I have a home!

Hello All,

Just wanted to update you all regarding my site assignment and new address. Training will be over in two weeks, and I'll be moving to Bahir Dar, in the North of Ethiopia. I've been in Bahir Dar this week for site visit (seeing my house, talking with my supervisor, learning my way around town), and it seems like it's going to be fabulous.

 

I'll be living by myself in a two-room house. I have a cold water shower and a porcelain squat toilet (at least I have running water!). I'm the only one on my compound, so I'm thinking about getting a dog, if rabies shots are available in town (not that I really need one, after last week's cat bite and two immune globulin shots...but it's Peace Corps policy).

 

My house is about 150m away from my work, which will be with ITECH (International Training and Education Center for HIV), which is actually based out of the University of Washington. I'll be working, it seems, mostly on linkage and referrals in the antiretroviral treatment program. I have no idea what that actually means on a day to day basis, but everyone in the HIV field here in Bahir Dar (we've met a lot of them this week) seems fantastic and really committed.

 

Here's my new address:

Anna Talman

PO Box 2153

Bahir Dar

Ethiopia.

 

Simple enough. Also check out my blog, at anniopia[dot]blogspot[dot]com (emails seem not to send if they have that address in them. May be related to the Ministry of Info's blocking of blogger. Hmmm.

 

So I'm feeling good about the next two years. Swearing in is on December 15th, and I've been selected to give a short speech in Amharic. Yikes! I think that it's likely to be quite the event, since we're the first group back in 10 years.

 

I'd like to upload some pictures, but there are several roadblocks. (1) my camera broke on day one in Ethiopia, so I've been using a friend's backup film camera, (2) uploading them to the internet might take a year with this connection, and (3) since blogger is blocked in ethiopia, I can't load them directly to my blog. I'll keep troubleshooting and figure *something* out.

 

Anyhow, just wanted to let you know that I'm doing well. I'm headed back to Addis Ababa from Bahir Dar at 4am tomorrow; should arrive by around 4pm, and then back to my host family on Sunday, and to training on Monday.

Amazing!!

This has really been quite the eventful week! I'm writing at an Internet cafe (much much faster than in Wolisso) in Bahir Dar. I've just come from seeing the source of the Blue Nile. And a hippo. Amazing!

 

So yes, I got my site assignment on Tuesday, afeter much anticipation and nervousness. I'll be living in Bahir Dar, in the Northern part of Ethiopia, on the shores of Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia. It's a pretty tropical town, with lots of flowers and palm trees (and hippos!). The town seems fabulous, as does my counterpart, who works for the international organization ITECH (International Training and Education Center for HIV), which does hospital based technical assistance. I'll be working on linkages and referrals here in Bahir Dar.

 

I'm feeling really good, and very excited about being here.

 

One strange thing: the evening after site announcements I got bitten by a cat in a freak accident (I stepped on its tail answering a call from my parents, whoops), and had to have two very painful shots. One involved a special trip to Addis Ababa (5 hours round trip!) just for the shot. But now I at least won't die of rabies. I guess that's fair.

 

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner at our Country Director's beautiful home on Friday. Included: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie and chocolate chip mint ice cream imported from the States. It was truly an extravaganza, and will tide me over for a number of months to come.

 

The trip to Bahir Dar was, well, a trip. We arrived late at the bus station with tons of luggage (there are four of us travelling together; theree in B.D and one about an hour away), including 4 metal safes weighing at least 40 or 50 pounds a piece. We got to the bus station a little late, and amid the chaos (the place was literally teeming with people), it seemed that there would be no tickets to Bahir Dar that day. But we finagled some at last (through a middleman), and loaded the luggage (paying 50% of the ticket price as a luggage fee!), and finally took off. We all thought we would get to B.D. in a single day, but nooooo, 12 hours later, we stopped in a small town along the way and spent the night in a room which cost 25 birr ($2.50) for the night, and took off again at 5 this morning. It was a loooong, hot, dusty ride, part of which went through the Blue Nile gorge, which was beautiful (and scary steep in a big bus....). Kind of torturesome.

 

I've been told to write more about day to day details. I'll do some of that soon. There're folks waiting on the computer. One more detail: we had a roll stolen from our table by a MONKEY on Wednesday night. I'm truly in Africa. The Nile, hippos, and monkey theives. My oh my. More soon.

