Happy New Year!!!
Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is now 2012 and the wonderfulness that was 2011 has come to a close. 2011 was full of many important changes in my life, the most dramatic of which included graduating college and then leaving my friends and family to come live in Ethiopia. It’s weird to think it, but with my two year commitment here I probably won’t live in America at all this entire year. It’s not like I’ve never gone a whole year without America (considering I lived in Germany for 7 seven years), but it’s been a long time and I never really considered the idea before.
At any rate, another not busy week has gone by in Ethiopia with adventures and free time galore. Last week was my first attempt at starting to settle in and it went…. Interestingly. Setting up my house is something I have been taking my time with, buying one or two necessities every day, and my pantry is slowly starting to fill. Of course, that doesn’t mean much since I didn’t have a clue what to cook with the few things I’ve managed to assemble. I’ve been doing pretty well off of bananas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, eating out a little, and every once in a while braving the kitchen. I haven’t gotten most of the supplies needed to really cook until recently, so last week I decided to make spaghetti. That went ok, except that I didn’t make enough to really cover the pasta so it was a little dry. Either way I was pretty proud of myself.
Things on the work front have been even slower, but I’m definitely starting to make progress. I visited the preparatory school last Wednesday where I met the environmental club teachers and practiced English with some of the schools. Thursday I was assigned a new counterpart (yay!) and we came up with an action plan and got to know each other a little bit. Tomorrow, I plan on returning to the school and starting the prep for my installation meeting (which is where Peace Corps comes and explains what I’m doing here) next Thursday. Overall, not too bad.
The big events of the week were this past weekend and today actually. This past weekend was New Year’s obviously, and I joined up with volunteers Alamatta to the south of here to celebrate. I actually left Thursday afternoon and spent the night in Korem before heading to Alamatta on Friday, and it was a really great time. We cooked together a lot, and they gave me my first real cooking lessons here. I learned how to make tortillas from scratch, stir fry, French fries and shiro (a local Ethiopian food). Not too impressive to most people, but this was a major accomplishment for a guy who spent most of his college career living off of Chef Boyardee, box dinners, and takeout. The few things I did know how to make (mostly just chili, tacos, spaghetti) are much tougher to cook here considering the difficulty in getting meat (and by that I mean I am still terrified to go to the butcher) and the fact I don’t have a meat grinder. I used to be irked by the corporate America Wal-Mart symbolizes… Now I find myself wondering what it would be like to walk down those hallowed aisles again, picking out my favorite artery clogging junk foods and drooling over the heart-stopping, greasy packaged delicacies…
But I digress. New Year’s was great fun nonetheless and me and my four other volunteers brought in the New Year with poker and some delicious beverages. After the countdown we all promptly fell asleep in a very anti-climactic moment but relaxing welcome to the new year.
Today, was anything but anti-climactic. It was a small holiday here in Ethiopia (one of the many days dedicated to saints) and I celebrated with a friend. We watched the processional full of dancing and singing people on the way to the church and then joined them there. We listened to the pastor talk, watched people wash in water believed to have special healing powers, and laughed at the ferenjis (foreigners) who were so much more obvious than me and my Peace Corps friend visiting. Afterwards, we ate lunch and talked for a little while before I decided to mosey on over to the school. I was intercepted by a coworker I thought was going to give me a ride, but instead drove with me and a few others along an incredibly scary dirt road (Ethiopian version of the roller coaster) where I had ANOTHER lunch and more talking. By the time I got home an hour or so later I was pretty tired from my day and just relaxed for the next few hours.
It’s only Tuesday, but there’s a lot to look forward to this week. Work is steadily picking up and this Saturday is actually the Ethiopian Christmas, which is sure to mean a very interesting and crazy weekend for me. Look for my update next week to see how my first major Ethiopian holiday goes! Until then, love and miss you guys as always and feel free to drop me comments here, Facebook, or e-mail at any time! I have lots of free time to respond. See ya later!
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