Traditional Ethiopian food with Injira and Lamb Tibs

                                            Castles in Gondar, right across from our hotel

                                               Colobus monkeys in Simeon Mountains

                                         One of the (many) rock hewn churches in Lalibela

                                                    Blue Nile falls in Bahar Dar

                                                          Hippo at mouth of Nile

                        One of our charming locar hotels (this one across street from castles in Gondar)

                   Baboons in the Mist (fog rolled in in Simeon Mts which is probably why we got this close)

We’ve just returned from Ethiopia. I have a cold, sore throat, messy couph and very sore knees. BUT!  I had a fabulous time and saw a little bit of a country with a very rich history and culture, not to mention delicious food!  (Yes!  no foo-foo and various other forms of goo, dried fish and rat soaked in Palm Oil.) The main traditional meal there is made up of Injira (a type of very thin bread product, that you use to scoop up a variety of tasty vegetable based treats (more like sauces) and sometimes meats (tibs, bits of tasty lamb or beef)  when it is not fasting season which is not very often.  This is an ancient christian civilization with it’s very own form of christianity that includes the bible complete with hidden books not known in other civilizations. There are calls to prayer there much like you would find in a Muslim culture and much public prayer. St George is a huge figure there, a great hero known for slaying the dragon to whom the Romans were sacrificing the christians, but who also reappeared later to ward off the Italians in their (failed) attempt to colonize Ethiopia. (Oh those Italians). BUT, they (the Italians) did influence Ethiopia a great deal in that you can find wonderful pastas and pizzas most everywhere!!!  (Yes!!!!) and the Ehtiopians say “Ciao” a lot. 

Among many other things, we saw (12th century churches hand- carved out of or into the sides of mountains (Lalibela) high up in the mountains, castles of various Emperors in Gondar, monastaires built on the islands of Lake Tana (Bahir Dar) which is also the mouth of the Blue Nile River (one of the 2 major tributaries of the Nile River, the other being the White Nile) which leads into the spectatcular Blue Nile falls.  We were lucky enough to to come upon two Hippos (wow!) swimming along there (at the mouth).  Also in the Gondar area (where some Peace Corps volunteers live who took us to great restaurants), we hiked into the Simeon Mountains in search of the baboons that reside there.  Yes, we found them and got very close in fact...a great thrill.  We were also treated to a sighting of Colobus monkeys with their white faces staring back at us.

The people are friendly and elegant looking, small and fine-boned. The country is more developed than Cameroon with many paved roads, nice local restaurants, COLD drinks and even movie theatres and spas in Addis Ababa (the capital). We saw 3 movies (hey, it’s been over a year) in an actual theatre, and treated ourselves to messages and facials (oh, the joy) the day before departing back to Cameroon. One thing I will say in defense of Cameroon is that there are no street beggars.  Families take care of their own.  In Ethiopia, you can see abject poverty along with many, many street beggars (from the countryside, we were told), most of them women and children.  This in the mist of educated and well to do Ethiopians….a sad and strange site. 

Why the cold and sore knees you may ask?  Well, it was cold and rainy and muddy most of the time.  I couldn’t seem to get enough layers on to really stay warm, tho I did have a good rain jacket.  Also, I strained my knee just before departing and most of our adventures included hiking into and climbing up on slippery muddy rocks to see our fabulous sites.  This was not a good time to be gimpy, but luckily my travel buddies and our Ethiopian guides helped the old one (worthy of much respect) to manage. And so I returned with two swollen knees (the bad one put extra stress on the (once) good one...God I feel old!) and the cold and sore throat. 

This is just an overview of our two very eventful weeks in Ethiopia, but it will have to do for now. Enjoy the photos.  I can’t include all that I would like as my internet connection is much too slow, but you’ll get the gist. Now to recuperate and get back to work. My grant request was approved, so there is much work ahead as I become the chicken expert I was always meant to be….

Half way point.

                                           Beans and beignet at our local market...delicious!!!

                                         Dried fish at our local market...not so delicious

  

Some of my best friends.

Rainy season is wearing on. It rains almost every day now. Some days one storm after another rolls in and I find myself chilled to the bone in this mud brick house. All my clothes are damp and smell musty. C’est la vie. It is now time to begin harvesting my corn and peanuts.  The mamas came over and helped me.  They built a little fire in the small shed behind my house and toasted up some corn…..it’s good!

