The Last PULSE Volunteer's Arrival, Ashenda, and Wolisso Village

This is my second consecutive blog entry that has been late.  My initial goal was to write an entry every week; however, as time has gone on, it has seemingly gained some speed.  My apologies again for my tardiness.  

On 20 August the last PULSE Volunteer to join our team in Ethiopia arrived.  Richard is joining us from a GSK-acquired company, Stiefel Research, in Melbourne, Australia.  He left his wife and three kids in order to pursue this 6 months of service in Africa - something that has been on his Bucket List.  He is a lot of fun, so of course we're happy to have him hanging with us here.  His task is to better equip and set up laboratories in the Millennium Villages' Health Posts and Health Centers.  He will be spending small stints of time in Addis Ababa at the Head Office, but will remain in Hawzien for the vast majority of his assignment.  He's a rather adventurous guy, so he is definitely up to taking on the Ethiopian village life.  

The Monday after he arrived, 22 August, was a huge celebration in Ethiopia, although it is historically centered in Tigrai, the region in the north where the MVP village cluster is located.  Nonetheless, there were festivities in Addis Ababa.  

A little bit of background on Ashenda:  "Ashenda is a unique Tigraian traditional festival which takes place in August to mark the ending of fasting called filseta. This event is mostly for girls and young women, which they await very eagerly every year.  The name of the festival "Ashenda" comes from the name of a tall grass that the girls make in to a skirt and wear it around their waist as a decoration."  

Groups of girls were running through the city stopping cars by surrounding them in the middle of the streets (backing up traffic even more than it usually is during rush hour), singing for people at local shops, businesses, homes, etc.  They sang and danced to the traditional Ashenda songs while throwing confetti in the air.  The unsaid expectation is that those for whom they sing and dance will give them bread traditionally, but in more recent times, they usually accept money.  I've also been told that in Tigrai, many times young boys pick out their mates from these Ashenda girl groups.  I've attached an Ashenda video below that helps to put this whole thing into perspective.

A group of girls also visited our office, giving us a chance to see this tradition up close.  Many of the MVP staff came out to enjoy the fun as well and even joined in as some of them are from the Tigrai region.  I have attached a few photos of our Ashenda girls that day below.  They are wearing crosses of ash on their foreheads and orange dyes on their hands that also accompany their traditional dresses and hairstyles.  

Some of the MVP staff enjoying the Ashenda festivities

Since Ashenda marks the end of a 16-day fasting time for the Ethiopian Christians, there was A LOT of meat to be eaten that day throughout all of Ethiopia.  Laura, Richard and I had lunch with Birkti.  We ate at a restaurant close to the office where we enjoyed some beef tibbs, an Ethiopian dish that consists of - of course - injera along with roasted beef with onions and chilis that is to be dipped into a sauce that is a mixture of awaze and spicy horseradish mustard.  The meal is depicted below with a photo of Laura showing how to eat it.  

The fresh meat is chosen by those who wish to buy it.  It is also eaten raw with some butter and spices known as kitfo, which can also be roasted but is not nearly as popular among the Ethiopian habasha (locals) as the raw version.  Below is what we saw that day at the meat rack along the sidewalk.  

Upon the completion of the Ashenda festival which actually lasts for 3 or 4 days, things settled back down in Addis Ababa.  Laura, Sarah and I went on another adventure outside the city for a quick weekend getaway to the Wolisso village, approximately 2 hours by car outside of Addis.  We had reservations at the Negash Lodge where we spent most of our time while only venturing out to the village once.  The region in which the village is located is Oromia, which differs from the other regions that we have visited in that the majority of its population is Muslim.  This was rather apparent as we passed a number of huge mosques along the way.  Also, in the evening, we heard both the Muslim call to prayer (the adhan) as well as the Ethiopian Orthodox chanting, although the adhan was much louder and longer than the Christian chanting.  

The most memorable things about the weekend were the animals that we encountered while at the Lodge.  Literally, hundreds of monkeys covered the grounds and trees and roofs of the property and seemed to be rather acclimated to people as they came rather close and were not phased at all by our presence.  I even saw one monkey steal a piece of left over pizza from the counter of the outdoor pizza fire oven.  Mischievous things.  They were quite entertaining to watch and to photograph.  There were two species of monkeys there - Green Vervet and Colobus - that seemed to interact with each other rather well.  There were more Green Vervet than Colobus, but I was able to capture both species.  The Green Vervets are the smaller brown, tan and white monkeys while the Colobus are the black and white species.

