Selekleka

A two lane highway snakes through town waiting for the busses to come through to Shire or Axum. A lush, green, densely forested hill stands proudly behind the colorful storefronts on the left hand side while the land opens up to a valley on the other. Boxes of cactus fruit sit on the sidewalk as their seller flicks away the flies. Twelve proud, tall camels use the bike lane, walking single file on the way to get another load of wood, flour or other commodities the farmer may need. Orange ping pong balls bounce back and fourth as competitive teenage boys play under the sun in Ethiopian jerseys. Fresh roasted coffee waifs through on the dusty, warm air inviting one into many little coffee houses. This is Selekleka, soon to be my home away from home.

When I was asked over a month ago where I wanted to be placed, I listed off something like the following: green, small, plenty of children, other site mates to collaborate with would be cool but not necessary, fruit and veggies, moderate temperature and rural. I realized that this was a random list and I wasn't guaranteed to get anything I asked for. There is nothing special about me to make me get what I want compared to the other 69 PCTs who also had their own dream lists. Spending time in Selekleka made me realize how blessed I really am. It's more than I could have anticipated or expected.

The country opens up along the paved turning road heading west out of Axum. Rolling hills are dark green thanks to all the rain this rainy season has brought. The first you can see of Selekleka is a square four story hotel sitting on the edge of the corner and hill while you wind your way to it. The entire town takes five minutes to drive through or twenty minutes to walk from one end to the other if you stop and talk to people along the way. For someone missing Mill City sized places, this is a relief from the large city atmosphere. Although the main road is paved all the roads coming off of it to form a web of rocky soil trails. After a rain, one has to slosh through the mud that squelches up your shoes to get anywhere. Unlike Butajira, where donkeys pull carts and horse drawn buggies are common and multiple, there are none here. Outside the mill house, where locals take their grain to get beaten into flour, donkeys and camels wait to carry the goods on their backs. I never saw a horse. Children call out and quickly learn your name! I will probably have to start being called "Jozie" as "Jessie" is a problem for most. My two site mates are fun, encouraging, welcoming, and supportive. Building relationships with them is going to be fun.

The school, a high school for Grades 9&10, is outside of the town hub. The 25-40 minute walk may seem daunting, but it is absolutely gorgeous. Hills form a loose hug around the valley of green turf and corn fields. Walking along the paved road (40 minute way) is smooth, gorgeous and a fun place to meet really rural children enamored by the lightness of my skin. Due to the rain, the short way through fields is unsuitable to go through for me. I was willing to try, but the kind school guard argued against it, so the road it was. I don't know details about when I will be teaching Grade 9, as the administrators of the school were in other cities for meetings. I am excited that it is the same grade I started Practicum with, but look forward to finding ways to adapt to the 55-60 students per class I will teaching.

While the Peace Corps did give me enough birr to stay in a hotel for my visit, I was able to say in my future compound! It is unclear if I am going to have one or two rooms, but the room I stayed in was amazing! The walls are painted a light teal, aquamarine and is still fairly fresh. The ceiling is tall which allows the medium size room to feel less claustrophobic-y. There is a bed that is comfortable and tall enough to store things under. I could get some tables and have my own kitchen area under the three foot square window. My two site mates let me look at their places, so I have plenty of dream ideas floating through my head. Probably the best part about my compound are the people. My landlady introduced herself as "Addoy" or "Mama." She is so hospitable and nice. For breakfast yesterday she gave me a large slice of bread with a sizable quantity of honey. Her granddaughter and daughter from Germany were visiting and very fun. My neighbor works at the health center as a HIV/AIDs nurse, giving medicine to those with the disease to prevent the spread. She invited me over for dinner and tea. Although our knowledge of each other's language is limited, we were able to have conversations mixing the two together. Her two year old is full of energy but adorable! I am going to miss her, but am looking forward to moving in and being her permanent neighbor.

Finally, Selekleka is a magical niche for deliciousness. Before site visit I had hit an injera wall. No matter how hard I tried, injera in Butajira was too sour and too hard to stomach most of it. In Selekleka it is edible! Last night I was even able to eat an entire plate of fir fir, injera with injera pieces soaked in spices, and enjoyed it. I also have discovered los shai, peanut tea. This sweet, thick, warm, peanut buttery tea is absolutely delicious on its own and great for dunking chocolate cookies in. Eating out at local habisha places with site mates has also been good. It is good to talk with people who live her and watch as they make food or spices. I cannot wait to learn how to cook some of these foods when I come back in a month.

Yes, I have one more month from today, before swearing in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. One month to kick up the Tigrigna learning. One month to enjoy my host family and Butajira family. One month to get education, medical and safety trainings. One month until I come back to my small piece of paradise.