I’ve been to Mid-Service in Yaounde which entails many (poop, pee, blood) tests and physical. I was given a clean bill of health and had my teeth cleaned….sorta. So now half way thru already. Spent 4th of July there with some fellow vols….much fun. Then came home to Batie to learn that my counterpart here (a really wonderful man) was killed the day before in a gruesome moto accident in which he was crushed by a huge beer truck. The whole village has been in a state of shock and depression. He was the chief of my little village and much loved by all, including me. It has been really heartbreaking. He has left behind two wives (one of whom I have grown close to) and many children...so sad.

I finally got my grant request in.  Yes, we are still doing the chicken business on the insistence of the mama’s who are convinced they can make it work.  We’ll learn how to cut back on costs as we go….that’s the plan anyway.  The good part is that by the time the grant goes through (I hope) and we fatten up the chicks, it will be the beginning of the high season for funerals and fetes which puts the chickens in greater demand and so a good time to make money for us….a running start as they say. Meanwhile, they (my mamas, not the chickens) come over every week for bookkeeping, marketing, action planning etc lessons. They are excellent students!

I’ll be leaving for a two week vacation in Ethiopia in just a couple of weeks. We will be flying into Addis Ababa for a couple of days, then on to Bahar Dar (Lake Tana Monastaries built in 14 and 15th centuries and Blue Nile falls in nearby little village of Tis Isat), Gondar ( midievil castles and lots of history here..also where PC friend lives), and Lalibela/Tigray (ancient churches carved into rock walls, mountainous area, lots of hiking up...both ways). It’s rainy season there too...soooo…..there’s that. I’ll try to get some good pix but I have a tendency to get caught up in the moment and forget the pictures part.

I’ve gotten quite chubby of late and am trying to lose weight before the vacay where I will surely put it all back on.  The food is said to be wonderful in Ethiopia! Yummy!

Well, that’s about it.  Life has not been all that exciting here….Ethiopia should spice it up a bit. Oh yes, I watched “Life of Pi” recently. (Got it off of a friend’s hard drive). I thought it was such a beautiful and touching movie, wonderful photography and beautiful music. It’s the only time I can say that I loved the movie more than the book. See it. Love.                                                      

Culture Shock

                                                                           Paris!!!

                                                                "Cinq Femmes"

                                                                  My Garden

Time has slipped by.  I have officially been in country for one year now.  

I have just returned from a week in France with old friends Mickey and Chris from CA who met me there.   It was rainy and cold almost every day, but it was still a wonderful getaway.  We laughed, ate, and drank our way thru Paris for 5 days. (Talk about culture shock...my body is still reeling!) It seemed like we ate non stop, always seeking out new restaurants and sampling new wines. I stayed in the Marais at the Hotel Georgette, a charming boutique hotel right near the Pompidou center. We managed to get some walking and exploration in, mostly to the next restaurant! My favorite (culinary) adventure was having brunch at the top of the Eiffel Tower...ridiculously expensive but so wonderful and delicious.  I lost count of the courses.  We were there for hours. Oh!  Did I ever get spoiled!!!!  And yes!! We still managed to squeeze in dinner that night!  Missing a meal was not on the program! We even squeezed in a day at the French Open (between meals) and got to see Rafael Nadal play! …. a very special treat for me.  After Paris, we spent 2 days at the truly fabulous Hostellerie de Levernois in Bourgogne with it’s gorgeous rooms, beautiful grounds and, of course, gastronomic restaurant. It was so hard to get on that plane to come “home”, especially since I knew that M and C would be boarding a plane for Provence later that day….ouch!….but I am back safe and sound…. and constipated) and realized that I had missed my new friends and family here (not the food tho!!).  I’m refreshed and ready to get back to work.

Speaking of work, I have been working with my group of 5 mamas to try to get our chicken raising business off the ground.  We have been doing so much research. The mamas have been working so hard and doing everything I need them to do and doing it on time!!!!!  (what?  in Cameroon?).  I am having trouble getting it to pencil out...can’t seem to find the profit.  We keep coming at it from different angles trying to see where the profit is. It’s taking a lot longer and taking a lot more work than originally planned, but it is so important to get the business off on the right foot! At least, through this process they are learning how to draw up a budget and how to do feasability studies….so it is not lost time to be sure. There is so much cutting of corners and risk taking here to eek out a profit that I am not at all convinced it can be done otherwise.  We will see. I have written and re-written the grant proposal. I’ve been totally focused on this project for the past couple of months at the expense of everything else…..wheels spinning. One of the group said to me yesterday that she was becoming discouraged….ouch!….”Non!”, I said, “do not be discouraged, It is the planning phase when we determine what we must do to make it work.  This is the hardest part.  We have to discover what WILL work….that’s the point of all this work we are doing now.  Du courage!!! “ Luckily, the other mamas backed me up. We are going to make this work. The business is named “Cinq Femmes”.  Don’t let the picture above fool you.  They are full of energy but they were up all night at a “Deuil” (funeral party) the night before.

