Site Visit Success

I just got back from spending a few days in Adwa, where I will be living and working for the next 2 years. My visit started off a little rocky with some differences in personalities with my counter part, but thanks to Peace Corps and their help, I was able to have a successful and happy visit and I also have a new community liaison who is helpful and awesome.

I am lucky and get to fly to my site, so I flew to Aksum with Leroy, Aly, Jessie, and Colin who are also in the Western part of Tigray and then bused with Aly and her counter part to Adwa where they continued on their journey and I met my site mate Lauren. My days consisted of meeting people around town, setting things up like my bank account, and just getting to know the town.

Lauren was a great guide because she was able to introduce me to her friends and people she knows, so that I was able to get a sense of who I should associate and hang around with when I get back to site in a month.

I did not set up my post office box, because I am going to take Lauren’s over when she leaves soon. However, you all can start sending me mail and it will be picked up by her if it gets there before I do. 

For the next few months send it like this (because it is still her post office box):

Lauren Troxtel

C/O Kelsey Hill

PO Box 39, Adwa

Tigray, Ethiopia

My new address for the next 2 years (which you can use in a few months) is:

Kelsey Hill

PO Box 39, Adwa

Tigray, Ethiopia

I know people want to start sending me care packages, so my next blog post will consist of a “wish list” that I have been writing down, but I didn’t want to put it in this one J

My community liaison Gebre was fantastic as well. He is a teacher in the 12^th grade and he owns his own language center, which Lauren helps out with and teaches classes there. He was able to show me around the school and introduce me to the school director who also seems very nice and welcoming. My school compound is huge because it has both the secondary, preparatory, and a technical college campus on it. It’s also where their former prime minister went to school, so that is a big source of pride for them.

I ate some really good food, including a dish called special fool. It’s made of spices, beans, eggs, and yogurt that you mix together and eat with bread. Trust me, it doesn’t sound good, but it is great and super filling.

My house is gorgeous. Although I did not get to meet my land lady because she was visiting her children in Germany, I met her sister and she seems sweet. My compound is like a compound inside of a compound, so I have a lot of neighbors if you consider the bigger compound. My land lady is the librarian at my school, so I am excited to connect with her and see if we can do projects and things at the school.

My room is very nice. Right now it is furnished. I know I get to keep the armoir, however I am not sure about the bed that is currently in there. However, it is furniture that is nicer than I have at home. I am also super excited about the idea of having a western toilet and hot water/shower in my bathroom that is connected to my room. I am definitely living the “Posh Corps” as we jokingly call it here.

My site mate (who is a G8 and will be COSing in a few months) has an internet stick that she uses with her computer and she gets internet in her house. I will be buying one of those when I go to site, so I should be able to get internet at least for a short time every day. Even if I cannot get internet in my house, there are internet café’s close to my house. I am extremely lucky to be so close to amenities like that.

I left Adwa reluctantly on Friday and met up with my fellow trainee’s, a few G8’s, and some G10’s in Aksum for the afternoon/evening. We explored a bit, and it is a much more touristy town than I have seen (besides Addis). Our hotel was fantastic because we had wifi and the best shower I have had since being in Ethiopia! It is a beautiful place, although not as big as I was expecting it to be from pictures and the things I had heard.

I am now back in Butajira after stuffing my face with firenji pizza in Addis and getting a Snickers bar from the grocery next to the hotel. We continue training tomorrow for a few more weeks with our days consisting of mostly language and more teacher training, with a few administrative and health/safety things thrown in there. I am glad to be back together with my fellow trainee’s for a few more weeks. I was only gone from them for a week and I didn’t realize how much I rely on them. But, I am very close to a few of them, so that will be a good.

Over and out.

My home for the next 2 years!

It’s been a fun couple of weeks full of exciting news and fun adventures. We finished practicum teaching, which was definitely an experience. We had to work with switching schools, some coteaching, and designing, grading, and giving assessments. All of which was much more difficult than I was expecting. The designing assessments was the hardest part for me during practicum, because I am used to giving tests that are already prepared and it was very hard to make an assessment based on a class with students that we didn’t really know with levels that vary drastically.

We also took a day trip to Lake Langano which was fun. It reminded me a bit of summer camp because there were canoes, it was on a lake, there were activities around, there was picnic food, and there was music blasting. We hadn’t all hung out together in a long time because we had been separated during practicum, so it was interesting to see how different relationships and friendships have developed since the beginning of PST. The LCF’s came with us, and so it was fun to watch them interact with each other in a friendly and not so serious environment. It was also great to watch them dance to the “American”/rap music that would come on, because they dance so well and so differently than we do in America.

Now to the super exciting news. We got our site placements on Saturday. They had a whole ceremony where they announced sites individually. I’m placed in Adwa, which is in Tigray. It’s a town of 40,000 and it’s about a 30 minute drive from Axum (or Aksum, as it’s spelled here). It’s the site of the historic Battle of Adwa and so there is lots of history in and around my site. I have 1 site mate who is a health volunteer and then I have 1 close site mate who is also health and lives in Axum.

We are back in Addis for a few days before we head to site. We are all enjoying the diversity of food available and the chance to hang out in a Western hotel (it’s more like a resort) for a few days. We met our community liasions, although because of some differences I will be placed with a new community liasion when I arrive to site. I am currently sitting in the hotel lobby with other Tigray people before we head off to the airport for site visit! I will be sure to write and update my blog after I get back from site visit. 

Over and out.

Happy Month Anniversary

     On Friday it was a month exactly since my journey in the Peace Corps began. On one hand it feels like I have been here for a year already, and on the other hand it feels like I just got here yesterday. Although my memories and experiences count up to a month, my feelings are split between time moving slower and quicker than at home.

     This week was pretty uneventful, so not much to report or talk about. We had a Peace Corps free Monday due to the end of Ramadan. My host father is Muslim, but he spent most of the day at the mosque, so I had a pretty free day to hang out and relax, which is something we rarely get to do anymore. We had meat for the first time since I have gotten here (well, at least at my house).

Getting onto food, I had a fresh mango from our fruit tree for the first time this week, and it was amazing. I also had a juice drink called a spritz. It was mango and avocado, which some people may think sounds disgusting, but it was like heaven it a glass- it was so good! I also found a pastry place yesterday with some fellow trainee’s that had chocolate donuts, so it’s been a good food week. Although, that still doesn’t make up for the variety of foods found in America. The fresh food and fruit definitely tastes better here though.

     I had my second week of practicum this week, but my first week of solo teaching. It is really great to get back into the classroom and to take charge of the classroom. My students are really fantastic, and so I have left the class with a smile on my face every day. We observe fellow trainee’s whenever we are not teaching, and from what I can tell Ethiopia is going to have some great teachers for the next 2 years. Every one of my fellow trainee’s is great with the kids, teaching the material well, and making the learning fun.

     We switch language groups starting tomorrow, so I will be with a new language teacher and Tomas. It’s pretty funny that the two New Mexicans are in the same language group—maybe it’s because we have to stick together. Actually, who knows. But, it will be a good match because neither of us are picking up the language as quickly as we would like to be.

     I got a card from my mom, which was a nice surprise. I don’t have a ton of time to send letters to people back home, but getting mail makes my whole week, if you would like to send me letters J

This coming week we have more practicum and language class and that is it. Next Sunday we have a treat and Peace Corps is taking us to Lake Lagano for a day trip, which should be lots of fun. The unit we are currently teaching in practicum is visiting places, and it has a lot of places to travel to in Ethiopia. I of course, want to go to all of them. Lake Lagano is one of the many places I can’t wait to see. I will try and take lots of pictures.

Over and out.