I was also able to get a picture of a young Ethiopian antelope.  I saw a couple hyrax, but did not get a picture.  A few of these hyrax guys were on the roof of our tukul hut the first night of our stay.  My guess is that  the one that first arrived on the roof that night was later visited by one if its archenemies as there was a bunch of fighting that followed.  Man, can these things make some awful noise!  Sarah and Laura had ear plugs, so they missed all of the beautiful sounds of the grunting and fighting all night.  I found it rather amusing and burst out laughing multiple times throughout the night.  The pictures below are of the antelope that I saw one evening, and since I didn't get my own picture of the hyrax, I searched and found one on the web.  

Finally, Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, ended on Tuesday 30 August.  The end of the month is based upon the Islamic lunar calendar; therefore, the dates vary year-to-year.  The end is marked by the Eid ul-Fitr.  On this day, the Muslims end their fasting from dawn to dusk and participate in great feasting.  The picture below is of a sheep the day before Eid ul-Fitr being led by two men in a manner that I like to call the "sheep wheelbarrow."  As any Christian or Muslim holiday approaches, the days before the feast, the city is full of sheep and goats and often cows.  However, at the end of the actual feast day, there are often far fewer animals and lots of sheep pelts lying in piles near their former dwellings.  Thus goes life in Ethiopia.  

Adventures and New Faces in Hawzien, Mekele, and Addis Ababa

While at the MVP Ethiopia head office in Addis Ababa on the first of August, the three PULSE Volunteers already present were surprised with another unannounced volunteer. Her name is Britta and is joining our PULSE gang here from GSK Germany. Her assignment is to establish a dental health program in the Millennium Villages both in Ethiopia and in Senegal, West Africa. She arrived at the very beginning of the month and was only with us for about 2 weeks before travelling to Senegal to do some work there. She will be returning to Ethiopia at some point, but that time has not yet been set. She’s going to have to brush up (no pun intended) on her French for her stints in Senegal but can rely upon her English while here. 

In the first week of August, I was given the opportunity to travel to the Millennium Villages in the northern region of Ethiopia known as Tigrai. This region speaks a language different from that of Addis, so the very little Amharic that I’ve picked up thus far in Addis Ababa was essentially worthless on this trip anyway. The language spoken in this region is Tigrigna, which is also spoken in Eritrea. I wish that I had more than only a few days to learn a bit of that language as well. However, our stay in Tigrai was only for 5 days so not so much can be picked up in that brief a time.

Although the flight delay in Addis and a redirection to and 3 hour hold-over in Axum; Laura, Britta, Birkti and I finally found ourselves in the Mekele airport where one of the Millennium Village Project Cluster drivers was waiting for us. After a quick lunch in Mekele, we made our way to Hawzien, the town where MVP Ethiopia’s cluster office is located. Laura, Britta and I stayed in the Gheralta Lodge while Birkti held her quarters at the Tourist Hotel.

The Lodge was beautiful. The experience staying there was much like camping but in a hotel. It was like camping in that each room was entered from the outside, so the view out each door was incredible. Outside of my door was a fence that separated a farmer’s land from that of the Lodge. That farmer and his family was often tending his land there or shepherding their animals. The accommodations were rather nice in the rooms themselves. There was also a central Lodge building that contained the kitchen (good food), a lounge area, the office, and a bar.

Here is the link to the Gheralta Lodge for further inquiries and exploration. 

On the first full day of our stay, I met Dr. Aregawi, the Cluster Team Leader and the Health Sector Coordinator.  After our meeting, Birkti and I were shown the storage facilities there by the Cluster Storekeeper. Seeing the actual goods that have been purchased for the Project gave me a much better feel for the actual works being done for the Millennium Villages there. Impressive is a word that cannot do justice for the amount of effort and progress that this organization has done. Wow.

Later that morning, Dr. Aregawi arranged for a driver to show us a few projects that MVP has done or is in the process of completing. One was a Health Post in one of the Millennium Villages where one of the workers sat with us and explained to us what exactly is done there and the services that are offered. Coming from the United States where health care is considered a right and the level of technology is sometimes impossible to even imagine, this visit at the Health Post was a very humbling experience for me but very inspiring at the same time. Where health care may have been essentially extremely scant or completely unavailable at all for these people in previous years, there are now places for villagers to retreat in cases of ill health. They are places of hope for a life that may otherwise be ended prematurely, a feeling that those of us back home can relate to in terms of health care.

We then went to a construction site where workers were building a micro dam that will later be used for irrigation. The land span that can be serviced by one of these micro dams is 84 hectares. Pictures of the current stages of this particular micro dam are below.

Irrigation ditch  that will carry water from the micro dam to its destinations

Other means of providing water for the people in the villages was the construction of 400 hand dug wells (HDWs). Each of these provides water for 2-3 households throughout the entire year. With these wells also come pumps used for extraction of water to carry or pump to homes. I also saw a reservoir that served a village near Koraro that served the Koraro Health Center along with the village. A couple kids were there gathering some water. 

