Quick Visit Home

The GSK PULSE program allows for each abroad volunteer to have a week long home visit sometime throughout the duration of their assignment.  I arranged mine for the middle of October, which was about 2/3 of the way through my stay in Ethiopia.  


My flight from Addis Ababa took me straight to Washington D.C. with one quick stop in Rome only to refuel and to switch flight crews.  We left Addis at 10:20PM and arrived in D.C. at around 7:30AM local time.  The total flight time was 16 hours, which is clearly not a short trip.  Many of the people returning to the States were carrying Ethiopian babies that they've just adopted to their new homes.  There must have been 10-15 on that particular flight.  Surprisingly, they weren't bad travelers.  They hardly made a peep and were rather well-behaved even through that long flight in such close quarters.  I hope for their parents' sakes that they remain in that temperment.   


Funny story.  I was sitting in the Addis airport at the gate when I overheard a girl who seemed to be around my age speaking with one of those really, really chatty guys that somehow seem to find you when you're most exhausted.  Anyway, thankfully that guy talked as much as he did because I heard this girl tell him that she was Pennsylvania.  


After Mr. Yappy had gotten up to board the plane, this girl and I both waited until the end of the line to board.  I asked her if I had heard correctly that she is from Pennsylvania.  Yep.  Then I asked which city.  Harrisburg, but her parents live in Somerset, a town close to St. Vincent.  I told her I went to Saint Vincent for my undergrad degree.  So did she.  WHAT?!  She was two years ahead of me in school - she graduated in 2005 while I graduated in 2007.  Her degree was in political science; mine was in a different science - biology.  We knew a ton of the same people, both SVC-associated and from elsewhere, including my hometown.  It was pretty comical that I went to the same very small college with this girl for two years and never met her.  Yet I found her in an airport in Africa.  Go figure.


She was on her way back to the U.S. from a trip to Tanzania where she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro as a fundraiser for kids living with AIDS in the U.S.  She said that she raised 10,000 U.S. dollars, which is amazing!   Climbing that mountain is no small feat.  It is over 19,000 feet or 5,790 meters high.  It's the highest free standing mountain in the world.  The air is thin at the top, which requires oxygen tanks and masks to be used.  Hmm...  Good for her.  Not an adventure for me, but many people opt to do that while in Africa.  I'm too chicken, I guess...


When I finally landed in the U.S., the plane actually arrived about an hour early.  Since my cell phone is out of commission until December, a guy who sat next to me on the plane offered  to use his.  So, I called my brother, Joe, since his is the only number that I knew by heart.  He served as the middle man between me and my parents, who were actually the ones who would be picking me up.  He relayed the message that I was early and where to pick me up.  It worked.  


Mom and Dad found me at the Washington Dulles aiport and took me home.  We stopped for lunch at a restaurant along the way where I ordered a salad.  My dad thought I would have some kind of elaborate and expensive meal or something, but little did he understand that fresh vegetables were the most glorious of foods to me at that point.  I was so elated to eat a salad with spinach and other veggies along with grilled chicken, not to mention to drink water that did not need to be out of a thrice-sealed bottle.  


They took me home to our family farm where a few things have changed in 4 months.  My youngest sister had not yet returned home from her military training, so I did not see her.  My grandfather had fallen ill since my departure, so my parents have brought him to live in their house.  He is rather weak and sick and finds himself in and out of the hospital from complications associated with his failing heart.  He is in my parents' room.  My parents have moved upstairs to Nick's room.  Nick has moved to Nattie's room in her absence.  And when she returns, she'll be joining Renee in a room that they will be sharing until further notice.  I'm sure they won't like that very much, but one must adapt in order to survive in that house...


I stayed at the farm for about 5 days.  In that time I slept (jet lag), visited with family and friends, took care of some bureaucratic blah blah, helped Joe celebrate his 25th birthday, and took some pictures that I promised the folks back in Ethiopia.  Life on the Kennis farm isn't perfect by any means, but it's what I still call home even though it's not where I spend most of my time normally.  

After spending 5 days with my family, I made my way to Philadelphia.  This is where I work and live.  I stopped in at GSK to see my home team and had a little bit of a show-and-tell picture slideshow.  I also visited with some co-workers and did a bit of work for my project for  MVP from there.  


