aggienaut | Entries tagged with ethiopia

4/30, Monday- Monday morning Teferi, Beide & I drove about two hours to the town of Finot Selam. The road slowly wound through the undulating countryside. Much of the land we passed was being tilled by pairs of oxen pulling wooden plows. There were also large patches of eucalyptus forest.
   Eucalyptus has been imported from Australia as a source of wood and by and large taken over the countryside it seems. People are happy about it because it provides good straight wood for construction as well as firewood, though I feel a bit saddened that it's no doubt heavily displacing the native foliage, and wonder about the ecological consequences such as animals not having their native forage any more.
   We also passed through many villages. Often there were stacks of eucalyptus logs ready to be hauled off (I'm told they're imported to Sudan as well). Smoking piles of dirt signified charcoal production and bags of finished charcoal were stationed near the road for sale. And of course we had to slow to pass many many herds of goats and cows.

   We crossed the Nile a second time (it makes a giant spiral before it leaves the country) and just before we descended from the highlands to lower country, as I was preparing to take a photo of an ox plow, suddenly I found myself looking at the rusting hull of a T-54 main battle tank.
   "It's very old, from the battle with the derg 20 years ago" it was explained. "Have you ever been through a war?" I was asked ("no, America only has it's wars in other countries")

   Finot Selam (or Finot Salami as it's called in my head) turned out to be a small town in which my hotel and the building next to it were the only tall (four story) buildings. Hotel was pretty nice, though my window looked right out onto an open air restaurant and specifically was right next to their television. Unlike the hotel in Lafia, Nigeria, they fortunately had the decency to turn off the TV and try to enforce quietness after 10 or so.
   But before I discovered this, on entering the hotel, when I thought I was being led to my room, I suddenly found myself entering an event hall full of people sitting expectently, and was led to the dias. Apparently Teferi didn't feel like telling me that I'd be starting the training the very moment I got there. I was... somewhat caught off guard by this.

   The Finot Selam group had a lot of very experienced people in it, including four who described themselves as "bee experts" when I asked what they did. I still don't know what exactly that means they do. But the group in general was restless with my coverage of bee behaviour, kept interrupting with questions like "when you smoke a hive, how do you prevent the smoke from drifting to the hive next to it and making those bees angry?" (asked while I was explaining the role of drones in the hive), or "but doesn't smoke kill the bee larvae?" (asked while I was explaining queen cells), as well as many other off-the-current-topic questions, many also pertaining to "tell us how you produce so much in the United States."
   Finally I had to say "look, I could jump to the end right now and tell you right now that we produce so much in the United States by trucking the bees to whatever is blooming all year round and flooding our hives with pesticides, and be done in ten minutes, but we have three days here and I'm pacing myself to give you three days worth of material. The things I'm telling you to look for in the hive and what I'm telling you to do about them is the real way you're going to increase your production."
   Tuesday afternoon we visited one of the beekeeper's beehives and I went through a hive. The next day at the beginning of class the beekeeper and those present expressed to the class how impressed they was with how I went through the hive, and how I did it during the day and without wearing the protective clothing, and the level of respect from the class was palpable.

   As for the bees themselves, the beekeeper had at least ten frame (ie modern box type) hives lined up along two sides of the outside of his house (including the front) and several traditional basket hives (see picture above) hanging from the eaves on the back. Dinner was being cooked on a stove outside not six feet from the nearest hive.
   The sun was still up but it was a cool day and close to sunset and the farmer actually gave me the go-ahead to open a hive ... and even use smoke!
   As usual with African bees I started out fully suited up. Shortly after I got started though I decided I needed to know if they were being stingy since I was in the middle of a village so I took off my left glove. And then when I was in the middle of the inspection and hadn't received any stings yet I took off the veil and other glove. Didn't see any small hive beetles, which had been pervasive in Nigeria. Bees had a major tendency to run off the comb being examined, which is a common trait I've found among African bees. By the time I was done nearly the hole colony was hanging on the outside of the hive.
   After I was done inspecting the hive the beekeeper invited me into his house for some traditional food. We sat on cow skins on the packed-dirt floor and took turns tearing pieces of injera (crepe-like sour material made from the millet-like grain "teff") off a a communal plate and eating the pieces of roasted meat with it. They also poured us each a cup of "local beer." It tasted... like hay. Wasn't carbonated of course. Between washing my hands with local water and this somewhat questionable local beer I was quite certain I'd have some sort of intestinal failure in my near future (again I didn't, god bless my iron stomach!), but went along with it sportingly anyway. And I certainly greatly appreciate the beekeeper's generous hospitality.
   As a thank-you I gave him one of the hive tools the Orange County
Beekeepers Association donated.

