Working in Gambella

The flies are ridiculous, the mosquitos carry malaria, the roads are terrible, the food is strange, I have to wash my clothes by hand, the power goes out all the time, the showers are cold, and it is way too hot, but Gambella has still found a way to grow on me quickly. The complexity of the region has peaked my interest. Numerous tribes that all speak different languages reside in the region. They posses a history of intense conflict, and turmoil still brews close to the surface. Contributing to the unrest is the fact that the region is fertile, but the economic situation of the people remains dire. To put it into some sort of perspective, the hotel in which I am staying is the nicest one in town and costs $12.50/night. A meal here runs about $5. These prices put the hotel and restaurant in a realm well out of reach for the local population. So I have been feeling odd about not wanting to live well above the population I am working with so I can more easily gain their trust and respect, but also not thinking that the situation I am in qualifies as living anywhere near a luxurious life. I will have to see where the summer leads me here in Ethiopia, but at the moment I would not be surprised to be making another trip back to Gambella in an effort to obtain more funding to expand and continue the leadership trainings that CCL is conducting here.

The following is a story that I will be submitting to CCL for their website, and should give you a glimpse into who the trainings here are aimed at and why…

We met Samira while trying to kill some time in the town of Abol, about 25km outside of Gambella Town. She was operating a small café on the side of a small dusty road that we had stopped at for a cup of coffee. Through the lazy conversation that ensued, we discovered that her story was quite intriguing. Only two months prior, Samir had been living in a different village with her family. She was unwilling to tell us where this was or why she left, but she made it clear that she ran away from her family and did not want them to know where she was even though she was their only child. As our coffee ran dry, my Western reaction was to ask her if it was okay to take a picture of her running the café she had started to support herself before we left. To my surprise she did not want me to, and I obliged to her request. Her reasoning for not wanting her picture taken, though, alludes to why CCL has been working hard to equip women in the Gambella region with leadership skills that serve to boost their self-confidence. Samir, an absolutely stunning 18 year-old girl with a quick smile and big brown eyes that demand your full attention, told us that she did not want her picture taken because she was not beautiful. My heart broke.

This is just one of many stories I have collected during the past two weeks in Gambella and why I hope to assist CCL in finding more funding to continue their work in the region. 

Gambella: One Week In

My colleague Sara has had a rough go of it since arriving in Ethiopia a week ago. She arrived on a Friday and a day later started the 777km drive I mentioned in my last post. She has been battling jet-leg on a schedule not of her own choosing, and a couple days ago came down with something fierce here in Gambella. It could be the food, maybe the water, but I am guessing malaria. She is flew back to Addis today to get proper medical attention. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

I have been trying to figure out how to write about the women’s leadership training that we wrapped up yesterday and am having trouble doing so. There is so much to say about it, but since I haven’t even written up the review of it that I am supposed to, I am still processing it in my mind. Basically 275 women were taught leadership skills that they had probably never understood before. About 70 of those girls were given the opportunity to actually lead part of the 3-day training, and those are the girls that I was able to see the big difference in. In just three days I was able to observe many of these timid and scared girls break out of their shell and gain an incredible amount of confidence! The best of the best will be coming back this coming week to help conduct the next round of training. I mean, how awesome is it to not only train the women, but also empower them to practice and develop their leadership skills immediately! There are definitely some women that I will share more about next week since I will get to know them better as we go through the next training.

I am progressing very slowly with the Amharic language. The most commonly used word is “ishee” (ee-she), which means, “okay”. Honestly though, I know about 8 words right now. I can’t greet anyone, but I can say “thank you”, “no problem”, “okay”, “I need to get off here”, “one coffee”, and “goodbye”. I can also ask for a small branch off a tree that people use to wave flies and mosquitos away from them, and I am working on the pronunciation for “water”. From what I understand, there is only a minor change in the influx of your voice between saying “water” (wa-a), and “I want to kill you” (wa)… I haven’t been brave enough to try it in public yet.

While I cannot greet someone with words, I am progressing quite well with the physical gesture. Most of the time it is just a common (limp) handshake. If I am greeting a male that I know well there is also a shoulder bump that occurs while shaking the hand. The curve ball came when some men in Gambella did two shoulder bumps and I was only expecting the one. Boy was that awkward. The other curve ball came when someone came up to me and instead of presenting me their hand to shake, they put forth their forearm. I was quite confused the first few times this happened. I didn’t know if I was being shunned,  but now I understand that it is common after someone washes their hands and does not want to get them dirty by shaking your hand. I am still trying to determine if I should shake their forearm or just grasp it and release.

That is the update from the past few days. I hope this finds you all doing well, and I will be sure to make another post soon!  

Surprise! I have Internet in Gambella

Hello Friends,

I have been pleasantly surprised to find that I am able to access the internet in Gambella! With this luxury, I thought I would try to give you some updates on the trip out here and what we have done since.

It is 777km from Addis to Gambella over a winding and mountainous road. Half the drive is over a nicely paved road, and the other half... not so much. Here are the things that we almost hit on the way (numerous times!

• People (they walk in the road, and do not often look to see if cars are coming at them)
• Donkeys (they carry people, wood, cement, water, etc...)
• Cows
• Horses
• Baboons (we saw about 10 packs of them on the way over)

The drive took two days, and the place we lodged on the way was something else. For the equivalent of $4.50 I had my own private room with a greasy pillow, a sign that said I could not take girls into the room with me, a battered mosquito net, and this is not to mention the bathroom that did not have a light, toilet paper, or a proper drain for the sink. Leaving this place was a relief!

