Ethiopia, The Land of Milk and Honey (and really good coffee)

Horseback riding through Bale Mountains in southern Ethiopia.
Photos courtesy of Jim Tanton

Jim and I just got back from three magical weeks in Ethiopia. We explored the Bale Mountains on horseback, crept through dark tunnels connecting rock-hewn churches in Lalibela, observed gelada monkeys up close in the Simien Mountains and drank macchiatos in the eastern walled city of Harar. We saw an enormous part of the country in only three weeks, mostly thanks to the convenience (and price) of Ethiopian Air domestic flights (*see bottom for notes).

I wanted to write not only to describe our adventures (the good and the ugly) but also to give advice to other travelers. When we were researching whether or not to go to the Bale Mountains, we were simply going off the guidebook. There are no accounts online whether or not it is a worthwhile excursion. We took a leap of faith and went, and it ended up being the highlight of our trip, a hidden gem of Ethiopia. The northern historical circuit (Lalibela-Gondar-Axum) is the usual tourist route, few people go south to the Bale region. Bale is split into two sections: one is Bale National Park, east of Dinsho, so remote that a car is usually necessary. The Bale Mountains to the south of Dodola are not part of the National Park but are remote and protected. There are settlements in these areas but they are few and far between. Coming from Uganda, we were shocked to see a forest inhabited by people that hadn't been completely stripped.

We took a bus from the Autobus Terra (near Mercado) direct to Dodola, passing through Shashemene. The guidebook says it's a 10-hour journey, but to our pleasant surprise it took only 5, thanks to a newly paved road. Dodola is a small town with few things to offer, including a decent hotel. The tourism industry here is still in its infancy, and the hospitality industry has yet to catch up. The guidebook (Brandt) describes one place as "wrapper-fresh" but when we checked it out, we literally walked into a brothel-like establishment. Yello! Stick with the Bale Mountain Motel, it's the best in town. The best part about Dodola is despite the fact that no one speaks English, there are no hotels, you can still get a bomb macchiato at any little café.

Side note history lesson about Ethiopia: it is the only country in Africa that was not colonized by European powers and remained independent throughout the Scramble for Africa. It is a country with an ancient and complex history, with a preserved culture and deep tradition to show for it. This is the place where coffee originated (Kaffa), and coffee ceremonies are an integral part of the culture here. But there's a twist: in 1935, Ethiopia was invaded and occupied by fascist Italy (under Mussolini) until the end of World War II. In their short tenure, the Italians left behind quite a legacy, including macchiatos, foccacia and spaghetti bolognese. Sixty years later, the legacy lives on and is a part of everyday life. Even in a town like Dodola, you can order a macchiato, sit around with all the locals and slowly sip your coffee. We went to the Bale Mountains Head Office and organized our four-day trek on horseback with Dodola Mountain Trekking. For four days, four horses a day, a guide, two handlers, park entrance fee, mountain hut fees, we paid only $70 each. Each! It was incredibly reasonable and one of the best adventures I've had.

We saddled up the next morning and headed out for the mountains on horseback, past vast fields where oxen pulled the plows in preparation for the rains. Unlike Uganda, domesticated animals are the beasts of burden. They use oxen to plow fields, donkeys to carry firewood, horses to pull carts and sheepdogs to herd sheep. It was nice to ride on horseback in a place where everyone else is riding horses. We soon passed all the fields and headed into an enchanting forest. Over the next three days, we saw so many different ecosystems and types of forest. A lot of it reminded us of the landscape on Mt. Sabinyo, with similar yellow fire lilies, heather-covered trees and huge lobelias. We galloped through open fields, went up and down steep mountain passes and crossed many rivers. Jim and I both had a shock when both our horses unexpectedly jumped over a stream, nearly sending us out of our saddles. We stayed each night in the rustic mountain refuges scattered along the track from Dodola (watch out for fleas!)

I loved the serenity and the vastness of Bale region, the locals were very friendly and relaxed. There was no hassling, no begging, just friendly smiles and waves. It was a welcome respite from daily life in Uganda. We would have a lot more of this in the rest of our Ethiopian travels.

Bale Mountains plateau near Sanetti

Horses grazing in Bale Mountains

Our horse handler Musa and our pack horse we named Trotsky. We got the little bell that goes around this horse's neck

 Our newest collection item. Local milk jug. It's made of woven grass, ox blood, leather and horn.

