I’m alive & well, just busy!!!

Sorry guys I havn’t posted in forever, wordpress was giving me fits for a while, and then I got swamped with work etc… anyhow, here’s the latest and greatest to catch you up to my last few months…….

• Sorting, stacking & stamping; organizing 4,000 primary school leisure reading books for Bonga schools and stamping some of them and organizing them by their reading level that came from the Books for Africa program I fundraised so a special thanks to all who were able to donate to this project!Because let me tell you, the kids are super, crazy, insanely excited at the books!!!
• Renovating a classroom to be an English Language Improvement Center/Model Classroom
• Traveling to town of Ambo as my PC leader asked me to come & speak to new PCV’s about all the cool stuff I’m doing in clubs, (which I rocked, people WANTED copies of my ppt file!)
• Eating the fanciest/best dinner of my PC life at the Sheraton hotel in Addis Ababa for Thanksgiving (lets’s just say that we arrived at 6 pm and left at 10:30 pm)
• Giving some trainings on weekends with my friend Katie for Jimma, (nearby big town 3+ hours away by unpaved, awful road) for female university 1st year students who are from rural areas on life skills, goals, HIV prevention etc…
• Working with Art Club students
• Working with English Club students
• Starting a new All Teacher’s Informal Conversational English and tea drinking Club
• Writing a proposal to the Bonga Teacher’s college begging for desks for my new English Classroom and 2 computers
• Writing Bill’s of Receipts for the donated books for each school to stamp and sign then I need to scan each and email them in and mail originals
• Teaching Riley tricks!!! He’s sooooo cute
• Throwing a rocking Halloween party where I made a lemon meringue pie that La Madeline would be proud of
• Learning how to filter grain alcohol, (arake) using raw chunks of charcoal, then making “arakarita’s” for Halloween guests
• Repairing my clothing with needle and thread
• Taking my sweet deaf/mute orphan student to the health center after her semi following me home and miming she’s really sick, turns out she may have had pneumonia, I waiting with her while they checked her out and paid for her meds
• I took the 2 European researchers on a tour of the prison and/kindergarten school (next door to each other) to see the biogas project as they are working in Bonga on alternative energy sources
• I am still facilitating the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer I found on FB that wants to donate 2K USD to one of my schools to help fund a technology project, so they wrote a proposal, list of how they’d spend the $$ then a letter of support from PTA etc… and signatures, I scanned and emailed to him, he finally approved it. I then had to go with a teacher to open a new joint bank account so he can money gram the $ to us, just go the money yesterday!!!!!
• The Europeans left last week, all but 1 so we had a send off party for them at a restaurantthe other night
• I’m helping organize Chuck, my other Bonga PCV, a surprise 30th birthday party in Jimma on Friday
• I’m attended a training last weekend for the PCV’s in our region & we took a big group shot
• I’m booking my Tanzania Safari for February during school break for 5 days with like 9 other PCV’s during the great migration, so we’ll see lots of animals.
• I got my laptop battery charger cord repaired for less than a dollar!!!! (1 hour before my presentation in Ambo to new PCV’s as my battery was dead!)
• I got a new batch of pen pal letters from Terri (my teacher cousin) and am excited to pass them out
• I found a good website, (Utorrent) to download free tv, movies& new music on the rare occasion I get free, fast wifi in Jimma or Addis Ababa towns
• There is a PCV working on publishing a book of local poetry & artworks & wants to include some of my paintings in his book, then sell them to support his school
• My compound family got a fridge!
• I was in Addis Ababa/Ambo/Jimma this past week and so didn’t go to a PTA meeting at my fav school in Bonga, but heard after they all RAVED about me!
• I bought a new beautiful blue dress in Bonga and belt for last weekend, tired of jeans all the time, miracle it fit as all Ethiopian women are TINY and nothing ever fits me here
I just mailed out all my Christmas cards yesterday to everyone, so they should be right on time!
I finished designing a Christmas party invite for Lisa last week, it looks super cute
Cleaned my entire house from top to bottom today, man it needed it
About a month ago I had worms in my stomach, NOT a fun week, but I made it and survived.
Tomorrow I have Art Club, All Teacher’s English informal Club, a sign to paint, and the local Bonga College of Teacher’s Education is touring all Kindergartens so I may tag along for part of it to help conduct a needs assessment to see how the college can give support with resources and trainings, (I’ve already given 1 Kindergarten teacher training and given books) but now it’s a govt. initiative, so they are really cracking down as most KG teacher’s have NO training and almost NO resources, so I’m glad someone other than me noticed and cares now.