   Wednesday, as I said, the class finally seemed to decide I knew what I was talking about. Also Teferi and Beide had stolen away either that morning or the night before without mentioning anything to me. They didn't reappear until the next morning. I didn't really need them for anything but being as they're supposed to be my support on this project and coupled with Teferi not mentioning to me on Monday that I'd be starting lecture immediately, I feel like maybe his communication skills could use a little work.
   Also this day we visited the little honey processing facility in town. They had some interesting comb honey extractors that I was told were specially designed and manufactured in Ethiopia at the instigation of the NGO "SOS Sahel." They didn't appear to have any frame honey extractor, and most of the hives I've seen here have been frame hives, but I'm told there are frame honey extractors around (somewhere?). Though the lack of access to such was cited by several beekeepers as problems.

   Thursday we drove back to Bahir Dar. On the way I saw what looked like a black coloured bird with a body about the size of an ostriches, but much shorter legs, and it appeared to have some red plumage on its head. It went by so fast I didn't get a good look at it, and I've been kicking myself ever since that I didn't immediately ask if we could stop so I could get a better look and a picture. It was huge! Beide and Teferi tell me its called a "turkish type" bird or a "jigra," but no combination of those words brought anything up on google. I'm still dying to know what it was. As we sped on from it and immediate regret at not stopping was already settling upon me I asked Beide if we might see another, to which he responded "no, it's quite rare."

   That evening the girls from the hotel invited me out to dinner again. Dinner for three and a bottle of wine? $13. (Needless to say I paid this and last time)

   Friday is already the subject of it's own entry

   And I'll write about my adventures in the Tigray region in a subsequent entry

( Pictures from Monday )
( Pictures from Tuesday )
( Pictures from Wednessday )
( Pictures from Thursday )

   4/28, Saturday - Had the last day of the training session in Bahir Dar. Usually I try to do some hands-on candle or lotion making, but Teferi (the local ACDI (host NGO) representative) had told me uses of wax wasn't in the scope of work so we shouldn't do that. However due to interest among the class members and with the help of the instigation of my interpreter Kerealem, we reinstituted candlemaking into the schedule. So we did that on this last day.
   For a mold they tried to use a hollow stick that Kerealem had found, but I think it ultimately proved unsuccessful. They had much more success, however, making the traditional candles used in Ethiopian orthodox churches -- by dipping strands of wool repeatedly in wax. I'm told they also sometimes make candles by pouring wax on a flat surface and letting it dry and solidify in a thin layer, and then rolling it up with a wick in the middle (back home at the Orange County Fair every year we have kids roll candles with this method).

   That evening after the training session was over Teferi, Beide (the driver) and Kerealem and I ended up sitting at tables in front of Beide's restaurant having some beers. There we were joined by two of Kerealem's colleagues from the university, one of whom was another beekeeping specialist.

4/29, Sunday - Started out the morning by riding bujujs (bujuj being a weird word to me, I think of them in my head as "buk-buks," which then makes me think of chickens) with Beide to get to "St George," the local orthodox church. Bujujs were invented in India and are common in Ethiopia as low cost local taxis. They appear to be little more than a minimal hull built around a motorbike engine. The parts are still manufactured in India but they are shipped over and assembled here, I am told.
   Church was very interesting. It didn't appear to have a set start or end time, rather a continuous stream of white-shawl-clad church goers entered the sanctuary, received a blessing from a priest, listened to the ongoing sermon for as long as they felt like, and then joined the stream exiting. Church service is conducted in Amharic and Ge'ez (an ancient form of Anharic that now only exists in church use).

