“it will be an adventure…”

In early March I went on a work field trip to the Amhara region with some colleagues. Our task was to interview Health Extension Workers and women in remote communities about a long term family planning project my organisation has been implementing over the past year. In the week leading up to the trip one of my colleagues, Dawit, would say (daily, and sometimes hourly) ‘It will be an adventure”.

And boy was he right!

The Amhara region of Ethiopia is highlighted red.

It all began at 6am on the day we set off. We started early because we had a 545km road trip ahead of us. No-one talks in hours here, it’s all about km’s because you never know what the road will be like. 100km could take 1hr or it could take 10. Despite our best intentions to start early (I am not a morning person), the car didn’t even make it to pick us up. At 6am there was a call from my workmate who was in the car, “Ahhh Emy, the car is stuck!”

Turns out the car was at the end of our street, stuck in a ditch!

So there we were (with a very grumpy driver) waiting for a tow truck to arrive and drag the car out of the ditch. But after an hour of waiting, a few local guys decided to take things into their own hands and try and lift the car (yes, a massive 4WD) out of the ditch. With their hands! I thought this was funny….and ridiculous. But they did it. Habesha power!

So we had progress, the car was out of the ditch, the driver was smiling again and off we drove. There was however some clunky noises coming from the back of the car. We asked the driver if this was ok and he flippantly gave the old “chigar yelem” aka “no worries”. We weren’t happy with this response (and the lack of seat belts), especially with such a long drive ahead so we asked for another car.

We parted ways with damaged car #1 and we were told car #2 was on its way. At 10:30am (a much more respectable time) car #2 arrived. With a very happy and smiling driver.

It was only 2 hours into the trip that car #2 starting overheating. We pulled off the road, the driver opened the bonnet and was immediately engulfed with clouds of steam from the engine. “Chigar yelem”, driver #2 says! Hmmm, we know what that means…

Car troubles? “Chigar Yelem”!

Whilst the driver sorted things out under the car bonnet, a few kids appeared. It doesn’t seem to matter where you go in Ethiopia, it can appear to be a remote place but if you stop for a few minutes, people will inevitably appear from what seems like nowhere. It could be kids herding their cattle, kids on their way home from school with their books in hand, women and girls walking with loads of wood on their heads, jerry cans of water on their back and babies strapped to their sides, or even donkeys loaded with so much hay it looks like the hay is moving along the road with 4 mysterious legs.

These particular kids were on their way home from school. They were so shy to begin with. Shy but curious. They kept their distance so we tried to reel them in with some basic conversation. Eventually they were smiling and showing us their school books. Our driver needed more water and asked one of the boys in the group if they could find some for us. The boy sprinted off and returned 15mins later with a jerry can full of water. Champ.

Whilst it’s easy to get frustrated in these situations, I think they are the moments that actually make the journey special. Unexpected events, unexpected experiences. Completely random. Genuine. And this trip had a lot of these moments and they are the moments that I talk about with a glow when someone asks about the trip.

We got lost (for the 10th time!) and came across these kids who literally stopped in their tracks on their way home from school upon seeing us…

Slowly they came closer.
Hands on heads seems to be a common stance!

They couldn’t stop giggling. And neither could I!

Our colleagues said the kids hadn’t seen farenji’s (white people) before, and that they weren’t sure what to think of us…but they were definitely intrigued with the camera!

…and in no time they were posing for us!

Naturals!

Back to the journey. Car #2 continued to overheat every hour and every hour we had to stop by the side of road to add water. By 6pm the driver decided the car couldn’t go any further. So there we were, half way to our destination and without a car. But our quick thinking colleague organised a minivan to take us to the next main town where we could arrange to meet up with car #3.

10 minutes into the drive with car #3 and guess what. The driver gets out and has a big vomit on the side of the road. We’re a bit concerned about him and the 5 hour drive ahead. But what’s his response to our concerns, “chigar yellem”! Naturally.

Hmmm…is this road trip cursed?

