Slapped on the sun screen, hoped on a rickety minivan and headed south with some friends to Awassa- a lakeside paradise. The town attracts a large number of ferenjis (westerners) and its full of all those ferenji delights- delicious pizza, a beer garden, fresh juice, other ferenjis. If you follow the palm tree lined main road all the way to its end, you’ll reachLakeAwassa, one of the top 5 largest lakes inEthiopia.

Christmas morning dawned and anticipation prodded JD, Christina, Chelsea, Kelly, Dustin and I from our beds at The Circle of Life Hotel. It wasn’t the promise of presents from Santa that pried us from our slumbers that morning, it was the promise of hippos.

The guy doing push-ups on the asphalt just off the dock and wearing the highest high tops and shortest shorts turned out to be the guy with the boat, the guy who would lead us to these giant water mammals. After the necessary haggling we all tromped onto a leaky boat with peeling rainbow paint and took off for the middle of the lake. It was beautiful. Probably a dozen species of water birds were there, including gigantic pelican like birds that came up well past your hip.

As we neared one edge of the lake our guide cut the motor and we started creeping toward a swath of reeds. “Yes!”, he says, “They are out! Not just noses and ears. Look”. And he tries to point toward the supposed hippos. You mean those rocks? Whatever, those are totally just rocks, I’m not paying 100 birr to see rocks at a distance. But was we got closer we scared the rocks and they started moving around. HIPPOS! We probably got about 15 yards away from the most deadly animal inAfrica. There were about 9 of them, including at 1 baby and a couple adolescents. They were stirring about the reedy shallows doing things only hippos would understand. One started trying to mount the another and our guide jumped up and shouted “its sexy time!” Turns out it wasn’t sexy time, but it was hilarious. Hippos for Christmas, the best gift of all!

I forgot how much I enjoy gardening. The simple serenity of fetching water and slowly walking down the rows, rocking my watering can back and forth. It was a neighborly affair, a small group of all ages had gathered to assist in the watering process. It was squishy and muddy and peaceful and sublime. The view of the lake from the garden was gorgeous in the fading sunlight. After a weekend of little action and a growing sense of unease about the up coming week, getting whisked into a garden was exactly what I needed. This sort of thing is a special perk of living in Ethiopia that I am very thankful for. The ability to strike up a conversation with practically any person and then it actually lead to a little adventure, if such events occur in the states they are very rare indeed. The quiet feeling of community and collaboration, centered around a simple, natural task. I couldn’t help but feel more peaceful and relaxed than I have in a long time.

Teach a man the art of cattle fattening, his family will not go hungry.

This is the premise behind my first (and very exciting) Peace Corps project. For almost four months I’ve devoted my time and efforts to building social capital- relationships, language skills, community knowledge and more. Now its time to cash in.

When I woke up this morning at 5am to get on a bus to Ambo, I had the grumpy, hazy thought to sack the whole endeavor and get another 3 hours of sleep. Instead, at 5:15 my counter part (Dula) knocked on my door and together we embarked on the bumpy, dusty 4 hour drive to Ambo. Our mission was simple- to turn dreams of starting a cattle fattening project into reality. When I was first approached by my PLWHA (HIV+) association with the ambitious dream of starting a cattle farming program, I dismissed it as too complicated and too costly. The more I interacted with my PLWHA group however, the more I felt the need to do something to help them out. As a result I came to Ambo to hunt down some cattle experts.

In Ethiopia, appointments aren’t all that necessary. Its common to simply show up at an office and request to have a meeting with the person in charge- be that the dean of a university, the mayor, school principle- anybody. So Dula and I showed up completely unannounced at AmboUniversityand found a couple students who lead us to the Animal Sciences Department. There we got really lucky. The dean of the department is one Dr. Chala, who happens to know a great deal about the cattle business and was more than happy to answer all the questions we had about cattle fattening methodology.

After the meeting, Dula and I wandered in search of the University’s dairy cow research facility. Within a hundred yards or so, we just followed our noses. Seeing this concrete example of exactly what I hope our cattle area will look like made me giddy with excitement. We talked to the caretaker and got a lot of really good information about proper cattle care and cattle feed. We also got some ideas for barn construction as well as feeding and watering areas. Despite the tight budget, there is no skimping on proper construction. This is for sanitation purposes and to maintain the health of the cows.

I’ve lived inTexasmy whole life but never for a second did I think one day I’d be rustlin’ cattle. Not at all what I thought my P.C. experience would be, but life is always taking us in unexpected directions.