   Thereafter Beide and I took the bujujed to a restaurant near his own, where I had a delicious breakfast. It was basically a fresh piece of flat bread with honey on it, and when I dabbed it in the pile of red pepper ("red pepper" here tastes more like cinnamon than the red pepper we have in the States) that had been provided with Beide's food it was even more delicious.
   Also while going about with Beide I noted that he didn't seem able to go more than 100 yards without running into someone very glad to see him. Even later in Finot Selam some 200 kilometers away he'd run into seeming old friends on the street all the time. Eventually I'd find out that it's because, in addition to being a very likeable person, he teaches driving school (and maybe administers the test?) so drivers all over the area know him from having been taught to drive by him. In addition to this and owning a restaurant he has a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in automotive. So my driver was thoroughly overqualified!

   Hung out at Beide's restaurant for two hours or so that morning. It was a pleasant sunny day with a nice breeze (as always in Bahir Dar). Took a lot of pictures there including several of some colourful birds that were flitting about the trees. I don't think I'm normally very good at portraiture but I think I got some nice pictures of the local butcher.
   While there I got to watch the production of coffee from the roasting of beans through to the cup of the freshest coffee possible being handed to me. I even got to try my hand at the grinding.
   Also they served me some raw meat (beef), a common traditional way of eating it. I was pretty sure it was going to make me horribly sick but I went ahead and tried several pieces and it was indeed very good. I was grateful that shortly after that I was returned to my hotel for an hour to relax, being as, though feeling fine, I was quite convinced something horrible was about to happen to my digestive system. As luck would have it though I suffered no ill effects.

   Beide and I reconvened a little later (around 13:00) and took a bujuj to the lake shore. There I'd been led to believe Woina, an assistant manager from my hotel, had arranged for us to go by boat to visit some more monasteries on the lake. Beide then departed saying he had other things he had to do, and Woina shortly showed up with Rahel, an accountant from the hotel. I guess all the other monasteries take hours to get to (wouldn't have really deterred me) but they decided instead we'd take the boat to another hotel that's on the water and have lunch there.
   This other hotel did indeed have a very nice garden patio area. Set up was currently going on for a wedding to take place there that evening. One of the girls commented that it looked to be a very expensive wedding, possibly as much as 500 US dollars.
   Woina (short of Woinechet)'s name means "wine," but she doesn't drink alcohol "because the bible forbids it." Rahel ordered an Ethiopian wine though (apparently they have that!). I tried the Ethiopian wine and to my utterly un-wine-sophisticated palette it tasted like a pretty decent wine. Altogether food for the three of us and the wine and two beers for me came out to around $15 I think.
   While that may seem shockingly cheap, to put it in perspective I learned that as an assistant manager at one of the best hotels in town, and having a bachelor degree in law, Woina earns 1.8% as much as I do per month.

   Then around maybe 16:00, a driver friend of the girls picked us up and dropped them off near their homes and drove me to my hotel. He even refused payment because he was doing it as a favor to his friends.

   The next day I was off to Finot Selam to begin another training session. I'll start a new entry for that.

And here's a young mother who was part of the training class.
And here's a look underneath that shawl O_O

( Pictures from the 28th )
( Pictures from the 29th)
(Pictures taken before 10am appearing on previous day due to camera still being on California time at this point. Later I changed the camera time setting)

Current Location: Mek'elle, Ethiopia

   Well this will be a little out of order since I haven't told you much about the last week and a half ~~yet~~, but allow me to tell you about my day today.

   At 0600 I got up and packed my stuff in preparation to catch a 0900 flight. One is always advised to be at the airport two hours ahead of time here. My camera battery was dead this morning, I'd forgotten to charge it last night. Entirely my fault but that meant I'd be spending a day camera-less.
   By 0645 I was all packed up and signed out of the hotel, sitting in the lobby with my luggage. It only takes about 15 min to get to the airport so I was still on schedule. Regretted not having time to eat at the hotel restaurant but my ride should be there any minute... or so I thought.
   Tried calling the driver but both numbers I had for him gave me a "this user's phone is currently shut off" message. I next called the other ACDI staffmember in town, and he (Teferi) asked "oh you want me to send the driver?" ...which I thought shouldn't have been news to him since we'd discussed it yesterday. Long story short by the time the driver arrived it was around 0800, and I'd been kept in constant expectation of his imminent arrival the whole time so I still hadn't gotten a chance to eat.

