Doro Wat

Doro what? Doro wat, of course, an Ethiopian favorite! Doro is chicken in Amharic, and I heard one dying as I was studying for my Tigrigna language test last Friday night. I went exploring on my compound and ended up in the family kitchen – the kitchen is a bit different than what you’re used to in America. It’s a room separate from the main house, complete with a dirt floor, an injera stove, a fire pit, several large cooking containers of sorts, and a pen for the family’s 7 sheep…(no countertops, no sink, no dishwasher, or other electric appliances). In addition to the 2 cats, there were 5 of my family members sitting on the floor, doing various culinary activities/watching the action. One of the ladies was plucking the feathers off of the freshly killed chicken…she held it up for my admiration, then proceeded to hack it into edible pieces after it was devoid of all feathers. Then, to get the meat super clean, it was washed with soap and water…so fresh AND so clean. Literally. I was later served the hen’s last laid eggs for my dinner…circle of life?

When I went to shower on Saturday morning, I noticed the pot of doro wat sitting in the shower room. Strange storage place, right? And I got walked in on (there’s not a lock on the door) for the retrieval of the pot (I turn the water off while lathering up because it’s so cold…so maybe they figured I had left the room…wrong!) So that wasn’t awkward or anything…And then I had doro wat for breakfast. I usually try to stay away from meat because I have no idea what kind it is, but this time I definitely knew where the chicken came from…my yard/my shower room!

Not much else is happening in my life…The wheat harvest just took place this past week in my town. Many students missed the week of school in order to help out on the family farm(s). There is a ton of wheat on my compound now. Our cow is still pregnant – hopefully she’ll give birth while I’m still living here. Tigrigna lessons seem to be about the same as Amharic – somewhat difficult, but doable. The language here is pretty crazy sounding and looking. Tigrigna will be more challenging now only because there’s no one in my town (outside of my language instructor and the other 2 girls in my class) who speaks it, so we won’t have the opportunity to practice whenever we want. I think I’ll get a tutor once I move to site.

One of the girls in my town was a yoga instructor back in the states, so she put on a yoga class for us this morning, which was a great release/necessary occurence. I don’t have any really crazy stories. My count for seeing people poop on the side of the road is now up to 2…I survived a few days of diarrhea and 1 day of vomming and a fever…I managed 5 whole weeks without any problems! 6 weeks of PST are down, and we move to site in almost exactly 1 month! I have posted my new address on the side, so start directing mail to that address (PC recommends to not send mail to the Addis address once we’re through with training).

While everyone else is enjoying amazing and copious amounts of food on Thanksgiving, I will be enjoying a Snickers bar that I bought in Addis and a can of wasabi & soy almonds that I’ve been saving from the start of my trip … yummmmmmm!

Land of the Burnt Faces

That’s what “Ethiopia” means…and this country was named by the Greeks. Thanks Lonely Planet book – you’re full of great information. I’m currently winding down my productive vacation/ site visit, which has overall been a very pleasant experience. Northern Ethiopia is vastly different from where I’ve been living this past month, and I think the only that could be different is if there were more trees and greenery. But it’s really pretty in a different kind of way up here – kind of arid and desert-ish.

Before coming to Tigray, we had a workshop in Addis Ababa, where we met our counterparts and did a few team building exercising. Being in Addis was a welcomed change, and my counterpart seems great. During my week at site, he took me all around town and introduced me to different organizations in my town, as well as local authority figures. He also help me set up a PO Box and a bank account!
Highlights: I saw a camel and 2 pigs in my town. I know pork isn’t widely accepted/consumed here, so I was really surprised (and excited) to see the oinkers. I took a picture, and of course, my counterpart thought I was pretty strange.

So my future “house” is a large room with a private bathroom attached. I feel very lucky by the fact that I have a flushing toilet (with 2 flushing options – little and big) and a shower at my permanent site… The shower is, of course, cold, but hey! It’s running water nonetheless  I look forward to making it my home in 5 weeks time. I purchased a mattress and indoor camped on my floor during my time there. I bought a kilo of bananas, oranges, some cookies, bottled water and called it a feast. Luckily, my landlady fed me a few meals, and my counterpart had me over for dinner every night. The “air conditioning” (aka weather) is nice up in Tigray – hot during the day, but very cool at night and comfortable in the morning.

