Harar

With only a week left in Ethiopia and access to fast internet, I have a bit of a backlog of entries to pump out. Get ready! Recently, with five friends, I went to a town called Harar. Look it up, it is awesome. It was probably my favorite place in Ethiopia. It represented all my favorite parts about this culture without the negative things.

Basically, "for centuries, Harar has been a major commercial center, linked by the trade routes with the rest of Ethiopia, the entire Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and, through its ports, the outside world. Harar Jugol, the old walled city, was included in the World Heritage List in 2006 by UNESCO in recognition of its cultural heritage. According to UNESCO, it is 'considered the fourth holy city of Islam' with 82 mosques, three of which date from the 10th century and 102 shrines".

A view of part of the city.

The guest house we stayed at for part of our trip

Hawks diving in for some meat. They could also catch some from midair.

We went to an Ethiopian Premiership football game. Team Harar vs. Team Bunna.

One of the many markets.

Jebena market

Street food!!

One of the biggest draws about Harar is you can feed hyenas... if you're a crazy person. 

We visited some rural towns in the area. The kids were pretty cute!

Camel market

Lisa with a camel (both of whom are smiling)

After we saw the camels, we ate come camel. When in Harar!

10 Things I'll Miss About Ethiopia

Being an Authority On Everything

Being an American, there is a strange and inaccurate perception that I know everything… Teachers and people all around town will seek me out to ask me questions I cannot even begin to answer. More serious questions like, “What is the role of a teacher within the Ethiopian context?” or “How can Ethiopia pull itself out of poverty and become a rich country like America?” are not that fun. I have become skilled at talking for five minutes without actually saying anything of substance. I can sidestep any question with the inquisitor walking away thinking I was genuine, thorough, and respectful in my response. But sometimes, being the authority is awesome. The best example was when my friend Tilahun bought a refrigerator. His wife tried making ice cream and finally felt she has a great recipe. She invited myself and one other PCV over because, “we know what good ice cream tastes like and can give feedback”. Anything to serve my country!

Rain Means No Work

Rainy season goes from April to October. There are some short breaks during that period and some storms outside those months. When it rains, the streets become swamps and it’s a hassle to do just about anything. Because when it rains in Asella, it rains. Perhaps it will rain for 12 straight hours. Perhaps it will hail. But more often than not, it is just a torrential downpour like I have never experienced in my life. I remember hustling to my house one day because I could tell a storm was coming. Soon, I heard this deep rumble. I had no clue what the sounds was and had never really heard anything like it before. At that point, everyone on the street started running for cover. The sound grew louder and louder. It turned out to be the sound of rain pounding metal roofs and as it became louder, it meant the storm was inching closer and closer. When this type of thing happens, there is a cultural understanding that no one leaves where they are, all appointments are cancelled.  I drink cocoa and call it a day.

Acting A Fool

When I visited America last summer, I needed a haircut. As I sat in the chair with a woman behind me giving me a trim, a song popped into my head. Naturally, I just started singing it aloud. It took about five seconds to realize that A. breaking into song is not normal and B. the lady cutting my hair was staring at me strangely in the mirror. I have stopped learning how to censor my weirdness in Ethiopia and I like it. I have learned to embrace being different from everyone else in my town (probably a little too much). This means I will sing on the street. Have little conversations with myself. Say hello to animals. Stutter step around crazy people to confuse them. The worst is when I see someone I know while walking down the street. I cannot count how many times I have thought, “Oh no! Did 'blah blah blah’ see me doing something crazy?”

Zero cares about cleanliness

Once again, because I am so different, I can get away with doing anything. I have stopped caring about being clean. And this is not to say I am a filthy, stinky person. I never allow myself to get too dirty. But being clean and showering on a regular basis is no longer a priority. Wearing a shirt for five days in a row is standard. Baby wipes are good enough to pass for a decent shower. Ethiopians are not a dirty people. I am not modeling their behavior and my lack of cleanliness has no correlation to the level of cleanliness of people living here. It’s just me. I have no one to impress.  I have embraced that classic Peace Corps Volunteer stereotype.

Camaraderie and Uniqueness

It is fun to meet other Volunteers and reminisce about our different experiences. This can go two ways: 1. Meeting another Volunteer or expat in Ethiopia. There is an unspoken understanding that allows us to be friends. We have lived through a lot of the same things. These are the people that can understand my PC experience better than anyone back home will ever be able to no matter how much I try to explain. 2. Meeting another PC Volunteer who served in different country. We can be a world apart but our experiences are so similar. The issues we face, the way we talk, the acronyms we use all boil down to a sense of family, even if you’ve only just met him or her. It is a fun community to be a part of, and actually, only gets better once you leave.

