Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Here Comes the Rain

Almost a month earlier than I expected the rainy season is here. Every day it POURS for a few hours accompanied by roaring thunder. It starts very suddenly and then stops as soon as it came like it does in the tropics. When the rains come is gets suddenly very, very cold and once it even hailed marble sized pellets. That day I was stuck in the post office for about an hour. The mud is ridiculously slippery and it takes careful planning of steps to avoid wiping out. As bad as the mud and unpredictable weather is, the worst part about the rainy season is the influx of bugs.

I mentioned a few entries ago the flesh eating ants. If you can recall they live in wet mud. You can imagine that now that the whole town is a mud puddle these ants are everywhere. The bee stings hurt less than these ants, once they latch on you need to pry them off...not an easy thing to do when they are in your pants.

Also there are the moths. I like to tell myself they are butterflies, but no, they aren't that pretty. Some days you can't walk outside without getting slapped across the face by wings. They all herd together and sit in clumps. I imagine this is what a plague looks like.

The most obnoxious, but amusing, swarm of the rainy season are these little bugs that look like flying ants. If you are unfortunate enough to walk through a group of them they follow you and stick to everything. By the time you reach your destination you are pulling them out of your hair, off your shirt and still batting at them by your ears. The funny part about these guys is that if you are no where near your destination there is a way to get rid of them. If you bump into another person the swam will leave you alone and start to bother the other person. It reminds me of the lightning cloud item on Mario Kart Wii.

The grossest insects are the flies in the shint bet (bathroom). After it rains the shint bet (a room with dirt floor and tin walls/roof gets very hot and humid. The flies are horrendous. I don't think I need to elaborate. It makes the whole bathroom experience even worse than it was to begin with.

And, finally, the bug infestation that hits closest to home is the spider attack. The spiders are looking for a place to keep dry, and it seems that my bedroom is perfect. I think about John and Andrew during these times when I can look in any corner and see a few making their homes. I could spray and kill them but I don't think its worth it. There are too many, and hey, I don't like being out in the rain either.


And on a totally different note, I've had a few people ask me what I need. Here's my current wishlist:

Food:
Pasta Sides
Suddenly Salad
Meals you can boil
Cheese
Hot Chocolate
Tea (green, white, flavored...)
Cake mix & frosting
Brown Sugar
Mac and Cheese
Parm. Cheese

Books:
The Hobbit
LOTR trilogy
The Silmarlion
John Lennon's Biography
books on meditation
non-fiction
historical fiction
classics that i should have read in high school

Other:
Magazines
New music
Envelopes
Crayola markers

Saturday, May 1, 2010

March and April updates

03/20/10

Since my last blog post I have received more mail than ever before. I cannot express how touched I was by the immense amount of love, encouragement and support from home. I really and truly appreciate it. For a while I was contemplating coming home, but for two reasons that wasn't actually an option. 1. I'm really stubborn and prideful and 2. I haven't achieved what I set out to do yet. After a few more discouraging events and a few days of 12 hour naps I decided I needed to shape up. Once I more or less forced myself to get out of my funk and be happy, I had the most fantastic week.

On Monday I met with the mayor to discuss the findings of my community needs assessment. I then went on to say that I was very interested and passionate about starting up a youth recreation center. I explained that the community indicated that this was a priority for them, and that it would discourage kids from vices such as alcohol, drugs and unsafe sex as well as give them a better quality of life. It will also provide leadership opportunities as someone will have to take charge. The mayor was thrilled. He offered to support the project and call together a town meeting to get people interested in helping. In
Ethiopia there is a strict vertical power structure- having the mayor's approval is a huge deal. Even more exciting is that the town has already considered this project, but did not have the resources to
implement it. There is already land set aside for this purpose...one less thing to worry about. I am so excited that this may actually happen. After almost 6 months of training and research it feels GREAT
to actually be doing something and being productive. My motivation is restored and I am once again sure I am where I need to be. Life here is hard, but I've never had a job I love this much. I feel like I'm
actually doing something meaningful. I haven't had water or electricity for 2 weeks, but I've never been this happy here.

After that successful meeting I was inspired. I walked over to the primary school and offered to teach English classes. This is something I wasn't sure if I wanted to do, but I feel like if I want this youth
center to be a success I need more face time with the youth. Once the director made the announcement that I will be teaching the kids all suddenly became my best friend. I couldn't leave my house without someone yelling "teacher!!" at me. I decided to teach 5th grade, because that is when all classes are taught in English. The troubling thing is that I've never met a kid that can speak the language. Makes you wonder how these classes go. So on Tuesday I start teaching 139 children English. I'm terribly nervous...this is a huge group and something I've never done before. I've never been one to hide in my comfort zone though, so I look forward to this new experience.





