week 1-2

I flew out of Tampa International on Monday, July 1^st at 8:00; I arrived in Philly around 10:30, where I waited to meet a few of the people in my group. Monday evening was spent in Staging, which is a brief orientation on PC, its goals, and some ice breakers between all 58 of us trainees. Tuesday actually began travel. The bus departed from the hotel around 7:45am to JFK airport, about a 2 hour drive. Upon arriving at the airport, we were early and the check in desk was not open yet, so we waited for what seemed like forever (I think it was about 1.5-2 hours). The plane left JFK at 3:50 heading to Frankfort, Germany. We arrived in Germany at 5:30am local time. The walk from our arriving gate to our departing gate seemed like miles and took like 30-45 minutes, where we waited yet again to get through security. Our plane left Germany at 11:15am (local). We had a stop in Sudan, can’t remember the name, but it was just to let some people off. Finally the plane landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia around 9:00pm (local). After getting everyone’s luggage and making our way to the buses, I was glad to be able to get to a bed. The hotel we stayed at was very accommodating. The next day began at 8:30 with training, we didn’t do training all day which I was thankful of, because we had just traveled for 2 days. Training happens every day from 8-6 with a lunch break at 12:30-2:00 and two, yes I said two, coffee/tea breaks, one in the morning from 10-10:30 and the second in the afternoon from 4-4:30. I do enjoy these breaks; just too mentally put my brain on hold. Okay this all leads up to my first weekend in Ethiopia.  

My first weekend I spent in a town called Malameda(????). PCV’s broke our large group up and send us to various currents volunteer’s homes/sites to see how they live and what they do on a daily basis, which PC calls Demystification. My demyst was in a small site, on the top of some mountain, where the elevation was 10,000 feet. The bus ride was horrible, but I guess you’d get used to it. The first half of the ride was on paved roads, whereas the second part of was on unpaved roads going up mountains and round sharp curves. It was scary at many times, but I the view going up was beautiful. I didn’t take any pictures of the ride, but I will see about getting some from the other trainees that I was with. So upon arriving in this town, it was pouring and the roads, well let’s just say it was rocks with dirt. We immediately went to our hotel (which had Western toilets!). The first night I had a room with a community sintbet (hole in the ground), however after that night, everyone got a room with a Western toilet. Leslye, our PCV, took us on a hike to a gorge. The hike wasn’t too bad, mostly flat land, with very few hills, however the elevation was so high it affected my breathing and I consistently felt out of breath. The gorge and landscape were beautiful though, it was definitely worth it!  To wrap up the 2 full days in Malhameda (????), it was lots of fun and informational. The second day, Leslye and Julia (another PCV) showed some of us how to cook; I sat on the couch and talked. Besides showing us things like that, they answered numerous questions, concerns and just were very informational about what life is like in Ethiopia. The whole weekend (Sat-Tues) was supposed to demyst our first reactions to like as a PCV.

I arrived back in Addis Ababa on Tuesday. Oh, I forgot to mention the worst part of the trip was the Mercado (the bus station). It is supposed to be the most dangerous place in Ethiopia; however it was the only way to get to Leslye’s site. We arrived there at like 5:45am on Sat. and it was a disaster and scary. Okay, back to being in Addis. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were training, just like the week before, the only difference being I had to find my own dinner. I ate pizza on Wednesday and Thursday, at two different places, and on Friday I ate at Kaldi’s, a Starbucks knockoff. This wraps up my first 2 weeks in Ethiopia. Next blog will be on Butajira!