Ok, well, I have a few more things I need to do, so whoever said people join the Peace Corps to avoid “real work” havn’t met ME!!!

Happy Holiday Season!!! Someone drink a pumpkin spiced latte for me!!!

Love, Laura

Traveling around Ethiopia with my Sister!

St. George’s Church in Lalibela

Sorry I havn’t posted in a while…. it’s been a whirlwind month or so!  As many of you guys know, my sister Lisa came to visit me in Ethiopia as a surprise!!!  For those of you who don’t know, here’s the short version of the story:  A month or so ago, she and instant messaged each other and she said she had good news, that our mutual friend who works for American Airlines, would be able to put a large piece of luggage in with the cargo on a flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  If I was there on the exact day and time, in Addis Ababa at the airport to meet the oncoming flight, I’d be able to pickup this giant plastic tote container filled with gifts from some of our girlfriends.  She told me she planned a pizza and wine party and invited a bunch of our mutual girlfriends over to hang out, gossip and to each bring a few items they wanted me to have for the tote.

They put in books for my schools, makeup, sweet smelling body wash and scrub, stuffed animals for kids, dry erase boards for deaf/mute students, games, supplies for students for summer camp, and a lot of yummy junk food for me….anyhow, I was super excited and made sure to get to Addis the night before, and got to airport and waited and waited, and talked to airport staff, and still couldn’t find the giant tote with the baggage for the flight and I was starting to get worried….but then, an hour or so later, I grabbed the tote, and hailed a taxi and got back to my hotel excited that everything had gone so smoothly.  (Since I didn’t have a luggage ticket to match up my tote with my flight, I was worried I’d have problems taking the item out of the airport.) Once I got to my hotel, my phone wrang, it was Lisa telling me to come back to the airport, because she was there to surprise me with a visit!!! I was in shock, she had planned to surprise me in the baggage claim area, but I was too fast.   While she was a little disappointed she didn’t get the exact airport surprise she intended, I didn’t care because she’d made it to Ethiopia for a 3 week visit!!!   As it turns out, everyone was in on it, my good PC friend Katie, my PC site-mate in Bonga, Chuck, all our friends ,everyone! 

So, I had a small bag packed as I’d planned to spend a long weekend hanging with my PC friend Katie who was going to meet me in Addis for the 4^th of July weekend, and now I had 3 weeks of travel ahead of me.  Katie and Lisa and I spent a few days in Addis Ababa, the capital, and then went 4 hours by bus, (which turned in to 8 hours because of a bad car accident ahead of us) to the gorgeous resort town of Hawassa where we spent the 4^th of July and several nights.  Hawassa has a giant lake with boats and hippos, and giant stork birds, and amazing Italian food, and 2 stunning resorts with a pool and mini-golf.  Katie and I have a few local friends in Hawassa from our last 2 visits there for my birthday, a and so we got to show Lisa some Ethiopian culture and local food places with good tibs, (like beef fajita meat served in a clay pot with a tiny charcoal fire keeping the meat warm).  We also toured the fish market and were able to throw fish into the mouths of giant stork birds!  We also went to a beautiful, semi-private lake side park and fed giant black and white monkeys by hand!  Lisa also got to ride a gari with me and Katie, (like a cheap version of a horse carriage ride) and enjoyed our nice hotel which had a giant flat screen Lisa could hook up her ipad to, and we could watch giant movies….or the TV show Dallas she had downloaded!  It was fun to be living in Ethiopia and watching the TV show Dallas. 

