Tuesday June 18th, 2013
7:00 – wake up, totally not wanting too. Spent too much time
reading last night. Get ready for sessions.
7:20 – leave house for Medab
7:45 – at Medab, and no one is there
8:00 – Should be when camp activities start, but really when
most of the campers and Alayu arrive. Missing guest stakeholders
8:05 – Start Personal Bingo activity.
8:15 – Welcome Prep school director, gender office rep, and
edu woreda office rep to introduce Huruta's 2013 Camp GLOW! On the second day,
because you didn't come Monday. And oh, I must do an impromptu speech to start
us off. Lovely.
8:25 – guests leave, bingo resumes
8:30 – Who can tell me how HIV is transmitted? Start of HIV
and the Immune System session. Cue
giving girls roles to play as cells (macrophages loved eating antigens, but the
poor T4 cells were always like, who do I tell that there's an invader?), and
then a game showing how the immune system works (adult elephants/immune system
really got into protecting the baby
elephant/self from lions/disease. Pity they were useless against HIV me. ) and
then talking about how to strengthen the immune system.
9:30 – Well then, didn't I plan 90 minutes for this session?
What am I to do with the extra time before break? Tea/bread isn't ready yet. BS
the games of telephone and non-verbal
telephone into a mini session on the break down of communication and what you
can do to ensure a message is received as it's meant. I've become quite good at improvising on the
spot here.
10:00 - Shai-bunna! Though, most of the girls have pop
instead of tea or coffee. But they take the time today to explore the grounds
of the garden. Glad to see them becoming more comfortable.
10:25 - Our guest
speaker hasn't arrived yet for a 10:30 session. Quick! Think of mini activities
in case she's just late and a whole 90 minute session if she doesn't show. Thank Primus for the Life Skill's Manual.
10:30 – Do variation of trust falls in a circle. Discuss
feelings on when you were in the center, and when you were doing the
catching. As much as I can BS my way
through that, possible discussions questions in the manual would be wonderful.
10:40 – Wow, trust falls only tool 10 minutes. Must fill up
more time! Despite requests for once again doing the hokey pokey (sorry, that
was yesterday girls and didn't really appreciate the cell phone pictures of me)
tried to recreate a Staging Activity on leadership and really flopped in my
mind but I'm sure the girls just thought of it as something they didn't
understand because I'm American and speak native English and they're Ethiopian
and only know a bit of English. Didn't correct them.
10:45 – panicking, 'organize yourself silently' did not lead
to groups that share a thing a common (was hoping for something based on
clothes or distance from school) but rather groups for the sake of groups.
Think the word 'organize' was a bit strange. Have no other quick idea in my
head. And here's the guest speaker, yes!
10:50 – Begin Family Planning session! Tis awesome, because
1) guest speaker means no/little work for me 2) I honestly believe it's the
most important session all week
11:30 – Alayu mentions he paid for the guests earlier to
have a snack. Can the grant reimburse him? And for all the phone calls he's
making on the camp's behalf. Say nothing
about all the supplies/time I've personally donated and that I'm essentially
paying for the came myself and waiting for a grant reimbursement that I'm only
80% sure I'll get. Bosses said the grant was good, but that doesn't always mean
the American govt will actually give me the money does it? But just tell him
yes, the grant will pay.
12:00 – Maybe it was a good thing they were late, session
finished early. Twas a bit boring, lots of lecturing compared to all the
movement the girls did in the first session. Start the Q&A. Very good questions asked, and even sensitive
topics like rape (as in, if it happens how can you prevent a pregnancy, thanks
for the questions Alayu, one of two adult males in the room) brought up. Not a lot of girls took note, but I hope they
remember this session.
12:30 – girls leave, prepare for next session
12:40 – call from Elementary school counterpart while one
way home (man, didn't realize that hill was steep till I had to walk and talk
up it). There is a program at the school, come.
Heard about it last Tuesday, and had planned on going after lunch. Oh
well, I'll skip the meal.
1:15 – Show up at school, am the last to arrive and go
through the whole, oh dear where should I sit deal and feeling very popular and
not at the same time and several teachers flag me to corners but none of those
whose names I know and those I did just smiled and waved. (kay, my counterpart
waved me over but the people around him said there wasn't space)
1:30 – What do you know, it's a lunch program!