Gambella is amazingly beautiful! It is so lush and the landscape often reminds me of Panama. So far our leadership trainings have not started, but we have been working hard to get everything organized as they start this Thursday. Mobilization, as they call it, has involved visiting many churches and other organizations that can easily recruit women to attend the workshops. The most interesting meeting so far involved me and three other colleagues sitting in a dark mud and grass building with the church leaders before us and the elders behind us. 

One neat thing for me has been to see many of the organizations I have been studying in school actually  operating here. This includes UNDP, UNICEF, World Food Program, Medicin San Frontier, International Committee of the Red Cross, etc... It has really helped me put my studies into perspective. There is a small orphanage that supports about 85 children that we will visit tomorrow, and I have already talked with another one that is hosting 550 children under the age of 18! Also, as Gambella is relatively close to South Sudan, there is a refugee camp here that we will be visiting soon as well. 

It is a really amazing place! The people are so kind! So kind! In fact the only person I have "interacted" with that was negative was a European that was running a church here. Go figure. Anyways, I have been attempting to show the locals that we Americans aren't so bad after all. I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it goes for me. 

See you in two weeks

I wanted to get one more post out before I leave tomorrow morning for Gambella since it will be 2 weeks before I am planning to have internet.

First of all, I would like to say that while I would love to post some pictures, the internet I am currently using will not support it. So I apologize for having to bore you with words. I am thinking that the internet I will have after returning should be able to handle it though, so look out for a flood of pics then.

Since arriving here I have had trouble sleeping. I think my body is still adjusting to the time change, but there are other things, mainly noises, that have contributed to this problem. They include...

1. Birds - There is a large tree in our yard and it has attracted a plethora of birds. The most annoying ones include one that sounds like a loud pig and one that sounds like a dog that has just been injured. 
2. Call to Prayer - Every morning at 5am, the local mosques pump out the call to prayer over loudspeakers that resonate through the neighborhood. 
3. Water Pump - Conveniently located near my bedroom window is the houses water pump. Anytime water flows in the home, this pump fires up it high pitched whine. 

Here's to hoping that Gambella, despite searing heat and mosquitos, provides me with a better chance to catch some much needed shut-eye. 

Again, I will plan to update you on my trip in a couple weeks! 

 

I've arrived!

After a 13 hour plane ride from D.C. to Addis Ababa, I have arrived in Ethiopia. I spent almost all of Tuesday sleeping, but today I started my "orientation". It began with an innocent ride in the family car to one of the handful of offices that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) operates around the city. It is housed in a renovated tractor trailer and it is really cool! Complete with skylights, comfortable seating, reliable internet,  and white boards it is just a place where your mind is ready to go. 

Following that I noticed that our driver had left and my guide (and amazing co-worker) Habtamu, had a smile on his face. It was time for him to show me the "taxi" system. When I say "taxi" I mean an old run down minibus with 13+ people crammed into it. Good thing is that it cost between 1 and 3 Biir (about the equivalent of $0.05 to $0.20). Bad thing is trying to figure out where they are actually going to take you. They do follow routes, but without knowing the language at all, it is really a crap shoot. Fortunately, after about 4 of these rides I now feel mildly comfortable navigating a very small section of the city. Tomorrow will bring me to another small section and the day will be repeated... probably for a few days until I make the leap to try it on my own. 

This Saturday I leave for a region of Ethiopia called Gambella. It is in the Eastern reaches of the country. From what I hear it is quite desolate and my daily internet usage may disappear. I will be spending two weeks there with part of the CCL team developing and improving leadership workshops. It should be a great opportunity to do some good work and see more of the country. 

Housing has been good, but promises to be constantly on my mind. Right now I am staying with the Director of CCL and his family. They have a good sized home that includes a detached wing where my room is located. The shower requires using a pliers to turn the water on, but that is nothing new to me. The issue is that this Saturday the family not only leaves to head back to the U.S. until August, but also ends their lease at this home. They have another one lined up across town, but it is smaller and will not have space for me to reside in it. Fortunately there is a guest house across the street from their new place that I will be able to rent. I hear it is nicer than where we are at now, but even that rental may not get me through the rest of my time here. So... we shall see. 

I will end it there for now, but there promises to be much to share with you as the summer progresses. 

One more flight...

Things are working out for me already. Last night I had to say the difficult goodbye to my wonderful wife before catching a 11:59pm flight out of Denver. As I sat in the airport the two gates next to mine cancelled their flights, (Des Moines and Detroit) but mine departed. When I got into Newark, with only an hour until my next plane left, I waited 30 minutes to get off the plane because the jetway wasn't working! After traversing the entire airport I got to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare. That's when I noticed that my boarding pass did not have a seat assignment. I asked the guy boarding us about it, and he said "you know what that means don't you". I obviously said "nope", and he proceeded to tell me that I was on standby. Standby! Fortunately he got me a seat and I made it to D.C. After another scare when getting my seat assignment here, I think I am finally good to go. So with that, I will leave you for now and hope things continue to work out.

Next stop Africa

As most of you probably already know, I am heading to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the summer! I will be interning with an organization called Leadership Beyond Boundaries. This internship will serve to help me attain several goals…

1          .     To finally see what Africa is all about

2          .     To gain more work experience abroad with a great organization

3          .     To fulfill a requirement I need to finish my Humanitarian Assistance Certificate

My plane leaves tomorrow night at 11:59pm and I will get into Addis on Tuesday morning! Nothing like finishing the Spring Quarter at DU on Saturday morning, celebrating your 5^th wedding anniversary for the rest of the day, and then leaving the country the following day. Unfortunately, Amanda will be staying back on this trip. So while I am truly excited for this adventure, it will not be the same without her.

I hope you’ll be able to follow my summer in Ethiopia through the blog! If you have any recommendations of things to do and see while I am there, please send them my way.