I visited with the Norristown Missionaries of Charity nuns a bit and helped them with their soup kitchen one day.  On my last day in the States before returning to Addis Ababa, I attended Mass at the church where I lead the teens.  It was so great to see "my kids" and everyone at that parish.  That particular day, kids and adults were making hundreds of sandwiches for a soup kitchen in Camden, New Jersey as they do one Sunday every month.  


Pictures from the church activities and of Philadelphia are below.

I left the U.S. from Washington D.C. on another non-stop flight back to Addis.  It was much more difficult to say goodbye the second time, even though I will only be gone for 8 weeks before finishing in Ethiopia.  I did my best not to be so excited while I was home in order to somewhat smother my temptation to become comfortable while there.  Nonetheless, bidding adieu again presented quite the challenge, partially because it may have been the last farewell to my grandfather.  Hopefully he and I can both make it to Christmas .

Brief final trip to Hawzien

In order to finish the procurement manual, I needed to make one last trip to the MVP Cluster office to meet with Aklile, the Administration and Operations Manager, to clarify some procurement processes that occur at the Cluster level of the organization.  


I spent two days working with Aklile, and thank goodness for that.  That time was very invaluable and helped me to define processes and standardize them even further for the organization moving forward.  


While I was there, Dr. Aregawi, the Cluster Team Leader, and Alem, the MDE Director who is usually stationed in Addis, were giving training to some 30 health extension workers one day on a program that teaches women in the villages how to increase nutritional value to the foods that they feed kids between the ages of 6 and 24 months of age.  Alem explained to me that they are focusing on the kids of this age because this is the time where they eat porridge, but it does not contain enough essential nutrients for many kids to survive or to develop normally.  Child mortality and developmental retardation roots itself in these ages due to such poor nutrition.  MVP is trying to prevent death and developmental difficulties that may be caused by such lack of nourishment by educating mothers on how to maintain more nutrients in the foods that they are already feeding these kids.  Very cool.


I did not stay at the Gheralta Lodge this time out.  Instead, I found accommodations elsewhere in town at the Adulis Hotel.  It was much cheaper than the Lodge and is situated in town, which means that it's much closer to the office.  The single and double rooms are brand new, so they're very clean.  This hotel is anything but luxurious, but I actually enjoyed staying there more so than at the Lodge.  The rooms there are very basic, but the water is hot and has pressure, and the service is really good.  Alem, the manager, is really great.  He is very pleasant and helpful.  


Since the Adulis does not have a restaurant, I ate meals at the Lalibela Hotel, which is just around the corner from where I stayed.  I loved the ladies who worked there.  I don't speak Tigrigna, so the fact that the manager spoke Amharic helped a lot since English wasn't really an option either.  I can manage in Amharic but am hopeless in Trigigna.  


I met a number of really sweet kids who lived in Hawzien along my walks to and from the hotel.  I had a conversation with one kid who is 15 and had to stop going to school after his mother died in order to work and support his family.  Meeting these people and hearing their stories really brings me to the reality that is inescapable here and that most people in the west never even fathom as real.  He never begged but simply wanted to talk to me and ask me about my life.  What is your name?  Where are you from?  How old are you?  These are the typical questions I hear, and these are the conversations that connect me with these people even if it's only for a brief moment.  


Connecting to the people who live these lives that seem so surreal to me is what makes this experience personal.  I've come here to try to make a difference for people who may have no hope without the work that this organization does.  Seeing and relating to them gives me a personal tie to a country and a people who may otherwise just be another place with some other poor people.  


I didn't actually travel to any of the Millennium Villages this time, but feel equally as satisfied with my visit.  I love to see what MVP is doing for the people of Ethiopia and can only hope that my work with them will somehow allow them to do even more for those who may depend upon the organization.


A few pictures that I captured while en route to and in Hawzien are below.  Enjoy!

Gonder and Axum

Laura and I spent a day in Gonder and Axum each one weekend.  These two places are both packed with history, but one day in each location was doable.  Each has served as the capital city of Ethiopia in the past as has Lalibela, a city that we visited much earlier in our stay.  


Saturday was our day in Gonder.  Gonder is the largest city in the Amhara region in northwest Ethiopia.  It is known for its rather large royal enclosure, a complex of castles that has led the city to be known as "the Camelot of Ethiopia."  


King Fasilides established Gonder as the Ethiopian capital around 1635 and remained the Imperial capital until 1855 when the capital was relocated.  
"After the conquest of Ethiopia by the Kingdom of Italy in 1936, Gondar was further developed under Italian occupation.  During the Second World War, Italian forces made their last stand in Gondar in November 1941, after Addis Ababa fell to British forces six months before. The area of Gondar was one of the main centers of activity of Italian guerrilla against the British forces until summer 1943." (Information found here.)