1:45 – People start being selected to get food, and at first
I'm floored by people coming back with two beers in their hand. Did they grab
one for a friend? Why are the women, who rarely drink let alone in public in
the country, also carrying two beers? Why are the tables filled with so many
bottles? Questions answered. I hit the
drinks table (really, just crates in the middle of the hall) and someone puts
two St. Georges in my hand. If the school is paying, and there's the amount,
why not indulge? The teachers passing out drinks seem rather miffed that I turn
down the beer for, not even a malt drink, but a
Miranda and a Pepsi. What's wrong
with beer? Start 10 minutes of questions
from various people into my drinking habits who don't understand that I just
don't like the taste. If they want to
see it as my religion forbidding alcohol, that's cool and I won't direct them
to the restaurant where Gary made me drink too much ouzo.
2:30 – Speeches. In Amharic. Really hope they don't go long
because I have an appointment at 4.
2:40 – Text from Greg, taking Internetless PCVs to take work
related leaves to take the All Volunteer Survey. No longer in an Internetless
site, should probably share that information, but rather like the idea of work
allowed time away from site.
3:00 – And the speeches are done! Time for pictures, talking
to people, making sure my meeting to talk about next year is set for Thursday
at 4. Must remember to put everything
together. Asking a teacher for her niece's permission slip for Bekoji camps and
hoping she's not miffed about me not selecting her daughter.
3:10 – Edu Woreda to give a spreadsheet of teachers who have
participated in my trainings the past year and how many CPD hours they have
earned because of it. Panic, again, when asked which teachers on the list are
English teachers, and then feel relief and amazement and Shibeshi tells me
himself. There are 78 teachers in my
school alone, and the woreda contains 31 govt schools. How does he call all
that?!
3:40 – Phew, home. But not time to take off my shoes, just
move a file from computer to flash drive and then off to the stationary store
for printing.
4:00 – Alayu a no show, but I print 6 certificates, each
with a typed name, on colored paper, but can't pay because the clerk doesn't
have change for a hundred. Buying on credit isn't rare here, but I'm always
worried I'll forget because they never write these things down.
4:15 – Avoid the children outside the shop who won't stop
saying 'Hi' and following me. (Saying hi back only encouraged them on my way
over and I don't know how to say 'once is enough' in Amharic. Must ask Dani)
4:26 – Ah, home. First time I take my shoes off since I left
this morning. Quite a rare thing. I'm usually done with work by 11:30 and in my
flipflops making lunch.
4:30 – Alayu calls. Did you print the certificates? Yes?
I'll come pick them up.
4:40 – Alayu arrives at my house, is disappointed over the
paper (why isn't it thick?), wonders if we should give them in frames (at 50
bit a pop I think not) and discusses a plan for the closing ceremony on Friday.
And then tells me to type it up and give it to him the next day.
4:45 – Should start doing a whole list of stuff – prepare
for the next two session, my meeting on Thursday, make reservations in Addis,
write a project proposal, finish making prizes, but read a bit to relax
instead.
5:00 – Dang it! Power went out. Must go buy another candle.
5:05 – Phew! It's back on.
5:30 – Get a call from Debra where I rant and complain to
release a bit of tension, talk about coping mechanisms, writing things out for
one of my sessions, remember more things I have to do (my VRF, laundry) talk
about how I should be doing them, hiring a lady to do my laundry just this
once, and the merits of buying ketchup.
6:24 – Figure I'll do at least a few articles of clothes,
but the water isn't coming.
6:45 – Start dinner
6:50 – Dani comes home and tells me there will be no water
for 4 days because the muddy stuff that came out of the tap yesterday is a sign
that the reservoir is broken and it will take 4 days to clean. There goes the
idea of laundry. And of tea for breakfast. And pasta for lunch. And my Wednesday shower.
7:00 – Well, at least my first attempt at mashed potatoes
came out okay.
7:20 – Eat, read, realize I knocked one thing off my list
and added another – create a goal visual sheet. And checking on t-shirt orders
for the Bekoji camp
7:30 – Really craving hot chocolate, it's my anti-stress
food here instead of ice cream, but must save water. Really, really looking
forward to Saturday afternoon when all my responsibilities will be gone.
