Some Backtracking - The Longest Blog I Will Ever Post!

What up guys?!?

SOOOOOO I know it's been forever since I last posted, but I have been blogging every week on my computer throughout this time without internet. Here is the blogs of most of the 10 week training process. They are broken down by week. The first two blogs I already posted were from the first few days of country, and the third blog I posted was from week 4. Week 3 doesn't have a post, and we've been incredibly busy the past few so those are missing as well. Later on today I will try and update you about the last few missing weeks which have been super exciting. Enjoy, and after this my posts should be a lot more consistent (since I should prayerfully have internet starting on Sunday). Miss you guys a lot, and enjoy!

Week 1

Wow! What a week! It’s impossible to describe the crazy amount of stuff that’s happened these past seven days, but it has been an AMAZING experience so far. I’d like to start off by saying that I didn’t have a clue what training would be like, but this definitely exceeded all expectations.

I last left you the night before we headed to our towns to begin our acculturation into Ethiopian society. I was placed with a host family in the town of Addis Alem, along with 6 other volunteers from our 20 person group. My host family consists of my host mother, Lula, my two host sisters, Misiker and Nani, and their relative Gete. My family was nothing but amazing that first day, feeding me until I thought I would burst and trying as hard as they could to make me feel welcome (as they speak only some English). They talked about their previous volunteer, started my first Amharic lessons, and helped me settle in. Just as I was beginning to get comfortable, we went to church.

The seating of the church was separated by gender, and, as my entire family is girls, I had to sit by myself. Sitting there listening to the preacher speak in three different languages with everyone staring at the ferenji (Amharic for foreigner) who originally sat in the wrong section was my first realization of how utterly out of my element I was. And it was a GREAT feeling. When I realized I had no idea what was going on or what was gonna happen next, I finally realized that my adventure had begun.

The next day our schooling began. Every day we have about 6 hours of language training. Think engineering is hard? Try learning a whole new language with an entirely different alphabet of over 200 characters in ten weeks. Oh and then, just in case that’s not difficult enough, let’s throw a second language in there at no extra charge. That’s right. I will most likely be learning TWO languages during training. I will have to know the basics of Amharic (as that is spoken everywhere) and then one other regional dialect (which I will find out next week). And Amharic isn’t easy either. There’s over 30 different potential greetings (based on time of day, gender, number of people, politeness, etc.) and both positive AND negative conjugations for some verbs (that also depend on gender, number of people, politeness, etc). Didn’t understand that in English? Right. Now try learning it in Amharic. Thankfully Kiflom, my current Language and Culture Facilitator, has some serious patience.

Besides learning and getting to know my family, I’ve also already had several moments that I’ll remember forever. I’ll always remember my first time squatting to use the restroom (completely liberating and incredibly satisfying). And I’ll never forget the first night I met all the kids in the neighborhood, or the next night when we had a dance party in the street (Cupid Shuffle anyone?). The first time I was followed down the street by kids crying “Ferenji, Ferenji, Ferenji” (apparently, I do not at all look Ethiopian) will forever be seared in my brain, as will my first market visit where everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE) stared at our group and the locals demonstrated their unabashed fascination with foreigners. Hyena cries in the night, the local Ethiopian food, awkward conversations about my marital status… There are simply too many to name. Every day is exciting, overwhelming, fun, difficult, and amazing, and I wish you guys were experiencing it with me!

That’s all I have for today, but look out for another post next weekend! I’ll have a lot more details for you about where I will be for the next 2 years, what other language I will be learning, and what I should be doing! Until then, Dehna idehru!!!

Week 2

Hey again!

So another week has passed, and somehow I still can’t believe I’m in Ethiopia. Every day I wake up and just revel in that fact. This past week has been incredibly busy, but I’ll try and cover everything as best as I can.

The biggest event of the week was definitely Saturday: Site Day. Site Day is where they reveal the site we will be living in for the next 2 years. My site? Drumroll please…. Budududududududududu…. Maychew! If you’re scratching your head asking where that is, don’t worry, I did too. Maychew is a town of a little over 34,000 people in the Northern Ethiopian state of Tigray. It’s quite high in elevation (keeping it cool year round), with the second largest mountain peak in Ethiopia right in its backyard. The languages spoken are Tigrena and Amharic, so guess what? Yep. I get to start all over tomorrow with a whole new language! There’s an Education Peace Corps volunteer already there, so I won’t be the only ferenji in town which is cool. I don’t know much else about it yet, but next week we visit our sites so I should have more information for you then.

