IST overview

Overview on IST: Overall the last 2.5 weeks has been fun, overwhelming, exhausting, and draining. I enjoyed getting to see the rest of my G-9ers, eating ferenji (foreigner) food (especially ice-cream), and hanging out with the friends I never see and I miss dearly. Oh, I also was able to go to the doctor’s. You see, for like 4 months I’ve been having headaches at least 3-4 times a week and the last 1.5 months my right eye has been watering. So the PC doctor sent me to an eye doctor. The eye doctor gave me some drops and pills and said she wants to see me in 10 days -2 weeks. So overall, it was a good 2 weeks. I just don’t know if I’d want to do another 2 weeks of training.

IST travel home: I asked the hotel I was staying in three times before I finally was told the shuttle driver that would take me to the airport was not there. So at 9:30pm, I called a PC taxi and asked if he would pick me up at 5:30am. I was so upset with the hotel. The airport was normal, waiting for my flight to be called so that I could get on a bus to take me to my plane. There so many tourists on the flight. I had the last row, the guy in my row took my window seat and luckily I didn’t care. Oh, and when everyone got off the bus to get on the flight, I swear no one knows what a line is. The make lines to go through security, but not to get on a plane. It’s so frustrating. Ok, I land in Bahir Dar, not knowing how I’m going to get into town, specifically the PC Office. So as I’m walking through the airport, a guy asks if I need a ride. Now this guy works for a hotel and was there to pick up other people. I graciously took him up on his offer, because it saved me money and time.  I didn’t have to find a taxi or bajaj and pay the 50 birr it costs. I was stoked. So I’m at the office for like one hour then I decide to head home to Injibara. I really just wanted to be in my house. I get to the bus station. I hate the Bahir Dar bus station, but I’ve figured out where the buses park that are heading my direction. I walked toward them and found a bus pretty quickly and it left within minutes (now that is an accomplishment). I didn’t have to put my suitcase on the top of the bus either, and I was only charged 43 birr instead of the usual 45 birr. It was a good travel day. I was glad to be home, to check the mail, to unpack and re-clean my house. I cleaned the house before I left, but my floors were gross upon my arrival.

On my way to the post office, I was walking down a side, dirt road, when I noticed a woman lying in the middle of the street. I really couldn’t even tell you if she was breathing. I know that sounds bad, but sometimes it’s hard to tell, especially in Addis Ababa when so many people lay on the side of the road all the time. It weirded me out.

Then later today, I was walking towards the shint bet (toilet), when someone was peeing. So not only do guys pee anywhere in this country, sometimes people don’t close the door to the shint bet, sometimes there is no door.  This also weirded me out. 

Changes within my self

Some things that have changed about me:

I…

·         now drink hot tea without milk with just sugar

·         eat onions

·         eat garlic

·         even eat peppers occasionally

·         drink multiple small cups of coffee with a bunch of sugar on a daily basis

·         cook

·         do laundry by hand

·         sweep my room every day

·         don’t have to be on the internet every day…I can even go a week or so without it

·         don’t have to watch T.V. anytime I’m not working

·         can get by with eating 1 or 2 good meals a day and a snack

·         do my dishes the same day I dirty them

·         don’t need to shower daily or even every other day…twice a week is plenty (as long as you baby wipe between)

·         have become very clumsy..not a day goes by where I don’t almost fall flat on my face

·         my fingertips are slowly growing  a tolerance for heat

·         when I cook I sometimes throw whatever I have into a pot and hope it turns out good, most of the time it does

·         lived with a rat for who knows how long, I first saw the rat like 2 weeks before finally finding him but only like twice, well he apparently found a place to live in one of my suitcases

·         tried baking with a Dutch oven…my cookies didn’t turn out how I’d like them to

·         hardly ever drink milk…I miss cold milk! L

·         I drink beer…sometimes not so good beer sometimes okay beer

I know this list seems crazy…like why weren’t you doing this in the states, but I still lived at home and my parents are amazing! 

Holiday season

The holiday season was easier than expected. I spent Christmas and New Years with 16 other volunteers. Christmas was spent north of Bahir Dar. We had tacos, chocolate chip pancakes, and kabobs over three days. There were decorations sent from states. Each volunteer received a stocking. We did secret Santa and White Elephant. I got to talk to my parents and Grandma. Things didn’t seem too bad, being surrounded by other people helped to make it easier. New Years was spent about 15 minutes north of my town. There were also 17 PCVs. A fellow PCV has an awesome contact in her town of an Ethiopian who owns a café on the hill with lots of land. He provided dinner. We projected a movie and had a huge bonfire. After the movie we played music and danced around the fire. I stayed up until like 4:30 am. I had a blast.

Sorry this is short and I haven’t written in a while. I’ve been crazy busy. I hope to have a few more posts up within the next few weeks, as school break is right around the corner along with exam week.