Habisha Style

About a week without Menachem and Sam have passed, and I'm still alive! Things have been very busy, but have managed to go more or less smoothly.. or as much as is possible in Ethiopia.  Everyone has offered to help me and some have done so which has been really sweet and great.

Living here for this long, I've started noticing the funny nuances of Ethiopia/Addis life, and felt the need to share some things with you.

As the story goes, G-d created man of clay, and put him in a kiln. When he took him out, he discovered that he had left the clay in too long and thus black people were created.  G-d then put the clay statue of man in the kiln for less time, but the clay was not cooked enough, and so white people were made.  Next G-d put the clay in for just the right amount of time - and out came Ethiopians!

This story although slightly ridiculous does show the listener more or less how Ethiopians view themselves, as well as white people and other Africans. For me, walking down the street isn't always fun or easy. I can't blend in, and standing on the street waiting for a friend is more or less out of the question. The beggars, many of them children - and there are many many more than I expected- will always make a B-line for me and my white skin. They will sometimes touch or grab me, and although I don't like to, I sometimes have to yell at them to go away. I have to watch out for my pockets with them as well!  Being white here of course isn't all bad. Sometimes I just need to stand with an Ethiopian at a hotel or embassy to ensure that he gets service or whatever he needs.  My whiteness apparently ensures that I am an honest and important person.

The funniest thing of all is how white people act towards each other. Menachem told me there was something like an 85-90% chance that white people would see each other yet ignore one another, as if to say.. you poser, I'm living the cool indie life of Africa, stop making it seem like I'm not special for being here! I've started smiling at every white person I see to test this out and I must say it's quite true. Almost none of them smile back at me, much to my own amusement!

Even though I've been here for a while, I still haven't stopped giggling every time I see a cow cross a round about, or leave my house to find a few sheep or a donkey walking by.  It's the capital, a huge city, yet these guys certainly seem out of place!  The coffee here is keeping me going and is really delicious... sadly though even if you order your drinks way ahead of your "m'gib" or food, the drinks always come out way last.

I've really been having fun here, and have been enjoying the food and life... The one thing besides white person heckling that gets to me though is that whatever restaurant you go to.. unless it's a fancy one.. it is almost guaranteed to not have most of the food on the menu.  When you walk into a restaurant, you must first ask for a menu.. then you must ask what food on the menu they actually have.  Most of the time they only have the Ethiopian traditional food, available at all spots from German Beer Gardens, to Italian restaurants.  Besides this you can always get scrambled eggs, another popular choice!  Finally though, the fact that copyright laws don't really exist here is another amusing thing... Restaurants such as Facefood and Tib's Hut, In-n-out, and Kaldi's all bear varying degrees of similarities to Facebook, Pizza Hut, In-n-out, and Starbucks respectively. I always have these signs and many more to brighten my day as I walk down the street and dodge small children and animals!

Half Way Mark

I can't believe I've already been here over a month!  Time has certainly flown since I arrived on Christmas Day. 

I've tried to figure out why this is and I think it has something to do with the enormous amount of errands and organizing we do on a daily basis, learning new and interesting things every single day, but maybe more importantly not being connected to the high speed of western life through my phone.  There's been festivals and holidays, loads of visitors to chat with and show around, and on clinic days a huge number of patients new and old.  I am certainly being kept busy, and I really like it.  Despite that, the culture here is very laid back, so it's surprisingly easy not to stress too much, a great quality since things rarely run on time or according to plan.  A second plan of action is essential.  I find that this atmosphere and a generally smiling and fun group of people that I work and hang out with have helped me have a seriously more positive outlook on life. The fact that I'm realizing more and more that I may in fact be happier and more relaxed without being in constant contact with people is both unsurprising and slightly worrisome.  It's good to have time completely to myself or to live in the moment, without having to actively ignore the buzzing of a cell phone in order to do so. What will happen back in the states!? Hope a serious bout of reverese culture shock is not in order. This is not to say that I don't really miss talking to my friends and family whenever I want of course!!  But it is a nice change that definitely brings new perspective to the way I see things and can live my life.