Despite 2 car breakdowns and a spewy driver, we finally made it to our destination of Bahir Dar a day later than expected. Bahir Dar is a cruisey little town on the banks of Lake Tana (Ethiopia’s biggest lake and the source of the Blue Nile). We used Bahir Dar as a base for the next few days whilst we conducted interviews at Health Posts in the surrounding areas.

Our visit to these Health Posts was a special opportunity to get out to remote places (sometimes 5 or more hours along dirt roads). “African massage” was a term thrown around a lot on these trips. We got lost quite often (even with 2 local guides in the car with us!) and we only made it to 3 of the 6 Health Posts we were meant to visit. But I was repeatedly told 50% is a great result.

Despite this (great) result, the trip was unlike any trip I have been on. It was an unforgettable experience. An experience I feel grateful to have had. I can’t find the words to give this experience justice so instead of words (or jokes) I’ll leave you with pictures of the colourful people we met and the interesting things we saw along the way. Enjoy.

 

These are the Health Extension Workers who are implementing long acting family planning solutions into their communities:

Props! Yes, we’re immature:

 

These were the strong and determined women we met who have chosen to take on the long acting family planning options offered by their local Health Extension Worker:

 

They even Ride to Work out here! On the African massage roads:

The film crew in action:

 

And me overly happy to be off the dusty roads and on a pavement!

Our car broke down again (surprise, surprise) and whilst it was being fixed we had a couple of hours hanging out on the side of the road of this town. The guy in the yellow and green Ethiopian football top was very keen to have his photo taken. He then dragged everyone around him in to also have their photo taken!

This kid was trying so hard not to smile. Didn’t want to jeopardise his tough guy look!

But then his friends came along and he cracked:

Caught this guy just sneakily taking photos from across the street. Without permission. Cheeky!

And after 5 days on African massage roads, covered in dust and well and truly worn out, I succumbed to one of life’s indulgences…brunch with a manicure and pedicure. Don’t hate me:

[Bolg]

good things come in…

…is it pairs, or 3’s or small packages?

Well I feel like good things in Ethiopia have been happening in pairs. For starters, life here works around 2 calendars. The Gregorian calendar and the Ethiopian calendar. So on September 11 we celebrated Ethiopian New Year. Because according to the Ethiopian calendar, September 11 is New Years Day. And on January 1 we celebrated the New Year again (Gregorian style!)

New Years #1 – Sept 11 – it’s all about ‘segar’ (meat)…

New Years #2 ceremony at work – Dec 31 – it’s more about cake this time!

And the fun didn’t stop at New Years, on December 25 we celebrated Christmas and on January 7th we celebrated Christmas again. (Orthodox style!)

Genius – A Christmas tree made from used beer bottles – Sept 7

So given my birthday is coming up soon (on the Gregorian calendar), that means I’ll get a second birthday right…one Gregorian style and one Ethiopian style. Yes, that’s definitely correct.

But one experience that made me question this theory of good things coming in pairs (or 3’s) was my double dose of malaria and typhoid. After feeling rubbish for a couple of weeks I decided to get a blood test. Which was lucky because the Doctor discovered I had malaria (the falciparum kind) and as if that wasn’t enough, he also discovered I had typhoid. What a blow that was. A double blow. But luckily we caught it early and the drugs kicked in and cleared things up pretty quickly.

The amazing drugs that cured me of malaria in 3 days…

When I went back to the Doctor to get another blood test to make sure I was rid of these two nasty bugs from my system, I was happy to hear that good news came in pairs again – and the malaria and typhoid were indeed long gone. But what came next was a bit of a surprise:

Doctor: “The malaria and typhoid have gone but you still have typhus Emy”!
Me: “What? Ahh, you didn’t mention the typhus last time….”,
Doctor: “Oh yes, look at your last blood test results, see here (pointing at the results), you can see the previous blood test results clearly show you have typhus!”
Me: “Ummm, yes, but you didn’t tell me this piece of information last time, you only mentioned the double whammy of malaria and typhoid”.
Doctor: “Oh ok then, sorry about that, well just take these drugs and you’ll be fine in 2 days”!

