February 7 - February 10, 2009

A bit out of order....

I’m a Sad Little Cookie – February 7, 2009

I guess I am not very good at keeping up with this thing, so please forgive me. So first, I’ll catch you up on things since I left Dilla. I had an interesting return back to Ambo. First, Marina got punched in the back by this crazy guy on the street for no apparent reason. Then, the minibus that we got to drive us to the bus station got hit by a bus in front of us when the other bus stalled and we were on a hill. The police came and for some reason gave our bus drivers a 40 birr ticket, which they then tried to get us to pay. I don’t really understand that logic. Then our bus from Addis Ababa to Ambo hit an unidentified animal just as it was getting dark outside. It was really scary because we thought it was a person at first but no one inside was hurt and whatever we hit got away so the mystery still looms.

When we arrived in Ambo, it was pouring rain and they dropped us off outside the bus station (pretty far from my house) and all of our belongings that were tied up on the roof of the bus were soaking wet. We waited it out for a little while at a bar. To make matters worse, I had gotten a bout of diarrhea in Addis and as soon as I got off the bus, needed to go. I ran in the pouring rain and dark (scary!) to the nearest hotel with a toilet, getting heckled all the way. Finally the rain let up a bit, but there were no taxis to be found so we just walked. It was pretty miserable and I was soaked and muddy when I returned to my home in Ambo. I had never been so glad to be home before.

I guess that kind of kicked off the week from hell, from which I am still recovering. On Wednesday, while I was in the bathroom forcing myself to poop since I had access to a toilet, Jason announced to the group that he was Early Terminating because of family issues at home. By the time I got back, he had already left and I didn’t find out about it until after a presentation, when Brad asked me if I had heard.

The news really got to me, more than I expected it to and seemingly more than any of the other PCTs (Peace Corps Trainee). We have become such a close group and I guess I had this romantic notion of all of us making it through to the end, two years down the road. Jason was also really awesome and brought so much to our group. He was even supposed to live in the south and would have been one of the closer volunteers to me. Mama called me the following morning (she must have had Mom radar) and I felt so much better after talking to her.

Just a few hours later at school when I came out of language class, Jon Losey told me that another one of us was leaving. When he said Travis’ name, my heart dropped. Travis had become one of my closest friends here and was being medically separated because his asthma condition was acting up. When he went to his town, Arsi Negele, for site visit he had several asthma attacks and broke out in hives. We all joked that he was allergic to his town, which he wasn’t crazy about anyway, but we didn’t see this coming. The last PC had told him was that he would probably be moved to Hawassa (with John, Rich, and Chris), Yirgalem (with Jordan) or Dilla (WITH ME). I was so excited at the prospect that he might be living in my town with me.
The double blow of Jason and Travis leaving, both really great guys and placed in my region, really hit me hard. I am slowly recovering though, and while I still miss them a lot, I realize that I have so much to do here and I have to be strong. I didn’t expect to become so close with anyone here and was prepared to kind of go this alone, so I can’t let Travis’ leaving get me down. I just hope he can find something else great to do because he is an amazing person and has such potential to do great things.

So now on a brighter note, I have some positive news to share! Yesterday we had our fourth and final village visit in Ginche and gave a training session to our target group: the PLWHA Association and Home-based caregivers. Over the past two visits, we learned that the Home-based caregivers wanted a refresher on HIV Basics and the PLWHA Association wanted more information on living healthy lives as HIV-positive people and information on ART (antiretroviral therapy). We were very apprehensive about covering so much in such a short amount of time (two hours), but the members say they would rather stay longer than cut out information. They seemed to be really excited about us giving the training, even though we told them we could not provide any financial assistance or per diem for attending the training.