The big deal this week was that Ethiopia tied with Zambia in the African Football Cup.  People were practically rioting in the streets, jumping on random cars, honking, and waving the flag all over. (This was just a tie mind you... I can't imagine what will happen if they beat Burkina Faso tomorrow!) Although this past week was relatively relaxed besides this, and there's not too much to update on, I know that the coming two weeks for me will be quite full.  Both Menachem and Sam will be out of the country, and only Sam will be returning in early February, while Menachem continues his med school interviews in the states.  He is being super nice and dropping my computer off at my house so that I can maybe have one before I get home in early June.  For now I'm borrowing someone's or using internet cafes...

But enough of electronics and me... I'm both excited and nervous for the coming weeks.  I always say that it takes me about a month to really feel comfortable in the new place I'm living in and that's true here as well.  I'll have a good amount of friends, and people to hang out with and talk to, even without the roomates. I'm definitely going to miss them not just because they are awesome, but also because I'm going to be seriously running around like a chicken without it's head on (some thing I was slightly sad I didn't see when they killed a couple chickens for Ethiopian christmas) making sure I don't totally mess everything up...  we have a trip of heart patients flying to India soon, and maybe another group going to Ghana for spine surgery.  I'll have to help make sure all the documents, passports, vaccines, and scans are in order for all of them, in addition to making sure the scholarship girls at Unity University are practicing their english with me, and that clinic and post clinic runs smoothly without the expertise of the usual pros, Menachem and Sam.  Yikes! Wish me luck until I update you on how things are going by next week!

Group Travels and Holidays

Woo, it has been an exhausting yet incredibly interesting and informative week.  On 10 January, 20 college students from the University of Maryland came on a short-term (10 day) service trip that their Hillel runs with the JDC.

Menahem, Sam, and I, along with their staff/capitan Ellie, and other JDC employees were given the opportunity to show them around Addis Ababa, as well as Gondar, in the north of Ethiopia.  While in Addis they got to check out the clinic where Rick works, as well as do a little bit of sight seeing and shopping.  After they had gotten a feel for Ethiopian culture, food, and people, I accompanied them to Gondar.  There, we went straight to work, helping to construct a building that would soon become a schools library.  In addition, we helped to de-worm over 400 kids from ages 6-16.

For my part, I found my time with the Maryland group very interesting, and my time in Gondar quite eye-opening.  I got to see another side of Ethiopia, and listening to their reactions and answering their questions in short helped me to see new perspectives.  Hearing from the college kids made me understand better what someone at home, for instance, will want to know, and this in turn will assist me in explaining (hopefully) what my experience here has been like... no easy task.

I thought Gondar itself was incredible. The mountains were stunning, the work incredibly meaningful and tangible, and the air just a bit fresher than smoggy Addis.  The only thing that I didn't really enjoy were kids shouting money money money and you you you at our cars. Maybe they're more vocal, or haven't seen any white people, or maybe, I started thinking, all other white people do is actually give them money. Not stick around and actually try to make some long lasting difference.  I still have to think about this, the benefits and cons of bringing in a lot of young foreigners to work, and how to best communicate to both groups of people what is going on, and what it is supposed to mean.

Sadly yesterday I received some tragic news, and in addition my computer seems to be broken.  The start of the weekend hasn't been super easy for me, but being in Ethiopia, and hearing about the passing of a dear friend, really makes me appreciate where I am in the moment. Although I'm really really bummed about my computer, I am happy to say that I think this year has been good to me in that I know now more than ever what is really important in life and to enjoy every day.

