia will be difficult at the same time it will be nice to get to begin the next 2 years of my life. That’s all we’ve been talking about since we got to Ethiopia. Training has been all about preparing us for this and in less than a week we get to start this journey. The days have gone by slow, but the weeks so fast. It’s really all happening!!

The Ethiopian New Year

            Ethiopians follow the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar that Americans follow. This means that there are 13 months instead of 12, each one lasting 30 days and the 13^th month lasting only 5 days. September 11^th is the Ethiopian New Year. The Ethiopian calendar is also 7 years behind the Gregorian calendar which means that on Wednesday September 11^th, I celebrated the first day of 2006! Kind of strange to wrap your head around and be celebrating the New Year in the middle of September, but hey, if I get to celebrate the New Year twice in one year I’ll take it. More holidays for me.

            My host family was so excited for the holiday. Unlike us in the states, Ethiopians do not stay up until midnight and countdown the New Year (at least my host family doesn’t). Rather, they celebrate all day on New Year’s Day. My host mother woke us all up early on Wednesday morning. While eating breakfast they turned on Ethiopian music really loud and started dancing. Then, we all got dressed, my mother and sister in their traditional Ethiopian dresses, and headed over to my host grandmother’s house. Most Ethiopian families typically go from one family member’s house to the other to celebrate the New Year. Also, with holidays comes a lot of meat, however since the New Year this year fell on a Wednesday and Wednesday is a fasting day for the Ethiopian Orthodox church, we saved the chickens for the following day.

            I learned something about family on that day. It doesn’t matter where in the world you live, what culture you are from, what you believe in, or what traditions your family practices. At the end of the day family is the same everywhere. After lunch at my host aunt’s house, the family got into a heated discussion (all of this in Amharic of course, but it doesn’t matter what language one is speaking, you can usually tell when people are arguing). So the whole family got into a heated debate, disagreeing with one another about who knows what. Before I knew it some were crying, when twenty minutes earlier they had all been dancing and laughing. Well, twenty minutes after the crying they were all dancing and laughing again. This reminded me of my family. Our holidays are a mix of emotions as well and it wouldn’t be a holiday if there wasn’t laughing, shouting, crying, and more laughing. So I realized that yes, my Ethiopian family does things that my French/American family has never done. They eat foods that I had never heard of before this, they dance differently than we do, listen to different music, kill animals in the backyard when they want to eat meat, and their concept of time is completely new to me, but family exists everywhere and it doesn’t matter where you are from, at the end of the day family is the same across diverse cultures. At first glance we may all seem very different, but we have much more in common than we think. The Ethiopian New Year reminded me that we are not that different after all. 

Lake Langano

We’ve been in training for 10 weeks now and to say that G9 is exhausted is an understatement so our day trip to Lake Langano could not have come at a more perfect time. I can feel myself slowing down and losing motivation and when I talk to other trainees they feel the same as I do.  This past Thursday, Peace Corps treated us to a break for the day, to Lake Langano. The lake is about an hour and a half from Butajira. We all got up early and walked over to the hotel where our buses were waiting to take us away for the day. When I woke up that morning, I heard exactly what I was afraid of, the rain. No! I just wanted one free day. But oh well, at least we were getting away for the day. As we got on the buses the rain came down harder and the buses had to wait in the parking lot for an extra thirty minutes to avoid the bad roads. What a great start to our day. The entire way to Lake Langano it rained. But as we pulled up to the gate to the park, the sun came out. It felt like a miracle. And it was warm. As the day went on, the weather kept getting better with the clouds moving away and letting the sun shine on our skins. Lake Langano is the only lake in Ethiopia that our Peace Corps doctors have told us we are allowed to swim in so many trainees took this opportunity to go in for a dip. I did lay out and welcome the heat from the sun. My shoulders and my face are now red, but I am not complaining. It feels good to finally get a full day of sunshine (I can’t wait until this rainy season is over). So for the entire day, I got to lay on the “beach,” I use the word beach here loosely, and marvel at the beautiful landscape while listening to music, and just hanging out and having fun with the other trainees. We have less than 2 weeks left until we swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers and I feel ready and determined to finish these last few days of training. Peace Corps planned this trip at the perfect time, I think they knew what they were doing when they scheduled this, I mean, this isn’t their first group of trainees.

