Church in Gambella

Working for CCL has thus far been amazing. Throughout the summer I have progressively been won over to the concepts of human development and improvement through leadership education, training, and just investing in others. The significance of this really hit me this week as I helped our small Gambella office hire more staff members for an extension to our current project. While conducting interviews, I continually found myself attempting to gauge the potential of the person on the other side of the desk. The people we will hire are qualified to fill their roles, but I am so excited to give them an opportunity to grow and develop though their upcoming experience with CCL. My only regret is that I will be leaving soon, and will not be the one who is able to help them do this.

I recently was invited to and went to a church service here in Gambella. In the middle of an obscure field sat a large structure with a zinc roof. I arrived fashionably late (1 or 2 hours late that is), and caused quite a stir for the preacher as I had to enter from the front of the structure and proceed to the back. After he finished his sermon I was invited to get up on the stage to present myself and my work to the 500+ people in the audience. Everyone was very kind, and translators were provided for me since I know very little Amharic and none of their tribal dialect. After I finished, two or three more people got up and preached for a while. All of this was fine and dandy, but what came next floored me. The keyboard was fired up, a tune was begun, everyone rose from their seats, they began swaying back and forth, and on some unknown cue they began singing in unison. Singing is not really the right word. It was more shouting at the top of their lungs with all the passion and conviction that a person could possibly muster. It was truly incredible though, as it all melded together! I have no rhythm, but I found myself swaying back and forth and smiling the rest of the evening. 

Work in Gambella

My day usually begins after a breakfast that takes longer than it should. The hardest part of breakfast is getting someone to actually bring you a bill at the end of it.

So CCL has a nice office space right in the center of Gambella town in a big bulky government office building. I usually head over there and develop a game plan for the day with the other CCL staff. Most of my work at the moment does not actually take place in the office though. If it did, I don’t know how I would manage. The office is usually over 100 degrees. The air conditioner stuck in the wall is there only to tease you since it has never been operational. The fan is operational but the lack of electricity often transforms it into another object of torment. The last options are the three windows, but unfortunately breeze, even slight, is quite a rare commodity here in Gambella. Basically the office turns into a sauna and you constantly watch the power level on your laptop as it slowly dies because there is no electric.

My days during this trip to Gambella mainly consist of getting out of the office ASAP, hopping into a bajaj taxi, and whizzing around town to schools and churches where we meet with school directors and church elders. Since they now know what CCL is all about, these meetings are really just explaining the new project we are hoping to collaborate with them on. About half of these meetings take place in English, where I take the lead, and the other half in Amharic, where my colleague takes over. These meetings halt at noon each day though, as the town has collectively decided that work should not be done in the heat of the day. So between noon and about 3pm people eat long lunches, take naps, or do whatever they can to escape the heat. Then afternoon meetings take place over a cup of peanut tea, a glass bottled Coke, or an excessively strong coffee.

Ahhh… now this is the life! 

Difficult Choices

Life in Gambella town for a foreigner is full of difficult choices. For example, what would you do if your randomly assigned hotel room turns out to be the “presidential suite” at the "nicest" hotel in Gambella? The quick response is, take it! But the real response is much more difficult. While it is the only room with A/C and a nice flat screen TV, is it really worth it when a swarm of about 2,000 bees decides that is where they want to hang out as well? Once you wait out the bees, grasshoppers, flies, mosquitos, ants, and cockroaches then you have to decide if it is worth having A/C despite the smell of a full septic tank gravitating from the bathroom? The answer for me was yes and yes. Gambella is just way too hot and humid to pass up an opportunity to have A/C. Now if the power would just stay on so I could use it… 

This is hard!

Blogs get to be hard to write! The first month was a breeze as every experience was new for me. This past month it has progressively gotten more difficult to share my experiences. Now, I have sat here and stared at this computer screen for way too long trying to figure out what to write before leaving for Gambella tomorrow. At some point the work you are doing, the relationships you have built, and the things you see just begin to mean something to you on a deeper level than can easily be expressed in a quick and simple blog.

It doesn’t interest many to hear about the creative ideas you and your colleagues put together to assist in women’s empowerment projects.

It doesn’t work to explain the utter heartbreak you feel when you see the suffering that some people are in. Until you look into the eyes of someone willing to sell themselves to you for $1, it won’t mean the same thing when you hear about it.

Not many people care about a relationship that you pour yourself into eventually developing to a level where you would do absolutely anything for that person.

So, while I work on figuring out a way to express the deeper stories for you, I will take advantage of my last day with unlimited broadband internet for a while, and just share some pictures….

Ethiopian National Theatre

Rakeb & a lion statue

The Derg Monument on Churchill Road. Pretty twisted if you Google it

A bunch of colorful traditional scarves

I just read a long and confusing online account of this. This is a model cannon placed in the middle of a busy roundabout on Churchill road to commemorate a Swiss guy who built a cannon upon request a long time ago despite Addis Ababa being the most impractical place for cannons to be built and shipped.

