Saturday, November 21, 2009

Address

I forgot to mention. My new address is
Nicole Therrien
PO Box 100
Masha, Ethiopia


If you are sending a package send it there. If you are sending a letter do not use that address until Dec 7th

Thanks!

Happy Birthday

I was pretty nervous about my birthday this year, scared that it was going to be terribly lonely. Honestly, it was probably one of the best birthdays of my life. The day started going to hub traning (all the volunteers get together for group training on Thursdays). My CBT group was waiting for me at the car and all sang me happy birthday, gave me birthday hugs and a birthday bracelet (half a lei tied together haha). Once I got to the hub site another CBT group was already there and gave me a slow, awkward group hug. That same group later sang a birthday rap they wrote for Alissa and I (Alissa has the same birthday as me). It was hilarious, and very sweet. I got two awesome handmade cards with sweet little notes. It was great to feel like these people are really my friends, not just randoms that happened to be put in the same country as me. After training a few of us went out for beers before going back to the CBT site.

Once back to site my family had an awesome party for me. They invited all my Americans to join too! We had dinner, french fries, habasha cake, American cake (it's impossible to find sweets here so that was amazing), cookies, candies and fireworks. They decorated the house with streamers and a flashing Happy Birthday sign. They also made me wear my traditional Ethiopian dress that my host mom bought me a few weeks ago. My family gave me two gifts, a bracelet and a flashlight, because they think its funny that Masha has no electricity. The night concluded with a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. I felt so great that night. I was surrounded by friends, family and it felt almost like home.

Also contributing to my fantastic birthday was all the mail!!! Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes. I got fantastic packages from mom, Elisa/Bobby/Patrick/Emma and Jess as well as cards from Jess, Mom/Dad, Andrea/Jeff, the Slotas, Sally/Tom, and Aunt Jeanne/Uncle Bob. I also got a phone call from Nick and the Jersey kids. Thank you all so, so much.

Unfortunately that night the Mefloquin (turns out I'm not allergic to it) gave me awful dreams. I didn't sleep at all because of the nightmares and today I feel awful. The high of yesterday definitely outweighs the bad dreams though.

Site Visit

Wow am I glad to be back with my host family. This past week was site visit, where all the volunteers spend a week at their permanent posts. What a week it was! Coming back to my host family really felt like coming home. I take great solace in knowing that a place in Ethiopia can feel like home in just a month, so it is possible that my site will one day feel comfortable. My site is one of the most remote, I really live in the jungle...complete with 2 species of monkeys and herds of baboons. To reach Masha I had to take a 2 day journey on public transportation. Without going into too many details, the trip was terrifying. Ethiopia has the most car accidents per capita in the world...I can definitely understand why. We almost hit cows, goats, sheep, donkeys, dogs, people, other vehicles and often veered off the road. Perhaps the word "road" isn't really appropriate. Most of the way to Masha is unpaved, steep and winding. Luckily was I was not travelling alone for this first trip out there. The two closest volunteers to me are awesome and our personalities compliment each others' very well. This will prove to be a very important support system I am sure.

The adventure did not end there. Living in my town is going to be a challenge. With the exception of about an hour I did not have electricity the whole week I was there. The water definitely needs to be purified and filtered...there are floaters. I do not have running water and need to take bucket baths, which I am not very good at yet. I share a shint bet with a ton of people, which is pretty unsanitary and smelly, but at least it is pretty well kept. Because of the lack of electricity I need to keep my door open to let light in...apparently an open door is an invitation. Kids poured into my room, touching my things, putting things in their pockets, rubbing their snotty hands all over everything and eating on my bed. I think the privacy issue will become my biggest problem...I need to fashion a screen door out of my bed net (I don't have mosquitoes! so no need for a net). My living space consists of two rooms, very similar to dorm rooms. They are across from each other, not connecting. One room I will use for sleeping/bathing and the other for cooking/eating. It sounds like I've got the roughest living conditions of the people I have spoken with, but I'm kind of flattered by the placement. The fact that I am so far from other volunteers, close to no-go zones and quite rural means that the Peace Corps staff thinks I can handle it and that I'm tough. Maybe I should have acted a bit more needy and codependent those first couple of weeks?

