Category Archives: PCVs in Ethiopia

The toughest job you’ll ever . . . love?

by Jennifer Miller (Debre Markos, 2011– )
Editor’s note:  Used with permission from her blog  jebenajen.wordpress.com

AS THE FIRST (RETURNING) GROUP of Education Sector PCVs in Ethiopia, G5 (as our group is called) has faced a multitude of hurdles. Some of these obstacles were anticipated, even expected, while others were never even imagined, even (as the saying goes) in our wildest dreams. I don’t want to write extensively about the most serious challenges in a public forum such as this, but the time in our site has been an unfolding series of unanticipated chiggers (which — parenthetically — include difficult individuals + entrenched institutional/cultural attitudes/beliefs + low professional morale + omnipresent poverty + corrosive forces of corruption + lack of resources).

Chigger (Amharic for problem) + otch (plural suffix) = Chiggerotch.

Chigger (English for a bug that makes you itch) + s (plural suffix) = Chiggers.

This past week, some G5ers were in Addis working with Daniel O (our APCD) on “Training, Development and Evaluation” for the next group of Education Peace Corps Trainees (referred to as G7). G7 will be twice as large as our group (we were a group of 35 and they will have 70). They arrive in Ethiopia in one month. We eagerly await their arrival and are doing our best to make their road here in Ethiopia a little less rocky. We aren’t bringing in the Chinese road paving crew, but we are trying to eliminate some of the worst hazards and pothole-sized early morale busters. It will be hard enough for most of them, even with our improvements, especially if they are too idealistic. But how can you be one month away from starting Peace Corps training and NOT BE jazzed up about the adventures you imagine lie ahead, right?

The outline of G7′s training program is now in place and most of the sessions should help prepare them for their work as English Language Teacher Trainers. Apparently, the “teacher trainer” placement here in Ethiopia is different from most Peace Corps/Education assignments internationally because we don’t serve as direct classroom teachers. Selazi (therefore), we have an ambiguous role in our communities and it sounds like many of us have struggled (on a daily basis) to establish and maintain our professional working relationships with local constituents.

What are the basic requirements needed to survive in our assigned roles? Personally, having curiosity about humanity in all its complexity, beauty and ugliness has helped. Without an ability to embrace people as we are, sometimes inspirational and other times deeply flawed and incompetent, I could not work as an education PCV in Ethiopia. That may seem obvious, but if you don’t like being surrounded by humans and interacting with them all day, every day, this placement is not for you.

Recently, faculty and teacher’s lounges are places that lend themselves to the inevitable requests from me, the American, for all types of physical resources, which are nonexistent here. I am solid and secure in my role as a “capacity builder” without funding and I don’t want to be viewed as a visiting farenji who is here to distribute resources. Laptops are a dream for most primary and CTE teachers — and laptops are simply beyond their reach financially. The average wage earned in country per year is $390. Teachers are paid very little, with Primary Teachers being the lowest paid of all.

In walks farenji Jennifer, the American. I sit down in the teachers’ lounge (after required greeting rituals), get out my laptop and help the school supervisor download pictures and print them out (in black and white) on the office printer for a school program. The supervisor needs more photos, so I take out my digital camera and snap photos of teachers, students, the garden, various science projects. We download these photos and he prints them out in the office, which has the only desktop computer in the whole school.

Everyone was elated to be photographed, and everyone wants to see the photos we just took on my computer. After sharing these photos as well as photos I have from home and travels to Tigray, everyone in the teachers’ lounge wants a camera and a laptop of their own. Completely understandable. I love my camera! I love my laptop! I consider them essential tools for my job and my life. The teachers ask me for these things (such requests are nothing new) and for one moment, I sincerely wish I could be the farenji American who hands each and every one of them a camera and a laptop. But what can I do? I am here for capacity building, right? In response to these persistent requests for resources, I get out my cell phone and pretend to dial . . .

“Hello? Hello? Is this the White House? Yes? Oh, great. Can I please speak with Barack? Oh, he’s busy? Can I please speak with Michelle? . . . Thank you. Oh, hello, hello Michelle!! How are you??  

Michelle Obama on phone with Jen

Yes? I’m fine, just fine . . .  I am here in Ethiopia in Debre Markos working as a Peace Corps Volunteer. . . Yes, it is very nice here, I like it very much . . . So Michelle, I’m just sitting here with some primary school teachers and we were wondering if you could send us some laptops?

Really? You can? Oh, thank you!! That is wonderful . . . How many laptops do we need? Hmmmm, let me see . . . (I survey the room and count the teachers who are watching me with amusement). . . . We need one, two, three . . . fifteen, sixteen . . . How about twenty? Okay, thank you very much. See you later! Bye!!

At the completion of that dramatization, most teachers were asking me “Who is Michelle?” When I told them she is Barack Obama’s wife, and she is someone who can really get things done, we all had a good laugh. “She is the one who wears the trousers in the family,” I say, knowing that a similar concept of women “wearing the trousers” having authority and power exists in Amharic culture.

