I MADE THE 6 MONTH MARK!

June 15, 2009

About two weeks ago marked the 6-month anniversary of my arrival in Ethiopia and it comes as a sense of accomplishment and encouragement to keep it up, that I have been in the Peace Corps for half a year. As luck would have it, this 6-month marker came during the Peace Corps In-Service Training, so I was with all the other volunteers from my group (except the three that went home…yep, we lost another just a week before In-Service Training). Besides the loss of Gabe, which was sad news to get, it was absolutely wonderful being with all my friends again. It was interesting to see how far we have all come since those few months in Pre-Service Training when we were all just trying to figure out what was going on and how we could live in this country for two years. Of course, we are all still trying to figure that out but everyone seems to have adapted very well to being on his/her own and are doing great things so far. One highlight of the 10-day training was the North vs. South Kickball game we organized between all the volunteers. Everyone made uniforms (North-blue and South-green...yes I did choose my team’s color) and we found a park at the resort PC put us up in to play the game. It was a huge success, although unfortunately the Southside lost :(. I think our group is creating quite a reputation for itself as one of the most fun and creative PC groups in the history of Ethiopia, if not the whole world.

The training itself was rather boring, chock full of PowerPoint presentations by representatives from various organizations, but there were elements that were very helpful. We spent the first three days learning about permaculture (“permanent agriculture”) from a former PCV who now lives in Tanzania and is an expert on this. I now feel more confident not only to start my own garden (which I planted this past weekend, finally!) but also to teach the methods I learned to members of my community. We learned about how to control water so that planting can still be done during both the rainy and dry season common in this part of Africa. I am living in a region with some of the most fertile land in all of Ethiopia, yet almost all of the agriculture is for exports, like coffee. Food prices have increased exponentially in just the past year yet people are still not growing their own food. I really want to help spread this message of growing food through family gardens that will foster more self-sufficiency and improve the health in my community.

This training really motivated me to get back out into my community and get started on some of these ideas floating up in my head. There is so much I want to do that I don’t really know where to start and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I think I am just going to dive in head first and see what sticks. I’ll keep you posted.

Before returning to my town, I took my first vacation! Jill and Tina (who live in the northernmost region of Ethiopia) made a visit down south after training and we had a girls trip to Arba Minch. Nichole, my friend from Group 1, also came along and we had such a great time. We had to endure an 8-hour long bus ride on an unpaved road in a bus with no shocks to get there and back but it was definitely worth it. We took a boat across this huge lake, where we saw crocodiles, hippos, and pelicans. Then they brought us to the shore of the national park, where we hiked through and saw herds and herds of zebras. It was so beautiful and amazing; it actually felt like being in Africa. We all have a little joke that Ethiopia isn’t actually Africa but rather a continent of its own inside Africa. But it was a really great experience and I have some awesome pictures, which hopefully will make their way onto my blog soon.

Not much else to report. My sincere apologies for being so out of touch these past two months. Right before training I was consumed with finishing my Community Needs Assessment, which I had to present at training. Then, the training location was this little resort completely cut off from the rest of the world and I had no internet access. Now that I am back in my town, the power has been out all day for the past three days in a row. However, it just came back about 30 minutes ago so I am frantically writing this and heading off to the internet café to send it. I love and miss you all!

Also, VERY belated Happy Birthdays to:

KRISTINA!!! (May 25th)
AUNTY MARY!!! (June 1st)
Uncle Brendan (June 12)

I love you lots and lots and was thinking about you on your respective days :)