I wanted to use this particular post to give you an update
of my life and service in Ethiopia up to this point in time. I have people ask me all the time what
I am up to, what am I doing, and what work/projects I am doing. In case some of you are reading my blog
for the first time I will begin with the beginning of my service.
The first three months in country were called pre-service
training (PST). Volunteers go
through these few months of training in their country of service before
officially becoming a volunteer.
After these first three months of service, my group went through our
swear-in ceremony and became official volunteers (May 2014).
Following the swear-in ceremony, we moved to our sites (the
towns that we would be living in for the next two years). For the next three months, we spent
time getting to know our communities and figuring out how we would best serve
the people of our communities.
After these three months, my group met for an in-service training in
which we spent time experience sharing and sat through technical trainings.
Over the past year since this in-service training, I have
spent time in my site conducting various training and programs with the
different non-governmental organizations that I work with in town. The two primary non-governmental
organizations I have been working with are Family Guidance Association and
Vision Community Based Rehabilitation Association. With Family Guidance Association, I have led a few
individual sessions at various training for youth, teachers, etc. I have also worked one-on-on a little
bit with the students that regularly come to the youth center at Family
Guidance Association compound.
Currently, my site mates and I are working on an Earth bench
on the compound. The point of this
project is to teach the students the importance of recycling. With this bench, we first had to
collect used plastic water bottles and trash. We filled the water bottles with trash as well as some
sand to help maintain the shape of the bottles. Once the bottles were filled, we began to build the bench
itself. We first dug out an area
that would be used as the base of the bench. Then our first layer was a cement foundation. Following this cement layer came a
layer of water bottles filled with trash.
Then a cement layer followed by another water bottle layer. We have been continuing this process
and will continue until the bench reaches an appropriate height.
At Vision Community Based Rehabilitation Association, I have
helped lead a few sessions in various training for the staff. A continuous program that I have been
doing with staff is a weekly English class. It is a very cool experience seeing their improvement in the
English language as well as in their growth in confidence, etc. Future programs with Vision Community
Based Rehabilitation Association will include focusing more so on disabilities
and people who are differently abled.
Over the past year, I have also done other smaller projects
as well including helping out a little bit with one site mates English class
and helping a little bit with the girls club at the secondary school. I have gone to various programs such
female support meetings, etc. Last
December, I participated in a two-week permaculture course and by the end of
the course, I earned my permaculture certification. I also recently helped with a Camp Glow in Debre Birhan
during the first week of July (just a little north of Addis Ababa). The camp was a girl’s only camp. It was such a great experience and my
next blog post will focus on the camp because there is so much to share about
it.
It may sound like I am busy, but there really are times in
which I have a lot of free time. When
I have periods of up to weeks where I am not doing much, I try to fill it up with
productive things such as language tutoring (now I’m trying to learn a little
Oromifa), reading, exercising, etc.
Some of these things that I fill my free time up with also act as really
good coping mechanisms for when I am dealing with harassment, stressing over
something, or even just having a difficult time in general.
Sometimes, I am very busy. Sometimes, I have way too much time on my hands. But that is the nature of Peace Corps
service as a health volunteer in Africa (and maybe even specifically
Ethiopia). With the mind set of
many of the volunteers, this can be very difficult because many of us have come
out of working constantly for school, full-time jobs, etc. and it can be very
difficult for us to have to deal with not having very much work for extended
periods of time. Despite how
challenging this experience is, I am realizing that I am being tested. My limits, boundaries, etc. are being
tested and this experience is pushing me (sometimes in a bad way, but hopefully
mostly in a good way). Even though
this experience is challenging and extremely hard on me at times, I am also
very grateful for it. I am so
grateful for the people that I have met here. Some of these people will be lifelong friends and will be
some of my best friends for life.
These people are the only people who will ever fully understand this
experience I have had and the changes I have gone through because they have
been right next to me since the beginning of this experience.
One thing that I have learned is that despite how good or
bad any situation or overall experience is, you can come away from that
experience a better person for what you have learned and the growth that you
have made because of it.