I survived a grueling 2 day bus journey back to Addis, where I will spend the night/have one last delicious meal before heading back to my small town to wrap up training. I’m actually looking forward to the Tigrigna lessons, although it has been nice having this past week and a half off from language all day every day. I can’t believe it’s already November 14th – I’ll be moving to site before I know it. Hope all is well with everyone out there – stay tuned for future updates.

Headed North - 11.01.2002(2009)

Happy Halloween a day late to everyone! We had our site placement ceremony yesterday, so it was nice to be around the other trainees on such a large holiday (ha ha). The APCD (associate peace corps director…another acronym for your dictionary) brought us some American chips from the Embassy, as the candy was all sold out. Long story short, the chips were simply amazing (Doritos, ruffles, sun chips, yummmm)! :) Enough about snack foods and more about site placement – after training, I will be moving to the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia. I’ll be living in a fairly small town (population of about 17,000) just outside of the regional capital, Mekele, which is part of the historical circuit in Ethiopia. In total, there are 5 people from my training group moving way north, and I think there are 5 current PCVs up there now. I guess my region is kind of like the Marines of Peace Corps – the few, the proud. I get to fly up there for my site visit, but have to take a bus back, which will be a 2 day journey…

Starting tomorrow, I will begin learning Tigrigna, the language spoken in the Tigray region. It is similar to Amharic and still uses the Ge’ez script instead of Roman characters for the alphabet…holla! According to my host family, “Tigrigna is hard. Amharic is easy.” I beg to differ, in that Amharic is extremely difficult, so we’ll see about this new language! I get to visit my site starting next Saturday, and will spend a week there, getting acquainted with the town and my host organization, which is the town health center. I’ll get to see my future house, and according to my site description on paper it’s a large room in a shared compound with my landlord’s family. Sounds kind of like a dorm room…My town does have a post office, so that’s rather riveting. During my site visit I get to set up my P.O. Box – meaning I’ll soon have a new mailing address.

Not too much has been going on at all besides language class and technical training. Last weekend I discovered the deliciousness of peanut butter in the nearby big city, so I bought a jar…thrilling, eh?! I’ve decided that hand washing laundry is not very fun and is rather time consuming. ..it took me close to 2 hours to wash my sheets, a dress, a skirt, a couple shirts, my PJs and some undies. Before I left, an aunt and uncle of mine gave me some boxers from their recent trip to Alaska that have a bear on the rear eating a salmon that says “Bite me” – I wore them to bed a few times this past week, and have been getting bed bug &/or flea bites (not at all enjoyable). Bad karma? The boxers will be retired for awhile…

We had Sunday Funday in my town today, and a group of fellow PCTs from a nearby town came and we played American football, soccer and frisbee. I wore a pair of long athletic shorts and felt a bit scandalous, as I haven’t seen my knees in public in a month now! Unfortunately, the backs of my knees got sunburned :( It’s kind of entertaining to see the enormity of the crowd us farenji’s draw…people gawk and stare when you’re not doing anything, and even more so when you are doing something that’s watchable! After sport, we were all invited over to one of my classmate’s houses for lunch. We had typical Oromic (the region we’re currently in) cultural food (including injera!), and it was actually one of the best meals I’ve had in Ethiopia.

I milked a cow yesterday – for the second time in my life! It’s much harder than it looks – you really have to squeeze and pull hard for the wätät (milk) to come out! I’ll be leaving my host family Tuesday for an extended vacay – not really a vacation, but we have a workshop in Addis, followed by our weeklong site visit. Even though it’s at times awkward living with them, I have come to really enjoy their company. I learned today that they grow barley (gabs), wheat (sïnde), and beans (bak’ela) on the family farm. The barley is being harvested right now, so we have two gigantic piles (I actually have no idea how to describe them – more like large circular stacks that are taller than myself) off to the side in our compound. Not sure what they’re going to do with it…

I am really looking forward to getting away for awhile…I can only eat so much firfir for breakfast…I’ve been reading my travel book about Addis and there’s quite a variety of restaurants (many serve pizza!!) and just a change of scenery/no full days of language classes will make for a nice break. After site visit, training will be halfway over – time seems to be passing quickly! I’ve already been gone for one month – but who’s counting?!

I heard the Gators beat Georgia – and we’re still number one :) Happy November – I’ll let all you curious readers out there know how our counterpart workshop goes, as well as the big site visit!