Other than that, we’ve just been getting a ton of great training. We’ve met a few more current volunteers, and gotten great advice on nutrition, communications, and safety from them too. We’ve also spent time going over some of the different tools we will need to assess our communities and decide what kinds of environmental projects we will do. The two we’ve covered so far are PACA (Peace Corps’ guide to community assessment) and Project Learning Tree. My town is not near any significant national park, unfortunately, so the chance of me getting to work directly with wildlife for the next 2 years might be difficult. BUT I will still be doing a lot of important environmental work, like environmental education in schools, planting trees and fighting deforestation, and helping the communities with whatever they need. Word on the street is there is also a secret forest nearby, so who knows what opportunities that may provide. And on my days off I am free to explore the country, so there will be plenty of opportunities to see wildlife then.

Speaking of forests, we finally had to opportunity to hike in one on Friday! We went to Menagesha forest accompanied by a current environmental volunteer, Brendan. Brendan actually stayed with the same host family I am currently staying with last year, and I have heard nothing but his name over the past two weeks. They showed me pictures of him within minutes of my arrival, showed me the perfect enjera he made on his first try (my first try was not met with the usual cries of “Gobez” you get when you do something right), and talked about how great his soccer skills were. Many kids in the neighborhood can’t even say my name and call me Brandon instead. It was cool to meet the famous guy. He showed us around the beautiful forest and we hiked for several hours. We didn’t make it to the waterfall we were hoping to see, but we did see some colobus monkeys and even some baboons!

What always surprises me is how different Ethiopia is than the rest of Africa. It has more mountains than any other African country, and subsequently has a lot of coniferous forests. While it has the savannahs and deserts that cover large parts of other African countries as well, these are definitely not the dominant biomes in the country. Ethiopian highlands are perhaps the coolest, being the home of several of Ethiopian’s endemic species (including an ibex and the rare Ethiopian Wolf). The culture and language are incredibly interesting and unique, and many Ethiopians view themselves as different than the rest of Africa. They are proud to be one of the only countries never colonized by Europeans, and are home to the African Union.

To wrap up, my experience is going great so far. I’m learning so much every day, and, even though it can be difficult at times, this experience will help me grow so much over the next few years. Well, I can hear the hyenas calling so that means it’s getting late (ten pm… why am I still up?!?). Time to shut off the computer and get some sleep! Dehna ideru!

Week 5

Well, another week has passed in the blink of an eye. It seems like just yesterday I was in Tigray, yet somehow it’s actually been about 8 days of lots of training here in Addis Alem. The great and yet terrible thing about training is how you always have something to do and are never bored.

Since my return to Addis Alem last Saturday, a lot has happened. First and foremost, I’ve begun my intensive Tigrena language training. It isn’t as hard as I thought after the crash course “survival day” we had before leaving for site. This week we really took our time learning the language, which made it far less intimidating. Not to say it wasn’t hard. Because it definitely was. But my week in Tigray helped me realize two very things. First, it excited me to the possibility that one day I would actually be able to walk around my community and have conversations with my family and random people on the streets. Second, a week of Tigrena helped me better distinguish between it and Amharic. Though they are very similar (having both stemmed from the spiritual language of Ge’ez), they are still quite different. It’s a lot like Dutch and German, for those of you who can speak or understand either one of those languages. If you speak one you will see lots of similarities between the two languages, with many words shared or very much alike. But just because you speak German does not mean you can speak Dutch and vice versa. There are enough differences, especially in pronounciation and where in the mouth the language is spoken, that definitely mark it as a separate language.

In addition to language training, we had our first real chance to work with the community! On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to visit a local primary school and teach the environment club there for an hour. We talked, did some activities with them, and had fun in general. After being cooped up in our own classroom for several weeks, it was a great taste of some of the stuff we may be doing for the next two years. This chance for environmental education was unbelievable and one of the reasons I joined Peace Corps: to share my passion for conservation with others. The kids were incredibly smart, very participatory, and stirred that little flame of hope inside of me that maybe we really can make a difference in our world before it is too late.

