I have been back in Butajira for a few days now after
spending a week at my site. It was
such great learning experience! My
site is a town called Woliso. It
is about 112 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa (usually about a 2-3 hour bus
ride). Woliso is located in the
Oromia region and the regional language is Oromifa. I am currently learning Amharic. Luckily, Woliso is a big enough town that many people speak
both languages. It will be
beneficial for me to learn at least some basic Oromifa. The town has a population of a bit over
50,000 people and the major religions of the town are Orthodox, Protestant, and
Islam. There are also some cool
looking animals include monkeys (aka totos in Amharic).
During this time of the year, Woliso gets a bit hot during
the day and cools down during the night.
It can get pretty windy as well.
The rainy season begins in May (around the time I swear in as a volunteer)
and lasts through July or August.
I have not experienced the rainy season yet, so am excited to see what
it will be like. Since Woliso is
such a big town, there are many resources available for me to use and there are
a handful of health offices, clinics, NGOs, and schools that I can connect with
when starting up a project.
I feel like I have been extremely lucky with where my site
is. Not only is it extremely close
to Addis Ababa, I have a site mate who will be living in the same compound as
me and there are at least three other volunteers who live within 45 minutes of
me. It is nice to have other
people close to me that are going through a very similar experience. In some ways it will be hard when I
transition from training in Butajira to living in Woliso because I have gotten
to know and become friends with many people in my group. It will be hard in some ways to be so
far away from many of them. I am
so grateful for the technology that we have because we will all be able to
continue to communicate on a regular basis.
We have about a month left of training. It has been crazy how quickly training
has gone by already. I have
learned and experienced so much already.
I have learned some of the national language and some technical skills
that will be extremely useful down the road as I begin to decide how I can best
serve my community. I have also
learned so much from those around me (locals as well as fellow Peace Corps
trainees). I have already
visited Addis Ababa, Butajira, a little bit of the northern region (Tigre), and
have visited my site (Woliso). I
have seen some amazing historical sites as well as some beautiful places of the
nature that Ethiopia provides. And
of course I have watched plenty of soccer.
It is amazing how much I have already learned and how much I
still have to learn. The next two
years will be filled with ups and downs, but I am so excited for what the
future has in store for me. I know
that the next month will be challenging as I plow through language sessions and
look forward to finally swearing in as a volunteer. Thank you all so much again for your continuing support and
encouragement. I wouldn’t have
made it this far without all of you!
Things to look forward to (and things I will eventually blog
about!):
- · Health Sector weekend field trip to Ambo next weekend
- · Camp Glow second to last week of training
- · Swearing In Ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa (May 2)
- · Move to Woliso!!
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| Toto |
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