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Published: March 8th 2009
I am writing this on a friend's computer. A fellow volunteer, Jordan from Franklin, TN, traded his computer and hard drive for my PSP for the week. It was really nice being able to watch movies and TV. So what did I do this week? I found a really great NGO that I am going to start volunteering at. It is actually called the Forum of HIV/AIDS NGOs. They are working on a project to compile all of their members' mission statement, goals, projects, and contact information into a website. This actually works out great because they have gathered a lot of the information that I need but haven't done anything with it. I figure I will volunteer at this place for as long as our interests align. Also, this past week there was the National HAPCO meeting. HAPCO is the HIV Aids Prevention and Control Office. All the regional HAPCOs were there discussing what programs they are implementing, challenges they are facing, and best practices. I only went one day. Oh, I should tell you how Ethiopia is divided up. It is similar to the US, but just imagine they had groups of states as well. Ethiopia>Region>Zone>Woredas>Kebeles. So I am in the SNNPR Region, Sidama Zone, and the woredas and kebeles are just numbers. A large town could have up to 200 kebeles. I believe they try to do 5000 people to a kebele. But anyway at the HAPCO meeting I did learn some pretty crazy facts during the SNNPR presentation. They said that in one drive they had 4000 people tested and 490 came back HIV Positive. That is just over 12%. The latest statistics on SNNPR are I think 7.3% in urban areas and 1.1% in rural areas. It averages out to like 1.6%, which is one of the better regions in Ethiopia. It may just be that this is a completely new topic for me, but I am starting to think the real statistics are much, much higher. There are really scary stories about Doctors not knowing how condoms should be used. I have also noticed in the few trainings I have done is that Ethiopians are obsessed about hypothetical situations. If a farmer has AIDS and he sells his cow to a butcher with a cut on his finger and he cuts my meat and gives it to me, will I get AIDS? At one training we did for an Anti-Aids Club at a local High School we did 90 minutes of these similar situations. All we could do is keep repeating that the number 1 transmission means for people in Ethiopia is through Male to Female sexual intercourse. Oh well, shake it off. I guess that is why I am here. I just found out the other day that anyone who has a blog must report it to Peace Corps. Whoops. I don't think I will get in trouble for it, I like to think this is fairly unbiased. Ok, so a lot of us volunteers have been thinking about what we want to do for vacations. We get $24 dollars and 2 vacation days every month we are here. We can also borrow up to 6 vacation days because we are not allowed to travel in our last 3 months. So I think I have narrowed it down to three trips; one, Mt. Kilimanjaro, not sure if I am going to climb it or just stare at it, two, Cairo, a lot of us want to go there as a group, three, scuba dive in the Red Sea. A few kids are going to the World Cup but I was disheartened to find out that tickets to South Africa are like $600 and tickets to the games are at minimum $80. I could probably find Peace Corps people to stay with In South Africa but it just seems like a money pit. One incredible, amazing money pit. Last night, the weirdest thing happened. I went out to eat at a local hotel (they call restaurants "hotels" here). I had what I always have, Shiro, its a kind of chick-pea paste. Everything was fine and I woke up at 2am, sat up, and broke into cold sweats. I went to the bathroom (bathroom is very loosely used here. It is more of a 5 inch hole in the ground with no door and roaches that could eat your pinkie finger.) and threw up. I went back to my house, brushed my teeth, and went to sleep. I woke up and felt fine. So weird. I weighed myself the two days ago and I weighed 70 kilos, which is right around 155. That means I have lost about twenty pounds since I got here. The PCMO, Peace Corps Medical Officer, was a bit worried so she sent me some protein powder and since I have been taking that my weigh has leveled off. That is why I weighed myself. Oh thats another thing. There are so many places you can weigh yourself on the street. I would say that is probably one of the top two most popular investments here in Ethiopia. The other one being shoe shine boxes. Let's see anything else happen recently... Oh, I made my first batch of fruit wine last Monday. I found a recipe in our cookbooks, so I figured I would give it a try. It was actually really easy or maybe I just messed it up. We will see. I feel kind of lost in this Peace Corps experience. I am just not used to having so much free time. My job for the first 3 months is to complete a Community Needs Assessment. That means I need to speak to every NGO, every church, every school, every community group, and any other stakeholder I see fit. This would be an easy undertaking for a normal sized village but I live in the capitol of the Southern Nations and Nationalities People's Region. A city of 300,000 people. I guess that is why they have placed me with two other volunteers. Oh well, I will figure it out. The free time is the only thing I am worrying about. I think I have told you about all of my latest endeavors, puzzles, break dancing, letter writing, poetry, short-story writing, reading (I have read everything I can get my hands on), cooking, wine-making, drawing, journal entries, yoga, and any other idea that pops in my head. This is my job. I need to keep myself busy to keep from going crazy so I can complete my work. I laughed writing that last sentence.
I got three packages on Thursday. 2 were for other people that are using my address and the other was a book that a PCV sent me, that turns out I have already read. This really nice not having to pay to type, I can really get some words down. Its half past noon and I still haven't gotten dressed yet. If I sleep past 9am, I just stay in bed because it gets really hot in the day time and it is horrible walking around in that heat. And I walk everywhere. On an average day, I would say I walk for 2 hours or so. That is because I live on the opposite side of town as everything else. On April 1, I am going to buy a bike. I am really excited about that. I have to wait till then because Peace Corps reimburses up to 1000birr for a bike, but that means I have to have enough money to be comfortable to not see 1000birr for a while. Well anyway, I guess that will be enough to keep everyone entertained for a while. I am doing fine, staying healthy, and keeping busy. I will talk to you guys later.
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emily
non-member comment
:)
im glad to hear you're doing so well! i cant imagine you weighing 155-lol i weigh 140 haha but anyways. hopefully you'll be getting some more things in the mail soon :) im going home tomorrow. im super excited. i wish you were gonna be there cause then there'd be good food in the house lol.. i miss you very much and i love you!