After our Hawassa fun, we said bye to Katie and we then headed to Bonga, to show Lisa my town and help at the Bonga student summer camp for a few days.  We had fun delivering all the American goodies to the campers, like canvas tote bags for all 26 campers, glow stick bracelets, stickers,  marshmallows for the campfire night etc… I lead a camp presentation on the “Vision For Your Future” with students where the campers got into 4 groups and one group worked together to create a skit about their vision for their future, another group a poster, another group a poem and another group a song…..it was awesome, the kids did so well!

Lisa loved my house and compound family and friends, and survived my outdoor latrine and outdoor cold shower as well.  After a few days we left camp early and took a bus to Addis Ababa then flew to Gonder, an ancient town in Ethiopia that is home to 6 castles.  I have a PCV friend in Gondor so we met with him and got the scoop on the good spots in the town.  We went to an Asmari bet, which is a local, traditional singing and dancing place that has live traditional Ethiopian singing and dancing and a lot of atmosphere.  We toured castles and had a great time taking  tons of photos of each other all over the castles.  There is a really cute one of Lisa with her hair and scarf hanging out of the tower window like Rapunzel.  Our hotel in Gondor was next the most adorable breakfast café with really good food and macchiato.  We also toured a women’s handicraft training facility and bought countless amounts of goods from them!  Gondor was an easy town to navigate and walk, and there are small bajaj’s everywhere.  (A bajaj is like a mini version of a 3 wheeled smart car/go cart). 

After Gondor, we flew to Lalibela, a nearby town with 800 year old monolithic rock-hewn churches that are truly one of the wonders of the world.  The churches were magnificent, and our hotel was perfect with a beautiful garden and lots of birds and the most comfortable beds thus far on the trip.  Lisa and I enjoyed wandering around the churches unaided, but looking back, if I had to do it again, we might have hired a guide to keep the clusters of kiddos at bay who all wanted to talk to us, get money from us, show us their house, and generally annoy us.  As this is a touristy town, I hadn’t expected this level of constant harassment from kids, but I guess most people hire guides to show them the churches and drive around by car and so the kids don’t usually get 2 random American girls wandering around unaided looking as cute as we did!  Also, there are NO bajaj’s in Lalibela, which was a bit surprising, so we got our exercise in this hilly, majestic mountainous town.   So while I highly recommend Lalibela as a must see spot in Ethiopia, if you are not an Ethiopian person, I’d suggest hiring a guide for 2 days to show you around mostly to keep the kiddos at bay.  While we only ate there and soaked up some slow wifi, Mountain View hotel in Lalibela, is the most stunningly beautiful hotel I have ever been in, in the world.  Not in a Ritz kinda way, but in a Frank Lloyd Wright the architect meets the views from Switzerland and there is no distinction between the inside and outside seamlessly blending with warm wood tones and majestic views, it was truly breathtaking…kinda way. 

After Gondor we flew back to Addis Ababa for a day and a half of final bonding, snuggling and shopping before Lisa departed for the States.  But we did establish a few things on our trip. 1.) I HAVE to come home for a 2.5-3 week visit at Christmas, because both her and I can’t wait another year to see each other, and I really want to see the rest of my family and all my friends in Texas, so get prepped people, Lisa’s working on a schedule for seeing Laura over Christmas break, and is taking slots! J  2.) Post Peace Corps, I am moving to New Orleans, Louisiana.  I plan to get my teaching certificate and teach art and get some of my paintings in a few galleries and pursue art there in the summers.  I LOVE New Orleans, the people, the music, the art, the food, the beautiful and historical old homes, the trollies, the walkability of the town, Mardi Gras and they are doing an overhaul of their educational system and looking for more teachers.  3.) I’m going to try and bring Riley back with me to the states, (my neighbor’s puppy that I have taken a liking to).  4.) When I return for my Christmas visit, Lisa’s throwing a Laura’s visiting/Christmas/Neal’s birthday party, probably December 22^nd, so mark you calendars early!  5.)As soon as the TV show Dallas Season 1 is available on DVD, I am so buying it to watch!

