Ras Dashin- History and Friendship and Mountains, oh my!

A few months back, Joe Whelan called me with the idea of climbing the tallest mountain in Ethiopia. It was something he wanted to do before our service here ended and suddenly, time was closing in. He was looking for a group of around six volunteers to undertake this adventure with him.  Without giving it too much logical thought (i.e. am I really able to climb a mountain?), I agreed as long as it worked into my schedule. He rounded up an amazing group of people (Zach Morris, Michael Quiroz, Daniel and Danielle Luttrull, Joe, and myself) and worked out the logistics* for us all. 

*We are only allowed to leave our site during semester breaks, but all of our breaks were at different times. There was a small overlap, but with my parents and Zach’s sister visiting, it seemed as though there was no window for us to go. The trip went from a "go" to a "no" to a "go" to "who knows?" Eventually, Joe maneuvered everything and work it out, which was quite an impressive feat. Zach’s sister left Monday night and we left Tuesday morning. We returned back the next Monday afternoon and I picked up my parents late Monday night. We were cutting it pretty close (I was terrified of a flight delay that would leave me, and worse my parents, stranded) but it was the only time that worked. The trip wouldn’t have happened without Joe’s logistics work, which at certain points, I hated him for.

We flew from Addis Ababa north to the historical town of Gonder. We had the full day to explore and I had never been there before. Joe, Zach, and I opted to visit the Fasiladas Bath. It belonged to Emperor Fasiladas and it's one of the bigger historical draws in Ethiopia. During a religious holiday called Timket, they fill the bath with holy water and thousands of people celebrate by jumping in/getting baptized.  The holiday was only two days prior and we heard it was suppose to be pretty amazing while filled with water. 

 

The scenery was beautiful and made you feel like you were back in time. I always laugh to myself when I get the opportunity to see places like this- looking at a wall covered with roots that are older than the country I come from is a pretty incredible feeling.
 

While at the Bath, a theme that would follow through to the end of the trip started: the bromance of Joe and Zach. 

After the Bath, all six of us finally met up. Another great thing about Gonder is that it is home to one of the biggest breweries in Ethiopia and their main beer is named after the mountain we were about to climb- Ras Dashin. As a tribute, we may have enjoyed a few. We sat around talking and enjoying a beautiful afternoon. That time solidified what I already suspected, the trip was going to be a blast if for no other reason than the group of people going. Everyone was mellow, excited, and perhaps a bit nervous. Eventually, we went back to the hotel and pooled our money together because we still needed to pay for the trip. It was more 100's than I'll ever see in my life (irrelevant that they were birr 100's). There was a moment when we saw just how much money it was and jokingly toyed with the idea of skipping the trip and living like kings and queens for the next week in Gonder.

We came to our senses and told the tour guide to come over and pick up the payment. While this sounds simple, nothing ever is in Ethiopia. As we all sat around in one room, we realized we had never met the tour guide before. He came recommended, but we really knew nothing about him. And now, here we were with 30,000 birr all feeling sketchy. We devised a few ridiculous plans, including intimidation tactics, forgetting that our group would be best described as goofy and as far from intimidating as possible. Our tour guide was a nice guy who I would wholeheartedly recommend, but that moment in the hotel room was a little tense. I'm not sure I helped by asking how he was going to get all that money home, did he have a car? Yes. Did he have a gun? Laughter without an answer.

After what felt like a tense drug deal paying our tour guide, we all went to dinner and called it an early night...


There are just too many memorable moments for one blog; check back tomorrow for day 1 of the hike! 

Straight From the Horses' Mouths

I realize it has been a little while since there has been an update, but the last five weeks of my life have been crazy. I have done some amazing thing with many of my favorite people in the world. In the coming weeks, you can read all about them here (or not, do what you have to do) but in the meantime, I hope this special treat will hold you over.

As a thoughtful and entertaining Christmas gift for family and friends back home, a married couple from my group, Daniel and Danielle Luttrull, decided to make a podcast consisting of many volunteers telling stories from Ethiopia. The result is THIS. It is an honest look at life in Ethiopia. Some of the stories are heartwarming while others are silly. Download it all; give it a listen. And while it has an overall Christmas theme, the topic of all of our stories is good year around: things you never expected to happen in your life.

