May 2012
5 posts
Things That I Haven’t Done In A Year
Flown Somewhere on an Airplane. This is perhaps the hardest thing I’ve had to give up: Near-constant air travel to far-flung places around the world. Between May 2009 and May 2011, I flew a total of 22 one-way flights, an incredible burst of air travel for someone who rarely flew anywhere before the age of 18. Indeed, upon disembarking from the airplane in Addis a year ago, and walking through...
The Road to Mother Coffee
“The Road to Mother Coffee,” by Chuck Adams.
Published in Eugene Weekly [5/24/2012]
Article details a trek in the wild coffee forests near my site, Bonga, in the southwest corner of Ethiopia. The article details the efforts by the local government to boost tourism in the Kafa region, but at what cost?
3 tags
Hearting Ethiopia
Living in Ethiopia is like being in a committed relationship. Rough patches will come and it is your job to smooth them out. Divorce is always an option, but the last option. Like true love, one must be selfless for this to work.
With this in mind, I sat down tonight to write about what I love about Ethiopia.
I love that shops replicate themselves like someone just hit Copy+Paste a few...
April 2012
2 posts
6 tags
Malaria: It Kills You Dead
Before spending four months in Southeast Asia in 2009-10 I did my research on malaria: Would I [I typed to the benevolent Internet know-it-alls] be at-risk for malarial infection while traipsing around tropical Asia? The answer came back, more or less, that if I stuck to the tourist areas there was a slim-to-none chance I’d get malaria, making malaria prophylactics expensive and excessive. I...
The Easter Ride of the Purple Phoenixes
PART ONE
The screaming started an hour before dawn.
“You. You. You! You! YouYouYouYou!”
“Hey guys (incomprehensible attempt at English)!”
“Where are you go? Hey you! You!”
“Money! Money! Money! Money!”
“Highland give me! Highland give me! Highland give me!”
“Please welcome I love you!”
We pulled out of Jimma, Southwestern Ethiopia’s hub capital, at the earliest possible hour,...
March 2012
8 posts
This Fast Won't Last
It’s fasting season in Ethiopia. This means that for 40 days most citizens turn into vegans*, shunning meat, dairy, eggs, and all that good stuff. This is part of the Ethiopian Orthodox religion, which, if you ask any Orthodox Ethiopians, means it is also part of “Ethiopian culture.” For all intents and purposes the Orthodox way of life becomes the Ethiopian way of life, especially during fasting...
Community Inaction
Last week I went running through the foothills near my college.
I’ve found this amazing footpath that skirts around farms, twists and turns through jungle foliage, and is a rollercoaster of a run. I think it’s about 4 km long, so out and back takes me a good 45 minutes or so. I pass by farming folk who are initially stunned by me—and my running apparel (orange bandanna headband, Bollé...
"Prepared yourself / To rotate the world"
A student dropped off a poem for my review today. Maybe it’s all the buzz and excitement about the Creative Writing contest I’m holding on the campus on Friday, or maybe the student just felt inspired to write about a very important topic, that of the English language and the foreigner sent from the U.S. to help (and to kill?). I’ve had a weird day. For some reason I...
“I like Portland proper but I hate that it’s enclosed on all sides by...”
– The Best Movies of 2010, Narrantology Archive
“you look odd, wearing mismatched articles of clothing, and you probably smell...”
– Day Twenty-Eight: Rehoboth Beach, DE, Narrantology Archive
Welcome Aboard! This Won't Hurt Much...
The golden rule of bus travel in southwestern Ethiopia is to be entirely unaware of the bus itself, what the bus is doing, and what is happening to the bus. You do this to save yourself from insanity. Nothing about public transportation in Ethiopia makes any sense to the rational mind. Oftentimes a bus will have several false starts to the journey: the bus driver needs to have his breakfast; the...
February 2012
4 posts
Dream Play (2012)
A futurist drama in three parts.
The world falls apart in slow-motion.
The family unit in this case is a young farming couple.
No kids because there is no money or time for kids.
Economic collapse begets necessity.
The strains of lack of economy test the relationship.
People who laughed at the young farming couple are now farmers.
No consumer confidence.
Rather than buy things,...
PACKING UP YOUR LIFE FOR TWO YEARS IS LIKE BURYING...
This blog entry is intended for future Peace Corps Volunteers, but it may be of use to the general public, too.
Packing for a two-year stay in a country you’ve never been to leads to all kinds of questions, stresses, and flights of fancy. At some point you might feel guilt for the all-out consumerist binging you’ll be doing leading up to departure, but I’m here to say: Don’t feel guilty. Unless...