Morning in Bale

Local sheepdogs in the Bale Mountains. I'm in love.

Lalibela

After four days in the mountains, we rode back to Addis Ababa and caught an early flight to Lalibela. It's in the middle of nowhere in north central Ethiopia, and takes usually 2 days by car to reach. 

Lalibela is known for rock-hewn churches dating back to the 5th century AD, each of the eleven churches unique and ancient. The churches have been built into the rock, usually carved downwards so you have to take a dark tunnel down into the abyss.

We had fun exploring all the secret passageways that connect the clusters of churches. Beware, it is $50 for a weeklong pass to enter these churches as well as the surrounding area (and the priests and guards will still ask you for a tip!). On top of that, an official guide costs about $20 (too steep for us Peace Corps folk, so guidebook it is!) Despite the ethereal beauty and spirituality of the churches, there are quite a few hassles in the city. The locals all approach you to ask your name, where you come from and if you want a guide. After a few times, I wanted to be left in peace. I suppose that's the nature of a town that depends almost entirely on tourism-- there's going to be a lot of hassling from locals. At least we had some respite from being tirelessly called "Muzungu" in Uganda, here they either say "You!" or ferengi, or foreigner.

One of my favorite parts of this place was how these ancient rock-hewn churches are still alive. Everyday there is a service held, complete with chanting, bells and burning frankincense, in these old, worn spaces. I love how actively used they are, the churches haven't been boarded up as a museum, but are living relics. Our last morning there, we awoke at 6am to attend the St. Mary's celebration. It was a beautiful morning, with all the locals coming from all directions up the steps to St. Maryam's, wrapped in Ethiopian white muslin. 

Kissing the rock-hewn church in Lalibela

Afternoon prayers

Bet Giyorgis church

Next stop: Gondar and the Simien Mountains. We took a short flight from Lalibela to Gondar, and left the following morning to trek in the Simiens. The Simiens have been featured both on Planet Earth and Human Planet, starring the endemic gelada population. Gelada monkeys are endemic to Ethiopia, are the only grass-eating monkeys, and have over 30 calls in their repertoire. They were fascinating creatures to observe, especially since they made such a ruckus! 

Gelada monkey

The sun came out in the Simiens just in time! 

We trekked a few miles to the campsite for the night, a basic and rustic accommodation and not nearly as inviting as the Bale Mountains. We were traveling with two other German travelers, and bunked up in the shared dormitory. Despite the foggy weather, we still managed to get a few good views of the spectacular Simiens.

Our next and final stop was Harar. We flew to the sleepy town of Dire Dawa (somehow the second largest city in Ethiopia, but doubtful since we saw about 3 people!) and then took a bus into the highlands of Harar. Harar is one of the three distinct coffee growing regions in Ethiopia, and a city steeped in history. It used to be a self-governing city-state, complete with an amir, until Menelik's defeat and unification with Ethiopia. It is also known as the fourth holiest Muslim city (for reasons we never could seem to get to the bottom...) and not far from the Somali border. Harar was lovely, enchanting and had a certain Middle Eastern feel to it while still distinctly Ethiopian.

The old city had a walled enclosure, 365 alleyways and 99 mosques. Everyone (and I mean everyone) right down to the homeless lady on the corner, is chewing khat (also known as chat). Khat is a tender leaf that when chewed gives a caffeine-like high. Harar had wonderfully distinct foods, such as mulawah pastry smothered in honey and numaful, a white bean paste mixed with lentils, tomatoes and spicy beri beri. We explored the city for three days, meandering down alleys, drinking coffee at every other café and eating at Mermaid Cafe, chatting with locals. Arthur Rimbaud lived here for a time, after giving up poetry as a young man and deciding to become a coffee merchant. The house where he lived has beautiful architecture and stained glass windows, with a small library downstairs and old photographs of Harar from the 1890s hanging.
Our last délire was with the Hyena Man. We went out to the outskirts of town at dusk while the Hyena Man called hyenas from up to 20k away for a feeding frenzy. We got to feed the greedy hyenas by hand (and by mouth!) scraps of meat. I've never been so close to such a powerful creature before. I'm usually not one for touristy activities, but hey, for $5, this was a blast.

