11/9/09

So, we've now been at site for a day and a half now and so far, so bad, ha ha ha!  It's not all bad, but it seems like anything that can go wrong has so far.  Saturday, we left the bus station 2 hours late and arrived in our town 13 hours later at 9 pm.  It was uncomfortable, hot, and smelly; and a little bit scary.  Kim's counterpart had arranged for us to stay in this strange hotel in town for 120 birr (roughly $9.50).  It was uncomfortable, hot, and smelly; fortunately, we were exhausted.  The next morning we found some pretty good breakfast at this nicer hotel.  After that, the hotel tried to charge us an extra 120 birr because it was now 10:20 and we were apparently supposed to be out by 10.

We then went and saw our place we would be living, but it was being painted so we wouldn't be able to move in that day.  We decided to stay at the nicer hotel, which was only 158 birr and a world better.  However, while the hotel was better, Kim realized in the middle of the night that she had food poisoning.  At 2 in the morning I harrassed the hotel manager, who was sleeping in the hotel office, for some bottled water.  He told it was impossible and offered me Koka-Kola instead.  I told him that was no good and explained that my wife was very, very sick and needed water...immediately.  After much haggling, he managed to appear with a cold bottle of water.  Sometime around 8, I went out to the pharmacy and bought her some ORS (Oral Rehydration Salts), which is disgusting, but helped.

I'm sure the rest of the week will only get better.

11/7/09

For the past 3 days we have been in Addis Ababa (the capital) participating in the counterpart workshops.  Basically, the respective host organizations we will be working for send someone to meet us and be our counterpart.  This person will help us get settled in, introduce us around the community, and basically help us with any problems we might have at our site.  The workshop is the chance for us to meet our counterpart and also learn some difficulties they face in their jobs in their communities.  Kim's counterpart was from the local health center and mine was from the Red Cross.  Unfortunately, mine was busy in meetings the entire time and didn't come.

Apart from the workshop, these 3 days were a chance for us to hang out with the entire group of volunteers as well.  Currently, during training, the volunteers are staying in 4 separate towns.  It's really good because we know the other people in our town very well since it's a small group, but the people in the other towns we only see for short periods.  We also were able to get some "international" food while we were in the capital.  I put international in quotes because it still tastes vaguely Ethiopian.

The first night we had cheeseburgers, which were really thin and a little sweet, but overall it was better than anything we had had up to that point.  Our standards are really starting to drop for various things.  A favorite phrase is, "I wouldn't order it back in America, but it was pretty good."  That being said, the next night we went with a group to "New York, New York", which is a pizza place.  The pizza was actually really good and better than some I've had in America.

11/1/2009

11/01/09

Yesterday we found out our site placement for the next two years. It was pretty cool to learn where everyone in our group was going to be living after we leave our respective towns. It's going to be sad to leave the other 7 people that live in our town with us, but we'll be happy to have a little more freedom once we get to our permanent site.

Kimberly and I will be living in a cool place in the southern part of Ethiopia. It's a city of about 75,000 people and is actually known pretty well as a tourist stop. Apparently, it has a crocodile farm which is interesting. The guide book we read said it is several thousand bored looking crocodiles, all in cages. Sounds like a recipe for disaster if you ask me, and you can guarantee that I'll be going there on a regular basis! It is also near a nature preserve, in which we supposedly will be able to see hippos and zebras in their natural habitat. Just thinking about that makes me want to sing, "Oh, I Want a Hippopotomus for Christmas". If you don't know the song, look it up. You'll probably later wish you didn't, but it's pretty entertaining anyway.

Next week we get to visit our new home for an entire week to start setting it up. We are definitely looking forward to that. We won't officially move in until after we swear into the Peace Corps in the middle of December, but it will be good to see it anyway.

I didn't mention the name of the town, because Peace Corps is pretty big on us not really giving too many details over blogs and such. You never know who might be reading, but if you get our emails, you'll be able to know exactly where we are living.

10/28/09

This past weekend was kind of rough for me and Kimberly. We were just
feeling very overwhelmed with everything Ethiopian. The language, the
food, the culture, etc. It was just getting to be too much and we
were almost at the breaking point. Actually, we were probably past
the breaking point, but we sucked it up and stayed anyway. This week
has been considerably better than last week and the weekend.

On Monday, we got to go to the big city near our town to visit an
Anti-AIDS club and a Women's Support Group. This was helpful because
we got to actually do work instead of just learning language. Plus,
we got out with the other people in our group. Also, going to the big
city is nice because we get to use the internet and occaisionally get
good food. Monday we checked our email and found out we have a
package or two coming to us, so that is nice. We also got actual cake
from a hotel there, which was incredible. Then, for supper we had
halushki, a recipe Kimberly gave to the family. They won't let her do
the cooking because there is no actual kitchen or stove, but they did
a fantastic job. It was buttery and garlicky, which was different
than most of their pasta which is just oily.