I Was A Travelin’ Man
Credit card receipts issued at restaurants/taverns Jan.2011 through April 2011.
01/04 LOOKING GLASS LOUNGE WASHINGTON DC
01/06 PHO FAR EAST RALEIGH NC
01/06 NATTY GREENES PUB & BR RALEIGH NC
01/09 DRP GREENVILLE SC
01/13 BABA GHANNOUJ DURHAM NC
01/14 COSMIC CANTINA DURHAM NC
01/15 ELEPHANT & CASTLE - PH PHILADELPHIA PA
01/16 KITE & KEY GASTRO PUB PHILADELPHIA PA
02/13 MUCHAS GRACIAS...
Conclusions (2012)
I’m a writer,
I guess, and I guess
I like conclusions. But
there’s nothing conclusive
about things on Earth,
other than death,
I guess. Living
happily
ever after
dodges
certain facts
that must be faced
against our fears. Even
tears won’t conclude
the melancholic
clogging
of valves and stems,
our daily intake
of breath, chased
with teacups of grief.
How to go forth
neck-deep in muck
when it smells...
January 2012
2 posts
December 2011
7 posts
2011: The Year of the Year
I’m not one for putting out a year-in-review, but 2011 seems to warrant such a debriefing, especially due to my current location isolated in the southwestern corner of Ethiopia. Ever since leaving my job at the Eugene Weekly in February 2009 I’ve felt as if I’ve been plunging into an open-ended abyss (a beautiful, breathtaking & heartbreaking abyss, mind you) that would only end once I became...
Field Report To You Oh My God: Part Two: The...
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 14
Chenna is like a Tuscan hilltown: Breezy, great views, a “high road” that cuts across a ridge, and a local mafia. Any bus passengers trying to get out of town in the morning (like I was attempting to do on this bright, sunny day) will have to contend with the Chenna mafia. See, Chenna bus operators could offer reasonable public transportation options to a public that certainly...
Field Report To You Oh My God: Part One
SUNDAY, DEC. 11
Wake up at 5:30am. Hop on the college bus to Shishinda at 6am. Why do these buses start so damn early? I ask this question every time I have to wake up in the dark to board these buses. But then the sun rises over a newly dawning Africa and the lush jungle mist creeps through the trees and I remember: Oh yeah, taking buses in Ethiopia is like a spectral morning light show. The...
What I Listened To In 2011
2011 was an odd year for music. I think some good albums came out, but (as has been the case the past two years) my access to them was limited to nonexistent. Some of what I did obtain really stuck with me, like PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake, while others took all year to really bloom (Radiohead’s The King of Limbs). There were some albums that I was excited about but which fell short of...
The Great Ethiopian Run
Eyes slide open to the sound of minibus taxi boys singing their song and that all-pervasive Ethiopian light flooding my Kings Hotel room. I look at my watch: 7:30am. Perfect, I think to myself, I’m about to embark on a mission of unknown outcome and I only got five hours of sleep.
***
The previous night’s entertainment included a delectable Indian dinner, followed by a pit stop at the German...
October 2011
3 posts
Ethiopia: A Primer for Those Thinking About...
This is a blog in which I attempt to organize some thoughts regarding the chance you might be considering a trip to Ethiopia. In particularly, you’re thinking about visiting me in the field and getting the “Peace Corps experience” of Ethiopia, not the tour operators’ bubble-wrapped package of postcards version.
I will be frank: Ethiopia is no picnic. It’s no Bali. Do not honeymoon here, unless...
Same Same, But Different
Same as North America, Ethiopia has four seasons, but they are different in different ways. Krumt (June-August) is the cold, monsoon season of colossal rains, epic mud and chilly drops in temperature. S’aday (September-November) is the green spring, where things dry up, flowers bloom and the coffee harvest begins. Baga (Dec.-Feb.) is hot, dusty, and windy; everything turns a brownish color, but...
Bi! Bi! Bila! Bila! Curried Carrot Calzones!
If Peace Corps-style cooking were a video game I believe I’ve made it to the second level. Behold my own creation: Curried Carrot Calzones. Mmmmm…they were soooo good. Before you ask me if I’m crazy for calling a vegetarian dish delicious, behold this ingredient list:
CRUST
2.5 cups flour
2 t. dry active yeast in warm water
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1 T. oil
FILLING
1 onion,...