We also had the chance to visit Lake Wenchi yesterday! Lake Wenchi is a crater lake about an hour south of the city of Ambo. It is a beautiful lake, with a monastery on an island in the center of the lake. We spent all day there and really got to relax in nature for the first time since we’ve been here. There was even a ridiculous hike that just really seemed to complete the day. Lunch was all the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we could eat, plus oranges and bananas. Needless to say, we gorged ourselves.

Overall, this week was great for me emotionally in many ways too. The combination of training, children, the trip to Wenchi, and a surprise call from my oma (grandmother) in Germany did wonders for me. To be perfectly honest, I’ve been missing the US and my family and friends way more than I thought I would. I was so anxious to get out and travel and do something that I didn’t realize how much I really depended on the comfort of my surroundings and my family and friends. While I enjoy tremendously the challenge and excitement of going somewhere new, the fact I was going to be here for over two years without the comfort of so many things I’d taken for granted terrified me. I found myself constantly thinking about all the things I missed and would love to do. I love Ethiopia, but sometimes I would think about how much I wanted to hug my family, dance with my friends, eat some greasy food, get in my car and just drive somewhere because I could, take a shower more than just once a week (gross? Nah. Liberating.), or just sit in my room and surf the internet. I still saw America as where I lived and I wanted to do things I do most days.

But somewhere in the middle of this week something changed. While I still miss all of those things terribly (I’d kill for more than one hour a month on the internet), I realized something important. America is home. But right now I live in Ethiopia. I have two wonderful new families, many new friends, new food to enjoy, new hobbies to pursue, and the same goal/work that brought me out here in the first place: conserving our planet. Ethiopia is starting to feel like another home for me, and I couldn’t be more happy about it. I’ve already been here for over 5 weeks, but it’s felt like a day. I know this sounds super cheesy and lame, but it’s absolutely true. These two years will be over before I know it, and I have realized that it is time to enjoy this adventure to its fullest before I am back in the US missing injera, my friends, families, the smells, the views, and everything else that make this country as beautiful as it is.

Week 6

Another day, another dollar… Except in my case it’s more like another week, another birr? Wow, I’m lame. At any rate, how’s it going all my peeps out there. As you can probably guess from that hilarious intro, another week has gone by here in Ethiopia much faster than I expected it to. I just finished my laundry AND took my weekly bucket bath, so I feel squeaky clean. I glanced at the 45 infinitive verbs I was supposed to try and memorize this weekend and got a headache just thinking about starting, so I put it off (as all great procrastinators do). And here I am talking to you guys!

Even though last sunday seems like just yesterday, nothing too crazy exciting has happened in the last week. We are about to start week 7 of 10 of training, so I’ve still got a pretty regular schedule. The only exciting event was the cold/flu that seemed to sweep through Addis Alem this week. I blame Kiflom, my Language and Culture Facilitator or LCF for short (AKA my teacher… leave it to Peace Corps to come up with a way of complicating “teacher”). He was pretty sick at the end of last week and all three of us in his Tigrena class came up with the same symptoms simultaneously at the beginning of this one. It wasn’t too bad of a cold though and we’re all fine now without much interruption of our schedule.

What does an average day for Bernard look like in Ethiopia? Why I’m glad you asked! I usually get up everyday around 7:15, get dressed, and then go out into the living room for breakfast. Class starts at 8:30 and we go until about 10:30 before taking a shai/bunna break (tea/coffee). I usually drink coke though. After our 30 minute break we go back and learn more Tigrena until about 12:30 when we break for an hour and a half for lunch. We meet back up at 2 for EVEN MORE Tigrena and continue with that until class is over at 5, with another 30 minute shai/bunna break at 3:30. The other six volunteers in my town and I usually hang out for a bit after class is over (to decompress after that ridiculous amount of language), but we all have to be home by dark at 6:30. From there I hang out with my host family for the rest of the night. We eat between 7:30 and 8:00 and I usually retire to my room between 8:30 and 9:00. In my room I stay up playing around on my computer until I go to sleep between 10-10:30.