I'm also trying to be more social these days and leave my house a minimum of twice a day. I know that sounds bad, but trust me, sometimes it's very difficult to get out. It really feels great to be happy again. 27 months doesn't seem so long anymore. I can do this. Also, I have internet in my house now. It's horribly slow and expensive so I will still only send letters, not emails, but now I can post on my blog and catch the news once in a while.

04/10/10

Honey

Last night was the coolest cultural experience I've had yet. I harvested honey!! I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but if anyone at all knows about Masha, they know about the honey. It's kind of like
Putnam, most American's don't know it exists, but if you meet someone that does, chances are he or she will mention antiques. Bee keeping is an old, long standing tradition here. Two baskets are put up into a very tall tree (apparently species is important, the tree needs to be near water and there is some element of luck involved) and one basket eventually becomes inhabited and the other remains empty. The baskets are left in the tree for a whole year for bees to create the honey comb, it is then harvested. We went out at night because there are less bees (I still got stung 4 times...and I was just watching from a distance!), which is a treat for me-I can count on one hand the number of times I have been out after dark (I'm embarrassed by how lame I've become in the last 6 months). My counterpart's dad (the bee keeper) has honey baskets out in the jungle, so we had to walk a small distance into the wilderness. I haven't spent too much time in the jungle, I was surprised by how close to the town the monkeys hang out. They are like rabbits at home, they are pests and destroy crops...personally I think they are hilarious. So once we get out into the jungle I meet the three young men that have been hired to assist,
they are the most bad-ass people I have ever met. They are rural tribesmen, and as my counterpart explained "they don't care about tomorrow, they only worry about today". They are hunters, risk takers
and lead a dangerous lifestyle, they are also among the nicest people I've met here. To retrieve the baskets one of the guy climbs the giant tree, which, by the way, doesn't have branches until the last third of the tree. He does this with bare feet, a knife slung on his back, in the dark, with just a rope. And boy can he climb fast, it was amazing. Once at the top of the tree he cuts the ropes that secure the basket in the tree, ties the basket on the rope he used for climbing and creates a type of pulley system. He lowers the basket to the ground for the other two men to untie. The other men then hold the ends of
the rope and the climber lowers himself down to the ground, it was crazy! Then is the scary part, I was so embarrassed by how nervous I was and reluctant to get close (Andrea, I thought of you and the bees at memeres house. I will never make fun of you again). They take their large knives and whack at the basket to open it up, then the swarm comes. Again, it was dark out, so I couldn't see the bees but I could hear them around me and getting stuck in my hair. Inside the basket is a perfectly crafted comb, layers of oval shaped nest. The first comb was broken up and passed around. Before then I had never ate honey right off the comb, in just a small bit you have a mouthful of sticky, warm, sweet honey. It was delicious. Then they passed around comb without honey in it, but it had bee larva in it. Apparently if you eat it you become strong, so I took a bite. Not something I'd rush to do again, but pretty cool that I can say I did it. This part of the process takes a while, there is a loooot of honey comb. Each piece needs to be brushed off by hand for bees (again, how embarrassing that I didn't want to stand close when these guys were sticking their hands in bees) and then put in a sack. Every time I got stung they tried to convince me that it was like acupuncture. Today's welts beg to differ.
Once that was completed we moved on to the next tree. The process was absolutely fascinating, it made me think of the time we went to a bee farm with 4H club, what a difference! What made the night was the natural beauty of both the honey collecting and the atmosphere. We were the only people in sight, the wild sounds of the jungle filled the air and it was such a clear night you could see absolutely every star in the sky. On nights like that I wonder why I ever have bad days here. Then this morning somebody asked me what was wrong with my skin and then another person told me I was a bad christian because I wouldn't give him money. Then I remembered why.





On a different note, my Youth Center project is underway! I met with the stakeholders this past week and most of the people that were invited came...it was quite a surprise. Everyone really liked the idea
and was excited about it. Even though I can't pay them, they all seem motivated to work, it was wonderful. Then after the meeting one guy stayed back and said to me "I think we are entering a new phase in Masha. This is an important project. Thank you for your efforts". I know you are supposed to do service not expecting anything in return, but I tell you, it felt great to be thanked.