Salem;
The past week was a time of slowly learning about our new home - Assosa. In my following recap of the week, I'm trying to share the experience of being here. What I am finding is that I need to take so many more photos so you have a better sense of life and living in Assosa. Having more photos is a lesson that Janet Wortsman is patiently mentoring me on. Just takes some time Janet; know that I'll learn. Please do share any comments or thoughts you have. Love to enrich the experience for all of us.
Week in Review
Sunday was our travel day from Addis Ababa to Assosa. Taking a flight in Ethiopia is so much different than Canada. First of all, there is only one airline that flies domestically - Ethiopian Airlines controlled by the government. The good news is that the airline has one of the youngest fleets of planes in the world, a good safety record and is profitable.
Getting to the airport terminal is quite an experience in itself. Have to meander through half paved, half dirt parking lots to the drop off point. Only passengers are allowed in the terminal. Security is the first thing you pass through to get into the terminal. You then pass through security a second time after you get your ticket and are heading to the gate to get on the plane. Learned that leaving loads of extra time is really, really important.
When we arrived in Assosa found that our accommodations in the compound was a pleasant surprise - a courtyard area that had mango trees, papaya tree and other trees. Sort of a resort feel in a small city at the edge of the world. We are just 90 kilometers from the Sudan border.
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| Cuso Compound |
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| Cuso Compound - Driveway |
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| Kitchen on left; Door behind tree is dining area |
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| Compound from driveway |
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| Dave's bedroom |
Pleased with our living accommodation. Feel safe in the compound and community. Compound is a walled off area with a steel locked gate. In the compound, have a clean bedroom and own bathroom. Running water. Hot shower; flush toilet, double size bed (with bedding, night stand, full length closet for clothes, desk and mosquito net). Basic and comfortable.
We have a separate common kitchen area with running water, double sink, dishes, pots and pans, cutlery. Small fridge and two stoves - one gas (if the power goes out) and one electric. Apparently the power supply is fairly consistent. We have now set up one of the rooms as a dining area. While not home, my living situation involves only a small personal sacrifice. Just need to look around the town at how many of the locals live to appreciate what I have.
We also have a wonderful landlord/landlady, Alicia, who live next door. They have been speedy to address any deficiencies. They have also adopted us. Invited to their house on Monday night for coffee and dinner. Their twelve year old daughter, Bethelem, is tutoring us in Amharic: the national language spoken here. Working on how to bake peanut butter cookies to win their sweet tooth.
Had my first hamburger in Ethiopia on Sunday in Assosa. It was so good. Oh yeah, we arrived in town in the midst of a power outage. Thank goodness it has been the only outage in the past week.
Please meet Agatha who has been living in the compound on her own for a little while now. She is a Cuso volunteer from Kenya, who has been working at the Assosa General Hospital for the past year or so. While Agatha is a nurse, she has been focused on supporting the midwife program at the hospital. She is a godsend for our placement. She is very knowledgeable about Assosa, has familiarity with the language and is simply interested in helping out.
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| Front to back - Agatha, Nancy and yours truly |
Monday was supposed to be my first day at the Health Bureau. In a meeting with our Program Manager, Mahari, at the Cuso office in downtown Assosa we discovered the Health Bureau officials were out of the office deploying a new initiative and were expected back in the office on the 21st. We spent the morning discovering where the main market is located (close to the office). Also spent Monday morning getting my clothes to a laundry facility to be cleaned cuz of those pesky bedbugs. Oh yeh, transportation around here is in a three wheel vehicle called a bajaj can seat four people plus some luggage Yes, we stuck a big suitcase of clothes and four people into this vehicle. Thank goodness it was a relatively short distance.
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| Cuso Office - Assosa |
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| Bajaj - blue vehicles in above photo |
After lunch we visited the Assosa General Hospital where Agatha worked. I had a personal interest in visiting for a couple reasons. A previous volunteer, Dr. Phil Squires, a pediatrician from Stratford, Ontario, who was kind enough to meet with me to share his volunteer experiences in Assosa wanted me to give the hospital a number of medical books as the hospital had no resources. He also wanted to give books to two specific doctors he worked with in his three month placement. I also had a number of knitted hats from Judy McCreery that were intended for newborns to keep their heads warm after birth. Visiting the hospital turned out to be another opportunity to learn how fortunate we are in Canada from a medical perspective. The hospital is a series of buildings connected by covered walkways. Each building is like a department that we would have in one hospital in Canada. Most buildings had their lights turned off, the phones were out of the 1960's, some beds seemed antiquated.
I had the wonderful experience of seeing the big smiles and show of gratitude for the books and the hats I left. I also had to take photos of the babies at risk area for Dr. Phil as this ward was just being built when he was there. The medical staff insisted that he be shown the progress they made. I also took photos of the two doctors who received books personally from Dr. Phil. What incredibly big smiles on their faces! Felt like I was truly blessed to have this opportunity to be an emissary for others.
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| Knitted hats to keep newborns' heads warm Thanks Judy |
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| Medical team with new books and knitted hats |
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| New babies at risk unit |
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| Two babies who will one day be very thankful for this equipment and care |
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| Thanks Dr. Phil |
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| Thanks Dr. Phil |
Tuesday afternoon was fun. Agatha had a friend, Onesphrey, come over to prepare our lunch. We had Nile Perch in a stew and a Tanzanian bread ogulee (sp). Was some spicy; I was shiny with perspiration. We also met Joseph, another Agatha friend. Agatha had already introduced us to Father Sam and the four nuns from the local Catholic community. Feels like the start of a community for me.