Silly Ridiculous Stuff

One of the best parts about living in a foreign country is that it is well, foreign. Things happen that are so out of the ordinary you cannot help but laugh. When the little girl on my compound yells at a monkey because it is stealing food scraps, I love this place a little more. When I have to chase a chicken out of my house, it gets a little harder to leave. The other day, I was walking down my road. About 30 yards away, I saw a dog happily walking towards me. He had a little strut going and if a dog can smile, he was doing it. I watched as he came towards me with a smile on my own face. As he got closer, I noticed he had something in his mouth. Ah ha! This dog found some meat; it is a good day for him. As we crossed paths, we looked at each other. He didn’t exactly have a nice piece of meat in his mouth. It was a hoof. He was strutting by carrying a hoof in his mouth. That will never happen back in America, and it makes me a little sad.

Coffee

I have chronicled how much I love Ethiopian coffee. A majority of one of my suitcases will be coffee when I fly back to America. My goal for the next week is to see how much coffee the human body can withstand.

Lifestyle

I have mentioned in passing that I have not been able to do as much work as I would have hoped for due to a variety of reasons. There are some benefits to that though. I was able to read 50 books during the last two years. I watched some classic movies and TV shows. I travelled around midweek when there was no work. I sat at cafés for 2 hours on weekdays reading, simply because I could. I have had time to reflect on myself and my future plans. I have learned to find self worth in small little tasks. All these things would not have been possible had I been working a traditional full time job.

Generosity

I packed up my house 6 days ago. Once I did that, I was no longer able to cook any food for myself. I have not missed a meal. I have been invited into to people’s homes and offered as much food and coffee as I desire. This is just the latest example of two years filled with generosity. During my first three months, I lived with a host family who treated me better than I could have hoped. They welcomed me into their home and provided me with everything I could have needed. Upon moving to Asella, coworkers and strangers alike where happy to help in any way if it meant I would be more “settled in”. Friends like Abel and Tilahun have welcomed me into their homes and family more times than I can count. And truth be told, I am not that unique. Peace Corps Volunteers are not the only ones who get this generous treatment. Ethiopians share what they have with family, friends, and neighbors constantly and without thought.

Friends and family (Ethiopian and American)

One of the hardest parts of my entire Peace Corps service has been saying goodbye to so many different people over the last few weeks. For the Ethiopians here, it is pretty self-explanatory. They are amazing people and I will miss them. I owe my positive experience to them and they were the difference between staying and going. And though I am going back to America, in a weird way, I will miss the unique relationships I’ve had with family and friends while away. It will be amazing to see them in 8 days, but through the process of letter writing and monthly Skype calls, I feel like I have gotten to know a different side of a lot of people. When you are writing a letter, you have to fill up the space. If you don’t have a topic, you don’t know what might come out. And let me tell you, really interesting things come out.

Peace Corps Reading List

One of my personal Peace Corps goals was to read 50 books during my time here. That averages out to a book every two weeks. While it is not a break-neck pace, I am pleased to say I made it, just barely. It is a good thing Animal Farm is like 75 pages.

1.     Bossy Pants by Tina Fey

2.     The Best American Travel Writing edited by Bill Buford

3.     Long Way Down by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman

4.     The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

5.     The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo

6.     Sun Rise With Sea Monsters by Neil Jordan

7.     Life, the Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams

8.     Stiff by Mary Roach

9.     A Long Way Gone by Ishale Beah

10.  July, July by Tim O’Brien

11.  Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

12.  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

13.  Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien

14.  What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murskami

15.  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

16.  Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

17.  The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

18.  Spice by Jack Turner

19.  Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? By Mindy Kaling

20.  My Life by Bill Clinton

21.  Eat, Love, Pray by Elizabeth Gilbert

22.  Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg

23.  By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho

24.  The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

25.  Decision Points by George W Bush

26.  Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin

27.  Long Way Around by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman

28.  The Plague by Albert Camus

29.  Lucy by Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey

30.  3 Miles Per Hour by Polly Letofsky

31.  The Gunslinger by Stephen King

32.  So Long and Thanks for the Fish by Douglas Adams

33.  Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams

34.  The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

35.  The Wasteland by Stephen King

36.  Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

37.  Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

38.  Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

39.  Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste

40.  Wind Through the Key Hole by Stephen King

41.  In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

42.  Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

43.  The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

44.  Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

45.  Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

46.  Gandhi: An Autobiography by… Gandhi

47.  Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

48.  Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

49.  Machine Man by Max Barry

50.  Animal Farm by Orson Wells

Websitin'

One of my favorite projects I have undertaken in the last two years has been working on the Peace Corps Ethiopia website. Myself and three other Volunteers (seen working incredibly hard above) were the founding dream team responsible for creating and shaping this brand new website. It shares what PC Ethiopia is with the public and gives Volunteers in country every document and resource available.

In Ethiopia, progress is slow. In order to do anything, I normally need to meet with three or four different people. Then I need to get my plans stamped by some official who is inevitable out of the office. With the website, we decided to make something, and simply did it. If we wanted a page on Grassroot Soccer, we did it. There was no red tape and no purple stamp in our way. Instant gratification.

So if you’re curious, check it out. If you’ve ever had any questions about what Peace Corps Ethiopia is or does, all the answers are probably here,  http://www.pcethiopia.org/