So enough about the challenges of my site. There are so many good things about it too. The area is bat'am k'onjo naw! (very beautiful). It is wild, untamed, untouched and exactly what I envisioned when I thought of Africa. The jungle is dense and very, very green. The cell phone network is good, so you can call me (hint hint) with no problem. I have a posta bet (Andrea, you know how much I like towns with 1 post office) and a bank, so there is no real need to leave my site other than travel. I am far from a lot of things, but there are also a lot of awesome places to visit near me. I love the volunteers that are next to me. My counterpart is excellent and very helpful. My landlady's daughter is an awesome dancer (iskista dancing!) and I am determined to pick up some sweet moves for when I come home.

My first night sleeping at site was hard. I really, really wanted to pack up and go back to America. Being in my home made me realize for the first time that this is real. I am going to be away for 2 years...and 2 years never seemed so long. Fortunately, that night Kevin called me, and it was the most comforting phone call of my life. Just hearing a familiar voice, being able to speak in English and to talk about familiar things was so, so nice. Kev, thanks...you saved me that night. The next day, however, was much better. I had meetings with local groups such as the PLWHA Assoc (people living with HIV/AIDS), a group of local volunteers, administration, and schools. The exact moment when I changed my mind about the night before and realized that I am exactly where I need to be was when talking to the PLWHA assoc. I guess that they have been trying to get help from NGOs for a while now but with no success. A woman said to me "we would be so happy to be able to work with you for two days, let alone two years". It's going to be hard, but I see a lot of opportunity already and cannot wait to get started. I think I have found my Lambarene.

Monday, November 9, 2009

On Tuesday we all met up in scary Addis Ababa for the counterpart workshop. For those of you who don't know, my counterpart is my #1contact in my host town and my coworker. He will be doing most of my projects with me, and just as importantly, translating meetings while I'm still learning Amharic. We met yesterday and I am very excited about working with him. He is about my age (which is awesome, same as in the US, the young people here are yearning for changes). He is the HIV coordinator at the town health office which oversees the clinic.I'm not actually working in the clinic which is perfect because this way I get to be more on the business side of things.
My town is in the Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples Region in the western highlands. I'm the farthest west of all the volunteers and in one of the more rural posts. The town has a population of about 7,000 and is supposedly beautiful! Lush forests, temperate climate,high elevation, few mosquitoes and lots of tea/bunna/tej production. I get to visit next week which I am way excited about. And the 2 day journey on public transportation will be an adventure! Luckily my counterpart will be with me and able to guide me through the rougher cities. I will also get to stay at my house!! It has two rooms, and an outside latrine (no luxury toilet like at my host family's house). I have to sleep there all week with no bed...thank you greg and Melissa the sleeping bag.

Mom wrote me a letter asking if this is a hugging culture. It's a bit hard to explain. They do not hug and are often surprised when I try to hug them (I'm a Putnam kid...I love hugs...especially dancing hugs).When people greet each other they shake hands and, if they are good friends, do a shoulder bump. However, they are very touchy feely people. It is not uncommon for two men to hold hands (or pinkies)while walking in town, and they also always have their arms around each other. A hand resting on someone elses thigh is ok too. Not ok with me yet though. I still like my space.

I'm running out of internet time here in Addis, but I will end by thanking everyone for the letters! I get more than anyone else at training and it really makes me happy. So thank you Mom (and Dad for signing the card, too haha), Danshults, Beth, Rosie/Brad, Ellie, Kevin and Jess. You all have letters in the mail. But it takes much longer to get from ethiopia to america than america to ethiopia.