There is much still to be done. I haven’t even written a proposal for the project yet and there are a million obstacles between now and a successful cattle fattening program that could potentially jeopardize the project. But I’m energized and I’ve got a lot of people willing to put in the effort to get this project off the ground so wish us luck!

For People Who Don’t Know Exactly What I Mean By “Cattle Fattening”

In modern cattle fattening inEthiopia, the first step is to buy traditionally grass feed cows. You then start them on a ‘get fat fast and non-exercise’ routine, the Ben and Jerry’s Diet for cows. The cows will get fed a mixture of locally available foods (sugar cane byproducts, molasses, grass) and a special feed ‘concentrate’ that will be brought in from other parts of Ethiopia. Traditional pastoral systems involve the cows walking miles every day to graze. Cows in this program will stay within a much smaller, enclosed area in order to minimize energy expenditure and maximize cow growth.

After 3 or 4 months of intensive feeding and non-exercise, you turn around and sell the fat Bessies for a profit. When responsibly done, the profit margin can be substantial. Unlike the loathsome massive cattle farms you see in the U.S., ours will be small scale, will give the cows decent room and sanitary living space and will be hormone free!

The whole endeavor is going to have a large start up cost, something my small Peace Corps grant money combined with community contribution may or may not be able to fully fund. We’ll find a way though, and I think having a tight budget will really put the pressure on the community to show their investment in the project.

Update of Cattle Fattening Venture

The next day we went back to discuss more with Dr. Chala and he actually offered us a partnership withAmboUniversity. They will help fund our project if we adjust the project to allow them to research different feed methods. This is fantastic! By further involving the university, we will have on hand expert advice every step of the way and our project will be more likely to succeed.

The catch- today several unnamed sources sighted some problems within my PLWHA (HIV+) association which may hinder the project’s success. The problems have to do with the politics around how funds from the org.’s projects are distributed to its members. This management problem could make things very complicated. Despite this, I’ve decided to attempt the project anyway by creating a new sub-committee within the organization who will work on and benefit from the project, separate from the current leadership committee. If this structure is opposed by the leadership of the organization then I will not do the project with them at all but instead will work with the PLWHA association in Mazoria, a town 13km away. The Mazoria PLWHA Association are great- they are small, self motivated and extremely eager to work. They are a prime candidate for such a project but their distance from Fincha puts them slightly outside of my job description. But I hope to work with them anyway, after going through the moves with Fincha’s PLWHA.

It was the first real look I had into the way very ancient beliefs melded with the newer and very fervent protestant religion, unfortunately to this man’s detriment. Shunned and ignored, this poor guy with mental problems is left all alone in the community. He’s annoying but I’m convinced he’s harmless and I’m sure he’s less likely to bring sickness to you or your cows than I am.

Today I sat in on a regular meeting of orphans, orchestrated by a religious NGO associated with a local church. Fifty plus giggly, wiggly, smiling orphans chattered with their neighbors and shyly introduced themselves to me.  “That one has HIV”, said the leader of the organization, pointing to a girl (maybe 12 years old) with whom I’d been exchanging funny faces for the past 30 minutes. A feeling of helplessness consumed me. ‘How the heck am I supposed to help these kids out?!?’ ‘What they need are shoes’, I thought, watching their barefooted feet dangling from the bench, ‘and toys and love and someone who not only can afford to buy them vegetables but who makes sure they eat them’. Frustrating as my inability to address the immediate needs of these kids is, it doesn’t mean I can’t do anything with them. There are many other project ideas here- women empowerment activities with the orphan girls, health education, establishing a kids garden, fun days…. This is still brainstorming phase, I’ll add the orphan group to the ever lengthening list of organizations and projects that I eventually need to prioritize and narrow down to a couple to really dive into.

Great day! Went to the stationary store first thing in the morning and helped my counterpart make the final edits on a proposal for funding that I’ve been helping him work on for the past few weeks. I didn’t write the proposal, but I helped him construct the budget tables, work on the formatting and edit the english. Work! Actual work! Today when we were finished, I held the product of our labors in my hands. Acute accomplishments have been few and far between during this first phase of Peace Corps, so I’m really going to celebrate this one. Yes!

For the first time since I’ve been inEthiopia, I assembled my collapsible insect net, got out my forceps and my kill jar and my butterfly envelopes and went out on the hunt. I went with a friend of mine from the health center and we tramped out into in the countryside, catching dragonflies and bees and butterflies. We went out of town, around the top curve of a deep valley and then across a flat plain northwest towards the forest. I felt like a hobbit, walking joyfully through the Shire. Rolling hills were all around and all was different shades of green. A serene, gentle beauty. The area we were in is called Kolobo, and it is a main thoroughfare between Fincha town and the villages scattered to the north and west.