A photo being used to advertise medical services here in Addis

Rakeb and I after eating a "traditional" American meal of buffalo wings and chicken fingers

Crazy Cool

I am going to try and wean you all off of pictures again as I wind down my time with fast and somewhat reliable internet. Sorry!!!

A couple random games that my forengi (foreigner) friends have treated me to in Ethiopia…

The Somali Game – My friend Thomas has created a game over the past 15 years that quite accurately replicates the life of a nomadic Somali Clan. It involves camel herds, all generations of life, droughts, blood money, and much much more. Incredible!

Dutch Blitz – If you know Amanda and I well, then we have probably attempted to sucker you into a game of Dutch Blitz before. If not, please contact in September! You’ll be in for a treat. Anyways, my friend Aaron, unprompted, asked me if I played Dutch Blitz! This is one of the least common games ever and I got asked if I played it while in Ethiopia! What?!? Of course I could not pass up that opportunity.

Other oddities…

Sole Rebels – Who knew that an internationally recognized shoemaker would be located within a two minute walk of my office?!? They utilize used rubber for the soles, and organic and fair-trade materials for the rest of the shoe! Check out their website if you’re interested, http://www.solerebelsfootwear.co/ . Advantage of being here is that instead of $60+ for a pair online, they run between $15 and $40 in country. If you want a pair let me know. No promises, but I’ll see what I can do.

Flying by!

I am over halfway through my time in Ethiopia, and things are happening at a fast pace these days.

Over the past couple of weeks my Amharic teacher, Rakeb, has been working hard to get me up to speed on the language. Unfortunately I have not been the best of students and am still stuck at simple greetings and random words I can spit out in unstructured sentences. I did finally purchase a English-Amharic dictionary, but if you’ve ever seen the Amharic alphabet, then you will realize that it doesn’t mean much. An example of where I am at… I recently got very excited when I saw that a shop was selling Snickers bars. I went up to the lady and asked “Sintino?” which means (How much does it cost?). Since I only know numbers 1-10 though, I had no idea what she said back to me. Then there is the awkward moment of pulling out a 100 Birr note ($6) and waiting to see what happens.

Rakeb showing me Meskel Square

Thanks to Rakeb and another Ethiopian friend of mine, Antennah, I am finally getting a good feel for Addis Ababa. They have kindly taken the time to show me popular sections of town, the best cafes, museums, and historical sites. It has been so nice to not have to manage the taxi bus system on my own during these adventures. It is hard to explain, but basically unless you are ready and willing to shove or even use an elbow on an elderly woman, then you are not going to get on a taxi bus during rush hour. Seriously.

Another view of Meskel Square, a cool place where large gatherings occur during Ethiopian Holidays

We will purchase plane tickets next week, but it looks like I will be flying back to Gambella on Sunday, August 5^th. I will be there for about 3 weeks implementing a new project for CCL and then I will fly back to Addis Ababa and hopefully fly right to the Somali region of Ethiopia, take a bus to the border of Somaliland, then take a bus to the capital of Somaliland. If anyone is familiar with Somaliland, you will understand my excitement of getting a Visa to go there since it is not a recognized country! Hopefully it all works out! Then about the time I get back from that adventure I will be packing to head back to Denver. Scary to think that time is going by so quickly!!!

Not the best picture, but this is an area near my guesthouse called Kazanchis. I am always amazed by the contrasts in this country. The right side of the road is full of new towers, fancy hotels, clubs, nice restaurants, etc... while the left hand side of the road is tiny shops, rusty tin houses, shady bars, etc. So close together, yet worlds apart! 

Addicted

I have recently come to the realization that I am addicted to macchiato. I just cannot get enough! Every morning I get a double macchiato and an amazing pastry for about 30 birr, or just under $2. My regular waitress doesn’t even have to ask me what I want anymore. Somehow I won the parking attendant over as well and he rushes out to great me each time he sees me, even if I am not going to the café. So while much of what the Italians did to Ethiopian citizens is horrific, the legacy of good strong coffee, macchiato, cappuccino, etc… is something positive that remains. Be honest, you surely did not picture people sitting in nice little cafés sipping on their macchiato when you thought about Ethiopia did you?

Me at the local bakery

Answering the call of nature is always an item that people pretend to be grossed out by, but deep down we are all curious. I have seen a wide range of options here. The most interesting one is the acceptability of just stopping wherever you are to take a leak. The side of a crowded pedestrian walkway with only minor thought to who can see you is always popular. Women usually step off the walkway to squat in the grass if they choose to partake in the fun, but this option remains male dominated. When it comes to actual facilities the   most basic is a hole in the ground. You do your business and then take a small pail of water and rinse anything you happened to have bad aim with down the hole. The next step up is a toilet bowl but no seat. It seems quite odd at first, but you figure out how to make it work. Finally, if you are in a classy operation then you will find a toilet bowl with a toilet seat and even toilet paper.

One option...

The Chinese built African Union!

Artwork that lines the gates surrounding the AU compound