Fendika....What a Day......

The last few days have been interesting. Our students had exams last week and vacation this week before they start second semester. Liz and I have had quite a bit of free time. We toured Axum and Lalibela last week, which was amazing.  Really great pictures. Personally, I thought that Axum was just ok but Lalibela was really wonderful.

Something really interesting happened to us today. Liz and I are going to Addis until Sunday to relax a bit and get some stuff for the house. Yesterday when we woke up, Liz was looking out of our balcony window and commented that it looked like a snowstorm. It was a complete white out. We couldn’t see any of the surrounding landscape outside of our neighborhood - very weird. So today we went to the airport for our flight. As usual it was delayed, but the reasoning behind this delay was unique. It is dust that is covering the sky and really everything around us. Dust from Sudan is blowing into Ethiopia and causing airports to shut down. One of our coworkers told us that it could sometimes take up to two days for the dust to clear. I was really looking forward to going to Addis but we had to put that plan on hold for another day. Hopefully, we will be able to get out of here tomorrow morning.

For the last couple of days a group has been in town from New York. We got a chance to hang out with and meet some great people. These trips are really fun for us and are a nice change from our normal schedule. This one though was particularly special. One of the participants in this trip was a woman, who together with her son, raised and donated money to build a schoolhouse and well in a rural area outside of Gondar. The school is called Fendika. I had the pleasure of visiting this school with the University of Maryland trip and interacting with the students two weeks ago.

The history of this school is great. Three years ago our program director visited the area and found a first and second grade class. First grade was learning under a tree that is now directly behind the new building and second grade was a bit further away under another group of trees. These students and teachers now have classrooms, desks, benches and chalkboards. They also have a clean water source about 50 yards from the building. Really a remarkable story.

Now back to yesterday – it’s even more remarkable that one of the donors traveled from America to Ethiopia to see it. Although students are on vacation now about 50 students showed up to welcome her. A makeshift plaque was hung on the wall and uncovered to show this donor’s family name. The children were singing, “Welcome, welcome, welcome!!” when we arrived. It was really powerful. As if this wasn’t enough she brought soccer balls, volley balls, jump ropes and arts and crafts for the students. The chairman of the village had us in his home for some injera with milk and berbere (a first for me and absolutely delicious although, yes, it sounds gross). The whole experience couldn’t have been better. We all had a lot of fun. We finished up with a traditional coffee ceremony before we left.

As often happens in these situations, specifically when you come to rural areas bearing gifts/donations, the kids start to get a little riled up and it can get chaotic. A lot of the kids started asking for money, which can get really annoying really fast. When we started to leave the kids followed us. It was a crowd of about 30-40 kids at this point. I lagged behind a bit to talk to a few of the kids as we walked. As we were walking along I felt something hit my backpack. I thought nothing of it. Then I saw something fly over my head and break on the ground a few feet in front of me. Then something hit me in the shoulder. I turned back to see a bunch of kids throwing rocks and clumps of dirt at me. This made me angry. This was one of the few times here that I was fuming mad. We just spent two hours dedicating a school and giving out fun stuff for the students and this is how they react? Throwing rocks at us, at me, as we leave? I was shocked. Who would act like that? How did the mood degenerate so much as to make some young kids think it was ok to throw rocks at people visiting their school and their village – one of these visitors being the person that made that school and well possible? It took me a few hours to get over this and I had to literally tell myself over and over again to not let the end of our visit cloud the great experience that we all just had.

This is a microcosm of how life is here. You have incredible highs and unbelievable lows. You have to take the good with the bad. It’s difficult to keep your cool sometimes but you have to no matter the circumstance. This place is different. People here act differently. I have to understand and accept that. I also realize that every day isn’t going to be a cakewalk. My patience is tested often and it keeps me grounded. So what do I choose to remember about that day? I remember someone traveling from America to see the results of her donation to a tiny village in Gondar, Ethiopia. I remember the look on this amazing woman’s face when we arrived and the children were clapping and singing. I remember the exact words that the chairman of the village said to this woman and how caring they were. I remember having a wonderful experience….and that’s all I remember.  

Give Me Five Birr??

After being on vacation for so long we’ve transferred back into work perfectly. The only thing that’s been difficult at school is getting used to lower attendance. Just like in the States when work slows down between Christmas and New Years, students tend to stop showing up between Genna (Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas) and Timket (Epiphany). Many people leave town to visit their families or their families are making the journey to Gondar. Whatever the case, work and school seem to be on the back burner even as we approach final exams for the first semester. During the last two weeks, we regularly find about 15-20 students in our final classes of the afternoon session, a far cry from the 65-70 students that should be there. This being the case the students that do show up have been incredibly well mannered and as eager as always. Final exams are the Monday following Timket, which is in 9 days. Most of our classes haven’t completed Unit 6 yet (the final Unit before finals) and we still need time to prepare for finals. I smell a time crunch coming….

