I’ve had guacamole 3 times since my last entry, so yeah, I’m doing pretty well

Over the course of the last week, I traveled to the far and distant land that will become my home for two years: Assela. Not really. It is a 25-minute bus ride from my host family. It is where I am currently using the Internet. But I decided that far and distant land sounds way more romantic!

                                                 

The town of Assela is actually quite large. There are anywhere between 60,000 to 120,000 people living here depending on who you ask. After spending a week here, I am confident it is closer to the ladder. Interestingly, the population is fairly split in several ways. About half of the town is Christian while the other half is Muslim. Half of the town speaks Afan Oromo while the other half speaks Amharic. Half of the town lives in a central, urban area while the other half lives more rural as farmers.  To be quite honest, to have this level of complete diversity is really exciting. I love the idea of being in a melting pot where I will be fortunate enough to see so many different facets of Ethiopian culture. While there is little to no tension between these cultures, the diversity is evident just walking down the street. For example, as I walk past a sigabet (meathouse), I like to look to see if there is a cross or crescent moon- signifying which religious group the meat is appropriate for. But you can learn all about the town via Wikipedia (probably) so let’s get to some specifics…

I traveled to Assela with my counterpart, which made the entire trip fairly stress free. I figured it might be the last time I have someone who speaks the language telling me what bus to get on, so I may as well take full advantage. We arrived in Assela and over the course of the next few days, I saw important places and meet prominent people. I learned where the police station and hospital are located. I meet the mayor, head of the police department and head of the education office. But at one point, my counterpart was talking with my cluster supervisor (what that is later) in Amharic. I decided I needed something to keep me occupied, which lead to a fun game. Spelling in this country is… questionable. If is sounds correct, then it does not really matter if it is the proper spelling. So I keep jotting down all the different ways to spell Assela. Asela. Asallaa. Assala. Assella. Asselaa. And this is not just on small shop signs, I found 3 of these at the mayor’s office. I digress.

One of the key places I visited was the school I will be working at for two years. I did not know what to expect but had heard good things from a lot people. The school turns out to be amazing and I feel really lucky. First of all, it is gorgeous. It is on a hill and is backed up my lush green trees. You can see rolling mountains in the background, it is amazing. It is also huge. There is a giant field for students to play on and there are a ton of classrooms. There are three shint bets (one for girls, boys and teachers) so students can use a potty at school. But the pride and joy of the campus is the special education building. It is only 2-3 years old and was built for blind (if you’re reading this Mrs. Dawirs, I want to try and get my hands on some Ethiopia Braille for you), deaf and mentally handicapped students. To illustrate how significant this is, let me throw some quick, Ethiopia facts at you. The country is broken into 9 different regions, counties, states, or whatever you want to call them. Oromia, mine, is probably in the top 3 in terms of size. The special education building on my campus is the only special education building in all of Oromia. BOOM. It’s kind of a big deal because it gives children, who would normally drop out of school at a very young age, an equal chance to succeed. Back to my school: in talking with the staff, they are not interested in having me teach a class, but instead to work with teachers to improve their teaching and command of English (that may be a run on sentence and the irony is not lost on me). The way we all kind of see this playing out is through a lot of observations, feedback, and trainings ran by yours truly. While all my experience is working with students, the opportunity to work with teacher is great because it allows for the most long-term improvement at the school. Look at me all naive and optimist!!! And there are three schools in my cluster (kind of like a small district [hence a cluster supervisor {I love brackets}]) so while I am mostly at one school, there are a lot of teachers I can work with.

Another thing that I did on my site visit was look at housing. I went to the education office and they said they had a house set up for me. They made this sound very researched and official. All I needed to do was approve it and they would hammer out the price to make it happen. So with my counterpart, we looked through this house. Before I give details, let me just state that most PCVs have one, sometimes two rooms and share a shint bet (hole in the ground where nightmares are born) with at least one family. The place I saw had a real toilet! And 5 rooms plus a kitchen. And an indoor shower. And a bath tub. And crown molding. Yeah, it was a little too good to be true and was 4 times my allotted monthly rent. It was about 3,000 birr a month (keep in mind a teacher probably makes around 2,500 birr a month) So while I appreciated seeing what I believe to be the only bathtub in Ethiopia, I do not yet have housing. But it was a fun experience: like when you see a mansion for sale and pretend to be interested just to see it. 

Finally, I just want to mention how awesome Assela is. Not just because in 4 days there I received 3 marriage proposals (I only contemplated one: when the post office lady, who controls packages from home, offers you her son, it is natural to think about the mail service perks it would bring, BUT, ultimately, I decided not. You’re welcome Eric!) but because in time I think it will really feel like a home. In walking the streets, people left me alone for the most part. I can buy amazing things like peanut butter and laughing cow cheese. I bought a Snickers bar. Let me repeat that, a SNICKERS bar!!! There are three other PCVs and two British volunteers living in Assela so there are people I can talk to without a language barrier and eat western food with. Overall, it was just a great atmosphere and made me really excited to start my service.

I have to go kill bugs now. Miss you all. And if there is a topic (within reason) you are ever interested in, leave a comment and I will try to write about it. I’m pretty sure I will run out of things to write about fairly soon! Also, I am writing this 7/14 so happy anniversary parents!!!