On Tuesday, we took a hike with the group after class. We got to see
some of the beautiful Ethiopian countryside that I hope to show
pictures of eventually. The pictures will probably have to be emailed
and not posted on here, because it's just a little too hard. That
night we had vegetable soup made with ramen noodles. Normally, this
is not a dish I would necessarily write home about, but here in
Ethiopia, any semblance of American food is awesome.

Tuesday night, one of the sisters from our host family was visiting
from a bigger city and she brought a gift for us. For breakfast this
morning we had sliced loaf bread with strawberry preserves and
nutella. It was the closest thing to PB&J I've had since I got here.
For lunch, I had sukwar dinnich (sweet potatoes), homemade potato
chips, fried eggs, and Koka Kola. Kimberly got salad instead of the
sweet potato. The sweet potato was not like at home though. It was
the same color of regular potatoes and just slightly sweeter. The
potato chips and Koka Kola though was awesome!

Things are better, but still hard. Please continue to pray for us and
anything sent to us, even just a simple letter, is a wonderful thing.

10/25/09

So, I decided that today I'm going to talk about the people of
Ethiopia. As I mentioned already they are incredibly friendly, but
their friendliness can be a bit of a shock to Americans. We are used
to walking down the street without anyone saying anything or even so
much as looking in our direction. This does not happen here in
Ethiopia, especially when you are one of only 9 white people in the
entire village. Ethiopians love to stare, they love to yell out your
name (or if they don't know it, they yell "ferengi" or "china"), they
love to introduce themselves, and the kids will honestly follow you
for miles, not caring where you are going.

Last week, we decided to go on a hike and there were probably 20 kids
who walked with us for the entire hike. The children holding your
hand for the entire walk is not out of the ordinary either. Also, men
with arms around each other or holding hands is not uncommon here in
Ethiopia, but homosexuality is actually against the law. Yesterday, I
had an elderly man grab my hand in the market and he would not let go
the entire time. Ethiopia is definitely the place you want to go if
you are trying to step out of your comfort zone.

10/24/09

So, we've now been in Ethiopia officially for 11 days, it feels like
it's been much longer. That's partly because we have experienced so
much in a short amount of time and also because time doesn't move very
fast here. There have been some great experiences and some not so
great experiences. I'm going to be up front and say that it's been
the hardest thing that I've ever done and it so far is much more
difficult than I ever could have imagined. It's mostly because of the
culture shock of living in a country about as different from America
as you can get, and then having to learn a language in hyperspeed on
top of that. There have been at least 3 days already where one or
both of us entertained the idea of ditching and going back home. I
believe it's only the grace of God that has prevented us from
following through, that and there really are great things here in
Ethiopia.

The culture is so different that it's almost exotic to us "ferengi" or
foreigners. This is constantly yelled at us as we walk down the road,
that or "China." Some great things are the hospitality of the people,
who are overjoyed to have us here. The coffee, which flows like water
does in America and tastes better than any coffee I've ever had. They
have a little ceremony every night in which they roast, ground, and
make the coffee right before your eyes. Tea or chay is delicious as
well and we usually have that at breakfast and then again at 10:30 am.

The food is one of the not so great experiences. There is something
called injera, which is some kind of soured bread similar in shape to
a tortilla and not similar in flavor to anything I've ever had. I've
only eaten it 3 times and struggled to keep it down each time,
therefore we just don't eat it. Since this is their national food and
something they eat with each meal, and they know we don't like it, we
usually get the same meals over and over. Pasta, rice, carrots,
potatoes, bread, and eggs. This stuff is good, but not as good as at
home, and it gets old fast. One good thing is the fresh fruits and
vegetables in the market.

That's all I have for now, but I promise to post more later when I can.

Here we go again...

So, the government of Turkmenistan apparently didn't want our group so we got sent back home. Now, it appears that Kimberly and I will be joining the group going to Ethiopia. Unfortunately, they leave today for staging and we won't be joining them until about a week from now. All the paperwork that we filled out for Turkmenistan must be filled out all over again for Ethiopia, including the Visa application. So, that's why our departure is being delayed. Hopefully we won't be too far behind the rest of the group in the learning process.

On the positive, we knew about Turkmenistan for about 7 months and never really got too excited about it. We have known about Ethiopia for 4 days now and are really, really looking forward to going there. Africa is where Kimberly originally wanted to go when we signed up for the Peace Corp anyway, so we feel like things are really being corrected here.

Ethiopia here we come!