On the lighter side, I also got to hang out with the JSC volunteers in Gondar, Max and Liz, who are super sweet and great people.  I am excited for them to visit Addis soon.  Besides this, I am recuperating from 14 hour work days, and am planning to enjoy tomorrow's national holiday Timkat or Ethiopian Epiphany. The people are already out on the street, and the flags are all over, The traffics getting bad and since I'm going to have to walk everywhere because of this,  I better watch where I step because there will be loads of mass re-baptisms going on all day!!

Finally a work overview..

Merry Ethiopian Christmas! Yesterday was Melkam Gena, or Christmas.  We were fortunate enough to have an extra day off for this.  Menachem,Sam and I went to the big church in town, to check out the midnight mass.  The church itself was breath taking, but that compounded with everyone dressed in white, people sleeping in church, chanting in Giza, the old language similar to Hebrew, and even jumping up and down was unlike any other church experience I've had. We were invited over to a friends house to eat the following day, the same one who was kind enough to take us to church with him. Menachem and I stayed up until 3am because he wanted to slaughter a chicken for the feast. Unfortunately this wasn't allowed because Menachem hadn't fasted 40 days prior! Still, I woke up at 9am the next day to watch a specifically Christian butcher slaughter the sheep our friend had bought the day before.  It was kind of gross and sad, but I feel like it was a good thing for me to see.  The women traditionally cook everything, using basically every part of the animals. A special bread, dufo dabo, instead of enjera is made, which was a nice change, and a home made brew called Tela was plentiful. (I like the honey wine Tej a little bit better in all honesty.)  We spent much of, yesterday,  Monday hanging out, eating, and for us Faringes trying to dance like an Ethiopian, much to the amusement of our Abyssinian friends.

I've also been saying that I'd tell you about what it is that I do here, and now that I've been working for a couple of weeks I have somewhat of a better idea of how to explain it.

I've already told you that I live with the two yearlong JSC fellows working in Addis. There's two more who live in Gondar, in the north.  We, Sam, Menachem, and I, live in a two story house, which is situated in a kind of compound. On the ground floor there's a big living room and a bathroom.  Out in the front, is a sort of yard, until you get to the outer door/gate. This is where Toby our dog lives. In the back, there's a separate mini house for the kitchen. Up the stairs is another bathroom and 3 bedrooms.  It's a great place with a bunch of great places to eat around, and is relatively close to a main road so that walking isn't entirely out of the question, although I wouldn't do so by myself late at night.  We have a sort of driver, or constant reliable cab driver who we are close to, so that is a convienient way to get around of course too.  Despite the cars being about 30 or so years old, they work well enough!

Job wise, I've basically been helping Menachem and Sam with what they do, but since there's a lot, I've had plenty going on myself.  On Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays, Dr. Rick, the internist/doctor we work for here, who is affiliated with the JDC, the organization I am volunteering for, holds clinic. There's two hospitals in which they are held.  A room is rented out in one on Mondays and Fridays, and another room in the other on Saturdays.   On average when the doctor is in town there's been so far about 35 patients, about 10 of whom are new.  They have various ailments, mostly either spine or cardiac related since this is what Dr. Rick specializes in helping.  I help out in the clinic organizing papers and scans, writting notes for later, or helping to conduct breathing tests for new spine patients.  Since Amharic is not written with latin letters of course, our files are digital. Dr. Rick, or sometimes Menachem, take pictures of everything... Faces, scans, documents, etc., and this sort of constitutes the patients file. It makes sense given the language problems, although it is of course a lot different from what we are used to in the states.

Tuesdays-Thursdays are spent sort of running errands.  We catch up on digitalizing scans or documents, I've run to the postoffice to help Sam with the letters we are sending donors, or we pick up passports, visas, or other scans and documents for patients about to travel abroad to get surgery.  Although there are some facilities here to do that, Dr. Rick refers and organizes groups of our spine patients go to Acra, Ghana to see a spine specialist for surgery, and the cardiac patients are sent to India.  Some other procedures we sometimes refer to foreign doctors in Addis.

