Add It To My Resume

ELECTRICAL REWIRING
I repaired—or attempted to—an outlet (220 Volt AC), which had fallen out of my bedroom wall. Suffered only minor electrical shock, including charred black fingertip and a serious scare, when a current passed from one thumb up my arm, around my shoulders, and down the other arm. Christie, who was helping me, and I both sprang back from the spark, physically fine, but slightly terrified. Note: remember to turn off fuse before attempting further electrics maintenance. The bad news is that the outlet is no longer functioning, reducing me to a single outlet and an extension cord.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL TREATMENT COORDINATION
Another volunteer who was visiting town came down with some serious gastrointestinal nastiness last weekend. She was unable even to keep down the anti-nausea medication our medical director had prescribed, and was having trouble making it from the bed in her hotel to the toilet without feeling lightheaded. A stool sample was described as "raspberry lemonade" (gross, I know…).  Needless to say, she was not feeling good. And needed an IV and some antibiotics, pretty badly. This, of course, would have to have happened during the worst week in cell phone reception in recent history, at 10pm on a Saturday night (which is as good as 2am in a place where public transit shuts down at 8pm), on a night when the two doctors I know were both out of town, and when all of the roads in Bahir Dar had been torn up for construction. I got to test my emergency network here in town, rustling up an all-night clinic, a car to come pick her and another volunteer up at the hotel, and another to pick me and a third visitor up at my house to accompany them to the clinic. The good news is that, 4 liters of IV fluid, some heavy-duty antibiotics, and an unpleasant night spent at the clinic later, she's feeling much better. Unofficial diagnosis: shigellosis. Not something I'd like to get. Ever. In some ways, though, it was good to be able to test out what to do in an emergency with something that was serious—real—but not immediately life-threatening.

HOSTEL MANAGEMENT
Bahir Dar has become the hub for other volunteers needing a break from their smaller towns. Of the 12 weekends since we've been at site, there has been at least one visitor in town during 7 of those weekends. Which is lovely. And I'm more than happy to be a host. But it's also exhausting. It does mean that I've gotten to know the town quite well. If you come to visit, I can point you to the quietest place to sit beside the lake, to the cheapest little shop for buying a propane tank, to the streets with the fewest harassing shoe-shine boys (and the ones with the shoe-shine boys who are most likely to be able to fix your broken sandal), or to the 3 places where you can get pizza and the 2 places with ice cream here. You know, the basics. I also have some fantastically comfortable floor space you're more than welcome to.

ZOOKEEPING
There are two new families living on my compound. One is a nest of small red sparrow-like birds living in a hole in my outside wall, directly above the fuse box (I discovered this family after the mini-electrocution). I've only seen mom, but can hear a bunch of babies chirping in there. The other is a momma-cat, who had been hanging around my yard for some time, and her three incredibly cute four- or five-week-old kittens. They're white, orange, and gray, very shy, and incredibly cute. She must have had them in a little den in the huge rock pile out in my backyard. I spent approximately 5 hours this week stalking them—luring them out of hiding and then cooing uncontrollably. Got a good sunburn out of the endeavor, too.

COFFEE FARMING
There's a bunna (coffee) bush on my compound, and I finally got around to peeling the beans I had picked several weeks ago. A coffee bush (tree?) is about 6 feet tall, scraggly, and bears bright red coffee berries the size of small grapes and tough-skinned. You should apparently pick them and dry them in the sun (though the 5 or 6 weeks I left them to dry might have been slightly excessive. Ah, laziness…). You then peel off the berry skin (not easy—there must be some trick I'm unaware of), and inside each one are two green coffee beans. Roast 'em, grind 'em, brew 'em, and you have coffee. A lot of work. I'll never under-appreciate a latte again.