September 2011
3 posts
Happy New Year, World
Last Thursday I was tinkering around in my office/classroom on the college campus when I got a visit from Andualem, the Kafa Tourism and Culture representative who took a group of us on a visit to oldest coffee tree in the world a few weeks ago.
I had spent the majority of the day alone in my house, reading up on Active Learning Methods, typing up more reports, and baking banana bread. I finally...
7 tags
Focus on the Small, Immediate, and Present...
The big rat is coming out tonight and wants to fight.
Lady, it’s nothing too small I wouldn’t concern Myself.
It’s coming night and presently focusing on the big rat.
Her Lady’s small concern wouldn’t fight immediately.
Myself, wanting out of the present, is concerned.
The small nothings were coming into focus.
Lady wants a fight with immediate rats.
Her concerns were present and small.
...
August 2011
2 posts
Ways of Being
I have a New Yorker magazine that is the perfect killer of insects.
I own a dolphin-shaped surge protector.
I bargain in cents over the cost of a pineapple in the market.
I have the distinct feeling that Ethiopians leverage a 25-50% markup on all goods and services specifically because I am white. (For example, a shoeshine should cost 3 birr but a shoeshine dude asks me for 4 birr, at which point...
A Day in the Life of a Peace Corps Trainee in...
7:15AM I wake to the sound of Ethiopia in motion. The tuk-tuk taxis are motoring. People are walking to work, school, wherever. The roosters are crowing. There’s some gibberish spewing over the Orthodox Christian loudspeakers down the street. My room is hermetically sealed, thus it is pitch black at all times of the day; the noise wakes me before the light does. If it’s a typical day, I had a...
July 2011
1 post
Wish List, Part 1
In case anyone needs some guidance in selecting some items to stuff into that package you’re planning on shipping to me to boost my morale and cure a little bit of ye olde homesickness (and probably a little bit of the gastrointestinalsicknesses, too), here you go: Burned CDs/DVDs of movies, TV shows (esp. Twin Peaks), and music Drawings/Paintings/Photographs (for my wall) Sticky-Tack...
June 2011
2 posts
How to Get to Bonga
First there’s a dirty city to escape. Then there is an endlessly flat plateau. Then the plateau drops out and you are driving into a deep gorge. Then you are driving out. The road winds up and the occasional baboon appears on the side of the road, as if to welcome you to Western Ethiopia, the lush, moist, jungle-clad part of the country. Say hi to the baboon but keep going. Stop on the side of the...
The Yogurt and Coffee Debate Lingers On At The...
We bottle our pride and drink the dragon for the light and the mystery of Ethiopia waxes and wanes outside our unscreened balcony windows while an endless buffet awaits downstairs to feed us our three squared meals, a banquet of grease and bananas, of sour bread and spiced stews, of Ambo and Sprite, of wot and what, of polite discussions over reject espresso shots and reverse wontons, our shared...
May 2011
13 posts
The View from Space
Going into the Peace Corps is a lot like going to space. There are narrow windows in which to execute the steps necessary for lift-off, and, once you are up there (or out there), you live in a fragile environment carefully monitored by the government. If the astronaut shows up to the launch with the flu, she doesn’t fly. Similarly, many things can go wrong on the way to departing for a job that...
“In Ethiopia, we will aspire to touch small children.”
– Quote from a fellow Peace Corps Trainee, who misspoke in hilarious fashion today during an orientation exercise.
Wherever You Go, There You Are
“There is more beauty and perfection to be found outside the confines of home. A different kind of beautiful, a different kind of love. To see it, to feel it, as a completely new sensory experience is, I think, the essence of travel.” — written on a piece of paper as I was sitting on a bus crossing Young’s Bay, entering Astoria Preparing for a two-year experience in Ethiopia feels...
Victor Hugo, Conversation Partner and Con Man
I’m trying to figure out why five euros meant so much to me in the fall of 2003. I mean, five euros is a considerable chunk of change in Europe, the American equivalent of six dollars and thirty-eight cents. That will buy three slices of cheap pizza margherita or a half-pound of proscuitto panini. That’s lunch for one and a half days! Five euros would also get me into a showing of Gus Van Sant’s...
“Who will blame him if he does homage to the beauty of the world?”
– Mr. Ramsay’s ephiphany, p. 36, To The Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
Anonymous asked: Does your milkshake bring all the boys to the yard?
Anonymous asked: Is that a sea lion?
This is a sound-byte from an old Texas...
“Both Christianity and Islam became state sponsored and protected in Ethiopia...”
– Travel Ethiopia website