As a note, tracks 4, 6, and 8 have mild curse words if there are little ears around. And track number 2 is a hilariously thoughtful description of a former vegetarian witnessing/helping slaughter a goat for an Ethiopia holiday. If you are a bit squeamish, maybe don't listen to it while driving.

And if you want more, here are the personal blogs of some of the people you'll hear stories from. Enjoy!

Joel Miller (Track 2)
Sarah and Aaron Arnold (Tracks 4 and 5)
Joe Whelan (Track 7)
Daniel and Danielle Luttrull (Tracks 8 and 11 and your hosts for the hour)

COOKIE PARTY!

Upon hearing that I had access to an oven, my lovely mother instantly decided I needed to have all the fixin’s to make Christmas cookies. The care package arrived after forenji Christmas but before Ethiopian Christmas. The only thing to do was invite my favorite children and Lisa in the world to my house for a cookie party. What followed was adorable. 

It was oddly difficult to explain why we were cutting cookies into the shape of socks.  I think I am going to side with the kids on this one, that is a weird tradition.

Betty and Soliana, Tilahun's daughters. 

Taking this out of context, I guess it's just me threatening a kid with a knife. But frosting makes it OK!

Even Lisa got into the action. Not going to lie, she tried real hard. I guess we both did. And the girls' cookies still looked roughly 100% better.

Shalom really enjoyed making cookies and nothing was going to distract her from it. This was the only picture of her looking at the camera.

Shalom's older sister Yididia, aggressively sprinkling.

 I guess they tasted good too!

Lisa and I decided we had to leave something out for Ethiopian Santa.

Peace Corps: Goal 1

I was recently talking to my brother, Alex, on Skype and he said something like “Laura, you talk about travelling, activities, and other shenanigans, but how is the actual work going? How is teaching?” I think my first reaction may have been laughter but it did get me thinking about the work I do at my school, and more specifically, my lack of reporting about it on this here blog.

My official Peace Corps title is Primary School English Teacher Trainer. The idea is that if I work with teachers and improve their English and methodologies, that will trickle down to the students. In theory, I will have a wider reach teaching teachers than simply teaching a few classes of students. Peace Corps’ main goal is sustainability- my work should continue even when I am gone.

While this all sounds great, it does not work perfectly in practice. Already overworked teachers are not always motivated to do extra work when there is no tangible incentive. Furthermore, most of my teachers have other roles and responsibilities once they finish their day teaching. At first this was frustrating, but eventually I learned to respect the decisions these people have to make. If the choice is, come to my training or go cook dinner for your five children/work a second job to provide money for food, I’d expect their highest priority to be their family’s well-being every time.

The result of these circumstances is that I am not able to do as much work as I would like. But the work I do complete, I enjoy. A great example of this is a program my Ethiopian counterpart and I have started at my school called Grassroots Soccer. The program uses soccer as a vessel to teach students about HIV and its prevention. We are only halfway through the eleven sessions, but the students seem to be truly enjoying it. For me, one of my favorite parts has been to watch my counterpart begin to take the lead and become more confident in delivering the lessons. He has been able to lead discussions and talk with students about subjects normally not discussed in Ethiopian classrooms.

I brought my camera to a few sessions and here are some examples of the type of lesson in the Grassroots Soccer program:

The contract all student have to sign to participate in the program. Since sensitive topics are often discussed, it is important to have a safe environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing. Also, students are expected to go home and tell their family and friends some of the things they have learned. 

 In groups of 2-3, students had to decide if a statement was true or false. There are many misconceptions about HIV and this activity helped to get students thinking critically about things they hear, instead of blindly believing it.

 The papers in front of the students represent common risks for contracting HIV, "sex with older partners", "not using a condom", etc. Students had to dribble the soccer ball around the obstacle with certain consequences for hitting one. These consequences impacted themselves, their teammates, and everyone in the program.

Not only did this exercise teach students risks for getting HIV, but it put the impact of the virus into perspective. Your family, friends, and community are affected if you get HIV.

 My counterpart, Solomon, lead a discussion about the importance of being mutually faithful with your partner. The discussion took an interesting turn when a female student commented that being faithful never really works because how can you fully trust your partner? Without missing a beat, Solomon began discussing power dynamics in a relationship and whether or not you should really be with someone you cannot trust.