Coffee

Okay we got to talk about coffee. As many of you know I am not a coffee fan. I don't like the taste or smell, but I am in the country where coffee was first discovered, drank, and cultivated. I have also done some assignments on it and figure all you coffee lovers would like to hear about this. The coffee ceremonies in Ethiopia are very important. They show respect and are at all social events. First they start by washing the green beans. Then they are put on a steel plate over a charcoal stove to roast. In order to keep the beans from burning the person roasting has a hooked shaped metal prong to move the beans around. With this she can also flip the beans so that all sides turn brown at the same rate. It is also important to fan the flame of the stove so that the beans are cooking at a consistent rate. Once the beans have popped and are the color of satisfaction they are set aside while a special clay pot specifically designed for coffee is put on the stove to boil. The beans then go in a mortar and pestle type devise to get ground extremely finely. Once the water has boiled the majority of the grounds are poured in. Then you wait for the coffee to reboil. To see if the coffee is the right, taste little samples are poured out. The pot is designed to limit the grounds During the first half of the pot. If coffee is too strong water is added, but if it is too "tea like" more grounds are added. When done the pot is brought into the house and put on a hot pad specifically designed to hold the round clay coffee pot. On the floor they put a small mat with plastic frills similar to fake hula skirts. They can range in colors and design, but all the ones I've seen have the plastic frills. On the mat is a two story tray that holds the coffee cups. While some like to drink coffee plain, adding salt and butter is preferred by my host father. They assume as a foreigner that I will have sugar in mine. Coffee is recoiled three times during the ceremony. The same grounds are used it's just the water that is re-added. Children occasionally get to drink some during the third round when it is not as strong. I made it a month without drinking any coffee. There was always tea as an option or I could opt to not buy it myself. However, this week my host dad made surprise visits home (he works in another town as a driver) and wanted coffee with dinner. I tried to talk myself out of it, but he insisted I try at least one cup. Although they put sugar in it, they used the same spoon that had been in the butter. While this might gross out you coffee gurus, it didn't taste all that bad. The second time he came I again had one cup (about the circumference of the top of a shot glass) with only sugar. I don't know if it is because the coffee is so fresh, boiled, or what, but it tasted pretty good. Granted I still prefer tea, but I can at least drink a cup without puckering. Also, because it's only 1/4 cup of coffee it totally didn't affect sleep at all. So there is a small update on coffee. This weeks assignment is to make chirro and injera!

Doing It Like Doolittle

Eliza Doolittle (from "My Fair Lady") has never connected with me more before this week. Yes it is only Thursday, but still the sweet street urchin Miss Dolittle has come to mind often enough to be recognized.

This week we changed language groups. I am still learning Tigrigna, but my language teacher has changed and my group has shrunk down to a pair. My new language teacher is a phonetic and pronunciation nazi. He's not that much different than Henry Higgins in his determination to have me pronounce sounds correctly. There are just some sounds my throat struggles to make. Of course one of those sounds is very important and used frequently in Tigray. For example if said correctly in a word, it could say "kid," but if incorrect it changes to "he said". It is also used in many numbers which is going to be key for me in a bartering system. While my frustrated brain wants to just say the sound, I feel stuck like Eliza repeating the same sound over and over and over again. However, I do recognize that this frustration can power determination to keep going for a pay off. Besides, “kid” is a pretty important word to say.

Partly due to the fact we are one month in, some friends have started reminiscing about home. Usually this involves food. A select few have received care packages with some luxuries. While I agree it would be "loverly" to have "lots of chocolates for me to munch," I've noticed my priorities have changed. I got excited on Tuesday when Peace Corps delivered my weekly stash of bottled water and even more so on Wednesday when we got our biweekly supply of TP. Having the water off in our house for sink and shower (not heated) for the last five mornings, led to bucket showers this week. Even though I wash my hands with water that will probably make me sick if I drink it, I miss it when it is gone. My little hand sanitizer  has become my go to. One of my friends was sent a gigantic hand sanitizer and her offer to refill mine whenever, totally relieved an unrecognized stress. Sure I miss American food, but my focus on what would be "loverly" has shifted. Locally made ocholoni (peanut butter), kolo (roasted birdseed) and spritz (mango avocado juice) are my new favorites snacks that I crave.

"Words! Words! Words! I'm so sick of words!" While this lyric could describe my battle with Tigrigna vs Amharic in my life, it could also be used to express a change in my teaching mindset I have undergone this week. The Peace Corps has a pretty cool "Lesson 4Mat" for Practicum and teaching. As punned, this has four sections to it: 1) Motivation: activate prior knowledge or schema 2) Information: present new material 3) Practice: all structured and guided practice time 4) Application: students apply new skill to life to produce a concrete product showing the skill. My job is to take the learning competences from teacher book, adapt student book activities to fit daily objectives (sometimes tricky as they are designed by different people) and fit 40 minutes into the 4Mat. My problem last week was not fitting in the time frame what I wanted to do. Then I realized, after observing another PCT, that I was spending too much time talking. I know English! Why am I talking the majority of the time? This week I've concentrated on condensing my lessons to a 3 minute motivation that leads directly into a 5-7 minute info section for a 10-15 minute guided practice and ending on 15-20 minutes of application. My talk has gone down, but the student talking has gone way up! It is amazing what students can do when they are engaged with a purpose.

One of the major reasons my hand sanitizer is dwindling is because I fist bump, dance, play with and twirl adorable, dirty kids. There are three beautiful girls that live by my language class. They will run with open arms as soon as they see me to see who can get to me first. Then they will jump into my arms and smile as I twirl them around. Once they are on the ground and everyone has had a chance, we play patty cake games. Some locals laugh and smile while some other PCTs think I am crazy. I love walking that road to see if they are out. Ring around Rosie type games and the Hokey Pokey games with neighborhood kids get cut short as the sun sets, making me grumble that "I could have dance [or played] all night." The children definitely are a big blessing.

Also this week I was reminded how “fair” a lady I am when I got my first sunburn. It wasn't bad enough to crazy open the sacred bottle of aloe, but a hot, stiff reminder to put on sunscreen. In all fairness, a giant storm had come in at 5am and was still going on as a constant drizzle at 7:45 when I left for class. There was no way to know the sun would come out or that one of my classes would be outside. I may need to throw the sunscreen in backpack with TP, Neosporin, hand sanitizer, chalk, and markers.

Life is busily good. I will put up schedule when I can. Love you all!