Updates

November 10, 2007

 Sorry that everything I've posted so far has been composed in such a rush; whenever I'm at the Internet "café" (really more of a shop—there is nothing in the way of food/drink…), there are 3 or 4 other farenjis (foreigners) waiting to use the computer, so I have to hurry to check email, news, and post in a rush. So now I'm borrowing my friend Beth's computer and taking a little time to actually think through some stories that I want to tell you.

 

Things are going well. We finished week five of training (of 10 total) this afternoon. Our midterm language test is on Monday. It's hard to believe both how quickly time is flying, and that we're still only halfway through training. I have a feeling, however, that the next 5 weeks are going to go even faster than the first five. We're going to Addis Ababa on a field trip next Saturday, and then the following week, we take off for site visits to our respective towns (still no more word on where that will be). Then there are only two more weeks left before swearing in on the 15 ^th of December (which sounds like it's going to be kind of a big deal—the Ambassador is holding a couple of events for us, and a number of Peace Corps officials from Washington are flying in).

 

Language learning is frustratingly slow, but when I actually think about it, it's clear that I am indeed making progress. The first time I went to buy laundry soap, I asked for it purely by charades. Yesterday, a couple of us bought some more, and were able not only to ask for it by name, but to bargain a bit as well. It's still going to be something to be thrown into a community on my own. I'm guessing that my workplace counterparts will probably speak fairly good English (secondary education and above is taught primarily in English), but folks I interact with on a daily basis are probably another story. It's definitely going to be a challenge.

 

There are many small adventures and funny stories. Language mistakes are some of the best. My host brother told me that Oromiffa (the regional language which half of us are learning) is a "very dangerous" language (he meant difficult). A friend of the family told me that he had seen the group of Peace Corps volunteers having lunch, and that one girl was "very freaky." When I asked him what he meant, he told me that she was hugging everyone and saying hello. Oh, right. Friendly. In language class we crack our teacher up about once a week by mispronouncing words so egregiously that they turn from innocent new vocab into swear words.

 

It's still slightly surreal that I'm here. I'm writing this right now sitting in a huge carved wooden chair on the patio of the Lodge here in town, which is a fabulous refuge, peaceful and beautiful. I can see monkeys playing in the trees nearby. It's sunny and breezy, and I have no responsibilities until Monday morning. It's hard to believe that *this* is my life right now, that I'm really here and really doing this. I'm sure that there will be many difficulties and challenges ahead (and training certainly hasn't been all sunshine and lollipops. There is a decided lack of lollipops, in fact), but for the moment, I'm feeling really good.

 

Thanks for all your emails and letters. It's amazing to be so far from home and yet so connected. The world really is turning into a smaller place, isn't it? I can't imagine what Peace Corps would have been like 40 years ago. I think, also, that we're a little bit spoiled here during training, with 24 hour electricity and hot springs--and corresponding hot showers--within walking distance! It will be interesting to see how that picture changes with heading out to our own sites…

 

More soon. I'm sending happy, Autumnal thoughts your way. Have some hot apple cider in my honor, if you're in that kind of climate.

 

November 12

I just finished my midterm; it went super smoothly. I have the rest of the day off to poke around town, do laundry, catch up on email and facebook (ha) and play a game or two of scrabble. What a luxury to have some free time! Talk to you soon.

A quick hello before curfew

It's already starting to be dusk and I need to be home before dark, but just wanted to tell you that I'm doing well.

Training continues apace. We had a great fieldtrip this weekend to a beautiful crater lake near our training site. It was about a 4km hike down to the lake, where we took a little canoe to a the island in the middle, where there is a small monastery. The whole place was wonderful, as was the peanut butter sandwich I had for lunch. It was lovely also to have a day off from training. On the way out, we took horses, which was fun.

On both Sunday and Monday, I went to Addis Ababa (a 2 hour van ride) for a day trip. Once was for a protestant wedding with my friend Beth's host family and some folks from their church (that trip was a little overwhelming--we stopped 9 times on the way back; including once for banana flavored gum and once to pray by the side of the road. We were exhausted!). On Monday we had a technical trip to talk with folks from Save the Children and CDC Ethiopia, which was fabulous. I also bought a poster for my house and a KitKat bar, which were wholeheartily appreciated.

I'm slowly learning Amharic, and am occasionally able to string together full sentences with my host family. Yesterday I learned from my friends' host family to make injera (the Ethiopian flat bread staple) and to milk a cow. Quite the evening!

I'm doing well. I miss all of you, and live for letters. I'll write you back for sure if I get one from you (hint hint).

More soon!