So I think I’m sticking with the ‘good things come in pairs’ saying. Not so much good news comes in 3’s!

Another example to back this pair theory up is that not only are there 2 calendars in use here, there’s also two time systems. For example, 10am (European time) is also known as 4 o’clock (Ethiopian time). So 4 o’clock can sometimes roll around twice in a day, depending on what time system you are using. Just don’t confuse the two and turn up for a ‘4 o’clock’ meeting twice in one day because you get confused by which calendar everyone else is using (definitely not speaking from experience here). But this is great news for ‘happy hours’!

Twice a week here, we have fasting days (Wednesday’s and Friday’s to be precise). Meaning people don’t eat meat on those two days of the week, making my life as a pescatarian super easy – twice a week…!

Fasting days mean guys like this are spared…

…for a while anyway.

These guys seem to have gone a bit overboard on the pairing thing!

‘Suupparmaarkeettii’ – Just rolls off the tongue…
(click on image to enlarge)

And in the interest of the pairs theme, I’ll leave you with this classic:

Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants?
~ In case he got a hole in one.

[bolg]

just another day in paradise…i mean…Addis!

I’m often asked what’s a normal day in Addis like? And to be honest, it feels like an oxymoron to put the word ‘normal’ and the word ‘Addis’ in the same sentence. Some ‘normal’ everyday things you can expect are the ladies out on the street selling corn everyday from 3pm without fail, blue and white minivan taxis ferrying passengers around the city with the conductor/assistant/spruiker hanging half out the window yelling the taxi’s destination to any passerby who might want to climb on board…because there’s always room for more people to squeeze in! A ‘normal’ day will almost always involve at least 5 kids running up to you and pointing and yelling ‘ferenji’ (white person), and asking for a high 5, and unfortunately sometimes money. 

But without fail every day will include some random event. Take today for example, it started when I woke up to these 3 friendly donkeys in my yard:

Soon after this moment, when I was on the way to grab some lunch at a nearby cafe, one of the shoe shining boys on my corner who I have a little laugh with each morning about the state of my muddy boots, declared he loved me! For many ferenji girls this isn’t such a rare occurrence, quite often men will yell out ‘hello’, ‘are you fine’, ‘will you marry me’ (always in that order and obviously the natural progression for a conversation and courtship around these parts)! Flattering at first. Just plain annoying after the 5th time. One guy recently professed his love for me (after 5mins of talking with me on the street) and then backed it up with, ‘…actually I just want to marry a foreign girl’…yep, he was a real charmer!

Moving on from the morning confessions of love, in the afternoon a couple of friends mentioned they were off to see an art exhibit in one of the city gardens. So off we set in search of these gardens. Walking into the gates of the garden reminded me of Ceres, a community garden space in Melbourne. There were bizarre sculptures scattered throughout the gardens and the hippest looking Ethiopian’s I’ve spotted yet.

  

And then out of nowhere this dude appeared from the gardens playing a didgeridoo! Which was quite a surprise for this Aussie. I only knew about the eucalyptus trees and horses that Ethiopia inherited from Australia. 

So who knows what the evening will bring but everyday there’s a new and random scene to witness, and sometimes, it’s every few hours. I must admit, this randomness is part of what I like most about being in this city and country. 

So here’s a few more random moments that I’ve encountered and some of which I’ve managed to get a snapshot of:

Every morning I will pass by a guy walking the neighbourhood streets selling brooms and mops. And everyday I will inevitably be asked if I would like to buy one. He will be baffled by my decline to buy a new broom or mop each day, but clearly there is a demand for this, given there is a home delivery service catering to the market.

(Note the quirky tax dept advertising in the background).