Exploring the hidden alleys in Harar

Jim in front of Harar Gate 

Harar khat market

Feeding the hyenas in Harar 

Arthur Rimbaud's house from when he lived here in 1891 as a coffee merchant

* Notes:
If you book international travel with Ethiopian Air, domestic flights are much cheaper. You will pay resident rate for domestic flights, around $50-100 as opposed to $300.

Life Has No Spare Parts

A few weeks ago, I started teaching an HIV/AIDS curriculum at school to 6th and 7th graders, to fill the gap of zero point zero health talks held at the primary school. There is already national curriculum with some long acronym (PIASCY, or President's Initiative on AIDS Strategy Communication to Youth) with a glowing photo on the front of Uganda's very own president talking to a group of secondary school girls about AIDS. Despite the presence of a national curriculum, it is not taught at my primary school and as I suspect, at many other schools. This stuff just isn't being talked about. It's surprising, especially since HIV/AIDS is practically crammed down our throats, with signs throughout the village with ominous sayings such as "AIDS Kills" and "HIV is everywhere".  I'll never forget at Camp GLOW when I introduced myself to a camper and asked what she liked to do for fun, she replied "talk about HIV stroke AIDS," as if reciting from a billboard.

Our teachers modeling our HIV toolkit, teaching how HIV affects the immune system

Last week, a few of our teachers were putting up "inspirational" signs around the school, such as "Life Has No Spare Parts" and "Say No to Sugar Mummies and Daddies" (aka say no to gifts for sex. I love the mummies bit though. Would make a nice Halloween costume.) I asked the teachers if they thought the signs were effective, getting their message across to students in a meaningful way. The teachers both agreed, "Yes! Yes! They are very effective!" Research has shown that, in fact, they are not effective. The signs need to be complemented with teaching, explaining why "AIDS Kills". In fact, AIDS doesn't actually kill you, HIV simply weakens your immune system so badly that it can't fight off opportunistic infections. More like, "The common cold can kill you if you have AIDS." 

I've been trying to make up the void of HIV discussion by teaching an HIV/AIDS curriculum written by Peace Corps Uganda volunteers. The activities have been fun and interactive. This week, we've been talking about the immune system and how HIV affects it by doing a reenactment of the immune system, a volunteer for each type of white blood cell and one for antigens and HIV. Next week, we begin the tough stuff and how HIV enters the body. When I showed my counterpart the teaching aids, with "tip of the penis", "vagina" and "anus" written is giant letters, she gave me a look of both shock and pity. "Someone's gotta do it, and I'm already used to people laughing at me in this country," I told her.

I visited our sub-county's Health Center IV last week with one of our visiting medical officers. The clinical officer told me that he works twice a week with HIV positive people, about 900 in the sub-county. I was astounded by how high that number sounded, just for our sub-county alone. That seems like a big number for such as small area. Uganda has a relatively low rate for HIV for a sub-Saharan country, about 1.7 million last time I checked, but this number certainly felt more close to home. It gave new meaning to my HIV talks, since it is a very real threat in our area. I felt a little silly at first, talking about HIV and sex with pre-pubescent children, but this reassured me that knowledge, no matter at what age, is critical. 

National DEAR Day

PTC Students armed with books for DEAR Day!

On March 26th, we celebrated nationwide Uganda's first National DEAR Day (DEAR stands for Drop Everything and Read). I invited 60 PTC students over from the College to participate and do Read-Alouds with our pupils at the primary school. They jumped right in, picked out their own books to read aloud and even asked me if we could do it again in the future. To my dismay, the students were collecting firewood so we only had 20 minutes of reading in the end. A small victory nonetheless! We had a week to prepare for the event-- I worked with the PTC students to split them into lower and upper primary, and to bring them over to our newly revamped library to pick out their reading book. They did a great job the day of our event, they were enthusiastic, professional and eager to do it again! 