Chilalo Mountain

The town of Asella is nestled at the base of a large mountain called Chilalo. It is a beautiful beast that had been taunting Joe, Abel, and myself for some time, luring us to try to conquer it. And conquer it we did (kind of [not really {I'm genuinely surprised we lived}]). The mountain is ranked somewhere in the top ten tallest mountains in Ethiopia. The exact figure is unknown because measuring, turns out, isn't an exact science. I am going to say, because I jump while at the top (and I can jump fairly high), we were at the six highest elevation in Ethiopia. In actuality, I think the summit is around 13,000. I feel that is pretty solid for a day hike.

Our destination as seen from my house

Early in the morning, Joe and I left from my house to meet Abel at his. We arrive there at around 7:30am. It is worth noting, we arrived back at Abel's house at 7:30pm. It was a long day. But the weather was perfect. There were very few clouds about, giving us some spectacular views.

Here we are: clean, excited, and perhaps a little naive. We knew other people had done the same climb with success so it never occurred to us (or at least me), the day would be anything but a pleasant jaunt.

Apparently there is a forest in Asella where local runners train. The cool thing about living in this area is that local runners could actually be future Olympians. By the time we reached this forest, most of the runners were done for the morning. But I have watched people in Bekoji train the same way. They zigzag through these trees, up and down hills with speeds ranging from a light jog to sprinting. I tried to run with some of them and could not keep up. Going at what seemed like a snail's pace in comparison, I still fell over tree roots and had to stop to catch my breath before the actual runners seemed to be done with their warm up.

 

Once out of the forest, we came upon a path that people walk daily to get to the market in Asella. What to me was a fun novelty, was a daily routine to them. 

 

One thing that I love about Abel is his love of coffee. Because we left so early, he was not able to drink coffee. To an Ethiopian, this is obviously unacceptable.  We came upon a rural area that had some houses. While Joe and I were hoping that no one would stop us and tell us we were not allowed to climb the mountain, Abel was going to door to door to see if anyone would make us coffee. This nice woman was happy to prepared a full coffee ceremony for us. She built a fire, roasted the beans, pounded it into grinds, cooked the coffee, and served it to us.

In my opinion, the most amazing sight of the day (and possibly my service) took place in this woman's home. There is a common phrase here (at least among PCVs) called "habasha hands". It is an equivalent to "housewife hands" in America (I feel like maybe this terms is not appropriate to say anymore, houseperson?). It is the idea that a person works with hot objects so often that he or she can touch something that would burn a normal person.

This woman had the craziest set of habasha hands I have ever seen. To give some perspective, Abel went home and told his mom about this woman. Abel's mom raised five children, four of which are boys, and she was astounded. Our barista built the fire to boil the water on sticks. Once the fire as going, she balance the kettle on the sticks. The kettle literally became red hot because it was directly on the flame. Once the coffee was done, she grabbed the kettle from the bottom (the RED HOT bottom) and pour three glasses of coffee. She did not flinch or grimace. She felt nothing. As she held metal that would have melted my skin off, she just continued to smile and talk.

I think this was our rock band album cover photo

With a dose of caffeine in our system, Joe and I decided to do what any good American would do in this situation: play baseball. There were circular plants growing in this open area and we took the opportunity to have batting practice. This was Abel's first time taking a baseball swing and as you can see, from the fear in my position, he is a natural!

My best attempt at, "You shall not pass!"

Abel and Joe

The rock formations towards the top of the mountain were amazing. Chilalo used to be a volcano (or still is? when does a volcano stop being a volcano?). The result are these beautiful rocks that look just like lava rolling down hill.

Close to the top. Asella is somewhere down there. At a certain point we stopped trying to find it.

Joe at the top of the world. 

For anyone who is a regular reader of this blog (so basically just my mom), you will remember that Joe and I climb a mountain called Gelama together near his town of Bekoji. Once at the top, someone asked if we wanted our picture taken. Thinking that we were "too cool for school", we scoffed and said no. Later in the day we realized how dumb we were and that probably would have been a really nice picture. We did not make the same mistake twice, here is our photo: redemption! I would also like to state that Joe is noticeably taller than me, I have no idea why I look like an amazon woman in this photo.

