The infrastructure stars are aligned

So here are a few photos from the summer session:

All five NWS-affiliated visitors were on the ground together for about 24 hours.   

We're having weekly community meetings to share work from our classes. 

I choose to read these expressions as rapt attention.

Me having a Lorax moment upon return to the mountain top.

Pictures courtesy of Andy and his nice camera.

We decided to drag the whole summer session to the top; they loved it!

 Campus infrastructure update:

 The generator has arrived! It came from the Netherlands in a shipping container and reached Addis a couple weeks ago after spending months stuck in customs limbo in Djibouti. No immediate relief, however, for our frequent power cuts, as the installers/electricians aren't coming until September.

Window of opportunity

Well, yesterday turns out to have been quite a gift – and an anomaly: it was mostly dry, which kept the tracked-in mud to a minimum and allowed the students to play outside a bit after lunch; we had power all day, which was great for the computer lessons we had planned (PowerPoint sharing and an Excel intro); and, for the first time in two weeks, the internet (which came on in the afternoon) lasted into the evening and was available in our living quarters. Wow! Of course, after catching up on some email, photo processing, and school prep work, I saved blog posting until this morning… and now the power is off again –and it’s raining. Oh well. In our group here, we’ve adopted and modified a popular phrase from the African aid community: T.I.A., “This is Africa,” has become T.I.E., “This is Ethiopia.” We use it uncritically (like “c’est la vie” or “ni modo”) as a reminder to just accept and roll with what we get on any given day. We still have all the important stuff – food, shelter, community – and, like so many Ethiopians have said to me so often, each day of life with these basic needs met is gift. I feel the truth of that more viscerally here than I ever have before. 

Posted during the lunch break. More posts and pictures coming... assuming the stars are still aligned after the teaching day.

The Joys of Living with Unpredictability!

The theme of service delivery over the last few weeks (and months) can be summed up in a word: unpredictable. For some reason, the local infrastructure has been particularly challenged in recent days.

An example: on Friday afternoon, at the end of a long week of teaching, a colleague and I sat down at the two office computers to wrap up some work before enjoying an evening out. Just as the computers were booting up… ZAP! The power went out. It came on 90 minutes later, but that’s how it’s been going here; we never know what will work and what won’t, nor how long something will keep working. It makes cooking an adventure (the pasta water may or may not get to a boil, and that egg just might get fully fried, or it might not…), and the daily suspense involved with taking a shower is exciting (will there be hot water or water pressure this morning?). Besides being unpredictable, there never seems to be an explanation for any particular service outage - except for the routine blaming of any such problem on inferior components from China (see next post for more on this phenomenon).

It’s been a good exercise in taking nothing for granted, in being flexible, and in appreciating the simple luxuries and conveniences when they are available. The power goes out 2 or 3 times most days, which mean no hot water, no internet, and low to no water pressure. Sometimes the power stays off for a short time (45 minutes or so), and other times it’s gone for half a day or more. This makes prepping for class hard, since no power means no printing or photocopying teaching materials and no getting the students into the Computer Lab (which we try to do for a period each day – and we’ve had good luck in that goal). At worst, it has also meant not being able to flush toilets or wash hands before lunch – which is a challenge since we eat with our daily lunch our hands!

Independent of the power, the campus internet service also disappears a few times each week (at its worst, we were more than 10 days without service). In addition, the ethio tel cellular network (nicknamed the “not-work”) is very spotty in our area. We often can’t make or receive calls, and text messages can arrive anywhere between 20 minutes and 6 hours after they were sent. Again, unpredictability! 

What’s been inspiring in the face of all this inconvenience is how many people manage to stay laid-back and not get worked up by the service interruptions.Our students are especially resilient and perpetually cheerful. For myself, I feel like I’m doing well at appreciating the days and times that the services all work – and not worrying too much when they don’t. It helps, of course, to know that just outside the college gates people are living in much more challenging conditions, for example with no plumbing and no appliances to use even if the power is on.

Monday morning update:

power? YES

Internet? NO

hot water? YES

water pressure? NO

Monday evening update: all systems off (am posting this, more than 36 hours after writing it, from an Internet cafe with a generator)

Summer session in full swing!

Joel and me with the prep program students.

These past two weeks (the first of six in the summer session) have been a wonderful - and exhausting - whirlwind! The best parts have been: one, seeing the students every weekday for six full hours of classes and activities and, two, having a growing team helping out with the program. It was particularly fun to get to teach alongside Joel, a former student of mine. He brought great energy, creativity, and enthusiasm - and he also did a much better job than I did at persevering with his blog postings despite our busy schedule and the many power outages. Here's a link to his blog, JTrek.

Sprucing up the campus.

With the longer class days, we added daily
cleaning assignments (modeled on the Northwest School's

Dawit running the Computer Lab session.

Environment Program), and we also started pitching in with campus landscaping (in addition to helping alphabetize the HUC Library's donated fiction collection (much of which is sitting in the basement un-shelved and even still in boxes). 