Also, happy birthday greg and jess!!! wish i could be there to celebrate. you should all call me during the parties and pass the phone around.

Love you all and miss you. Come visit, Africa is wonderful!
Cheers,
Nikki

Sunday, November 1, 2009

10/24/09

Blogspot is still blocked in Ethiopia, but thanks to Andrea I am able to post semi-regular updates! I'm feeling a bit better today than I have for a while...turns out I am allergic to Mefloquin (malaria propholaxis) because once the doctor told me to stop taking it my hives have started to go away. Good thing too, the itching was beginning to be unbearable and really put me in a funk. Fortunately there are no mosquitoes in my training town (because of the high elevation) so I don't have to worry about getting Malaria. Also, I had a good reason to request a cooler, higher altitude post (no 100 degree Africa sun OR mosquitoes!) which, if they give me, will be wonderful.I will eventually go back on Malaria meds, probably Doxy, once this stuff gets out of my system and the hives go away. Between Spice this summer and the allergic reaction I've almost forgot what it is like not to itch. I really can't complain though, I'm one of the few who haven't had a GI episode yet (knocks on wood), my family thinks I'm allergic to T'eff so they don't feed me injera anymore, my host sister makes my friends and me french fries and onion rings and I live in a beautiful town.

The past week I discovered some great places in this town. There is a river that supplies the surrounding areas with water (It flooded on Sunday and knocked out the pipes, so because there was so much water there was none) that is absolutely stunning. It flows through green hills and on Sunday the whole town goes there to bathe, wash clothes or just to hang out. I went with my sisters to explore a bit. There is one place where the water looks as though it is flowing from the inside of a tree. The locals believe that the water has a healing power and people come all the way from Addis to drink from it. I'm not convinced though, it did not clear the rash, but it was still really cool. I took lots of pictures, someday I'll figure out how to post them. Then on Friday during community discovery we went walking through the farmland on the other side of town. The fields went on for miles and miles...beans, corn, wheat and lots of those trees that are in every picture of Africa you've ever seen. We stopped to talk to the farmers (by talk I mean introduce myself and say hello a bunch of times because that's pretty much all I know) and to "simply sit".Simply sitting, walking etc...is big in Ethiopia. And I thought Putnam-ites had to be creative with recreation time! It's great though, sometimes I just stop in my tracks to look around in awe at the untouched natural beauty in the rolling hills and mountains. At night I still am struck every time I walk back to my room from the shint bet and I can clearly see every single star in the sky...the best part about no lights.

There are definitely times when having to be incredibly polite to every single person (Ethiopians are much nicer than I am) drives me crazy. And when the fidel (Amharic alphabet) makes me want to stab my eyes out. Sometimes I dread turning on to my street because the neighborhood kids all wait for me at 5:00. And then there are times when I desperately want to be with someone that knows me and I can be myself with. But at the end of the day I am always happy that I made the decision to join the Peace Corps. Especially this past week when we started to get into the technical training and visit health centers I remembered why I am here. The APCD was right, this is a gift. Nowhere in the US would I get the chance to slow down and have the time to reflect on life and appreciate every little thing. You should all visit, Africa has some kind of magic that soothes the soul. And I miss you and would enjoy the company of a familiar face.

Write letters...I have lots of time to write back. And it sucks to be the one who doesn't get mail on hub day (but I wouldn't know because this week I got letters from mom and one from ds!). It looks as though it takes 10 days to send a letter from the US to Ethiopia. I sent my first batch on the 16th...I will let you all know when they got to their destinations.
Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers,
Nikki
10/16/09
I haven't been able to blog since arriving in Ethiopia because the little town of Gonde does not yet have Internet. So I am posting this from Asela, the nearest city. Here is a short re-cap of my time so far in the Peace Corps.