So, after Lisa departed back to the states, and I back to Bonga, I’ve had almost a week to recover, get over my nasty cold I’d had most of our trip and get my house in order.  I finished 2 new paintings and a charcoal, and have 2 paintings and 4 charcoals in the works as we speak.  I’ve got loads of free time this summer, and so am drawing and painting to stay sane.   I can’t really complain about all this free time to my undoubtedly overworked American friends and family, but 2 months of free time can make you go a little stir crazy living in a tiny village/town with very, very few distractions and NO nightlife. 

In the space of this last week I’ve given myself a pedicure and facial, taught Riley how to sit on command, cleaned my house, reorganized my dresser, given out all my Lisa/Laura treats to my Ethiopian friends and family, written and mailed 20 notecards with photos, had coffee with friends in Bonga, watched some of the Olympics, baked chocolate chip cookies and given some of them to my compound family, baked walnut and dried cherry scones, taught myself to make “special fool” an Ethiopian breakfast dish, worked out from a fitness magazine, researched alternative teaching certificate options in New Orleans and made a spread sheet from my findings, set out elaborate rat poisonous spots in my house that dogs can’t reach, mailed a mini care package to my Habesha friend who moved to Mizan for a summer teaching program, read 2 magazines, checked up on my vegetable garden at my landlord’s workshop he created for me, re-watched Season 2 of How I met Your Mother TV show, seen 1 movie, finished 2 paintings and a charcoal, picked out my dream apartment in New Orleans online and am wondering how to spend the rest of my roughly 2 months off…as that was only 1 week and I got a lot done.  Also, I’m turning into more of a morning person, so I can’t sleep in, or nap, so I have a LOT of free time on my hands.  I have a plan to do a few paper mache projects, mostly to get rid of a pile of scrap paper.   But I do have a Biogas grant project to check up on for a US Grant Embassy contact of mine(someone else’s  project, not mine), and there is a summer school program I could touch base with and see if I could tutor a bit, so I’ve got some work options too!     Anyhow, I’ll post some pics later, I left my external CD, DVD drive at a friends, and so can’t upload any trip pics at the moment except maybe a few off my camera phone.  Oh, and before I forget, my house in Texas is almost sold, just a little more paperwork and the appraisal to finish so I hope all goes smoothly.

So, I’ll see many of ya’ll in about 5 months at Christmas!!! Then, about another 6-7 months left after that and my service will be complete, wow times flies.  I hope everyone had an amazing 4^th of July, and thanks again to all of you secret keepers out there who helped with Lisa’s surprise, my tote of goodies, and my TONS of birthday cards and treats, it really meant the world to me to feel so supported and loved!

Traveling around ethiopia 1 Of 2

So i havnt blogged in a while as ive been super busy. im currently typing this blog post using my awesome mobile phone because im traveling and didnt want to lug my computer around so forgive my punctuation and grammar as im typing on a tiny keyboard.

so….for those of you dont know, my sister lisa is here with me right now in ethiopia! she came here about 2 weeks ago and surprised me at the airport!!! i thought i was just going to the airport in addis ababa (the capital city) to pickup a giant tote she had arranged with her american airlines friend to have flown to me filled with books for my schools and treats etc…that a bunch of our girlfriends had organized and put into a giant tote to fly to me. so i was at airport to meet the oncoming flight to grab tote that was cargo, and guess what….it was all a ruse! well, the tote was real, but it was her checked bag and there she was!!! i almost had a heart attack!
anyhow, we spent a few days in addis ababa then the resort lake town of hawassa for a week..