7:40 – Trying to not think about the problems I'll face
after my return from Zambia the 5th – no clothes for the Bejoki camp
the week of the 7th cuz of no water to wash clothes, and getting
girls to camp.
8:00 – Put off everything still to read in the living room.
Can't really work there and if I don't 'visit' for a bit each night Dani gets
miffed.
9:00 – Right, lets work on that goal sheet and then go to
bed.
Friday June 21st
2013
2:32 – first wake up in a
series of wake ups that usually happens with I have to get up at 6 or earlier
in the morning
5:45 – throw in the towel on
sleep and start getting ready for the day.
6:00 – wrap gifts, get together
money, create spare logo for Bekoji camp, and all together get small things
done
7:00 – Arrive at preparatory
school. Am the only one, despite telling everyone to be there at 7 and that I'm
not afraid of having the bus take off without them.
7:10 – Aha! Girls slowly but
surly arrive and we start taking a multitude of pictures.
7:19 – What's this? Our
contract bus is early? Cue taking a sign to it and more pictures.
7:54 – Of course an early bus
didn't mean we'd actually leave at our 7:30 start time. Wait, why are we
heading to the bus station? There may be empty seats, but I paid for them and
we are not picking up extra people! Oh, paperwork, okay then. A~nd just past
the turn off for the short cut. Guess we're going through Eteya.
8:30 – Flat tire. Gotta stop
and change it.
9:45 – Arrive at the gates of
Adama Science and Technical Institute almost an hour late. The guards won't let
us in. We call the dean of students, he gives us the number for the chief of
campus police, we call the chief, and he tells the guard to let us pass.
10:00 – Finally off the bus and
on campus! Leave my bag of bunna ceremony gifts in the locked compartment
behind the drivers seat.
10:30 – Still waiting around
for our tour to start. Apparently to get into certain areas we need a letter of
direction from the student dean. Who is in Addis Ababa. But he did give it to
his staff. Who lost it.
10:40 – Decide to start tour
while Alayu waits at the office to see if the letter can be found to allow us
to visit the libraries. The first building we pass is the female library. Our
guide talks to the head librarian. We're in! Take that Ethiopian bureaucracy
that's too convoluted to do things in a way that makes sense. Am rather impressed with the selection
inside, though several books are completely copied pages bound together. Female
only library needed in an effort to keep harassment of women down.
11:00 – Head towards the dorms,
and hello guys. I have never been to another country where the harassment of
guys on girls is nearly as high. Looks, calls, approaches, despite the obvious 'preparatory'
on all our matching shirts. So proud of the girls who used our anti-peer
pressure session to tell them off.
11:20 – Get to see a few dorm
rooms. 6 to a room, one desk, communal dorm bathrooms, and no outlets because
the university doesn't want students to use it and raise the power bill. You're stuck with bad cafeteria food unless
you leave campus, which is way on the outskirts of town.
11:40 – Pop into a classroom, not bad. White board, individual
desks, lots of light, and lots of desk graffiti.
11:50 – Tour the Edu library
and have to insert myself between a guy and one of my girls. She seemed kinda
miffed. Well, she can send google eyes during our walks and not a
presentation. I have a feeling she is one of the ones who won't graduate.
12:00 – Lunch! Smack a guy
outside of the cafeteria for taking a picture of me with out asking. He kept
saying sorry and that he did ask, despite my calling him out on the lie. Eshetu
came over and made him delete the photo. I swear, men here are like 'oo! Ferengi!
Must take a picture' the same way I am about monkeys. But I'm very obviously not a while animal and
don't appreciate the paparazzi attention.
I have a new sympathy for celebrities.
12:30 – The Ethiopians are
impressed much by the cafeteria food, but I don't think it's bad.
12:45 – Head toward student
center for coffee. It's dirt cheap, 1.50
a cup, and you can taste the cheapness. But there was also a small baked good
section (should have gotten a doughnut) and a suk.
1:00 - Head towards the stadium.
1:30 - Back in the bus meeting spot, hoping it might
come a half hour early. Spend time talking to the girls and posing with a tin
Ibex.