Butterfly nets have the magical powers. They turn any handler into a 5 year old, joyful and enthralled by the small wonders of the natural world. We pranced around through the fields and pastures until the sun got low in the sky. Ever since I discovered my passion for insect collecting and natural history in general a few years back, nothing has made me happier than such outings.

To make the outing a further success, I happened upon, quite unexpectedly, a promising lead into the rural health care system. Maybe a thirty minute walk in, my friend pointed out the Kolobo Health Post. It is a one room health facility that serves the people of the surrounding countryside. It is managed by 2 young women, Health Extension Workers (HEWs) and it will be arranged that I shadow them in their work for a few days. There are some 15+ other such health posts in the region, all manned by HEWs. These women bare a huge amount of Ethiopia’s health care burden. They have a high school education and are trained by the government on basic health practices. Because of their sex and their lower education status, they are little respected by the community. They are underpaid and undertrained and often lack leadership skills. These workers have a huge potential to improve the health of Ethiopian citizens- they are imbedded in the society, they know its problems, they understand the hardships women face, they go door to door on foot to provide counseling and care for even the most remote farmers. I’m hoping to learn much more about them and to find ways to support them. A potential project that’s on the table is a day long leadership and empowerment workshop. Although the program is great, it certainly has its limitations. There is a complete lack of upward mobility, there is no chance for advancement for even the brightest HEW. Also, the women work in areas where they grew up, so they know well the problems of the community, but there are also issues of privacy that prevent some health needs from being met (such as reproductive health and HIV testing). Also, the demands of the job are intense, they walk many kilometers and work long hours with little support and for a meager wage. I’ve been eager to work with this demographic since I’ve arrived in Fincha, but rapid restructuring of the health office has rendered those responsible for coordinating and supporting the HEWs rather illusive. Now, however, it seems as though I will have a foot in the door, at least in the right direction. 85% ofEthiopia’s population is rural and it is in these areas where I think there is the most good to be done.

Terribly exciting work possibilities abound! It is almost a little overwhelming because after 2 months of exploring these possibilities I have barely scratched the surface in any of them.  

Its night time and I still feel like a hobbit, tucked away comfortably in my little hobbit hole. I think tonight I’ll indulge in a little David Bowie/ Labyrinth action. A solid end to a pretty baller day.

  Today I told my landlord I wouldn’t be able to pay this month’s rent until next month because of a PC mess up. I had been delaying telling him this, afraid he would be upset or see me as irresponsible. He responded with a smile and the words, “no matter, we’re family”.

   At coffee ceremony today my next door neighbor turns to me and says something I don’t quite get. My landlord steps in to translate. “Laura, she says that in your jeans and t-shirt you look…” and then pauses, looking for the word. During his pause the potential words that came into my mind were ‘comfortable’, ‘relaxed’, or even ‘like a man’ because women don’t wear jeans very frequently here. But no, the word was ‘fat’. “Thanks”, I said.

   I’ve decided to run a 10k at the end of November inAddis Ababa. After not running at all for about a month, the hills that surround Fincha look more like theHimalayas.

   Some commonly asked questions: ‘are you married?’, ‘why aren’t you married?’, ‘how much is your salary?’, ‘can you take me toAmericawith you?’ ‘Are there cows inAmerica?’, ‘Are you a man or a woman?’, ‘Whats that on your face/arm?’(heat rash, a pimple and sunburn that’s what!). I’m still honing the answers, which contain varying amounts of sarcasm depending on my relationship to the person and my mood. Sometimes I’m married to John Seena, everyone’s favorite wrestler in the WWE (which people watch religiously) or Barak Obama. ‘Nope, there are no cows inAmerica, only robot cows.’ A lot of the questions people ask would seem rather rude if understood in an American context, but mostly people are just curious about American culture so I try to take these opportunities to work on PC’s Third Goal of cultural understanding and exchange.

   Eventually I’ll structure this blog a little better than just random tid-bits of everyday life. If you are interested in anything specific about anything: Ethiopian culture, local geography, poverty issues, where I buy my tomatoes… please please ask me and I’ll definitely try to answer you in the blog. I might even create a ‘ask Laura’ section of the blog- wouldn’t that be fun, we’ll see.  

   Take care, sending all my love.

Laura