Some pictures of the remaining ruins of the Royal Enclosure are below.

Another point of interest in Gonder is Fasilides' Bath.  This is essentially a huge concrete swimming pool that originally served as a bath for residents of Gonder and Emperor Fasilides' subjects.  However, it has developed into a central venue for Timkat, or Epiphany, celebrations.  Timkat is the Ethiopian Orthodox festival that celebrates Christ's baptism in the Jordan River.  It is celebrated on the 19th of January (20th during leap years), 12 days following the Orthodox celebration of Christmas.  


During the ceremonies of Timkat, the Tabot, a model of the Ark of the Covenant, which is present on every Ethiopian altar (somewhat like the Western altar stone), is reverently wrapped in rich cloth and born in procession on the head of the priest. The Tabot, which is otherwise rarely seen by the laity, represents the manifestation of Jesus as the Messiah when he came to the Jordan for baptism. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated near a stream or pool early in the morning (around 2 a.m.). Then the nearby body of water is blessed towards dawn and sprinkled on the participants, some of whom enter the water and immerse themselves, symbolically renewing their baptismal vows. 

The pictures below are of a searched and downloaded image of Timkat festivities at Fasilides' Bath along with some photos of the empty Bath that I captured during our visit.

The other site that Laura and I took in while in Gonder was Debre Birhan Selassie Church, which was only about 2 km outside of the city.  We walked to the church where we found some really beautiful iconography.  There was also a priest there teaching a young parishioner Ge'ez, the ancient Ethiopian language currently used only in ecclesiastical settings.  The priest engaged us for a bit about Christianity and the landscape in America versus what we have found in Ethiopia.  A few photos of our visit to that church are below.

The next day we took the short flight to Axum.  This city is located in Tigrai, the same region that holds the Millennium Villages in Ethiopia.  Its claims to fame are multiple.  There are over 300 stelae, or pillars, of various shapes and sizes throughout the city.  Along with the stelae, site of the palace of the Queen of Sheba along with her bath are in Axum as well as the church that holds the Ark of the Covenant.   The tombs of a number of ancient Ethiopian emperors are also in Axum.

Our first stop was a site where we found a number of stelae, including one that had toppled at an unknown time and for an unknown reason.  Each stele is made of one piece of granite.  Some have detailed patterns etched into them while others are merely flat surfaces.  I've attached a few pictures of the towering pillars below.

The Queen of Sheba, who married the King Solomon of Israel, held her palace in Axum.  It has been excavated and partially rebuilt.  The only original parts are the steps, made of granite.  The rooms that were specifically shown to us were the throne room, the original brick oven and the Queen's bathroom.  Interesting...


Her swimming pool, which also still has the original steps set into the mountain side, was also seen.  The locals boys and men still use the pool for bathing, swimming while the women gather water from the same pool for their homes.  Axum is in the region where the Sub-Saharan region transitions into the Saharan desert.  Therefore, it is rather arid there when the rainy season closes.  Water is a precious resource.  It is a blessing to have access to water even though it may be murky bath/swimming water.   

Our final stop that day was at the site that allegedly holds the Ark of the Covenant.  I mean, this thing holds the original 10 Commandments given by God to Moses.  But, it's only ever seen by one person at any given time.  One monk is named as the keeper of the Ark and remains the only person on earth who can see it.  That particular monk remains the guard until he dies when another one is named who will also serve that post until he dies, and so on.  Women are not even allowed in to the church that stands above where the Ark is housed.  But, there is a huge church built by Emperor Haile Selassie for both men and women.  It is big and beautiful.  One of the deacons took us into that church.  Of course, since it is Axum, the bell tower mimics a stele.  Pictures below...

 

It was a busy and history-packed trip.  When some tourists visit Ethiopia, they elect to skip Axum as a stop on their tours.  Axum suffers from not having the best of lodging and restaurants.  Laura didn't fare so well from her meals there.  Our hotel, the Exodus Hotel, was very basic, but it was clean and the staff was very nice.  It was ridiculously cheap to boot.  But, on a good note, business are being developed there that will accommodate a more western audience as far as tourism goes.  Nonetheless, I would definitely suggest visiting if the will to battle the food is there.  Or, just bring some safe, packaged food from elsewhere for the stay there.  Cheers.