All-Star teacher Moses doing a Read-Aloud on DEAR Day

Pre-service teacher Jessica doing her first Read-Aloud

Men Holding Hands with Men

As many of you have heard, last Monday Uganda passed its anti-homosexuality bill after President Museveni signed it. The Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) was introduced back in 2009, originally with the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality" but it has now been reduced to life imprisonment. I'm sure you can imagine how difficult this has been as a Peace Corps volunteer, especially since 97% of the population supports the bill. There's a lot of history behind the bill, including major influence from Christian evangelical missionaries for spurring such homophobia. I highly recommend the documentary God Loves Uganda for Uganda's terrifying turn towards biblical law. It's always been illegal to be gay in Uganda, but now it's been criminalized, similar to pedophilia or child pornography. That's where a huge problem lies is that many people equate homosexuality as pedophilia and not as love between two same-sex people. It's far too touchy a subject that I feel comfortable to try and educate anyone, as misconceptions and the Bible are at the crux of this bill.
Before he signed the bill, Museveni gathered a team of scientists from Makerere University to determine if homosexuality was natural or if it was socialized, if someone or something can "make" you gay. Their research found that homosexuality is a social phenomenon, by no means natural, thus providing grounds for passing the bill. 

I have to be honest, I struggled a lot during this period with the AHA written into Uganda's history. I tried my best to have some empathy and understand where Ugandans were coming from. There were parades in the street in celebration over the bill's passing, euphoria over Museveni "standing up" to the West and doing what he felt what was right for his country.

But that's not all, there's a twist. Uganda is the third country in the world, behind Pakistan and Kenya, for the highest number of Google searches for gay sex. Men here hold hands all the time as a symbol of friendship and affection, but in no way is that considered gay. 

It's been a frustrating week as history seems to be taking two steps backwards: the anti-gay bill, the anti-pornography bill, homophobia at the Sochi Olympics, Russia invading Ukraine, the abortion and women's rights backlash in the US. In response to the AHA bill, several countries such as Denmark, Norway and the World Bank have already pulled out aid. 

As for now, Peace Corps plans on remaining in Uganda despite this bill. In the works is a second bill that's going to make lives more difficult, the anti-pornography bill, which dictates the type of clothes that a woman can wear but seems to be enforced more by boda-boda drivers than by police. Volunteers have reported seeing women stripped naked in public by a mob "enforcing" the law.

On another note, a big thank you to my parents for their fundraising efforts for Fred Kiyingi, who is eagerly awaiting a liver transplant. If you would like to donate, please go to feea.org to make a donation to Fred Kiyingi. It's nice to see that there are good, honest people in this world willing to help others, and I'm honored to have such wonderful parents as role models. Thanks Mom and Dad, you're amazing!

BYOB (Bring Your Own Bible)

Cat yoga

After months of traveling and working in Kampala to train the new Education volunteers, I'm finally back in Bukinda. It's nice to be home and settled. Last week, I finally did something I've been meaning to since I first arrived in Bukinda-- go to church. I thought it would be a nice way to support my school and the community, and make a good impression. It wasn't bad either, only going one hour over its allotted two-hour sermon. Most of the service was in Rukiga, so I didn't understand a word that was being said, but that was probably for the better. I did learn the local names for God, our Lord, pray, Jesus Christ, as I sat next to my supervisor and followed his lead. Sit, stand, sit, stand, dance, clap, dance, clap. That was pretty much it for 3 hours, plus being stared at by a hundred villagers since I was made to sit on the stage. The singing, dancing and raucous joy was the fun part since there was so much drumming and dancing. After hours of preaching and singing (and a random marching band), they all paid the church tithes while I politely declined. I was disappointed the following day when my supervisor joked around that I was a pagan since I would not be returning to church every Sunday… Paganism it is!

Rainy season has officially started here, bringing heavy rains sometimes lasting for hours on end. I sat in my house wearing my wool socks, scarf and fleece while my friends in the East sweltered in 100 degree heat. My host family also dropped off a little kitten to keep me company. I'm pretty sure it's the runt of the litter since it's so small and has some interesting characteristics (too small to climb into or use the litter box). Taking inspiration from my Finnish ancestors, I named the little guy Sisu. 

Sisu

The other highlight of the week is the return of the village madman. As I was doing a reading assessment with a student, a crazed looking man walked in and shook my hand. I thought he was a disheveled parent showing up to pay school fees for his children, as many parents do at the start of the term. Nope, wrong. Soon there was a big hullabaloo as he ran around the school yard scaring all the children and chasing them away. It was complete pandemonium and all I could do was laugh. TIA.

Looking SHARP at Nyabirerema Primary School

Moses showing off our new school values system

This week, we got one of my pet projects off the ground.  We created our school-wide positive behavior system (PBS) with our teachers, a way to positively motivate pupils to show good behavior. We brainstormed as a staff and came up with the acronym "SHARP" to show what behaviors to encourage. Sharing-Honest-Active-Respectful-Punctual. We had a great staff meeting and came up with a points system to track which groups had the best behavior.