   Arrived at the Bahir Dar airport to find no rush there -- plane not yet on the ground. Called the Winrock staff in Addis (where I was headed) and asked them to exchange 300 of the dollars I left with them there for Ethiopian birr. Then my phone died (because the charger I'd been provided with doesn't work).
   And then I waited, and waited, and waited. Airplane finally landed at 10:30. Well after I was supposed to have already arrived in Addis!

   Arrived in Addis Ababa around 1200, with a flight to catch at 1450. Originally, when I was coming in at 1100, it made sense for me to visit the Winrock office in the mean time. But with only an hour before I needed to be back in the hotel I was thinking I could probably better use the time to eat. But there was a driver waiting for me and I had no phone to call him.
   The winrock driver was all about bringing me to the office. When I reminded him I had to be back at one this seemed to be news to him, which concerned me a bit. But he was confident we could make it there and back no problem and I only vaguely remembered it not being terribly far to the office so I went with him.
   1240 we finally arrived at the office with me feeling quite hungry and irritable and anxious to return to the airport immediately. The winrock staff hadn't bothered to exchange the money yet and took me with them down to the bank to do the exchanging. Seemingly not in a terribly hurry. I surmise perhaps the entire reason the airports advise a two hour early arrival is because everyone arrives on "Africa time."

   Arrived in the airport terminal "lounge" area (between the first security check / ticketing area and the second security check + gates area) around 1420. My flight was supposed to begin boarding at 1415 but I was about dying of hungry. Ordered a burger from the little restaurant in this section of the terminal. As of 1432 there was still no sign of my burger. I was just packing up to head to the gate without it when it finally arrived. I devoured it as fast as humanly possible and was off to hope I made it through the second security checkpoint in time to catch my flight. (which I did)

   Touched down in Mek'ele about an hour and a half later. Was impressed by how nice and modern looking the terminal here is. Especially since in Bahir Dar, one of Ethiopia's primary tourist destinations, the airport was kind of a glorified shack. As I headed out of the terminal though it occurred to me that I didn't have a working phone, and both my earlier first arrivals in Ethiopian cities had involved trouble finding the people I was supposed to meet (in Bahir Dar Teferi and Beide hadn't bothered to approach me because they were expecting an ACDI staffmember they'd recognize to be with me, and apparently no one's ever seen a volunteer technical expert as young as me before. So they waited until I was the only person left in front of the terminal before they finally approached me).
   But fortunately this time a fellow from ACDI met me as I exited the terminal, and took me to the hotel here.

   Tomorrow we were SUPPOSED to continue on to the city of Korem, but I've been informed there is no car (the car they had is having problems?).

   AND if we don't get there tomorrow, the following day is Sunday! I have yet to see any work get done on a Sunday in Africa.

   Welcome to the third world!

And here's a cow!

No new pictures today but here's another link to the set.

Children from a village near the town of Finot Selam, Ethiopia.

Didn't have internet access down there so today I uploaded a bunch of pictures from the last several days.

Back in Bahir Dar today, tomorrow I fly to Addis Ababa and then a few hours later fly to the town of Mekelle. Then the NEXT day I drive to a town called Korem where I'll do more training. So I'll be all over Ethiopia for the next few days.

Wednesday - So Wednesday afternoon Belde and I drove to the Blue Nile Falls. It was about a 30km round trip out of Bahir Dar. When we got there a local (and licensed) guide convinced us to hire him, and I'm glad we did because he was very friendly and full of information. We took a little boat across the Nile and then hiked a few hundred yards to the top of the falls. The falls were impressive and big as it is, but apparently they are only a small fraction of what they once were before most of the water got rerouted to irrigation and hydroelectric (did you know Ethiopia sells electricity to Sudan?). In fact we got lucky on Wednesday that the falls were "turned on" at all because one of the hydroelectric stations was off.