Traveling around ethiopia 1 Of 2

So i havnt blogged in a while as ive been super busy. im currently typing this blog post using my awesome mobile phone because im traveling and didnt want to lug my computer around so forgive my punctuation and grammar as im typing on a tiny keyboard.

so….for those of you dont know, my sister lisa is here with me right now in ethiopia! she came here about 2 weeks ago and surprised me at the airport!!! i thought i was just going to the airport in addis ababa (the capital city) to pickup a giant tote she had arranged with her american airlines friend to have flown to me filled with books for my schools and treats etc…that a bunch of our girlfriends had organized and put into a giant tote to fly to me. so i was at airport to meet the oncoming flight to grab tote that was cargo, and guess what….it was all a ruse! well, the tote was real, but it was her checked bag and there she was!!! i almost had a heart attack!
anyhow, we spent a few days in addis ababa then the resort lake town of hawassa for a week..

World Map Mural Painting Project

So since the early 1980’s Peace Corps Volunteers all over the world have been doing this World Map Mural Project in schools and community centers and as I’m such an art person, I knew I’d HAVE to do one.  When I arrived in Bonga some 9+ months ago, I had a lot of free time waiting for the school year to start and so I made a list of goals for my 27 months in PC service, one of them was to “Paint a mural in Bonga”.  Originally I had a fun jungle themed idea with animals etc…and did a watercolor small rough draft painting and talked to my school about my idea, and in typical Ethiopian fashion, they said it was a great idea. 

I bought cement to prepare the wall, (as it is cement blocks and so not a very flat surface due to all the grooves) and then I waited and waited and waited for the school art teacher/handyman to cement the wall…..several months passed and then finally it was painted.  Then it was painted white to ready the surface.  Next Samson, a Physics teacher from a nearby school that I am good friends with, as he’s an art person too; helped me paint the entire surface a bright ocean blue.  We decided to do the border a darker blue and fade it in to give it a 3-D look, which turned out to be a hassle, but looks great.  This took 2 weekends as we underestimated the amount of paint needed and it was a holiday and we could not buy more that day.

Then I borrowed the digital projector from the Teacher’s College in Bonga and got together with a few people at dusk to project and trace the map from my laptop…..but wait, the electricity to the building did not work.  So we all dispursed and had a beer and agreed after electricity was fixed, we’d try again.  So then it took a week or so to get the electrical wiring redone for that building and we were ready again to project; but now the college needed the projector wo we had to wait another 2 weeks.  Then we’re ready again and are all ready to go despite the impending look of rain, but wait, why is the outlet not working now??? I had verbally confirmed with the handyman Lemma that morning it was good to go, and had borrowed the projector from the college a second time, a mere 8 km away. 

So although electricity was clearly working on the school gounds in general, as it turned out, the “big switch” to that building’s electricity was in the records office, locked.  Miraculously the school’s director was still on campus, so I asked him about borrowing the key, and as it turns out, he did not have a key.  Only the record keeper guy had the only key to that room, so eventually, we called him at his home, and he walked to school and unlocked the room for us and flipped the big switch.  Then, horray, success, electricity right?  Wrong.  It was still not working.  And I was starting to feel guilty dragging people to a meeting to trace this map and everything kept going wrong.

So so random school worker guy I didn’t know offered to check it out, and Samson, my Physics teacher friend and Chuck and a few other watchers played around with it.  They spliced exposed dangling wires, reconnected other ones, we had 2 extension cords going and an ancient power strip that literally had a plastic pen glued into part of it holding something together, and then the outlet itself had to be replaced which turned out to be the problem.  Once the outlet was replaced, it worked……until someone bumped it and shattered half of the outlet cover off.  So Chuck ripped off a piece of random duct tape off his aluminum water bottle and rigged the outlet back together.  So long as no one breathed on it, and the rain storm didn’t start, (it looked really bad outside) we were good to go.  And as we were finished and leaving, lightning started and it started pouring rain once I got home!

