Easter

            This post is a bit late seeing as how Easter was over a week ago, but better late than never right?

            Easter is one of the biggest holidays for Ethiopians (that is, the Christian ones). The majority of Christians in Butajira are either Protestant or Ethiopian Orthodox. About a week before the celebrations began I could tell Easter was going to be a pretty important day. All the chickens and the sheep in my compound between my landlord’s family and the renters came out to seven chickens and two sheep. For a week they were in our compound making a lot of noise, waiting to be slaughtered the night before Easter. I had yet to watch a chicken get killed. After ten months in country however, I felt prepared to watch a chicken get its head cut off. So when they began preparing for the holiday Saturday night, around 8pm (my landlord and landlady were sitting right next to my house), I stepped out of my house and sat with them. That day they had also made kineto (non-alcoholic homemade barley drink that the children drink) and tala (homemade beer) so they started drinking while preparing the chicken. Women are not allowed to kill the animals. As I’ve been told plenty of times, that’s the man’s job. So my landlord began cutting the neck of all these chickens with a huge knife. Once dead, my landlady proceeded to tear them apart, either with a knife or her bare hands. I watched her rip apart that entire chicken, pull off all the feathers, take out all the insides for the dog, clean the good parts and man is it a lot of work. She was out there until past 11pm. On top of that the power had gone out, so she was doing all of this by candle light. I was more than impressed. I know why Ethiopians only eat chicken a handful of times a year. It’s so much work. But doro wot (the chicken stew/curry Ethiopians make) is delicious! I love it. It’s made with a lot of berbere (similar to chili powder) and they add hard-boiled eggs to it. For two days I had doro wot probably four times a day.

            A week earlier my host mom had told me to be at her house at 8am so I woke up early Easter morning to meet my host family. As soon as I got there I was offered a plate of doro wot and two glasses of tala. When Ethiopians offer you food and drinks it’s very difficult to say no so I found myself drinking beer at 8am. We then walked over to my host grandmother’s house and had more chicken. Again I was handed a glass of tala and each time my glass was empty it was refilled immediately. I probably had at least six glasses by 11am. The rest of the day was full of more food and drinking. In the evening I had dinner with my landlord’s family which meant more doro wot and tala. I wasn’t complaining. As I said I love doro wot and I couldn’t tell you the last time I’d had chicken. Safe to say when I go home this summer I want A LOT of chicken wings.

            The next day I had lunch twice. My first lunch was with my landlord’s family. They had killed the sheep on Easter so had prepared dulet (sheep dish) on top of the doro wot. Then I went to the house of one of my teachers and had more chicken. In the evening, I went over to my neighbor’s home with my landlord’s family and had more tala, doro wot, and dulet. By the end of dinner I was exhausted from the two day celebration. It was a lot of fun though and I’m glad I got to spend it with some really great families. Being away from home during the holidays is always more difficult, but being accepted and welcomed into all these homes was wonderful and Ethiopian Easter is unlike any Easter I’ve ever spent. It was a great experience and its moments like these that make the many struggles of living in Ethiopia worth it.   

Malaria in Ethiopia

April 25^th is World Malaria Day but since malaria is still such a deadly disease in Africa, Peace Corps has proclaimed all of April as World Malaria Month. Because of this I thought it would be a good idea to spread awareness about the disease to family and friends back home and teach people a little bit about the state of malaria in Ethiopia.

Students working on the malaria word search

Today, malaria continues to be a crisis in Africa. Every 45 seconds a child dies from the disease. Even sadder news is that this disease is completely preventable and curable if people would sleep under a mosquito net. Malaria has been eliminated in many parts of the world with the use of insecticides, medicines, and by sleeping under mosquito nets. Malaria is transmitted only by a special kind of mosquito- called the Anopheles mosquito- which primarily bites at night. Getting malaria feels like you have the flu.

Compared to other countries in Africa, the percentage of people who get malaria is low. The goal for Ethiopia is to eliminate the disease throughout the country. By spreading awareness and teaching people about how malaria is transmitted and how to prevent people from getting it, hopefully this goal can be achieved in the near future. Certain places in Ethiopia have no cases of malaria due to high elevation. Mosquitos are not found above 2500 meters, however in the last few years (as a consequence of global warming) cases of malaria have been reported at higher elevations than normal. Health clinics throughout the country pass out mosquito nets to communities in rural areas. Many people do not know how to put up their mosquito nets and so use it for other purposes. Many volunteers have said that community members do not believe that there is any malaria in their town so do not see the use in putting up a net. As Peace Corps Volunteers we have to take either weekly or daily malaria medications throughout our service and sleep under a mosquito net.

Furthermore, I along with volunteers across Africa have participated in activities to raise awareness of malaria in our communities. All month long I focused my English club on malaria. We discussed facts and statistics about the disease. We went over prevention and the goals for Ethiopia. We went over new vocab associated with malaria and I made the students a word search (the students had never done a word search before) one week and they worked on a crossword the following week. Hopefully, by spreading awareness and teaching people about the deadly consequences of not using a mosquito net and other prevention methods, malaria can be eradicated in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa so that it no longer has to take the lives of millions of people.

Students working on the malaria word search 

The ambiguous nature of a volunteer's position

            Since I swore in at the end of September, I’ve been a volunteer in Butajira for a little over six months now. After six months though, I’m still unsure of where I fit in in the workplace. Being a volunteer means I’m not really a part of the system. I don’t have an actual place in the education system. My position as teacher trainer was created for myself. This makes it challenging to figure out where I fit in. Often times I don’t feel included in all the happenings around my school. I’m never told when there is a meeting, but instead, after the meeting teachers will come up to me and say, “Tafash? “Where have you been? Where were you?” No one told me there was a meeting! This can be frustrating for several reasons.

            The downside to my position as a volunteer is that no one really knows what I’m doing. They don’t know what to do with me and this means that I have to figure things out on my own. Without an actual job in the school, I have to navigate through the system and figure out where to place myself. I find myself getting irritated when I can’t find anyone to work with me or no one seems motivated to jump along on projects I want to start. Most of those people, such as the school directors and vice directors for example, have so much work to do and are always busy. So I understand how it’s difficult to fit me in. I don’t want to seem pushy when I’m asking for things or need help with something because they already have so much on their plate. It’s in those moments that I realize that I don’t have an actual place in the system. I’m just a position that was added on last minute because the higher ups agreed to have a volunteer in their town when the idea was pitched to them. Once I leave, my position as teacher trainer will disappear. I have no direct tasks (except for the quarterly reports the Peace Corps has me write). Sometimes I feel like a floater around the school. I have to find things to do on my own because no one is going to come to me and ask me to do anything. I have no outlined responsibilities. I have to find the work and take the initiative to make anything happen. I have to find things to keep me busy. Everyone around me, the directors, education office, supervisors, and teachers all have their own work to do. I’m still trying to find my way and figure out exactly what my job entails.

            Being a volunteer does come with its advantages. Since I’m not really a part of the educational system as a whole and I’m not on the payroll, I have few responsibilities. I’m sort of my own boss. I can make my own schedule and attend whatever I feel like attending. So if I don’t want to go to something one day, I don’t have to. I’m a volunteer meaning that I have no salary, so I decide what I want and don’t want to do. If I want to take a Friday off I can do that and go away for the weekend.

            Overall though, I find that not having any structure is difficult for me. Having to figure things out on my own and create my own work is challenging and I’m still trying to find my place. I’ve been told that when you go home after your service though, the opposite happens. You get used to making your own schedule and doing things your own way and going home to a strict, fast paced schedule means having to readjust all over again.