Oh and I have an awesome broom joke to compliment this story, but you’ll have to read on to find out what it is…

Then there was the weirdest and funniest yoga class of my life. I was waiting in the yoga studio for the teacher to arrive, alone. It was already 10 minutes after the class was due to start and I was feeling a bit concerned why there was no one else attending this class. Then when the instructor walked, or should I say, swaggered in the room I knew why I was the only person there. He was wearing short basketball shorts, no top and a black silky robe! Hmmm, this was going to be interesting. Then 2 Ethiopian middle aged guys arrived and went and sat (on the same mat) at the back of the room. This was weird. Very weird. The room was about 50m long, with myself and the ‘guru’ up the front and these two guys just sitting on a mat at the back. The slick yoga guru carried on with the class and would repeatingly demand us to ‘breaaaaathe in, breath out’. This was pretty much all he said, and he would say it so quickly I barely had enough time to breathe in before I was supposed to breathe out. He would have us (well, me) do a relatively easy pose and then all of a sudden transition into a really advanced move! This was not my kinda easy going yoga. But entertaining all the same. I stuck it out but haven’t returned since. Although I kinda wanna go back just to get a photo of him for this post…

Then theres the book guy near my house that I previously mentioned I couldn’t even crack a smile from. Well, there has been progress with this situation. Rapid progress! I broke the ice by stopping and chatting with him one day about his books (thanks for the advice Melissa). There were a lot of maths and science books and my knowledge in this area is somewhat (ok, alot) limited and I knew I couldn’t really hold a conversation on these topics! But luckily he mentioned he could get an Amharic language book for me if I liked. The next day he had it waiting for me! And now we’re like besties. We share big waves and the long winded greetings each morning and night on my way to and from work. But things took a little turn last week when he said he will escort me to work and teach me Amharic on the way…what is it with men offering to escort me places??

And finally, here’s a selection of shots from other random moments:

Dodgy plugs at work!!!

To diet or not to diet…

Fake palm trees line the streets of one of Addis’ ‘glitzy’ suburbs…

The 1st and only street sign I have spotted in the capital…

A harsh old tale – click on it to enlarge and read/learn!

The Big Boss’ office – intimidating much?

I’m not the only one who has trouble in the mud!

MH370…?

Beware of Tortoises crossing the road…!

Friends with tortoises in their backyard!

I also recommend these 2 gems from the Internet:

A man dinking/doubling/giving a lift to a goat whilst riding his bike – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX41Vzfda1Y 

Crazy Addis driving, which somehow works – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD7Q8UxDY5g

 

And finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for – the broom joke:

why was the broom late?
~ because it over swept!

Until next post,

[bolg]

walk like an ethiopian…

I like my walk to and from work. Leaving the gates of my little sanctuary in the morning, I never quite know what to expect once I step out onto the streets of Addis. But what I do know is that I will encounter friendly characters and familiar scenes as I make my way to and from work.

There will be kids vying for my attention with calls of ‘hi, hi, hi, hi’ until they get a reply. Women in high heels or flimsy jelly sandals will be elegantly making their way through the muddy streets without leaving a trace of mud on their shoes, whilst my boots will be covered with mud and my pants will have mud flicked all the way up the back of them. There’ll be donkey’s chewing on any patch grass they find by the side of the road. The guys at the car wash will be busy washing cars (inside and out)! The shoe shining boys will have a good laugh at my muddy boots and without fail, women will be out steaming and bbq’ing corn on the side of the road as I walk home. 

I’m still yet to master the art of walking in mud…think I’ve gotta try it in high heels! And this was a camera shy donkey that kept turning his head away from me.

By far the most favourite thing about my walk to work is the familiar faces along the way. First up on my morning walk is the guy who is always out the front of the office at the end of my lane. He’s a big, serious, tough looking guy, and definitely not the most approachable looking person. Given this observation and not wanting to cause any trouble, the first few days that I passed him on my way to work, I just walked on by and avoided any eye contact. But then it just got weird every time I walked past him, to not even acknowledge him. So I thought surely he’s not as scary as he seems and after a few days I decided to shoot a little head nod his way. He returned the same. Phew. Next day, I up’ed the anti and included a smile and a bit of a dorky wave. Again, he returned the same (but a less dorky wave)! And by the next day we were at the friendly “hello, how are you, I’m fine (thanks be to god!)” greetings stage. #win. 

