Wrote these posts a while ago and I finally have enough internet to post them!

28/5/11

Tena yistlign? Dehna negn.

Today is my third day in Ethiopia? I left on Sunday for staging in ATL and flew out Tuesday from ATL to Frankfurt and arrived in Addis Wednesday night (about 24 hours of flying woooh!). So happy that I stopped in Frankfurt though! Bought me an expensive Kinder Bueno (for emergency purposes only).

Well, my group is a group of 69 amazing volunteers from all around the U.S. (though California is definitely representing and surprisingly enough, three of us, myself included, have ties to good ol’ Fremont, CA). The first two days here were mostly administrative - getting to know our Program Manager (Mine is Daniel in Education) and our medical officer (Dr. Wuhib). We were also given a basic overview of Safety and Security (surprisingly traffic accidents are a big concern here) and Medical issues (it is guaranteed that I will contract gastro-intestinal disease.

Anyway, today, was finally a day of productivity (woohoo!). We began our Amharic lessons today - which is a super difficult language that resembles nothing I’ve learned before. It’s also hard because what you say will differ based on the gender of the person you’re speaking to. For example, I can say “Indemin neh?” (how are you?) to a man, but “Indemin nesh” (how are you?) to a woman. I feel like I’m going to make my “Obrigada/do” mistake A LOT haha (background story: I went to Portugal and thought I was cool and tried to speak Portuguese but ended up telling this worker, “Thank you, I’m a girl - NO NO NO, Thank you, I’m a BOY.” >_<. Also, I got my typhoid and rabies shot today so rabid animals beware! You cannot hurt me! I also got to go outside of the hotel today (and past the block! - we don’t really leave the hotel due to our lack of language abilities) to a USAID’s worker’s house. We got to mingle with USAID staff members/directors, someone from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education, and the U.S. Ambassador for Ethiopia, which was really cool. They were all so encouraging and it’s amazing to see the faces who have dreamt up this Peace Corps - Education program for the last two years (FYI, Peace Corps - Education is the first of its kind so I will hopefully be an agent of change :)).

Well, I should go so Dehna Hunu (goodbye!).

3/6/2011

We started our technical training this past week .. which, to be quite honest, has been quite boring (though today we met with someone from the Ministry of Education). We were briefed on various organizations that work with USAID (USAID is currently funding Peace Corps’ education program in Ethiopia) and I finally got a better gist of what I’ll be doing in this country. I will either be working at a College for Teacher’s Education training teachers or working at a cluster school, overseeing teachers in multiple primary schools. Ethiopia is pretty on track with the Millenium Development Goals in regards to education (I believe 94% may currently be enrolled in school), however, the quality of education is seriously lacking. 

Anyway, other snippets of life include going to “Mexico” to buy shoes (professionalism here equals closed toe shoes) and Gail (a current PCV) buying us Ethiopia toothbrushes! haha. The shoes are also imported from various thrift stores from the U.S. haha! We also had Ethiopian pizza tonight - I had the vegetarian and it was packed with carrots, zucchinis, onions, green beans! haha def. not your typical pizza. This Sunday, we’ll be leaving this hotel/Addis Ababa and moving to Assela/host families. Excitingggggg! hehe