And on the back side of Chilalo, there was ... drum roll... another mountain! Kind of. It turned out that Chilalo is crater-like. There are three walls of the crater, but since they are near the same height, you cannot see the others unless you are on the top. We were all blown away by this. Looking back now, it all makes sense. People from towns all over the region use Chilalo as a marker, but these markers always contradict each other. Knowing the actual geography of the mountain makes it obvious that people are just referencing different faces of the mountain.

I have never in my life seen anything as expansive and amazing as the view from the top. I honestly felt like I was on the top of the world. 

Group shot; we made it!

 

As I said earlier, the trip was 12 hours straight of walking. Joe had a fancy watch to tell us how far we went, but it ran out of batteries (telling of the day). Based on what the number was before it died, we walked somewhere between 15-18 miles. 

We got lost on the way down and that cost us a good hour or two. While in some places in the world this would not be a problem, it meant we were likely walking through hyena turf towards the end of the trek. A fairly scary idea at the end of a long day. We realize we were in trouble when we passed people on the road and they offered to let us all stay at their house for the night. They almost pleaded with us because they knew the path was unsafe at that hour. But when given the option of getting one hyena bite or one million bug bites, we all knew the best choice. Fortunately, we had no problems and all got home safe.

In my mind, the day was one of the best examples of everything I love about Peace Corps and Ethiopia. I went with two people who were strangers a year and a half ago, but are now family.  I saw some of the most beautiful sights I will ever see in my life. A woman we did not know and lives in conditions of such poverty that her bedroom, kitchen, and barn are all one room, treated us to coffee. Any time were were lost and someone was around, they were happy to help us. On the way back, strangers cared about our safety, perhaps more than we did, and offered us their home for a night. The day was perfect and exemplified all the forms of beauty in which this country is so rich.

Thanksgiving 2013!

When I was told I would be placed in Asella and live there for the next two years, I was not informed of a key Asella tradition I would be responsible for continuing. The pervious three Thanksgivings, the volunteers in Asella have thrown a holiday party for all the local volunteers and friends. Last year, I was in Addis for a training and had to miss out on the fun. This year, I decided to throw caution to the wind and host my first Thanksgiving ever. That meant cooking a (hopefully) delicious meal for somewhere between 10 and 100 people (the final number was somewhere around 25 people).

While I would like to take all the credit, I had a lot of help. And by help, I mean I recruited people who are WAY more skilled at this sort of thing than me to do most of the work as I ran around and helped with anything they needed. I was everyone’s sous chef at best. But the two-day extravaganza was a success and everyone seemed to have a good time (in other words, ate to the point of nausea- the ultimate Thanksgiving goal).

The Wednesday before, everyone arrived in Asella and settled in. That evening, we went to a local park/bar/hotel/café/restaurant/theater called Universal for dinner and a show. After a round of steak sandwiches and grilled cheeses, we went into the theater that had been rented out for our purposes. Unfortunately, it took a little while to get the movie and drinks ready. But if there is one thing Peace Corps Volunteers are good at, it is killing time. Someone brought equipment for woofle ball, and since it was pretty cold outside, we just played inside. It turned into batting practice with everyone taking a turn. And god bless Ethiopia, the management just shook their heads and laughed.

Leslie's strange intimidation tactic

Hammered it!

There was a lot of discussion about what movie would be best for this situation. But while many movies were mention, in all of our hearts, we knew what movie it had to be. We all nestled into our seats, a fellow volunteer announced the drinking game rules, and we all prepared for one of the greatest films of our time: Sharknado.  It was everything we wanted it to be. The film provided great commentary about some of today’s biggest issues: man vs. nature, mankind's humanity, and whether a chainsaw works inside of a shark (it does).  But the film left us all burning with questions. The only logical thing to do was have a Q&A after the viewing.

The photo is a little unclear, so allow me to introduce our esteemed panel: (from the left) the director of the film, actress Tara Reid, and finally the executive producer.

The audience asked thought provoking questions like what was the film really saying about humanity, and how could Tara Reid and Ian Ziering have a child in its mid-twenties. The chairs used are normally only used for weddings. And since I am not entirely sure how weddings work in this country, these three may now be married.