Philadelphia: Staging was quite brief. We all got together in a hotel to go through paperwork, discuss aspirations/anxieties and get an overview of the Peace Corps. The next day we got the Yellow Fever vaccine and departed for the airport. Nothing too eventful.
Addis Ababa: Addis was a bit more interesting, but not really Africa.We had a couple days of safety/security training, food and water safety, typhoid, rabies, meningitis and hepatitis vaccines along with the start of the Malaria meds. The meds were the cause of only one interesting dream starring a talking rhino that threatened to kill me if I left my house. He also had a friend giraffe. In Addis I got to know the other volunteers a bit and got past the artificial conversation that you all remember from the first week of college. We went from hanging out in hoards to large groups. Finally on the last day in Addis we left the hotel and braved the streets. We had our first "fishbowl" experience being watched very carefully by everyone.It's a weird feeling being a celebrity of sorts. Everyone wants to shake your hand and listen to you try to say hello. This phenomenon becomes more apparent later.

Training Hub: We all boarded buses to Asela, and then our respective training sites. On the way there we came upon a car accident. Instead of waiting in traffic our bus detoured through the mud. And since the bus couldn't make it through the mud we had to get out of the bus to lessen the weight. Eventually the bus made it back to the main road- I feel like some kind of hitch had to happen. In Asela we had lunch and learned to dance. The Ethiopian dance is a lot of jumping from one foot to the other and controlled arm movements. Women also do this awesome shoulder shake that I have not yet mastered. We all gave it as hot though and a good time was had by all.

Satellite Site: My town for the next 3 months is the smallest of all the satellite sites...it just moved up from being classified a village two months ago. When we arrived it was down pouring and we got out of the bus with all of our bags sloshing through the mud. We took shelter in the pharmacy, which I would later discover is my host father's shop. I had a conversation with a few children while we waited for the rains to stop before walking home.
Two young men carried my bags for me (good thing too, at this point I was not good at walking in the slippery mud) and my host parents led the way through puddles, up a mud/rock road. On the way we passed donkeys, goats, sheep, dogs, horses, cows and tons of curious people watching the "ferenji". We stopped to knock on the metal gate of the compound. The gates open up and I am let into the house which smells like incense. Everyone lines up to meet me, and I am relieved to hear the words "Hello, welcome. My name is Sunnat". She speaks English! Sunny has since become quite close to me and a wonderful resource to be integrated in family chats. Dinner is being brought to the table and a girl brings over a watering can and a slotted bucket with a bar of soap. The family washes their hands and I sit down with mom and dad to eat a wide spread of food. Injera, wot, french fries, vegetables,bread, juice, water, and tea. This is the first time I am able to enjoy food since being in Ethiopia...not because it had made me sick before, but because it was too spicy for me to eat. I eat tons and love every second of the precious food. After dinner I sit on the couch with the family and look at a photo album while coffee beans are being roasted on a charcoal stove. The rest of the night we drink coffee, laugh and I watch them all interact. All my worries were washed away and I was happy to be surrounded by family.

Since then I have fallen in love with Africa. I go to bed every night in awe of how beautiful this country and the people are. I am able to say hello to every person that I meet (and everybody wants me to stop to say hello) and learn Amharic in the garden of one of my friend's compounds. Life is very simple and beautiful. I wake up early when the rooster calls, eat a homemade breakfast with my father and then get walked to school. During school we have 2 tea breaks where we walk through town to practice what we have learned in the community. We often sit at the chaibet with our LCF and make friends with the locals. After school I go home, hang out with the family, have dinner,and hang out some more. We have coffee at lunch and dinner. Then I go to bed around 9-10. Every night I go to bed thinking how lucky I am to have this opportunity. Life here is just so natural. The stars are even more brilliant than in New Zealand. I can't really explain what it is like, but I love it here.

I have so much that I can write about, so to make my blog more interested let me know what you want to hear about. Language?Training? Food? Peace Corps? My Family? Other volunteers? Visual descriptions?
Love you and miss you all.
Cheers,
Nikki