This week we dove into the chapter in our exercise books about HIV/AIDS. I find this material interesting, not simply for the educational value for the students, but because I like learning what the students know and don’t know about HIV. We’ve regularly had students in different sections contend that you can get HIV by drinking after someone with HIV or getting your hair cut by a barber who has previously cut the hair of someone who has HIV. It’s shocking to me that some students know so little about HIV but it’s all around them. We haven’t asked the question yet but I’m sure some of these young people know or knew someone with HIV. It’s also very possible that HIV in one way or another has directly affected a lot of our students. It’s such an important issue that it’s in their English textbook. Throughout all my years of school I never had one specific lesson in any class devoted solely to the topic of HIV. I chose to write a term paper about HIV/AIDS for an African history class. When my family was in South Africa years ago we visited an AIDS clinic and I was stunned. There were babies, toddlers, young adults and elderly people there. HIV affects people young and old; age has no bearing. It’s important that we talk about this subject with these young people.

After finishing a great day on Wednesday I was walking out of school over to our car. I felt good about the day. The lesson plan was great and the students took to it brilliantly. Classes were lively. As I strolled down the sidewalk one of my students came jogging after me yelling, “Max, Max!”. I stopped and greeted her. She stood there for a half second before asking me, “give me five birr?”. I’m your teacher. You’re my student. No student would dare ask any other teacher at Fasiledes for money. It’s something that is just inescapable here. We’ve been teaching here for over four months and some of our students still look at us as rich Westerners who are willing and able to hand out money. I really thought I was safe from all of that at my place of work. It turns out I’m not. It was really disheartening but something that you have to deal with here. Here, I am always going to be the rich Westerner and as much as I think I’ve assimilated someone is always willing to bring me back down to Earth.

I Homesick You

Coming back from vacation is tough, especially to Gondar. I got used to life here and the transition for me was relatively seamless. I was in a great groove with work and what you could call a social life. But going away and experiencing a place like South Africa and coming back to Gondar is difficult. Life in general here is difficult and it takes hard work to find any kind of normalcy.

That being said I am happy to be back home. To get back into that groove of working at school and on some fun projects is wonderful. I feel rejuvenated and motivated.

Our trip to South Africa could not have been better. We went on safari. spent a lot of time exploring Cape Town and the coast (wine tour, lounging on the beach at Camp's Bay, V&A Waterfront, Long Street, Cape Point, Boulders Beach and lots more). We ate a ton of good food and enjoyed the nightlife. We met some amazing people. Like I said, couldn’t have been better.

We came back to school on Wednesday and the students and teachers were happy to see us. Everyone came up to us and said, “Welcome!” as if we’d never been there. What they meant was welcome back, which we’ve been suggesting. One of our fellow teachers said “I homesick you”….to which I responded flatly “what?”. What he meant was that he missed us and we both had a good laugh. The teachers are genuine and they enjoy having us around. They enjoy conversing with us, learning about America and teaching us about Ethiopia.

The students were great this week. Every class was excited to have us back and really well behaved. I am equally as excited to see the kids and get back to work. They are making good progress in their exercise books and will soon be gearing up for final exams.

Monday is Genna, Ethiopian Christmas. We don’t have class and everything shuts down. Everyone spends this holiday with his or her families and most Ethiopians attend church. I was told that there’s a big meal as well, which hopefully one of our friends will invite us to attend because lord knows I love to eat!

It’s funny, some of the teachers here have been telling Elizabeth and I that we look “fat”. Now, I’ve never eaten more food in my life than I did in South Africa so they may be saying this literally. However, it’s a common saying here that when someone looks healthy people will say that you look “fat”. I prefer this meaning but honestly who knows…..

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope this year brings new challenges, adventures and successes. 

A few pictures from our travels:

In the cage

Jaws........cage diving with Great White Sharks at Dyer Island

Liz and I on Table Mountain

Some of the 12 Apostles over Camp's Bay

Clouds coming over Table Mountain w Cape Town below

A Pride

Sleepy Lion

Giraffes

White Rhino

Beautiful sunset over Camp's Bay

In Franschhoek on a wine tour

With some friends after we hiked up Lion's Head to watch sunset