The next day, there was work to be done since people actually wanted to eat, but that didn’t exactly stop the shenanigans. The first thing we had to do was pick up the goat and the beer, which conveniently fit into one Bajaj.

Our bajaj driver Addis is such a good sport

At around 2:00, everyone came over. It was a fun relaxing time that somehow felt like Thanksgiving back home. People played games, threw around a football, and just enjoyed each other's company. The afternoon was great- for everyone but the goat.

I’ve posted slaughter pictures before so that seems unnecessary. But there was a unique aspect to this goat. Months before Thanksgiving, fueled by whiskey and ego, my sitemate Leslie made the bold claim that because she is from Oklahoma, she could skin a goat. Abel laughed at her and said it was impossible. Thus, a slap bet was born. The idea was that if she skinned it successfully, she got to punch him in the face. If she failed, he got to slap her. I tried to tell Abel that he was too good of person to slap a girl. As slap bet commissioner, I ruled he would be allowed the transfer the slap if desired.

Leslie did a lot of research about how to skin a goat. She watched youtube videos and called her uncle (apparently a real Oklahoman). She was prepared to do it and quite confident, until she actually saw the goat. She made the mistake of talking to it and looking in its eyes. She lost some confidence but still believed that she could do it. After all, she was not responsible for killing it, just skinning it. The moment of truth came, and she made a great go of it.

Her face says it all

She went elbow deep in that thing, but ultimately, she was not able to skin it alone. I was impressed how well she actually did. As slap bet commish, I ruled that the bet was a draw, no one deserved to be slapped. But Leslie wouldn’t hear of it and told Abel to slap her. As foretold, Abel is too much of a gentleman and as Leslie braced for impact, he just gave her a pat on the cheek.

As mentioned, I had to recruit a lot of help. Abel and another friend Tilahun took care of preparing the goat. They broke down the animal and cooked it to perfection. They used something like a giant wok and prepared it all outside. First they melted down some of the fat to use as oil, and then they added the meat, onions, garlic, ginger, beer, and tons of spices. 

And don’t be fooled because it looks like a fellow PCV is helping them. After sitting there with a knife for a while, they gave him the “important” task of keeping the cat away.

The usual silliness occurred as the goat was being prepared. This time, Leslie and I made up a new game called “ball chicken”. I’m not going to explain it if you can’t figure it out.

In the kitchen, I helped Lisa prepare the other dishes. She is an amazing cook and made the (I’m going to guess) biggest pan of eggplant parmesan Ethiopia has ever seen.

In the late afternoon, everything was ready and we sat down to eat wherever we could find space. Whether they were sarcastic or not, I appreciated the oooo’s and ahhhh’s as we took the foil off of everything. In all, we had goat, eggplant parmesan, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing two ways, and two different baked vegetable dishes. During dinner, everyone went around and said what they were thankful for. Some were more colorful than others, but the overall sentiment was everyone felt thankful for each other and that even though we're so far away from our families, we could still feel at home during the holiday.

Dessert was a team effort. Lisa made a peanut butter chocolate cake masterpiece. My friend Kristen and I made a few pumpkin pies. And a fellow PCV, Jackie, brought banana bread and a ridiculous chocolate pecan pie. Sadly, during her bus ride, the cake melted so it was a sticky mess. Since Ethiopian tradition dictates that feeding people just means you care about them, I went for it. As people came up to grab dessert, I spooned the melted pie in their mouths. I think everyone partook and since it is almost a month later, I guess no one was sick. The kids kept sneaking up to get another bite from me and while the adult in me knew it was a bad idea, I just kept giving them more and more (I did apologize to their parents for their sugar high and inevitable crash as they were leaving)

As I said, I played a minor role in this all. Lisa was an amazing cook. Abel and Tilahun killed it (pun intended) with the goat. Abel also offered up his home for this occasion. Jackie’s desserts were outrageous. Leslie made eight pounds of mashed potatoes by hand. Ultimately, the holiday turned into exactly what it is meant to be: everyone coming together from far a wide to celebrate the day and reflect how much we all have to be thankful for.

Sadly, by the time we thought to take a picture, just the forenjis and Abel were left