Other highlights from these first two weeks of the summer included hearing from two American medical students who are spending the summer working in Addis, introducing the students here to the idea of Ultimate Frisbee as a sport (they caught on fast and are enthusiastic to start playing!), and celebrating Joel's birthday with a large group of ILAE friends - both American and Ethiopian.

By the time we said goodbye to Joel this weekend, we'd welcomed three more arrivals from Seattle, including Ellen (ILAE's Executive Director) and two more teachers from the Northwest School. Ellen will be focused on planning for the school's opening in September, and the two teachers will welcome additional students on Monday.

Finally hiking to the church on the hill...

      

Our group.

...and beyond! After looking up at that church and hill for more than two months, I finally made the trek. It's a steep climb, but not too far. I had been warned a lot, however, not to go alone due to the risks of getting lost, running into the hyenas that live up there, and getting mugged. Fortunately, Joel (the NWS alum here to help out) was up for going and a friendly taxi driver offered to guide us. It wasn't a terrifically clear day (will have to go again!), but it was warm and dry enough - even at 6:30 a.m. when we headed out - and the contrasting views of the sprawling city on one side and rural villages on the other were impressive enough to be worth both the climb and the early start on a weekend.

Heading up from Lebu.

The city below.

Rural villages on the other side.

Home (Hope University College) and the condos from the hill.

Spring prep program wraps up

ILAE News

After a nearly two-week break, campus internet access has been restored (yea!). Just in time too because full-time summer class days begin on Monday, July 1st. Our teacher crew (pictured to the right as we decompress after a long day's work today) has been bolstered by the arrival yesterday of a NWS alum who will help out for two weeks. We are eager to welcome back the ILAE prep program students. They successfully completed the spring phase of the program and are now enjoying a well-earned break, during which they took and corrected a set of national exams. (These take place at least at the end of both grades 8 and 10.)

Some highlights from the spring (besides the scintillating reading selections and grammar lessons!) included regular learning sessions in the computer lab, a soccer scrimmage with a local youth team, and some interesting guest speakers (including the  woman pictured here who spoke on Ethiopia's environmental challenges).

For the summer session, we are looking forward to expanding the range and depth of our classes. We will, for example, use some theater games to promote confidence and spontaneous speaking. We introduced this approach at the end of the spring session - with some boisterous and hilarious results. One skit group drew "at a medical clinic" as their prompt, and a dubious doctor was soon checking a forehead with his pantomimed stethoscope and prescribing an unconventional treatment. We will also investigate environmental issues (global and Ethiopian) in more depth using curriculum from Seattle-based Facing the Future. Also, after reading a variety of African short stories, the students will be tackling their first novels.

A quiet milestone

Reggae at the Alliance earlier in the month.

Last Friday marked the halfway point in my "deployment" here. It was my first "free" weekend since Easter and the mid-point of a few days off between session. I continued to take full advantage of the offerings at the European cultural centers and actually went to the Alliance éthio-francaise three times that week. Monday for the closing night of the European Film Festival ("A Royal Affair"), Thursday for the screening of a Sengalese film (Ousmane Sembène's "La Noire de..." - followed by a free buffet dinner!), and Friday for a concert of English-language rock covers (Dire Straits, Beatles, Counting Crows).

Even though the rainy season is beginning here, it's still warm for part of each day (usually the morning). Missing my frequent summer dips in Seattle's Lake Washington and Greenlake, I twice tried to get a swim in during my days off. The first attempt, a trip to the pool at the fancy Sheraton Hotel, was foiled by hard afternoon rain. The second was part of the impetus for a road trip to an area of lakes about 50 kilometers southeast of Addis (Debra Zeit, see the map in the May 7th post).

Relaxing on a lake-front hotel's deck.

Here, despite getting quite close to the water on a warm day, I was undone by a combination of factors (all compounded by having forgotten my suit at home!): crowds, access restrictions, cost, and the comfort levels of my chaperones with what they saw as a wild and risky impulse on my part. In any event, it was restorative to get out of the city - and to breathe some fresh air! The benefits of the excursion almost withstood the traffic and pollution that greeted us as we returned to Addis.

Table-side "fishing" in Debre Zeit

A few photos from June

Though still not a regular coffee drinker, I have embraced the serving of coffee as one of the ways that Ethiopians offer friendship and hospitality. When invited to people's homes (which is happening to me far more often here than I have experienced anywhere else - and far more often that I imagine visitors to Seattle experience), the sharing of coffee involved a "coffee ceremony" (as pictured here). The beans are roasted and brewed over charcoal, and then the coffee is served in three tastings - and with a popcorn accompaniment. Here, a friend prepares coffee for our group after running the Coca Cola 7k.

I get interviewed after the run - likely not aired due to the big soccer win.

The guys try to get a clear picture of the soccer game.

Some sightseeing... 

At the Institute for Ethiopian Studies for a special AU exhibit.

The church at Emperor Menelik's home in the hills north of the city.

The painted gate of Menelik's church.

The facade of a stone church carved into a ledge.

stay tuned...

Technical difficulties continue to impede active posting. For now, check out this interesting story on how an increase in construction projects is driving change in Ethiopia. It ran on CNN's "Marketplace Africa" over the past weekend.