Testing 1, 2, 3

Hello all,

I apologize for the long interval between posts. It appears that blogspot has been blocked by the Ethiopian government for some weeks, so I'm trying a secret route posting via email. If this doesn't work well, I'll try to set up a livejournal or something else.

 

Things are going really well here. I've been in a small town about 100km away from Addis for the past couple of weeks, starting my training. We'll be here for the next 8 weeks, living with host families and learning the language and technical information about Ethiopia, HIV, and culture. It's been exhausting so far ( 5.5 days a weeks, 8am - 5pm), but instructive. And the other PCVs are phenomenal.

 

My host family is great. It's an older woman, widowed, who is mother to 8 children and a couple of nieces/nephews. There are currently 4 living at home, but others are in and out. We communicate in a patois of English, Amharic (which I am working hard to pick up, but which is decidedly difficult), and charades. The other PCVs and I joke that we could win the world championships at charades! We have 24 hour a day electricity and an outdoor tap, but no indoor plumbing. We watch alot of ETV, the national TV channel, and Uno and frisbee have both met with huge sucess.

 

We get a lot of attention on the street. Most of it is positive--the kids follow us around a lot. Most just wave or repeat again and again "what is your name?" or "how are you?" Some shout "you! you! you!" or "money!" We are definitely a curiousity. My host family is also perplexed by some things I do, but we're learning to get along and to communicate.

 

The big news of the day is that we were divided up by region today. I found out that I'll be moving to Amhara region after we swear in on October 15. That means that I'll continue learning Amharic language, rather than switching to Orominya. I feel good about it, and am looking forward to finding out in a month or so specifically where I'll be.

 

I received some mail yesterday at mail call. We LIVE for mail, and everyone was very jealous of my letters (and *package*, thanks to Reed!), and it made me super happy. So thanks to all who wrote. It looks like padded envelopes and packages take about  2 weeks, while letters take about 10 days or so. Not bad.

 

That's enough for now. Hope that you're all well. I miss you all and am thinking about you lots. Denaderu (goodnight)!

Here we go!!

Check it out--we made CNN.com! http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/10/04/ethiopia.peacecorps.ap/

Staging in DC culminated tonight with a special event at the Ethiopian Embassy; the Ambassador, the Deputy Director of Peace Corps, and several other important folks came to wish us well. We all cleaned up in our best togs and enjoyed some excellent Ethiopian food and some inspiration from them and from returned volunteers. It feels really special to be a part of this first returning group. It's also a big responsibility, and I feel a tremendous sense of duty.

Staging has been a whirlwind. My brain is full! The other 42 trainees, however, are wonderful to a person, and I am incredibly lucky to be spending the next two years with these people.

More soon, from a medium-sized town outside of Addis Ababa, where we're set to train. We fly out tomorrow evening around 8:30 pm. It should be an adventure getting 43 people, each with 80lbs+ of luggage, to the airport!

My life [almost] fits in two bags

78.5 pounds. Plus a damn heavy carry-on. I whittled it down from the initial 105 that I thought I wanted to bring.

I'm still taking too much; I'm sure of it.

Officialities

I now have an official launch date for Peace Corps. I'll be leaving Denver the morning of October 2nd (that's only 10 days away!) for Washington DC, were we'll spend three or so days getting the how-not-to-hurt-yourself-and-or-others talk, turn in mounds of paperwork, and line up for (probably quite a few) shots. We also have an official dinner at the Ethiopian embassy, requiring semi-formal attire, which has limited use for the next two years other than for that one dinner.

Two weeks from today I'll be on a plane with 44 other volunteers, heading to Rome, then Addis Ababa. Yikes.

Meanwhile the packing and preparations continue apace. It seems as though everyone I've ever met wants to reconnect in the next couple of weeks before I take off for the wild blue yonder. I've never socialized this much in my life! It has been nice to get to catch up with folks a little bit, though. I had a fantastic trip to San Francisco earlier this month, and was in Kansas City and Chicago just last weekend, getting to see some family and some dear dear friends. I count myself as being very lucky that I have this many wonderful people in my life who I get to spend some time with before I leave.

School starts back up at the UW this coming week. It's a little odd not to be heading back. Hard also to believe that today is the first official day of Fall. It doesn't feel like it here in Denver, where it's probably 85° today. Probably won't feel much like it in Ethiopia, either, at 8 degrees North latitude.

Mail

Would it be weird to send myself mail? I might mail myself a book or some magazines now so that they'll arrive shortly after I get there.

You can too...hint hint :)

Anna Talman/PCT
US Peace Corps/Ethiopia
PO Box 7788
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Oh, the suspense

I'm feeling overwhelmed by the not-knowing, the suspense of not having all of the details in place about what my life is going to look like for the next two years. I don't have--and can't make--a plan. I suppose that this is good practice for the "staying flexible" that everyone talks about needing as a fundamental skill in the Peace Corps. But to be honest it's driving me a little batty now. Everyone around me is asking questions about what I'll be doing, where I'll be working, what language I'll be speaking, etc etc etc, and the answer of "I really don't know, honestly," is getting a little old.

I realized today just how very long it's been since I started this process. My Peace Corps dental record is a year old (I went to get a cleaning, oh joy of joys, today, and updated it). Looking back at my application, I realized that I started communicating with the Peace Corps in January 2006, nearly 22 months ago. Could the process get any more drawn out?

The goodbye process has also gotten drawn out. It doesn't feel real somehow, to say farewell to someone (even to dear dear friends) a full month before leaving. I wonder when it will all sink in that I'm actually going (and for so long!). Maybe once the bags begin to get packed.

Right, and then there's that. All the packing. Recent highlights from my list of things to acquire/find/organize before I leave:

* a vegetable peeler and a sharp paring knife
* a roll of duct tape and a roll of toilet paper
* shortwave radio
* approximately nine million gallons of sunscreen (three months' worth; how much does one presume that comes to for someone as pale as I am?)
* solar powered battery charger
* small crossword and math puzzle books; travel scrabble

Some trips to Target, REI, and the thrift store are probably in order. Perhaps that will keep me occupied for a little while; it has the semblance, at least, of feeling like I'm making some kind of plan.

Moving is the pits

Much as I'm devastatingly sad to be leaving Seattle, I'll be relieved to be done with the *moving* thing.

I am absolutely appalled at the amount of stuff I've accumulated over the past few years. This afternoon I found posters that I bought the summer before I went to college. Six years ago. Why I've been toting them around since, I'm not sure. Also, do I really need to haul a liter of book glue back to Denver with me? [apparently: I packed it.]

And where does all this dust come from?!

Also realized that I drive a two-door Echo. And that my dad and a bag of his are coming with us on this drive. It's just not all going to fit. I'm trying to think of it as being good practice for winnowing all my stuff down to 80 pounds for the next couple of years. But mostly I just think of it as being a terrible chore.