So we finally projected the map and the next weekend got together with students to paint it in.  Samson selected some art club students from a nearby school and Lemma selected some art club students from that school, (Grazmach Paulos) and Alemseged my counterpart and Chuck and I showed up to get the party started on a Saturday morning.  However, Alemseged and I talked a few days before and he was worred about 2 things going wrong. 

#1 that Barta School students and Grazmach Paulos school students would be in competition and not get along and would create problems.  (it turned out they worked together great and it was not an issue at all…..also I wanted a few Barta students to learn, so we could do this project later at Barta school in the future)

#2 that students were not talented, or coordinated enough to paint, and Alemseged wanted them to sit and watch the adults paint the entire thing and “learn” that way, he argued as the painting would be there for at least 10 years, he wanetd it to look it’s best and so kids were not to be trusted, I politely and emphatically told him perfection was NOT the desired outcome and if we selected carefully art club students and watched them, they would do a good job and it was more important to me that they helped, than it be perfect, (as it turned out they ROCKED it, and I’m SO glad they were there to paint)

So, Chuck and Alemseged fixed Europe which had gotten a bit confused with all the tiny countries with marker and I had students help me mix paint colors and I had brought a large world map from my house to use as a color scheme sample.  I was not totally sure how to begin with like 15 students all showing up at random times to help, but figured I’d start with South America as it was low and easier, and would grab green paint a brush, and show a kid Brazil on the laminated map, then show him the outline of Brazil on the wall and tell him to paint it green like the other map.  Then the next kid, another country etc…..eventually they could go look at laminated map and pick out a country to paint, find the coorasponding color and point to outline on wall and confirm with an adult it was correct, and then they’d paint it. 

Aside from a few greedy kids that wanted to paint everything, especially China and Russia and all the big countries, and some shy girls I had to encourage a bit, it went amazingly well, and we knocked it out in about 3.5 hours.  One student, (Lemma’s son) even did the lettering of the oceans!  I literally only held a brush for maybe 5 mins to demonstrate painting techniques to the students who were scrubbing the wall and not using great form.  Then, toward the end, it became almost a fight for students to get to paint as the countries were filling up quickly, so I passed out a ton of tiny brushes, (thanks to Bill, my brother who sent them in a care package) to all students and black paint and had them all free for all outline every country so they would pop.  (I must say that in this case, I am especially impressed with the strength, and “non-complainingness” of Ethiopian kids.  There was no water and it was super hot, no snacks, some of their clothing I know were ruined and they would probably be punished at home for that, not everyone got to participate the same exact amount of time, there were no prizes and it was early on a Saturday morning and the paint was enamel, and we had no kerosene to wash up with so everyone left smiling, but filthy,  I can’t really see that happening with 10-15 year old students in the States)

This or next weekend we are going to label the countries, but after that, DONE!  And so Barta school is so excited to do one just like this at their school we’ve already selected a wall, and Samson has written a proposal to get a small budget approved to buy paint for the mural.  Random townspeople are approaching me to tell me the map looks great, perfect even. 

 So here’s why I’m especially proud of this project.  It was something that the students from 2 schools did most of the work on despite concerns about their abilities. It turned out to look amazing!  It helped me bond with all involved.  It is on a main wall facing the main road, so anyone can easily see it, and it will stay there for many, many years.  I feel like although I didn’t really paint anything but the ocean, I can say I fulfilled my goal to “Paint a mural in Bonga”.  It’s nice to feel like I have a tangible legacy to leave behind.  It was super fun and rewarding and educational and now, all school’s want to do one too. 

So suuuure my 2-3 weekend project turned into a 6 month ordeal, but in the end, it turned out SO much better than I could have imagined. 

