Part of the beauty,
and also one of the challenges of Peace Corps, is the pace at which projects
and things in general, move.
To catch a bus in
Mezezo to head to a bigger town like Debre Birhan where I go to the bank and
post office, I stand on the road waiting for a bus to come down the mountain
and hope there is an open seat, or that I can squeeze onto an already full row
of people. The waiting time ranges from
30 minutes to 2 hours. While at times,
such as when I need to get to Debre Birhan quickly or am feeling sick, this is
very frustrating and I become impatient, other times it turns into a wonderful
experience. Often the times I am waiting
on the road for a bus, or waiting for a bus to fill up (they leave once the bus
is full, even if it takes 4 hours..), have been the times I won’t forget; when
someone invited me in for coffee, or a stranger strikes up a great conversation
with me where I learned about different opportunities to collaborate with NGOs
in the area, or when my best friend Hibist is walking past to school and stops
to chat and gives me an orange for the road!
These times I will never forget ad they are both beautiful and
challenging.
I had a plan to plant
a garden at the primary school in June, when rainy season was in full swing. I
got the seeds and was ready with enthusiasm! Several times I went to the
school, but the director wasn’t there, or the time wasn’t right for the
teachers, and I was told to come back, time and time again. I persisted, and finally
last week, on Friday, I went to the school, and the “price was right!,” or
rather, the time was right! The director was on board and we got 7 eighth grade
boys to start digging and in 30 minutes they cleared out an extremely overgrown
4x4 meter area. It was challenging to
wait 4 months when I was ready to start the garden in June, but behind the
mission of Peace Corps is the fact that the community must be the engine behind
all projects. I can help to get the engine going, but in the end they must be
the engine. For the garden project it took 4 months, but when the project took
off, it was beautiful seeing the students working hard and digging, excited
about the garden, and asking if we could also start an English club. This is another example of experiences that
are both beautiful and challenging, but ones I will always cherish.
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| 8th grade students hard at work! |
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| Finally looking like soil ready for a garden! |
When you have to wait
for things, they become that much more beautiful J Although, I admit I didn’t mind not having to
wait more than 3 minutes for a bus in Switzerland!
With only 4 months
left of my Peace Corps service left in Ethiopia, I find myself reflecting back
on the experiences, lessons learned, conversations shared, and am trying to
make the most of every last day here. It
has definitely been an extremely transformative experience, where I’ve gotten
more out of it then I could have ever given, and Ethiopia will always have a
special place in my heart.
Latrine update: The public latrine is
about 90% done!!!
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| The updated picture of the latrine! |
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| Very pleased with the almost final product!! |