Doesn’t sound too terribly exciting, but it keeps us busy and the days fly by. Despite this schedule, there’s also usually a lot of variation in the week. For example, every Thursday all 20 volunteers in my training group meet in the nearby town of Holetta for a “hub day” where we spend time doing technical training instead of our usual language training. We also have a culture session once a week where we meet up for an hour and talk about a specific aspect of Ethiopian culture. In addition to that, Peace Corps tends to improvise a lot and send us on random assignments (like the school adventure of last week). All in all I usually don’t get bored.

I still miss the US though. We discovered our town actually does have internet yesterday (YAY!), so I got to get on Facebook again. It was perfect timing, because it was my mom’s birthday yesterday and I would have completely forgotten otherwise. Dates have little to no importance in my life right now (the last date I can honestly remember was October 3^rd and that’s the day I came here), so I didn’t even realize it was already November 19. November just started after all!!! In addition, it was a big weekend at A&M too. This was ring weekend AND F2B had their fall show yesterday. So for any people reading this who got their rings CONGRATS, and for all my F2Bers I love and miss ya’ll and wish I coulda seen it but I know ya’ll kilt it anyway. Love and miss everyone and I hope you guys have a great week!!!

Week 7

Hey guys!

Nice to talk to you guys again. I know you aren’t actually reading this right now, but it just feels good to talk to you as if you actually were. The lack of internet access is killing me softly, so this consistent blogging has come to be my placebo. My nicotine patch if you will. It’s kinda sad, but true. You have to wean yourself off of addictions slowly. The cold turkey treatment I got almost destroyed me. Doing much better know though. ;-)

At any rate, this won’t be a super long blog post. We’re still knee-deep in training, so not much has happened this week. The highlight of the week was definitely Thursday, which was Thanksgiving. It was my first official Thanksgiving celebrated without my family, and, while that made me a little sad, it was still a great day. As usual, we went to Holetta on Thursday for a hub day. Most of the day was spent teaching us small-scale gardening techniques we might need when we get to site. I learned how to garden out of a jerry can, build an herb spiral, and construct a mini greenhouse for colder area gardens. I don’t have enough room in my compound or experience to construct most of the gardens they were showing and describing (besides the mini jerry can gardens), but it was cool to learn nonetheless. While we still had injera and various wots for lunch, the Peer Support Network (a network of current volunteers in country that provide us with all kinds of emotional and peer support) was gracious enough to provide us with delicious American desserts so that we wouldn’t totally miss out on the holiday. The pumpkin pie, apple cobbler, cornbread and other items were positively delicious. In addition, one of the host families offered to make us a delicious soup for dinner. With all of the eating we did that day, it definitely still felt like Thanksgiving.

The rest of the weekend was spent attempting to learn as much Tigrena as possible. The amount of language we learn a day is ridiculous. It is by far one of the most challenging things I’ve done. I am still enjoying myself tremendously though, and it will pay off so much when I go to site permanently and am able to actually converse with my community.

Every day is both a challenge and a reward in so many ways, and this experience is already having a tremendous influence on my growth as a person. I still miss the states a lot, but it helps a lot that this is starting to feel like another home. In truth, the things I miss most about the states were part of my college life, a phase of my life that is over and that I wouldn’t return to even if my service ended tomorrow. This important piece of knowledge helps me in those incredibly trying moments, like when my call with my parents is cut off after twenty minutes without warning and before I can tell them how much I love and miss them. While that last sentence actually sounds kinda depressing and at times the lows can be quite rough, it’s nothing compared to the ups. Like the neighborhood kids who come running to shake my hand screaming “Brown!” every time they see me, even if it was the 5^th time that day (Brown is what my name has become since they can’t say Bernard: it started at Brandon, deteriorated to Belan, and has now improved again slightly to Brown); or the way my family cries out “Gobez!” (meaning clever) the rare occasion I understand them correctly or do something well; or the quiet moments I can just sit quietly and relax.

Overall, I would say that this is indeed becoming an incredibly defining experience of my life. At the risk of sounding overly cheesy and dramatic, all I can do is take it one day at a time and enjoy the ride.