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| Please meet Honestfre - what a meal! |
Onesphrey, a volunteer, oversees the UN World Food Programme supporting the local refugee camps. One camp, near Gambela, has 340,000 people from South Sudan. Camps are designed to house between 11,000 and 25,000. The other five camps have about 100,000 more refugees. Uganda has another 700,000 South Sudanese refugees. Hard to fathom the magnitude of human suffering happening in the world today. I always have the Syrian people in mind - the millions that are displaced or refugees.
The rest of the day involved learning how to shop for food. Nothing is necessarily convenient or simple. Got our beef from the butcher kiosk. Took the following photo of the butcher shop team cutting up our purchase. Note how the knives for the guy on the right are just a blur. .
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| Welcome to one of the many butcher shops. |
Oh, have I mentioned all of the new morning sounds that I now have to get used to. Starting at about 4 am we are blessed with a mullah doing morning prayers through a loudspeaker or it may be a priest from the Orthodox Church. Will have to learn the difference. Now let me enrich your experience by layering in the sounds of incessant barking dogs and the crowing roosters. The morning is a cacophony of sounds that challenges even the deepest of sleepers of which I am not. Welcome to the small city life.
Enjoying some Maple flavored tea - thanks Genny!
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| Only in Canada you say! Pity! |
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| Agatha and Nancy enjoying their first taste of Maple Tea |
Nancy was on a mission to have french fries this week. Mission accomplished on Thursday.
Pretty much get a shower, thunderstorm or just pouring rain everyday now and rainy season is still about three weeks away.
Agatha led us on a walking tour of Assosa or at least part of Assosa on Friday. We ended up walking about 10 km in total. Some photos from our walk.
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| Stores |
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| Streets are a little different than home |
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| Stores |
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| Stores |
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| Close up on house construction - straw is used |
Quite the experience being a foreigner in Assosa. The word for a foreigner is ferengi. You hear the word being called out as you walk by. The kids are particularly interested in making contact in English. Most of them say hi and wait for a response. I had one boy greet me and walk with me for a few hundred meters having a conversation as best we could. A lot of people will simply stare at me. That's when I crack a smile and greet them with a local greeting. Most people respond with a smile or a head nod. Look forward to just walking about to become better known and try more to become familiar with where I am living.
Saturday was our first full market experience. Saturday is the day that everyone shows up at the market to sell their stuff. Our shopping objectives included finding the ingredients to make peanut butter cookies and home made french fries for the landlord's family on Saturday. A key challenge was finding sugar. Apparently sugar is regulated by the government so we would need to be resourceful in finding sugar. Baking cookies like I did in Canada is out of the question. Most things here take time, careful thought and loads of choices.
The market is a fascinating experience. Organized chaos to the untrained eye. Market stretches out in so many directions. Buy vegetables, clothing, textiles, spices, live chickens (have to kill your own chickens if you want to eat chicken meat), hard goods; pretty much everything that your heart may desire (except for sugar, of course). Every vendor has a small set of weigh scales to weigh out the produce you want to purchase. Going to spend more time next Saturday exploring the full extent of the market.
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| Saturday market |
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| Saturday market |
After the market, we tracked down our sugar. It is sold in bulk. We also discovered that you buy flour in bulk; just tell the vendor how much you want. You buy eggs on an individual basis. They are put into a plastic bag - no egg cartons here. And the eggs are about half the size of a small egg we buy in Canada. Also bought four buns from the local bakery. Just need to buy some honey and I can enjoy one of my favorite treats - peanut butter and honey on a fresh baked bun. Hard to believe home could be that close.
We enjoyed lunch at Mahari's home, our Program Manager. with his family and friends which is a short walk from our compound. Had the traditional food including goat. Food and hospitality was amazing. We also treated to a traditional coffee ceremony and had two espresso cups of the most magnificent coffee in the world. We had also met Mohammed, another of Agatha's friend, a little earlier in the day. Mohammed was the previous Assosa General Hospital CEO who has gone back to university to advance his career. He kindly bought my buna (coffee). He also asked that we share phone numbers so that we could reach out to him if we ever needed help. And his actions are truly reflective of the hospitality and kindness the Ethiopian people have extended to us over the past week in Assosa.
Spent the balance of Saturday baking cookies and baking the french fries. Yes, I've brought my cookie baking skills to Ethiopia. Almost forgot to put eggs into the batter. My bad as I haven't used eggs in my cookie baking for at least a couple years now. Think adding the eggs late in the process contributed to the cookies being a little crumbly. Nothing that sitting in the freezer part of the fridge can't fix. Bless to have an oven that works and for the power to be on consistently. Had to improvise a cookie sheet for the baking. Much better equipped for the next attempt to make cookies - will be chocolate cookies. No chocolate chips that we can find - yet. Our landlady, Alicia, and her four children were most appreciative of our gifts of peanut butter cookies, loads of fresh french fries along with some ketchup.
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| Dave's peanut butter cookies now available in Ethiopia |
Look forward to meeting with the Regional Health Bureau team this week to explore how to partner with them to address their needs.
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