Happy Belated International Labor Day!!!!

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Hello Everyone,

I am sure you all have forgotten about me since my last post. Let me catch you up-to-date. If you remember, I was volunteering at the HIV/AIDS NGO Forum. The newsletter I put together went to the printer. The coordinator is getting a lot of complements from it. Anyways after all that was finished, I went in to ask about starting a new project. Getnet(coordinator) had an idea for a health service mapping project which sounds pretty extensive. The goal is to survey every health service organization; community based organization, foreign NGO, as well as all faith based organizations. After about thirty minutes, we had drafted up a proposal for around $25,000USD. Getnet told me not to come to the funding meeting because when Ethiopians see White people they see dollar signs. There must be a bit of proof to that because our project got approved with some only minor corrections. I also think there is something else at play here for this project. Recently, the government released a proclamation redefining how NGOs are to do business. One of the new conditions is that if an organization gets more that 10% of its funding from foreign sources that organization is no longer to do any type of advocacy projects. This has turned into a very big deal in the HIV/AIDS community. Anyways, I think our project got approved so quick because some of the questions ask about how the organizations are funded and with this information the govt. could keep track of who is doing what with who’s money?

One of my good friends, CR (Cecelia Rose), was having a bit of a difficult time in her town so she came down to hang out in mine. We had a blast this weekend. Friday, we got a armful of beers from the bar down the street and then had a puzzle day. We finished the puzzle at midnight and found we were missing two adjacent pieces. Yesterday was one of the most fun days I have had here. We woke up and went to the internet place, sat around. Met up with some friends and got some ice cream, took a nap, and climbed the mountain. We borrowed the showers from the Army guys at the fancy hotel. I need to stress this shower. I probably bathe once a week here. The bathe would be done in cold water, in a dark, mud-lined shower stall, to an audience of about twenty or thirty cockroaches. As I opened the door to the bathroom, I was pretty sure I saw the shower doors open automatically. The water was hot and it was one of those rare moments that you can only appreciate when you are clean. I was so worried that one of the army guys was going to come in and see me sitting down in the stall scrubbing my feet with my scratch pad.

So I am clean, for the time being. I really feel bad for the girl PCVs in this country. It is perfectly acceptable for them to be groped, verbally abused, and proposed to all by the same person at the same time. A PCV from Tanzania was biking up to the Mediterranean after his close of service came and stayed with me for a few days. He said that as soon as he got across the Ethiopian Border he started getting harassed; Kids running alongside him and throwing rocks or speeding on a bike to catch up with him only to pull ahead and slow down as a joke for 5 weeks. I think the amount of harassment that we all face on a day-to-day basis has really callused us to some of the real problems here. Everyone is talking about what day they are going to ET (Early Terminate). It is no longer a question of whether or not it will happen but when will it happen? The group of PCVs that came one year before us only has 25 left right now of the original 44 who came into country. There should be another 5 that will leave their group in the next two months. No one has ET-ed from our group but we have our IST in about a month (CR has just informed me the exact number is 23 days). I think that some people may just want to stay until they can see everyone and then go home. I guess we will see.

I have been doing a bit of bird-watching over the past few weeks. Since we are right on the lake, there are quite a few cool species. In fact, my favorite place to get coffee has this amazing Village Weaver colony just above the waiter’s heads. There are a lot of starlings and the other day I won a bet by correctly identifying the Malachi Kingfisher. If you haven’t seen this bird, google a picture of it, the bird is amazing.

Well, it was great talking to everyone and I will talk to you later.

John

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Comments

[Abebe]

Hello John.. First I want to tell you that your 'blog' is not worth of the time that need to read let alone for replying.but for the disapointement I got from reading it I want to say you a couple os sentences.YOu are in Ethiopia not because you wanted to do miracles for the country or it's peoples.Rather you are there because a dumb guy like you have no option to win his bread,than going some where in the name of the poors and mourn all the time.I really wonder if you lost a thing that is good about Ethiopia..Iam sure the workers of other NGOs has no any intention of returning soon as you said.But if they do who cares,anybody knows that they are there for a simple reason,,,,,

[Cheryl]

Oh, my...
I didn't realize you all had the option of ET. How does that affect your stipend? Do you get reassigned? Why do you think Ehtiopia is like that? I've only been to two African countries, but never was it so bad in either one. Are they simply resentful of American NGO's? What about other countries' (sp?) representatives? Are they similarly harrassed? What a pain in the booty! Hang in there, John.