thanks great blog. thanks for posting it on facebook. It's the easiest way for me to be alerted to the blog entry.. You write really well and at the start of a busy day, I was intrigued and laughing and willing to continue even without time on my hands.
Questions!!! Hey Andrea! Great blog! I am thinking of travelling around Ethiopia in March, but am not sure what it would be like as a solo woman....
Are you travelling alone?? How have you found that?? It sounds perfectly safe, but I wasn't sure whether the buses/ backpacker hotels would be there to support travelling on your own...
I much prefer doing it alone than being on a tour, and I really want to see Ethiopia, so any help/ hints/ tips you can provide would be great!
Happy travels!
Ali
Ethiopian date? I'm confused; how could the date be so completely different from the rest of the world? What kind of calendar do they have? Or, do they keep two dates, as in Israel?
i dunno you say that people are almost numb to meaningless death there but i feel like living in zambia forces you to feel so much more emotion because even reading about it knots my insides until i cannot recognize my reaction....here there are days when I am actually numb and overall I really can only identify a handful of emotional reactions in myself (my feelings are hurt, i'm ashamed, or i'm ingignant or i'm pleased or i'm lost in ennui or something)....your emtional vocabulary is much more intricate by now, I can tell
"summer" camp Sounds like we need more volunteer organizations in the world where the funding isn't tied to religion. The organization you describes sounds counter-productive in the extreme.
on boredom i think you have managed to redefine boredom. if you're bored it is because you're not observing or creating enough drama. really, i am never bored probably because i am very self-involved
That happens all the time here!! Of course...there aren't sidewalks, so they just go off the road into big ditches or into the other lane...whatever happens to be empty at that moment...its so terrifying sometimes...
i miss buses most of my traveling life has been spent on buses, but no more, I haven't used the baltimore public transportation system once, its sad, not that the buses here are at all as lively as your zambian buses, but when I was in petersburg last, I took the mini-buses, which were crazy, I remember one bus driver didn't want to stop with the regular auto traffic so he just jumped a curb and sped past until he was forced to swerve back on the road to avoid a magazine stand, good times
the scrunched ones I hope you are never the one who gets to ride scrunched up by the door! Did he end up giving you the correct change? Oh, and are you actually understanding Nyanga? What does it sound like? Who speaks it?
H1N1 Its been on the news a lot...even on the local channels...I don't think it really effects the Zambians too much...they're constantly being bombarded with news channels saying, "EVERYONE IN AFRICA IS DYING OF THIS!!" So...it gets a little old after a while. People here don't worry about getting sick the way Americans do. They simply accept that either they will or won't get sick...and that's life.
deffinitely voodoo This was my favorite blog so far, good story. Very intesting observation about the culture. It never really occurred to me that way. I guess true change in a culture takes a long time.
Are people aware of the H1N1 virus? Is it in the news, is there "news"?
vacationing in Africa So much gets back to public policy. Governments could be taxing the tourists and putting the tourist tax to work for the people. Absent such a tax, the socially-conscious tourist can try to "self-tax," and spend a portion of their travel monies on direct services to the poor of the countries in which they travel.
I am still living with Erin but will hopefully be moving to the boarding school within a couple weeks...cross my fingers. The kitchen is fairly modern...it requires lots of changing of plugs and careful maintenance of outlets...but everything we need except a toaster....I have to walk to a bus and then take a bus and then walk from the bus to get to TTAF...about an hour commute...but thats just because the buses are weird and flaky...maybe a fifteen minute drive if I had a car. For the school I get picked up. Its outside of the town but they're building a road to it...so soon hopefully buses will go there. Still just volunteer work....but its okay...hopefully room and board work out.
great! Hi Andrea,
This is great. I'm so excited for you. Here are a couple more questions you could respond to next time...What does the scenery look like? How big is the town you live in? Pop.? Do you ever sleep all day and stay up late? I'm glad you found a buddie to pal around with. Is it safe to be out at night? I have been thinking about sunglasses lately and I always wonder if you ever got those beautiful gaudy ones back in C-Springs? I wish you had. Sorry if I talked you out of it, they were fantastic!
Thanks for the stories.
Lazy day Hey, you are getting better at this. Yesterday's photos required that you do a "right click" then select "view image." Today, the photo was just sitting right there looking real good next to the text, and if you wanted to make it bigger you just clicked on it.
Anyway, I assume by your Blog that you are actually not living at the boarding school, but have retained your apartment with Erin, complete with kitchen. Is is a modern kitchen? How far away are you from where you work? Do you walk everywhere to get to work? Do you get paid anything, since room and board appear not to be happening?
Photos Am I mistaken or were the children in the orphanage all wearing clothes that had recently been yours? I especially loved the photo of the two children, whose big eyes were looking through the hole of the sharp-edged metal.
your mom's right you should write more, like we don't really know anything about your friends, its just harder to think of what to write if you're reflecting on two weeks instead of one day
Daily life Andrea - Your life sounds very full and varied! I thought people with TB must be isolated; how can the lady with skin presentation be walking around? And, I look forward to seeing the photos, which I dont' seem to be able to access at work!
Pieces coming together So, why "Tiny Tim?" I guess I will have to explore the site to find out; and how did you become an "Auntie" so quickly? Will your full-time teaching include math, or just money-making schemes, or both? I'd like to hear about the new living arrangement... I've been shopping for clothes that I don't need, including tight-legged pants, which are comfortable, but I'm afraid my butt may stick out without wearing really long shirts. I'm sort of making up for your lack of frivolous shopping.
D.C. is so gloomy-looking that it hardly matters that the trees are all in bloom; supposedly it will be sunny this weekend, and the world will revel in the cherry blossom festivities.
kari
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Ooooohh
I can hardly believe you're actually experiencing the adventures you describe, everyday. Good for you! I enjoy reading.