After poking around the waterfall we visited the totally indiana-jones-movie bridge:

And then had coffee under a little thatched awning on the ridge right in front of the waterfall, the picture of which I put up the other day, but here's the coffee roasting and the falls:

Thursday - Was our first day of training session. Unlike other assignments where we visited hives first to see where we were at, this one started right in with lecture. I found my interpreter to be a fellow pursuing his master's degree in apiculture (beekeeping) at the local university. So he knows almost as much as me. ;D

   In the afternoon we finally visited some beehives. The owner of the beeyard hadn't been at the training which I thought might account for him insisting "it is not the appropriate time to open the hives! We must wait for the sun to set!" and forbidding me from using smoke on the hive.
   For those of you unfamiliar with beekeeping, smoke is an essential tool. Applying smoke to beehives prevents the bees from getting all riled up because they can't smell the alarm pheromone (and there's a persist myth it makes them think their hive is on fire so they gorge themself on honey and then can't fly. That myth is dumb).
   Finally I was able to convince him to let me open up one hive, so long as I didn't use any smoke and didn't remove any frames. As a little background, a large part of why I'm here is because the government has been promoting removable-frame hives from on high but not providing training on how to use them. The purpose of removable frames hives is you can remove the frames to inspect them and put them back without damaging the beehive. But in order to do this you need smoke, and you need to, well, remove the frames.
   Even without smoke though I was able to remove my gloves and veil right in front of the hive as soon as I was done, the kind of antics I make a point of doing to try to combat their certainly that their bees are way too mean for management.

Traditional basket hives, a few yellow langstroth-like "zander" hives, and one "swarmin gourd" in the middle (lower rack). The colony in the gourd is supposed to swarm frequently because of the small size of the gourd, and thus give them more colonies.

   After that ~~Jean Reno~~ Belde, Terefe (Belde's boss), Kere (the interpreter) and I went to a hotel that has high quality "tej." Tej is a traditional mead made with hops and olives. Formerly it was widely consumed throughout Ethiopia. Formerly. In more recent times it has become so common to make it with sugar instead of honey (and fermented sugar water is just plain crappy) that people generally stopped drinking it. Similarly the honey market here and in Nigeria is suffering from the fact that there's so much diluted honey being sold that consumer's don't trust most honey any more. In Ethiopia they are ALSO having trouble with beeswax that has been cut with parafin. Welcome to the modern world, where anything worth making is worth making crappy.

Friday (today) - Lecture presentation training in the morning once again. With of course coffee breaks at 10:00 and 3:00. Then a bunch of us went out to visit another bee yard.

   I was hoping yesterday was a fluke, but once AGAIN I was told "no you can't open the hives right now you must wait till it's dark." I managed to finally convince them to once again let me open one hive and I thought we had an understanding that smoke was to be used. These beehives were in an interesting location, you had to go through a shed-like room with a door in it and you came into a beehive enclosure. When I got there I suddenly found that none of the English speaking persons were there with me and the people who were (there were very limited numbers of bee suits) didn't have a smoker. Trying to mime the need for a smoker was getting nowhere. I was strongly inclined not to even both opening the hive without a smoker because it would just make a mess and further convince them that hives can't be opened during the day, and I really should have, but we were already right there and they were expecting to open that hive. So we opened it, didn't remove any frames, but these bees got mad. Not any crazy unusual mad. Nothing worse than I'd expect if I did the same thing to bees in Southern California. But it was regrettable because there were angry bees flying all around the house, the whole group who didn't have bee suits had to hastily retreat, and it didn't do anything to improve the case that hives should be opened during the day.
   Further discussion about smokers ensued when I was reunited with the English-capable members of the party, and they (and now these are people who had been in attendance at the training, AND in particular the person pursuing his graduate degree in apiculture) all firmly adhered to the line that no, smoke will only make the bees angry.
   Smoke DOES THE OPPOSITE OF THAT. And is a critical element of the use of the hives they're all trying to figure out how to use!!! After learning from this discussion just how convinced they all were that smoke would make bees angry I was feeling extremely frustrated.
   If we are able to tomorrow, I want to visit some bees and even if we don't get to open a hive I want to have a chance to blow smoke into a hive and demonstrate that the bees do not become angry from it.

   So one morning I was sitting in a little cafe in central Nigeria and they put nescafe IN THE ESPRESSO MACHINE. That was it. It was just too much. The next morning I was on a plane to Ethiopia, the origin of coffee.

