Unlike last year I actually stayed up to ring in the new year this time around. I am really hoping for 2011 to be worlds better than 2010, so I started it off right. I spent the weekend in the city Mizan with a handful of friends and had a wonderful time complete with wine, one confetti popper, card games, singing and dancing...several nights in a row. Needless to say a good time was had by all. The best story I have to offer you from the New Years weekend is from Sunday afternoon. Before beginning I have to, once again, clarify that my blog is in no way affiliated with the US Peace Corps and this is just an anecdotal story, not one that gives a rounded perspective on life in Ethiopia.
I'll start the story from the middle.
I really completed a Peace Corps stereotype the other day. The photos really capture the glamorous vision of Peace Corps that tv and to movies portray. The Peace Corps that I wanted to join a few years ago, the one where volunteers are always happy and smiling. I was with 3 other volunteers, laughing and joking around with hoards of little African children. We were, like good hippies, playing frisbee in an open field surrounded by lush mountains and forests. I wore a tie dye t-shirt, chacos and a homemade friendship bracelet. One volunteer had a camera out taking photos of all the children and we were all holding hands and smiling. It could have been a promotional poster. But what that poster would miss is what lead up to that moment. The part of being a Peace Corps volunteer that you don't hear about in media campaigns or from characters like the young Barney Stinson in HIMYY before suiting up.
We had decided to go on a hike to a waterfall that was up on one of the mountains surrounding Mizan. As per usual, we picked up a few cling-ons along the way and our band of 4 became a mass of children with one additional creeper. We picked up orange shirt man on the main road and thought nothing of it as he followed us down the foot paths. This is a common occurrence so we continued on our journey, ignoring him and avoiding eye contact. About 30 minutes into the hike this grown man was still with us...now it is annoying. We approach him and politely tell him to leave us alone, we have no money for him and to stop following us. He doesn't. Several times we try to get him to leave and he always looks at us like we're crazy...why on earth should we want him to go away? So we stop for a little while giving him the benefit of the doubt, hoping that he would continue on his way...maybe he actually was headed in that direction and we just assumed he was following us. Nope. He steps to the side and turns, he takes the break as an opportunity to take a pee. So we decide to go on, perhaps he'll eventually give up. Another time we stop, tell him to go away and wait there until he gets bored with us. So he steps to the side...peeing again? Nope. He exposes himself to us and waves his man parts in our direction (maybe he's making a Monty Python reference?). We tell him he's disgusting and rude and that he really needs to go away. So then he picks a few bananas and shoves them in our faces, after the previous little show the thought of bananas is revolting. This goes on for a while and we reach the edge of the forest and decide that the man will not leave us alone, and while the 4 of us could probably take him if he tried any funny business, it would be better to give up on the hike and stay where people are present. That's when we take out the frisbee so the whole trip isn't wasted. After an hour of tossing the disc with the kids we turn around and realize orange shirt man was still lurking waiting to follow us some more. At this time we're so annoyed we can't be polite anymore and tell him to get the hell away from us or we'll bring him to the police station. He stays back for a while, and just when we think we're in the clear he pops up behind me and strokes my arm, then drops trou again. I've never felt so disgusting in my life. We storm on, not looking back until we finally get into town. We stop for juice to cool off for a bit and then when we leave the cafe we realize he was waiting outside for us. The guy would not go away. We grab a bajaj and ride back to my friends house quickly so he can't follow. It's moments like those that I wish people from home would visit so they realize that life in the Peace Corps isn't that image of the hippie kids playing with children loving life all day long. It's difficult and sometimes unbearable, but those frisbee playing moments make it all worth it. Just please don't think that it's easy.
We had decided to go on a hike to a waterfall that was up on one of the mountains surrounding Mizan. As per usual, we picked up a few cling-ons along the way and our band of 4 became a mass of children with one additional creeper. We picked up orange shirt man on the main road and thought nothing of it as he followed us down the foot paths. This is a common occurrence so we continued on our journey, ignoring him and avoiding eye contact. About 30 minutes into the hike this grown man was still with us...now it is annoying. We approach him and politely tell him to leave us alone, we have no money for him and to stop following us. He doesn't. Several times we try to get him to leave and he always looks at us like we're crazy...why on earth should we want him to go away? So we stop for a little while giving him the benefit of the doubt, hoping that he would continue on his way...maybe he actually was headed in that direction and we just assumed he was following us. Nope. He steps to the side and turns, he takes the break as an opportunity to take a pee. So we decide to go on, perhaps he'll eventually give up. Another time we stop, tell him to go away and wait there until he gets bored with us. So he steps to the side...peeing again? Nope. He exposes himself to us and waves his man parts in our direction (maybe he's making a Monty Python reference?). We tell him he's disgusting and rude and that he really needs to go away. So then he picks a few bananas and shoves them in our faces, after the previous little show the thought of bananas is revolting. This goes on for a while and we reach the edge of the forest and decide that the man will not leave us alone, and while the 4 of us could probably take him if he tried any funny business, it would be better to give up on the hike and stay where people are present. That's when we take out the frisbee so the whole trip isn't wasted. After an hour of tossing the disc with the kids we turn around and realize orange shirt man was still lurking waiting to follow us some more. At this time we're so annoyed we can't be polite anymore and tell him to get the hell away from us or we'll bring him to the police station. He stays back for a while, and just when we think we're in the clear he pops up behind me and strokes my arm, then drops trou again. I've never felt so disgusting in my life. We storm on, not looking back until we finally get into town. We stop for juice to cool off for a bit and then when we leave the cafe we realize he was waiting outside for us. The guy would not go away. We grab a bajaj and ride back to my friends house quickly so he can't follow. It's moments like those that I wish people from home would visit so they realize that life in the Peace Corps isn't that image of the hippie kids playing with children loving life all day long. It's difficult and sometimes unbearable, but those frisbee playing moments make it all worth it. Just please don't think that it's easy.