2:00 – Alayu tells me we missed
the bus, it's a contract, how is that possible? Ah, it just has a flat tire and
is still in Huruta. An hour and a half away. And we have a program at 3:30.
Lovely. Plan – fill up minibuses, get to
bus station, and fill up the next bus to Huruta. Thank goodness I had an extra
1,300 bir on me (wasn't entirely sure Adama U was footing the lunch bill).
2:15 – Get a call, our broken
bus called a friend and there's a bus on the way to the university! And the
driver will deliver my bag to Medab for the ceremony.
2:45 – Get ambushed on the bus
by Eshetu and Alayu. Apparently, a bunna ceremony at the end of a week long
program isn't a enough. Girls are grumbling about a tasty meal (some are from
the rural areas who had rented rooms for the school year and were moving back
the next morning so they had no food at home, others because it's not in the
culture to not have one) and Alayu is talking about using the money from
Adama's paid lunch. Told him the grant
doesn't really allow that, 1300 was set aside to go to Adama U and if it
doesn't go there it goes back to Peace Corps.
But at the end of a long day walking around in the sun, willpower is
low. Give in and say our incidental fund could be used for it. Just 800. And so
we decided just the girls will eat, not us nor the stakeholders/guest speakers
who have also been grumbling about the closing ceremony just being bunna.
Decide it might be best to eat in Dera or Eteya.
3:00 – Call Medab to move bunna
ceremony back again, thinking we'd get there at four after eating. Realize we
still have 45 minutes of the bus ride to go. Ethiopians really don't understand
schedules. Call Woin Restaurant and preorder so things will be ready.
3:50 – Arrive at Woin, meat for
tibs isn't fully chopped and so get to work in the kitchen. Don't think the
girls even know that I cooked their food. Get texts about things to do for
Bekoji camp, must do those before I leave for Zambia on Monday.
4:00 – Our original bus called.
It went to the rural area. With my bag with all the gifts for the bunna
ceremony in it. Plus, three of our guests have showed up at Medab, at the
original time (ish) and need to be entertained. The rest of our guests are
still at the office. Eshetu goes to the office, to direct them to Medab, Alayu
starts serving food to the girls, and I get attacked by little Mita who when I
ask for a hug thinks that means tackle my legs.
4:40 – Mita takes to biting my
legs, I punish her to the laugh of the campers, I pay for the meals and then
take off with a few of the girls to Medab.
4:50 – Call came, my bag is at
Medab!
5:00 – Way late to the bunna
ceremony, which has been waiting for us most likely since 3:30, and feel
terrible. Original guests on time are still there, and as most of the girls
follow me in we start the closing ceremony with a role play showing all they
learned. Present certificates and awards (extra t-shirts, had originally
thought there would be 20 girls but there was only 17), had coffee, and
probably got praised a million times in Amharic, and was gifted with a nutella.
But what I loved the most was the girls' speeches about how much they loved the
program, said we should do it for girls next year, and several bureaus, now
knowing what the program is, are committed to helping next year. Alayu hopes
this means a visit to Hwassa University instead of Adama. Might be a bit much.
6:00 – Was surprised by how
bittersweet I was at saying goodbye to the campers. Not that I was sad at all,
but more like I know they're going someplace tough in a few months and I really
hope what I taught them will help. I wish them all the best. And I know most of
them I probably won't ever seen again.
6:15 – Alayu, Eshetu and I go
to Woin for dinner only to discover that our girls cleaned them out of meat.
There is also no meat at the next two restaurants we walk to.
6:45 – Really feel like a drink
at the restaurant, to celebrate a camp well finished, but neither of the men
order a beer so I feel self-conscious about getting wine and pass on it. Talk about ideas for next year, and gender
differences in positions of authority (Eshetu's doing a paper on it) and PC
work (most PCVs are female, and most host families when given the choice prefer
female trainees).
8:00 – Return home to find the
door locked, but am let in soon enough.
Coffee, quineto, and I'm still so tired and having to go to Adama the
next morning (aiming for the 6 am bus) for Bekoji camp stuff. Go to bed exhausted.
Rest assured, there'll be a camp video soon.
Also, for those who may be confused, bunna is coffee in Amharic.