   The origin, of course, of not just coffee, but life as we know it. I was returning to my homeland, to everyone's homeland. (It's only been 100,000 years or so since we left)

   A coincidence that Homo sapiens and Coffea arabica originated in the same place? I think not!

   And shortly, things like this were happening:

And I haven't seen nescafe since!

   Flight took about five hours, and took me two hours into the future and 8 years into the past.
   The next day I was wondering for several hours why there was a meeting with another NGO (ACDI/VOCA) scheduled for 8:30, until I was finally informed that in Ethiopia they reckon time from 6am, so 2:30 is their 8:30. The new day begins not at midnight but at 6am. Additionally the Ethiopian year has 13 months and... it is currently officially the year 2004 in Ethiopia. My friends back home tell me it's a good year to invest in Apple.

   South Sudan looks VERY dark from the air at night. The occasional lights one does see look like they are probably bonfires or something. Or lights the same shade of orange and flickery.
   Ethiopia is also pretty dark, and then suddenly Addis Ababa appears over a ridge as a giant splatter of twinkling stars far below. While most American cities I've seen from overhead at night appear as grids and lines of warm toned lights, Addis looked like a giant starfield with no grids or straight lines, and most of its lights were a star-like blue-ish white.

   Arriving in the Addis Ababa airport I was struck by how friendly everyone was. In the Nigerian airport they're not exactly rude per se but everyone working there seems at least "gruff," and security seems prone to hassle you just because they can. But everyone in the Addis airport including the immigration officials (ground zero of gruffness in the Nigerian airports) was very friendly.
   A girl trying to snag people for her hotel as we came out of the baggage claim even seemed genuinely concerned about helping me find my contact and volunteered the use of her phone to call him (for free!).

Tuesday My hotel was rather fancy, and cheaper than a Motel 6 in the US.

   At the complimentary breakfast the food was all out in a buffet, but coffee was made to order in the kitchen. Welcome to Ethiopia!

   Met with the winrock staff (the two of them), had a delicious lunch of spicy ground lamb, a sort of bread made from the root of the "false banana" tree, fresh rolls of normal bread, and peanut tea.

   Then we drove across town (took 50 minutes, longer than the later flight across the country) to visit the NGO ACDI/VOCA, who is actually running the project.

Wednesday (today) - Woke up at 4:30 for my 7:30 flight. The Ethiopian airport asks everyone to be there two hours before every flight, but I've never gotten into an airport so quickly and smoothly!

   Leaving the Nigerian airport they had searched my carryon bag and found a nailclippers, which the guy confiscated from me with a disappointed shake of his head and stern look.
   In the Ethiopian airport now they discovered a six-inch-long sharpened-at-both-ends hive tool in my carryon that had presumably also been there when I left Nigeria ... and they let me take it on the plane after the took it out and looked at it!
   I still don't understand how you could POSSIBLY hurt someone with a nail clippers...

   Flight from Addis Ababa to Bahir Dar here took about 45 minutes. Here I was met by ACDI/VOCA representative Terefe and driver Belde. They initially suggested I might want to rest, but the day was just beginning and I had plans! Esp since every day after this will probably be busy, I wanted to hit the ground running with some sightseeing!
   Terefe had some work to do so it was Belde (who looks kind of like a dark skinned Jean Reno, IMO) and I most of the day. For about $15 I got a lad operating a small boat to take us to a nearby island on Lake Tana. On our way we saw hippos.

   On the island was a church said to be 900 years old. That may be true but I'm not sure this book is also 900 years old like they said:

Though I'm sure it's rather old. See also: the Ethiopian alphabet!

   Then we had a delicious lunch prepared by Belde's wife, who runs a little restaurant:

   And then we drove out to the Blue Nile Falls (Tis Abay), the official starting point of the Blue Nile (which provides 85% of the volume of the consolidated Nile). My battery is getting low and I want to get this posted so maybe I'll post more about it later. In the mean time here's a picture:

The Tis Abay waterfall and a young girl serving coffee. How more Ethiopian can you get?

Posted a heap of pictures from Ethiopia today most of which were from today. So look at them for a even fuller report on today!