World Malaria Day March in Bonga PHOTOS!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On May 2nd, we celebrated World Malaria Day in Bonga, Ethiopia.  World Malaria Day is actually April 25th but due to some scheduling conflicts, we celebrated exactly 1 week later.  Malaria is still one of the top killers in Africa, especially for children under the age of 5 years old.   Awareness is a big issue in Ethiopia as in many parts of Africa.  To help raise awareness about causes of malaria and malaria prevention and treatment, I organized a 8 kilometer march in Bonga from the top of town near 2 schools to the bottom finishing at the Teacher’s College of Education. 

We had about 130 students from several schools in Bonga participate as registered marchers.  I had announced the week before that we would have a sign competition also, and for students to bring their signs to the march.  There was a contest for the best Kafi noonoo sign, (local language of Kafa region), best Amharic sign and best English sign as well as a best overall sign and a few runnerup signs.  Prizes ranged from an American mini-soccar ball for best overall sign, to bags of goodies like ping pong balls, fingernail polish, stickers, colored pencils, candy etc….for other winners.  Each student who won also got a certificate, (which are a big deal here) and their photo taken with me and their sign.

We marched with a full size mosquito net and a boom box for music, but the students ended up singing and chanting songs and so it was loud walking through town.  Once we reached the Teacher’s College at the bottom of town, we had tea and biscuits, (large donut holes) for students and I bought bottled water.  (It turned out the college campus was out of water, and so that became a big problem with 130+ thirsty, tired student who just walked 8 kilometers on a really sunny day……so I bought my way outta that problem and bought 100 birr worth of giant water bottles)  The only issues we had was the water not available on college campus  and the 2 traffic police officers who were supposed to help us with safety along the road, did not show up, but it was a non-market day, so the car traffic was minimal.

Once everyone got water I had invited Ato. Legessee Haile, the Head of Disease Prevention and Health in Bonga to speak to students about malaria prevention, transmission and treatment.  He even did half of the march with us to show his support!  He talked to them about using bednets, closing windows before it gets dark, getting rid of stagnant water in their backyards, spraying to get rid of mosquitos and how to recognize signs if you think you are infected.  Malaria is also treatable and usually cureable, so it’s important for students to also know that if they get infected, it’s still a big deal, but not a lost cause.  Several students wrote poems in Kafi noonoo and Amharic and one students composed and sang a song about malaria.  I gave a brief speech and thanked everyone for their help especially Chuck Adams, my “PCV Site-mate” for helping organize the event at the college and taking all of the photos and Ato. Alemseged, my counterpart (who is now nicknamed my Avatar for helping me so much) for helping me corral students and explain the events to them in Amharic.

After we announced winners of the sign competitions and gave out prizes, I arranged for the giant College bus to drive us all the 8 kilometers back up the giant hill to the top of town and I can honestly say, I think it’s the first time a group of students that large had ever been on a bus alltogether, they were singing and dancing and generally went a bit craized on the bus ride home.  I wasnt even annoyed at all the screaming and being completly squished in the bus, I just basked in the chaos and absorbed the energy of their excitement and felt a total sense of accomplishment at our amazing day and how successful it was. 

Overall, we had an amazing day, were truly successful in raising malaria awareness and I got to bond further with many of my students and the weather was a bit hot, but miraculously not a cloud in the sky, and as we just entered the rainy season, I was greatful there wasn’t a big storm.  Truly one of my best Peace Corps days! And, just in time for my May 23rd anniversary as officially being in the Peace Corps for 1 year!!!

The next morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to walk to the bus station to get on a bus to Hawassa to visit friends and do the Every One run, to support maternal and newborn health, I planned to walk the 7 K  one day later, but got a bit sick and so gave my support to the other runners and hung with friends…..what a week!  Now, I wasnt completly selfless….I also enjoyed seeing PCV friends, hanging by the lake, looking at hippos and giant crane birds, eating pizza and drinking real cocktails, shopping and even managed to see the movie the Avengers in 3D in Addis Ababa on my way back from Hawassa.   I enjoyed the modern part of Ethiopia for almost 2 weeks, but it’s good to be home.  And it’s good to call Bonga home and feel like I truly mean it.