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but a couple of months ago, some friends (mamas, of course) came over and planted the hell out of my garden, so now, with the rains, I have my garden that you see above full of corn and peanut plants thriving. I’ll eat and share the peanuts and give the corn (mais) to the mamas to prepare or sell as they wish.  The mais is not sweet corn, but what we call feed corn in the States.  They crush it and make foo foo from it ….balls of mush wrapped in palm leaves….not my favorite thing to eat, not to mention lots of work to prepare. A storm has just rolled in as I type this with thunder, lightening, winds and rain. I love these storms, but as the rainy season progresses, they will become more constant and make it difficult to get out of the house.  It will become cold and damp and gloomy every day….full on rainy season. Then I will yearn for the dry season which will become hot and dry and dusty at which time I will yearn for the rainy season.  What ever became of spring, summer, winter and fall, I ask myself. But perhaps, when they have returned to me, I will say to myself…”Gee, i miss the rainy season and the dry season….what ever became of those? No, probably not...but I know I will miss my mamas whatever season it is. Yes, probably so…..

Yaounde, Bafoussam, Bamenda and Loose Ends

                                                 Business Class with Attestations

April 22, 2013

My business class has successfully drawn to a close and the “Attestations”  have been presented.  This is a big deal here.  The students planned a party and took up a collection for food and drink during which my Cameroonian counterpart and I presented the “Attestations” (like a diploma) to them.  We did it outside on a patio-like area at the main carrefour, so the general population who happened to be passing by would see it.  Many who did happen to see it were very impressed and expressed an interest in signing up for the next class.   We spent two of our 12 sessions on marketing, so this in itself was a teachable moment. The students were very proud and loved the attention and admiration they received. The students also became very bonded and sought out each other’s contact information in order to “network” in the future on possible businesses….another concept we tried to convey during the course.The whole process was a very rewarding experience for all of us. The next step for me is to follow up with each of them to see who, if any, are actually using what they learned to form a business or improve an existing one.  

So the downside to all this is that I am kind of in between projects in a sort of no man’s land where I am trying to pull together another project.  The idea is to pull together a small group of women who would be willing to work together to form a business with me as their facilitator.  If they show enough interest and commitment, we could apply together for a PC grant for start up costs. They have to come up with 25% of the amount (cash or in kind) that we can prove that we need (through a detailed budget of a feasible business idea) to show good faith. I have found a group who have shown interest in the idea and have actually chosen a business they want to start, but that is about as far as I have gotten.  Getting them together to develop the idea and begin work on the grant process is another question.  

It is the beginning of the rainy season and thus planting season, so all the mamas are busy working their butts off in their fields.  For myself, the Peace Corps has pulled me out of town for various training sessions (3 days in Yaounde, then a week in Bafoussam) and then I spent another 3 days in Bamenda with friends, so I myself have been unavailable. Suffice it to say that the momentum has been lost, and I am feeling at loose ends and unfocused. I am also feeling overwhelmed by the grant process. So, I have decided to sit down and write a blog rather than try to re-focus and face the problem.  But, perhaps this is part of the process and putting my scattered feelings into words will lead to renewed resolve. One can hope….

Bamenda is known as the most westernized city in Cameroon and is in the Anglophone North West region.  It was very strange crossing into that region and suddenly seeing all signs in english and people actually speaking english (or at least understanding it)….most speak Pidgin among themselves which is like a foreign language to my ears, but is really just the local patois version of english. The thing that makes it more “westernized” is that there are a few restaurants here and there that serve burgers, pizza and salads. ( Naturally I partook of them.) This is because there are more westerners living or traveling to Bamenda, so these restaurants sprang up to cater to them.  Otherwise, Bamenda is like any other city in what is called the Grand West of Cameroon….dirt roads, garbage piles, market place shacks, a few “white man”s stores, over stuffed taxis, motos, terrible pollution, lots of poverty. The friends I and another volunteer visited there are 2 of my favorites….a married couple both on the brink of turning 30, The four of us are planning a trip to Ethiopia in August….a place I’ve wanted to visit since reading “Cutting for Stone”. 

I also have a week in Paris coming up on the near horizon with 2 of my favorite people from the home front!!!!!! You know who you are.  Hmmmmm, I’m strating to get a better sense of why I am having trouble focusing on the next project…… not feeling so bad for me now, are you…..

Stay tuned.