Since this win I’ve been slowly developing similar relationships with other people I pass by on my morning walk. My biggest breakthroughs have been with security guards. They are usually older men who have quite a stern look and can be quite intimidating, especially when there’s usually 2 or more of them. But I’ve found that as soon as I shoot a smile their way, they shoot a big lovely smile back and don’t seem anywhere near as threatening as I first thought. There’s 2 guards I pass by each day who are the sweetest old men. They had new uniforms last week and were very eager to show them off.

But by one of my favourites exchanges each day is with one security guard who goes out of his way to greet me when he sees me coming. He gets up off his chair and walks up to the road that I am walking on to shake my hand and go through all the formalities of Ethiopian greetings with me. His smile is by far the biggest of all the guards I meet along the way to work. But just recently he’s decided we need to step this relationship up to kissing greetings…smooth!

Speaking of friendly, I must say I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of most people here. Addis is a bit of a city under construction at the moment and it’s not uncommon for a new road to appear, a road to disappear or the road I walked down yesterday to be completely dug up the next day. Last week I must have looked pretty confused as to how I would cross the railway they are currently constructing because there was now a massive pile of dirt and machinery cutting off my usual route. But about 20 construction workers on the other side of the railway saw the confusion on my face and waved me towards the new path that I never would have thought was a path. There have also been complete strangers loan me a helping hand when I’m slip sliding in the mud and about to fall flat my bum.

 
The path across the railway construction site changes daily…

So whilst I seem to be getting to know the security guards and construction workers on my route to work, I’m not having the same luck with an old man who runs a little bookshop on the side of the road not too far from my house. I can’t even crack a slight head nod or little smile from him. Every morning I try but I get nothing! Nudda. Zilch. He’s proving a tough one to crack. He mainly sells student text books (all of which are in Amharic and mostly about mathematics) so I’m not overly confident I will be able breakthrough to him on the content of his books…but maybe I can win him over with these:

what did the zero say to the eight
~ nice belt
or
Why was the number 10 scared?
~ because 7 ate 9

Surely that kind of humour will win him over and skip us straight to the kissing greetings!

 

[bolg]

 

kes be kes [little by little] the egg will walk…

This little Ethiopian proverb has been thrown at me a few times since moving to Addis. The first time I heard it, was the first day of moving into my house. I thought for sure I could get my gas bottle and bathroom taps fixed in a day. And again at work, when I was trying to get my head around who does what and how, and what their names are (and what those names mean) I was also told, “Kes be kes Emmy”!

There’s been a variety of wise folk who part such wisdom on me with this phrase, and boy do they know what they’re talking about. If I find myself getting frustrated with something like how to top up my internet and mobile credit, or how to purchase a 20 litre water bottle and then cart it home, I just think about that little egg, slowing cracking (for a chick to come out, not crack in the literal sense) and learning to walk.

Or if I’m going through the usually painless process of booking a flight, which wasn’t at all the case last week with my attempt to get to the beautiful Tigray region in Northern Ethiopia. Seriously, I had to channel that little egg quite a few times in my ordeal with Ethiopian Airlines.

In a nutshell (or should I say eggshell), over the course of 3 days this was my conversation with the airline staff:

Day 1 – “Sure, your flight is confirmed”
Day 1 – “Wait – hold on – where’s your residents permit?”
“It’s not processed yet” (‘kes be kes’ remember) 
Day 1 – “Ok, I can’t confirm your ticket then”
Day 2 – “Hi Emmy, your ticket is now confirmed”
Later on Day 2 – “Sorry, Emmy, your flight is now full and your ticket is not confirmed, please call us in a couple of hours to see if there has been a cancellation”
A few hours later – I call (6 times) and the line is busy each time. I then get through to someone and my credit runs out! (refer to earlier frustrations with internet and mobile credit top up process…)
Day 3 (10am) – “Hi Emmy, your flight today at 3pm is confirmed!”

  
Gheralta – Tigray – Norther Ethiopia. Completely worth the Airline ordeal!