Our group definitely had the most ambitious agenda for a training session and we put a lot of time and effort into preparing for it. I think we were all on the same page and realized that this was the most important thing we were doing in training because it was real application of the things we had been learning. We split everything up into sections and assigned two people to each section. Rebecca started things out with an introduction and trivia game that got the participants active. Sean and Chris presented on HIV Basics, which drummed up a lot of interesting questions. I was really impressed with how well we were able to answer questions, considering only two out of the ten in our group had any direct HIV/health experience before coming to Peace Corps.

Next Karen and Marina presented on mental health and the emotional implications of living with HIV or having a loved one living with HIV. This was a little difficult to really delve into in such a short period of time but I think they did a great job of putting emotional health out there as equally important as physical health. My section on healthy behavior came next, which I facilitated with Melissa. We did a skit (Ethiopians love skits or “dramas”), which compared the lives of two HIV+ men (Sean and Chris) who make different choices in their life that affect their health. Sean does drugs, drinks, and has unprotected sex with other women, putting his wife at risk. Chris buys fruits and vegetables from the market, takes his antiretroviral drugs, and uses a condom with his wife to keep both of them healthy and safe. In the end, Chris and Sean get together and Chris shares all his secrets of staying healthy and extending his life. Oh yeah, and we did the whole thing in Amharic. We are so gobez.(clever)

Shelley presented next on the importance of nutrition and good foods to eat that are inexpensive and readily available in Ethiopia. Peter and Tina then presented on ART, the importance of taking the medications consistently and correctly so that they remain effective, and suggestions of how to remind yourself about taking your meds. We finished it off with an exercise called “Baby Elephant” that demonstrates how HIV breaks down your immune system and ways to help strengthen your immune system (i.e. nutrition and ART). It’s difficult to explain but it went over really well. At the end, we passed out the fruits and vegetables that we brought as props for our skit to the participants. The total running time was 3 hours, 12 minutes. I am so proud of my group and everything that we accomplished. This whole village visit thing was designed by Peace Corps as a part of our training and we did learn so much, but I think we actually helped our trainees in the process as well. There will be a volunteer, Julia, placed in Ginche and I think that we set a good tone for her to begin her work there.

February 9, 2009
Happy Birthday Jeff!!

Pre-Service Training Comes to an End – February 10, 2009
So PST is finally over and tomorrow we leave for Addis Ababa. It’s so hard to believe it’s really over and soon we will be out on our own doing what we came here to do. This past Sunday we had a Host Family Appreciation Ceremony. The Language and Cross Culture Coordinators told me a week or two ago that I had been selected to give a speech, in Amharic, to the families at the ceremony. I was really shocked that I had been selected and definitely apprehensive about it, but it was still such an honor. I am determined to become really good at Amharic and I guess I am doing pretty well so far. About a month into our time here, we had an LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) and I received a rating of Novice-High. The scale goes Novice Low, Mid, High, Intermediate Low, Mid, High, Advanced, Advanced Plus, Superior, Distinguished, and Native Competence. Most of the class got Novice-Low or Mid, so I was really pleased. Yesterday, those of us that continued with Amharic rather than switching to a different language spoken at our sites, had another LPI and I think I did well. I hope I upgrade to Intermediate.

So anyway, Peter and I wrote our speech together (he was chosen to give a speech in Oromifa) and then the LCFs translated it. I was pretty intimidated when I saw the translation. When written in the Latin alphabet, some Amharic words can be almost 20 letters long and it is a very difficult language to pronounce. Even still, I think it went over really well and the host families seemed really impressed. I even successfully told a joke in my speech! I was really proud of myself.

So tonight is my last night with my host family and I am so sad to leave them. They have been such an integral part of my PST experience and I feel so lucky to have been placed with them. I feel like they actually got to know me and my personality, more than just being a strange American renting their room for a few months. Likewise, I feel like I’ve gotten to know each one of them, some more than others, but I appreciate each member of my family for different reasons. I am going to miss them so much, but I hope to be able to visit them a couple times through the next two years. I don’t know if they will ever be able to come to Dilla, but I hope so. Now I am going to spend the last little time that I can with them.