Although the system we use here is a lot different from most hospitals or doctors offices, the care and attention is makeshift but not all that different in quality.  It's really quite amazing how much we can do, and how well it is done.

So while it may seem scattered and all over the place, (and believe me sometimes it feels like that for me) I really feel as though I'm helping out, and little by little the doctors and volunteers make great headway and progress. As the Amharic saying goes, "Little by little, an egg will learn to walk." More and more new patients come in, all because of word of mouth. That must mean Dr. Rick and the team are certainly doing something right! Check out his website here: www.rickhodes.org

I hope this summary sort of gave you the gist of what it is that I'm doing. The days are certainly long, but good thing the coffee here is amazing, and coffee ceremonies, consisting of three small cups of freshly roasted, pounded, and cooked coffee beans, are more or less an every day occurance! 

Yet while I get used to this schedule, the JDC alternative break service trip from University of Maryland is coming to town in a few days. The next week or so will mostly be devoted to spending time with them here, as well as accompanying them to Gondar which I am super excited about!!  More to come after that no doubt!

Happy New Year from Addis!

It's definitely been a few years since I've celebrated New Years outside of the US. What a better place to start than a country which doesn't celebrate it!  I don't mean that Ethiopia doesn't have a New Years Eve, they certainly do - it's just a few months before ours.  This is due to their not switching to the Julian calendar as did the rest of the world, which I mentioned in my previous blog. My experience on New Years Eve day exemplifies more or less how I've found this incredibly unique experience here to be so far.

On New Years Eve day, I accompanied Menachem to develop a couple of pictures.  As we were waiting he told them that it was our New Years that night, to which they replied "Oh wow! Which country celebrates New Years today?"  He broke it to them in Amharic (which he inspiringly speaks quite well) that it was actually the entire world that had New Years that night, and the Ethiopia was a bit of an oddball.  While they were still in a bit of shock, he added that the year for us was 2013, to which their response was utter amazement, as if we had actually just travelled back in time to their year, 2005.  In the afternoon, due to a fire, or just due to the way things are here, (no one really knows) patchy blackouts were occurring around town.  Yet, just when I was resigned to having New Years in the dark, the power miraculously returned.

Despite the fact that much of the country did not really know or care that the rest of the world was celebrating the coming of a new year, we managed to do pretty well for ourselves, going to a couple of expat type places, with midnight being brought in the company of a mix of Ethiopians, Ethio-Americans, and Farinjis (whiteys). 

Since last blogging I have gotten to know Sam, my other roommate a bit better, and have finally met Dr. Rick, who I find to be incredible. (Of course he is after adopting 5 Ethiopian children as well as pioneering a massive pursuit of fixing back and heart deformities in the country.)  Although I am still trying to figure out what my specific tasks will be in the coming weeks, I do know that I will be helping the incoming short-term college trip the JDC has arriving in just over a week. During that time I'll be able to fly with them to Gondar to see some other parts of the country. In addition, I have been helping Menachem out with odds and ends of medical organization, paper work, and clinics. I intend to help Sam with that as well now that he's back. More to come on that next week I hope.

Addis has also gotten smaller to me since I've figured out my way around during the past week, although I must say there are certainly a larger number of beggars than I anticipated. I am also proud to say that I have gotten better at eating with enjira, the pancake that accompanies all foods. (I won't divulge my secret technique unless specifically asked.) I have also definitely learned some more Amharic, and hopefully my vocabulary will pick up a bit from here.

One of the highlights of the past week was watching a traditional Ethiopian band/dance group at a place called Fendika. It is quite hard for me to describe what traditional Ethiopian dancing is like, so please look it up yourself, or check it out here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6QwxL_Ar2g  There's a lot of shoulder type shimmies, and each region has their own variation.  It was incredible and I'm very excited to go back there again!

More to come as I continue to try more foods and attempt to make myself useful!