The ‘kes be kes’ phrase couldn’t have been more perfect for me last week. What with setting up the house with all the usuals, like a bed!

It’s not quite complete, but it’s getting there! (This may or may not be a photo of Emperor Haile Selassie bedroom…)

But the fridge is looking good. (Nari – you and your farewell ‘home-sweet-home’ decorating gift pack has successfully taken over the fridge!)

So as I slowly get sorted with life in Addis, the ‘kes be kes’ phrase has begun to grow on me, and I’m beginning to see this might well be my mantra for Ethiopia. Hell, I’ve even caught myself quoting it to others.

But the examples I give above are hardly big issues when I compare them to what this country is setting out to achieve. From what I’ve learnt so far, Ethiopia has big plans to lift its population out of poverty and develop into a sustainable economy. Check it out:

The vision: Achieve middle-income status by 2025 in a climate-resilient green economy.
The challenge: Realise economic development goals in a sustainable way
The plan: Follow a green growth path that fosters development and sustainability

Ha! Can you believe it? A government that sees it is experiencing the effects of climate change, and I quote “recognises climate change presents the necessity and opportunity to switch to a new, sustainable development model”.

As such, Ethiopia has initiated the Climate-Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) initiative to protect the country from the adverse effects of climate change and to build a green economy that will help realise its ambition of reaching middle income status before 2025.

Bam!

According to World Bank reports, Ethiopia has achieved much with regards to its development goals. “Over the past two decades, there has been significant progress in key human development indicators: primary school enrolments have quadrupled, child mortality has been cut in half, and the number of people with access to clean water has more than doubled. These gains, together with more recent moves to strengthen the fight against malaria and HIV/AIDS, paint a picture of improved well-being in Ethiopia”. Sure, it’s ‘kes be kes’ progress but I think it’s important to acknowledge these successes, especially when we hear so little of Africa’s good stories.

Other plans from the current five-year development plan include key goals focused on the construction of 2,395km of railway line. And going by the workers who are building the railway in Addis, it’s clear to see they also need to take the ‘kes be kes’ approach, especially with heavy rains interrupting their progress each day, not to mention power and water cuts. Regardless of these interruptions, everyone just gets on with it. And still, they smile!

Workers hard at it laying the railway tracks – by hand!

As I slowly settle into my role at EMA – the Ethiopian Midwives Association, (kes be kes), I’m learning more and more about the role midwives play in reducing the maternal and infant mortality rates. I’m overwhelmed by the progress that is being made in this area, as well as being overwhelmed by what still needs to be achieved.

Also part of the Government’s five-year plan is to reduce the maternal mortality rate by more than half from 590 per 100,000 to 267 per 100,000. Maternal mortality rates gets bandied about as a description quite often so to make it more ‘real’, what we’re looking at currently in Ethiopia, is that out of 1000 births, 590 women die during pregnancy and childbirth. Which translates into 24,000 women dying each each year. In Australia it’s 6 per 100,000, 13 women. 

The solution to addressing this issue is the same all over the world – ‘implementing quality midwifery services could prevent 2/3rds of women’s deaths’.

EMA, the organisation I’m working with, has a big part to play in that solution. They work closely with the Ethiopian Government who has set a target of training 8635 midwives by 2015. In 2008, there were only 1275 midwives in Ethiopia. As of 2012 there were 4725 formally trained midwives. And with over 7000 midwifery students currently completing their qualifications, the goal is looking atainable. Kes be kes.

EMA staff just back from our tea/coffee break at what they call the ‘Sheraton’ – a little tarpaulin shack around the corner…I like my colleagues sense of humour!

Speaking of humour, and chickens, it must be that point of the blog post to share a somewhat relevant joke. I do have an awesome chicken joke about a cow and a chicken, in a bar…but unfortunately it just won’t work in the written form…so here’s another one:

 

What do you call a chicken with a piece of lettuce in its eye?
~ A Chicken sees-a-salad

 

And in case you’re wondering, the gas bottle and bathroom taps are still yet to crack the eggshell and walk!  Kes be kes…

 

[Bolg]