Pictorialoch

Alright, so I'm back in the Peace Corps office for the day and am trying to upload a few pictures from work recently. The first ones are of the business I helped my HIV-positive association open, and the next are the theater competition. Hopefully you guys will enjoy these.

Peace,

Brad

P.S. Last week was my one year anniversary of being in Ethiopia, which was exciting. Forgot to mention that earlier. Alright, carry on.

Absences?/Lame Blog Entry

Don't worry peoples, I'm still alive in the Ethiope. Sorry it's been so long since my last blog entry, and sorry in advance if this one is kind of lame. I'm in Addis right now closing out the grant for the business I helped my HIV-positive association start. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to the new volunteers training town to help out with that. Work has been really busy lately, so that's good I suppose. My World AIDS Day theater competition went amazingly. People in my town estimated the crowd at 6000-7000 people, which was awesome. The kids in my town put on some great dramas, and the circus/music group that I brought in from my regional capital (Awassa) was amazing.

So what else has been going on? Not much I guess. My bro's almost ready to buy his ticket for a visit in January, which is awesome. If you're reading this Jeff, get going on that. Honestly, I really don't know what else to write at the moment. I guess that's why the title of this blog includes the descriptor I've given it.

Well, keep in touch everyone and write some letters. Seriously, write letters.

Bye bye.

Pictures Again!!! (and even a VIDEO!!)

Alright kids, I've added some pictures to the flickr page to the right. Enjoy!!

Also, thanks to the blazing fast Italian internet, I've managed to add a video that I took while moving my furniture and stuff to my new house. If your computer is having trouble playing the video, download VLC media player and it will work. The kids in the video are my neighbors from the old house. The video also shows you how I was able to move all my stuff to the new house, through the magic of a donkey cart.

Enjoy guys!!

Brad

www.flickr.com/bdid66

Live from Italy

Greetings everyone!

So I'm in Italy right now, and wanted to take advantage of some fast internet by at least putting something up here. I'll be heading back to Ethiopia soon, so I figured I needed to take the time now to put something up. Rome was fun, and it was great to be able to meet my mom there (she wasn't willing to come to Ethiopia, so we met half way). Now I'm in Venice, which is really amazing. I really don't have too much to write about right now, though I can honestly say I am looking forward to getting back to Ethiopia. Work is really exciting right now and busy, which is exciting. Maybe I'll try to put a few pictures up tomorrow if I have the time. Those are worth 1000 words; and although I'm not sure exactly how many pictures are equivelant to 1000 words, that means I can stop writing now.

Ciao!

Meskel Schmeskel

Greetings everyone! Just got home from the big Meskel celebration that was at the market area this afternoon. More on that later though. Since my last entry, a lot has been going on here. I picked up my grant money from Addis, and have already bought most of the equipment for the HIV positive association’s business and transported it to my town from Addis. I’ve also found my new house and am in the process of moving all my stuff there. It’s a nice place; 2 little rooms on a nice compound with coffee and fruit trees. Most importantly, it’s a lot closer to town and has a good amount of people living on the compound. It should be a good move I think.

So Meskel (Finding of the True Cross) is today and tomorrow, which is the biggest holiday of the year in my part of Ethiopia. I’ve been told that it is a particularly huge holiday for people in Hadiya (my area), Gurage, and Wolayta areas. The event in the market area this afternoon was definitely one of the coolest I’ve been to since coming here. There was a huge bonfire (demera) and lots of drumming, singing, dancing, etc. before the bonfire was lit. I took some videos on my camera of all of that; hopefully they turned out well. They were even shooting off roman candles out of the top of a huge cross. Then they lit the bonfire, which was topped with lots of flowers and stuff. The pile was doused with kerosene, so it went up like a snap, and then the really wild dancing began. It was a lot of fun. After that we went out for dinner, and then walked home. The day and night before Meskel is apparently the big celebration around here, and the night (right now) is full of kids running around to shops and restaurants singing and dancing. There’re also smaller bonfires at people’s houses everywhere, so the night is pretty lit up compared to the usual pitch-blackness around here. I’m exhausted right now, but just wanted to take a few minutes to write a blog entry about the holiday and the celebration.

Alright everyone, I need to get to bed.

As always, get out those pens and write those letters. Bye bye.

PICTURES!!!!!!

I'm in Addis, and so finally have the chance to put a bunch of pictures up. Click on the flickr link over to the right to check them out. Enjoy!

Brad

P.S. That last blog, where I was talking about thinking about life in the US, was in no way meant as derogitory. I was just talking about how huge the culture shock is going to be when I go to Italy and then back to the US in a year and a half. Just wanted to clear that up, apparently there was some confusion about that.

www.flickr.com/bdid66

9 Months in the Bag

Well ladies and gents, how is everyone? As of today (or tomorrow maybe, I’m not sure), I’ve been in Ethiopia for 9 months. It’s hard to believe it’s really been that long, time has really flown by. If I would have gotten pregnant the day I got here, I’d be delivering any day now (thankfully I’m not pregnant though, like Arnold in that movie “Junior”). Was Danny DeVito in that? He was in “Twins” with Arnold, but I think “Junior” also. I’m not sure. I could use IMDB right now. Anyway, that’s not related to the point.

Life is going really well here these days. My vegetables have actually made a bit of a comeback, though I will be moving houses in about a month or so. My house right now is a long way from town, and it’s a bit creepy walking home at night to what my friends in town refer to as “the countryside”. Also, someone was eaten by a hyena about a minute walk from my house a couple weeks ago (she went out to fetch water in the middle of the night and all they found was her hair and blood). That’s no cause for worry though, that’s extremely rare. I’ve seen them on my way home quite a few times, and they never even come close. When I shine my flashlight at them, they just kind of slink away. Right now I’m the only one really living on this compound, so it’ll be nice to get some people on the same compound as me as well.

Work is going well. My grant money for the HIV positive association business should be arriving in the next few weeks, I’m heading to Awassa again to take the next step in getting money for a World AIDS Day theater competition (knock on wood), and I’m starting to do a little preliminary info gathering on a little sanitation/water project.

Ethiopian New Year is coming up in about a week, so that should be fun. If you all didn’t know, Ethiopia never switched to the Gregorian calendar. Because of that, the year begins on September 11 (which is Meskerem 1^st in the Ethiopian calendar) and the new year will be 2002. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do for New Years yet, but it should certainly be fun (and full of dancing, as every event in Ethiopia usually is). I’m also looking forward to the Italy trip I’m going on toward the end of next month (Mom, Vicki, and Kathy better be excited as well).

Thinking of life outside Ethiopia is so bizarre for me now. Everything here seems so normal, and things that I remember from the US seem so abnormal and ridiculous. Even going to Addis or Awassa blows my mind when I haven’t been out of my town for awhile. I stare up at the buildings like a kid from rural Oklahoma who’s just been teleported into New York City (movie idea?). That’s why I’m so excited for Jeff (my brother if you don’t know him) to maybe be coming to visit this winter (dry season here). It’ll be great to get a fresh pair of eyes on my life here and what it is like to live in Ethiopia. I think it’ll probably help you guys at home understand also. I hope that makes at least a little bit of sense; I don’t feel like I’m at my most eloquent right now with regard to writing.

OK, I guess I need to get going. Thanks to everybody for your support through this first 9 months, and thanks in advance for the support for the next 18 months. I really appreciate it, and I miss you all. Write those letters! Until next time……."