Kiremt Deresa or Summer Has Arrived!

Good evening readers. Welcome to another edition of You Want a Peace of Me?!. I'm your host Tim. Today we're going to talk about summer, summer, summer time, in the wise words of the Fresh Prince. 

Zinabu met'a at "Iggy's" Buna Bet in Azena

So, summer here looks a little bit different than what you're seeing across the pond. You know that drizzly section of April that brings may frizzles. No, wait, that's not how the rhyme goes. The April baths that brings May tax returns. That's not it either. Welp, never was much for recalling poetry.

Anyways, around May in much of Ethiopia (Tigray, and others excluded) comes this rain. This rain is like a recently unemployed son who comes back for a little while. We look forward to seeing him again. We miss him. It's so nice and happy when he arrives. And then 4 days in we have had enough. And he stays for 6 months.

This my friends, is KIREMT! Or Rainy Season! It certainly isn't all bad and some volunteers, yours truly included, love kiremt. Above is the buna bet or coffee house in my town. If I happen to be there when the rain cometh, then I have a great reason for the Tim to stayeth. And drink 3 more sinis of buna. 

Hiwot and Bettie in their netch libs or holiday clothes

And of course the rainy season brought Fasika or Orthodox Christianity's Easter. Or one begot the other, depending on where you were. But Fasika is the end of roughly 2 months of fasting. No meat or animal products, and on many days, no eating anything up until 2 pm.

I was hanging out with a teacher from the local high school after Fasika, and one teacher noticed his English was particularly good that day. Better than it had been in the past few months. He remarked, "My brain disappears every Tir (January) until Fasika." I think this is a good idea of many people's sentiment towards the arrival of Fasika.

Bettie or "Kale" and I celebrating Fasika

At my neighbor Zuwdit's

Fasika, or holidays in general, are always a nice time to just hang out and techewat or converse with my neighbors and friends. This year I didn't go very far. Once again, my landlord bought two sheep for Fasika and fed anyone that came over. So many did. 

Also I got to eat and most importantly, drink some t'ela and coffee at my neighbor Zuwdit's (center, cheetah print head scarf above). She is a total boss when it comes to making delicious coffee, local beer (t'ela), as well as local hard alcohol katikala. Foreigners I've shared it with may regard it as anti-matter rather than a beverage. But what do they know?

Yassa kuray or A Fish Pond in Bikolo Abay

Wandering through the forests in Kaffe zone with Jane and Trevor in April has had an unintended benefit. In preparation for this summer's Camp GROW (Growing and Renewing Our World), I sought to revisit the idea of permagardening as an item in the training and possibly replace it with aquaponics. In my experience, though permagardens are a neat concept for the individual, haven't seemed to take off in Ethiopia. Many people who tried interventions have seen them go only as far as their own personal involvement. The same curse many volunteer projects and even lucrative businesses face in this culture.

I drew from what I had seen and heard about aquaponics being a hit in Ethiopia and as an income generating activity in other Peace Corps posts, and reached out to the Camp director Elaine. She and I went around her woreda setting up meetings to see if we could get one built as a demo for our campers. With a little stroke of luck, we were able to get things started.

Tomorrow, I am going out to Ambo Mesk to work with a youth group and a development agent (DA) to start digging an area deemed suitable for a fish pond. The plan is for the youth group to dig the pond and own as an income generator, the DA to oversee it, and for them both to present these concepts to our campers in August.

I really hope the project is successful, because it would be great for students and counterparts from different areas to see the potential of this income generator and supplement to enrich soil health. Above is one that has been successful in the town over, Bikolo Abay, which we hope to use as a model for ours. 

Further updates to come on this.

Gyon, Bereket, Isabella, Bettie, Hiwot, and Alex (back)

My newlywed neighbors and Buda visitors

Another great development was the arrival of Alex and Isabella Buda to my small town. Isabella, Alex's sister, visited Ethiopia for 10 days between finishing sophomore year at Salve Regina and starting her job as a therapeutic riding instructor at a summer camp. I am constantly impressed by the number of PCV's friends and family I have seen brave the unknown here in our humble host country. 

Most RPCV's (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) have emphasized how important it is to have someone come and visit you. Otherwise, in many ways, your entire experience is lost on those who are closest to you at home. These pictures and blogs and Facebook posts help for sure, but there is just no possible way to explain in words the experience of Ethiopia. Travelling, it has been said, is a study in ways to live. 

And you can't understand how incredibly different humans can live their lives. In terms of interacting with neighbors, getting to the next town, eating breakfast. While also seeming to include all the important dimensions: loving one another, being creative, enjoying one another's company, etc. 

My point is, family and friends, BUY A PLANE TICKET!

Donder Falls in Chagni, Awi zone

Recently I also checked out Chagni, a big town and fellow PCV's site in my own zone, which I hadn't visited up until now. I'm learning that seeing other towns and PCV's lives is a truly enriching experience that helps me further enjoy my own town. Zach's town Chagni is in Awi zone, and therefore I still had the familiarity of speaking Agau with people (poorly) and living within the same identity of Awi peoples. 

But I got to see these cool waterfalls, made entirely of milk chocolate, and hang out in a town that has juice and 8 birr beers.

The commute home from school

Zach Mueller captured this well on his recent Facebook post, which has blown up, but let's revisit in case you missed it. Here is the daily travel to and from school of two girls in Chagni, across a river. The guy on the left is Zach's friend and teacher, who saw the height of the smallest elementary school girl and realized it his duty to carry her books and help the two of them cross the river. 

To me, this is a great example of normal, everyday life for some of our neighbors here. Zach chose to recognize how extraordinary this is from a Westerners perspective. How many elementary school girls in the US have to wade through a river as tall as them to get to school? I suspect not many.

I think it is important not to see this and think, "Oh that poor Ethiopian girl." The truth of it is, yes, that girl from Chagni is simply tougher than you or I will ever be. But more importantly, she has a different angle on her expectations for herself. 

Yes, crossing a river to get to school is difficult. But this is within her realm of expectations of things to overcome. And though I do not officially represent her or the other kids who cross rivers to get to school in this country, I think she does not pity herself for this. I think she simply sees this as her realm of normal. And appreciating that difference in expectation, in my opinion, is what makes living in this country so incredibly educating, humbling, and enriching.

Fast wrap up cause the office is closing! I made a ton of coffee recently! Wash, ground, roast, boil, you name it!

Stacks! Me and Stephen have been doing stacks competitions. Here are latkas on Stax, or potato stacks on potato chip Stax.

Hastily written metaphor for the future! I'm excited for my beautiful road ahead. Yadda, yadda, positive spin Tim bullsh*t you should expect this by now!

FIN!