We also initiated School Families, small groups that meet on Fridays with one teacher to discuss a topic of the week, such as malaria, hand-washing, hygiene and HIV. The points for our school-wide PBS are collected for each School Family team (each one has an African country name) and collected at the end of the week on a giant grain-sack tallying the points. We want to encourage students at the school to show respect and good behavior not only to their peers (there's a lot of pushing and grabbing) but also to their teachers. This is one way to motivate and encourage students positively, and hopefully reduce the frequency of caning.

Suggestion box for School Family topics. Ideas include hygiene, sanitation, road safety, malaria and life skills.

We also spent an afternoon building tippy-taps (hand-washing stations using jerry cans) and then had a hand-washing event on Friday. It was awesome! We had each School Family meet to talk about the importance of hand-washing and read the hand-washing Big Book. The students before had no way of washing their hands after using the latrine, a scary thought to how many germs are crawling around. Now we have two hand-washing stations outside the latrines and the kids are so excited about it! They seem to be using the latrine twice as often just so they can wash their hands....

Finally, at the end of our hand-washing event and as part of our PBS, each group sent up their best-behaved pupils to play games. I played a hand-washing relay game with our participants using our Base Pack, provided by the Kings Volunteer foundation.

Frank helping to build the first tippy-tap

Davis is a rockstar and made our tippy-tap building possible by preparing everything! He won this month's Teacher of the Month award

Moses demonstrating the tippy tap!

Our work is done! Thanks P6 boys for the help

School Families: talking about why washing your hands is important

Friday is School Families Day

Look SHARP! Sharing-Honest-Active-Respectful-Punctual.

Our class prefects after performing skits demonstrating SHARP!

Skits performed to act out each good behavior! Which one is this one?

Our staff after School Families. The winner this week is Uganda!

Paul showing our School Families progress chart for SHARP!

Our staff meeting to discuss positive behavior systems and our model PBS at Kira Primary School

Hand-washing game with the #BasePack

Hand-washing and teamwork

Thank you #KingsVolunteer for the base pack!

Our new Teacher of the Month Award

Ode to Goats

The world's most annoying goat outside of Jim's house.

On behalf of Claire, I would like to write an ode to the greatness of goats. 

This all started when Claire came to visit me here in East Africa over the holidays. She flew into Kigali, Rwanda, a good place to start for anyone visiting Africa for the first time. We first travelled 4 hours north to the Ugandan border, to the Virunga volcanoes, home of the last of the mountain gorillas. We climbed Mt. Muhavura (4107m) and had a pretty heavy dose of getting our butts kicked. The conditions were hard on the volcano, believe it or not we even got caught in a hail storm on the way down. We climbed with Jim and his friend Curt, out visiting from Boulder, CO. The boys made it to the way, but Claire and I stopped before the second hut to retain some shreds of dignity. Claire also suffered from altitude sickness since Kisoro is over 2000m high, but as for me, I have no excuse as to why the climb was so hard! 

The following day we all traveled back to Kigali to see off Curt and to celebrate New Years Eve. Jim, Claire and I had a fabulous time, hitting up a bar in central Kigali and rocking out to 90s hits such as "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston and "I Saw the Sign" by Ace of Base. It was low-key, but still fabulous. Especially lip-syncing to Mariah Carey greatness.

After New Years, we hired a car out to western Rwanda to Kibuye on Lake Kivu, a relaxing lakeside little town. We enjoyed its magnificent views and chill atmosphere, and met our brethren, Peace Corps Rwanda volunteers. We stayed at Saint Jean guesthouse, which is perched on a peninsula in the lake for a few quiet, relaxing days and then went back to Kigali to pick up the rest of the Lingham gang. 

We had time to list off all the reasons why goats are the best: 

-They make great friends and great pets

-They're adorable 

-They have giblets that give them power

- They love climbing things and always being the king of the hill

-They can climb almost anything, like that dam in Italy when they're standing on little pegs

-They can hike

-Make delicious meats

-Pellets for poop is easy clean up

-"Bahhh!" is a ridiculous way to get attention! 

-Most of them don't really believe that they're really goats 

Making new friends