The second day Dr. Aregawi took us to Koraro to see the original Ethiopia Millennium Village (the other 10 villages were added after Koraro). The road that we traversed to reach the village was built by MVP in collaboration with the Ethiopian government. The ride was very smooth and was accompanied by many of the beautiful views of the Tigrai landscape. Along the road, too, were electricity lines that were also run to Koraro in similar funding efforts by the government.

Upon our arrival, we saw the Health Center, which is one step above a health post in terms of the medical capabilities there. We met with the Health Officer who runs the Center while he showed us around their facilities. This facility serves not only Koraro, but many of the health posts within the district refer patients here. If this health center cannot support the problem, the patient is then referred to the clinic in Hawzien. 

Following our guided tour of the Koraro Health Center, we visited the primary school that served Koraro and some surrounding villages. Whoa. This was amazing. The education that the children of these villages are being given is incredible. I was thoroughly impressed by this visit. These are sights of more hope given to those who may not have experienced it otherwise.

The morning I left, the electricity was out, so in order to acquire enough light to see while I packed, I opened the door to my room. My open door apparently attracted the shepherd boy on the other side of the fence on that rainy day. He watched as I packed, and I was able to capture a few pictures of him. You can see my new friend below.

We had only two days in the villages before heading back to Mekele on Saturday afternoon for our flight on Sunday. Since Birkti is from Mekele, we spent the evening at a cultural restaurant. We have experienced these before, as I have shown in one of my earlier blog entries. However, this time it was a bit different. This particular Saturday was the day before a 16-day fasting time for the Christian faithful of Ethiopia. It was like Ethiopian Mardi Gras. People were out eating, drinking and dancing before their upcoming sacrificial time. Wow. So much energy was in that building that night. It was definitely the most fun that I’ve had thus far. A couple of Birkti’s friends and family joined us that night and made the experience all the better. Good times were had by all. Cheers. 

As a city, I really enjoyed Mekele. The people there held themselves a bit differently than in Addis Ababa. This is likely because of the size and hustle and bustle of Addis. Mekele is a smaller, quieter place where the attention that we as foreigners received was, of course present, but less explicit or aggressive than in Ethiopia’s capital.

The same feeling of relaxation was in Hawzien. The kids in the village would stare at the ferenge – that’s to be expected, but they also found great joy in capturing our attention or touching our white skin if even for only a very brief moment. They also love to look at pictures, so if our cameras were out and there were kids afoot, we would show them what we’ve captured. They are always in awe when seeing themselves or their friends or just places that they know in still frame. At least we can give them joy in these small things when we see them. Some of the kids I’ve captured on the trip are below.

I think it would be a sin if I wrote of this trip and never mentioned belas. Belas is the name given to the cactus fruit. August is the very end of the season for this fruit. Birkti was beyond excited to get her hands on this delicious but seed-ridden fruit. They usually go for 3 or 4 belas/1Birr. Birkti can lay down a few birr on these things. To say that she loves them is an understatement. She packed a couple boxes of these to bring back to Addis. We stopped at “The Cactus Shop” on the way to and from Hawzien to enjoy some of these tasty treats. I’ve never seen them before coming to Ethiopia, so it would be only logical to share my sights and experiences here with even more pictures…

Sunday was our flight from Mekele. However, it was cancelled due to weather. Back to Mekele to stay another night. It would of course be that night that food poisoning would find me. Our flight actually did leave on Monday to return to Addis Ababa, but it was anything but fun. It was actually much like agony. Thank goodness it was only 1 hour in duration. We arrived home in the early afternoon, so I spent the remainder of the day trying to nurse myself back to some kind of good health standing. The illness came and took its course and then – thankfully - left.

It was back to work on Tuesday for the rest of the week before we picked up another of our PULSE volunteers – Delphine. She joined us from GSK Spain but is originally from Belgium. She will be spending about 4 days in the Addis Ababa head office before heading out to Hawzien to work there for the remainder of her 5 month assignment. Her task is project management, so she will be assigned to work with management in the Cluster. Sarah, Laura and I are trying our best to prepare her mentally, physically, emotionally and logistically for her time out there. Living in the city is a bit easier as there are more resources and opportunities here, not to mention that we do not have to live out of a suitcase day to day since we have a house to call a temporary home. Delphine will be living in the Lodge out there and have to change rooms rather often based upon availability. I wish her the best of luck. Please keep her in your thoughts back home.

I’ve also attached a number of pictures of the landscape and other sights from my village experience to date. Further, since I can never capture all of the projects that MVP has done, I’ve also inserted a video from Millennium Promise that portrays a bit of the infrastructure work that has been done in Koraro as well. Please enjoy. My apologies for the tardiness and wordiness of this entry! I hope that the pictures help to break up the monotony of reading a bit…