 

Practice English Club

Part of our training this past week involved doing a practice English club. Since the majority of us will probably have some kind of English club at our assigned schools, our education team thought it would be a good idea for us to get some idea of how to conduct one. In our language groups (the group that we have Amharic class with) we were told to pick a focus for our club and an age range for the children. Next, we had to pick children from our neighborhood to come to our club where we would meet at our language teacher’s house. We’ve been here 2 months now so many of us have gotten familiar with the neighborhood kids. As a group, we decided to pick children ranging from ages 8 to 12. (We tried to get kids that were at about the same level in English).

Our club was to meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for one hour each day. As a group we thought it would be a good idea to have an environment day. Keeping the environment clean does not seem to be a major concern here seeing as how trash is dumped everywhere around the neighborhood. Many people in our kebele burn their trash and the materials that do not burn get dumped in the gorge which is unfortunate. For these reasons we thought it would be a good idea to teach the children about why they should keep their neighborhood clean.

On our environment day, we started with a discussion on why we shouldn’t throw trash on the ground explaining that the trash can get in our water and is dangerous for our bodies and how harmful it is to all the animals that graze on the land. We then split the 12 kids into teams of 4, each one of us leading a team. Each team had one trash bag and had to pick up as much trash as possible within 10 minutes. I wasn’t sure how much the kids would enjoy picking up trash, but to my surprise they were so excited and really into it (it probably helped that we made a game out of it). The kids were running around the dirt streets picking up all the trash they could, some even getting into the prickly bushes to grab what they could find. It was great to get to see the children understanding our lesson and being excited about keeping their home clean. We then got back together as a big group, decided on a winner, did a quick recap of our lesson, and were left with 4 piles of trash…what do we do now?

We started off with a great idea, but obviously we didn’t quite think it through. Yes, picking up trash and learning about keeping the neighborhood clean was great, but what were we supposed to do with the trash we had collected? So that’s why people are dumping their trash into the gorge and burning it. There’s no other option. Realizing that we had four big bags of trash and nowhere to put it was extremely frustrating. We had had such a great idea, but now had no clue what to do with it because we for sure weren’t going to throw it into the gorge and burning it releases awful chemicals into the air. I’ve never cared much about the environment. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think trash should be thrown on the ground but to be honest, back home I didn’t recycle all the time and I’ve never taken environmental classes or just ever been into it. It’s just never been my focus. However, standing there with all of that trash felt terrible because I knew that there was no good option to get rid of it and I suddenly became angry, angry that we use all this stuff and then just dump it somewhere.

Furthermore, there is no trash pick-up here in Butajira and there is no recycling, but the system we have going on in the United States isn’t perfect either. We don’t see a lot of the trash in the US because it gets dumped in places we don’t see or know about. A lot of our trash gets dumped in Africa. So if we leave our trash for Africa, where are the people in Africa supposed to dump their trash?

So what did we do with our four bags of trash? Well after about 20 minutes of bouncing ideas off of one another, our boss was driving through our Kebele. We asked him what the Peace Corps office in Butajira does with their trash. The PC office is located in Kebele 3 and there is a trash pick-up there as he informed us. You pay a man about 10 birr and he comes by with his donkey-drawn cart to pick up the trash. But just because he picks it up doesn’t mean the trash is taken care of. He just takes it somewhere outside Butajira and dumps it. So our boss took the pile of trash out of our hands to the PC office where we didn’t have to worry about it anymore. However, I’m still frustrated about this. In that moment I realized the importance of using reusable material and recycling because there is no good way to get rid of all this trash. And there are a lot of materials, such as Styrofoam, that you can’t ever dispose of, so we should stop using and making such items. My job title may be teacher trainer, however I have the freedom to start projects outside of this and veer off in different directions. As I said earlier, I’ve never been one to do much to take care of the environment because the truth is, I’ve never had to deal with it. In America, we have people who take care of our trash for us. They take it away and we never have to worry about it. We don’t know where it goes and honestly, it’s easier not to know. Well I’m where a lot of the trash ends up, in the Global South. And here in Ethiopia, people do not have the luxury of having a trash system that takes cares of all their crap for them. So I’ll be thinking of some sanitation projects for Butajira and teaching my teachers and students about caring for the environment because we can’t keep this up forever.