The PCV job is tough. One of the toughest assignments I’ve ever had for sure. And difficult to explain to others, though we are all trying to understand why it is so difficult here. I have found that I constantly have to fight for my right to exist as a female with authority and expertise. I have to fight to provide professional “Capacity Building” at my primary assignment (the CTE), which is only difficult because I expected my professional expertise to be welcomed, not ignored. The reasons for my personal struggles are still murky, but the overall picture is becoming more clear with passing time. So I persevere.

Some days I think: So . . . where is the love part of this whole PCV thing? Tough, yes. Love? . . . not today!

Welcoming students

And then, two weeks ago, I started to work in the Primary School. It was then and there where the humanity begins to return. How can you not love being kidnapped from the 2nd Grade Teacher by the 1st Grade teacher, who is desperate for you to teach her eager class a song? So what shall it be? Head, shoulders, knees and toes? Okay then, here we go!! I catch the looks of pure and innocent joy on the faces of the children, who know these words in English but have never sung this particular song. They are thrilled to sing it first slowly, with actions. Then a second time, a little bit faster. And a third time, even faster!! If you happen to get kidnapped by a 1st grade teacher, just know that the absurd and intense dose of fun you will have inside that classroom teaching a silly little song to enthusiastic youth just might help you find the love you’d been missing at the CTE . . .

GOOD NEWS: I am happy to share the good news that I was awarded a grant from Minnesota Returned Peace Corps Volunteers for Early Grade Reading Centers! This small grant will make a significant difference in the work I can accomplish over the next year and 3 months. Thank you MNRPCV!!!

OTHER NEWS: I mailed a package of letters to 2nd Graders in Fayetteville, North Caroline. The pen pal idea was very fun and motivating for students here. I read the letters that were crafted at home and only one second grader had the audacity to ask for a laptop from the kids in the U.S. I had to smile as I wondered which older sibling or parent put that idea into the young man’s head, or is he just advanced for his age?

A mobile pocket library

Here is an image from a primary school in Mekelle. It is of a new idea that I’m inspired by: Mobile Pocket Libraries. I DEFINITELY want to make some of these Mobile Pocket Libraries and use them in our primary schools as “Mini-Libraries” and Early Grade Reading Centers. This idea links to the grant I wrote to MNRPCV. To know more about Library Innovators, check out the Beyond Access link.

Libraries + Access + Books + Ethiopia = Toughest + Job + Love!

Sliding in Broadside: “What a ride!”

PCV Keith Keyser may be three times the age of most PCVs, but his energy (and success) is a wonder to behold.

By Janet Lee (Emdeber 74-76)

“He may be retired, but I have a hard time keeping up with him,” says a twenty-something male PCV about fellow Volunteer Keith Keyser. To look at Keith, one would not imagine that he had just celebrated his 70th birthday. Nothing slows him down. He is adored and respected by the other Volunteers, many of whom are the age of his own grandchildren. In fact, he signs most of his emails Keith/Dad/Grandpa/Great Grandpa. He is also more wired than most of the other Volunteers, updating his Facebook page, blogs and emails at all hours of the day and night through the use of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology — electricity and internet permitting, of course; this is Ethiopia after all. That should not come as a surprise; he retired as the IT Director from Denver Water not so long ago.

Although assigned to the Finote Selam office that is in charge of the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS and the support of those with suffering from the diseases, Keith has tallied up a wide variety of successes in his short two years in Finote Selam.

Among them are:

• Creating an Access database for the hospital to manage its patient medical records
• Setting up a chicken project complete with a three-room chicken house and an incubator room;
• Writing a handful of grant proposals;
• Setting up a community library and securing reference books for the secondary school library;
• Helping set up two urban gardens;
• Hosting weekly English language discussion groups in his home;
• Helping obtain soccer balls for a youth and sports group;
• Working with a health club at the Preparatory School to distribute mosquito nets;
• Accompanying three girls to the summer Camp Glow, Girls Leading our World camp in Gondar;
• Volunteering with Operation Smile in Jimma, an organization that performs surgery on cleft lips.

Still nothing has touched his heart as much as his work with the mentally ill and in particular, a young woman named Ana (not her real name). His emails are filled with her trials and tribulations, ups and downs, bumps and bruises, progress and relapses. She is schizophrenic with a persecution complex, and like so many mentally ill in Ethiopia was ignored, abused, and left to fend for herself. While working as a housemaid for a family, the son took advantage of her sexually. When she became pregnant, the family kicked her out of the house. She was approximately 16 years old and on the street when she gave birth. She struggled to raise her daughter while begging, but ultimately her child was taken from her and given up for adoption. Until she met Keith, her only protector was a Moslem bike repair shop owner who allowed her to while away her time at his shop. She slowly came to trust Keith and called him her “father and mother.”

It took some doing, but Keith was able to put together the proper papers, accompany her to Addis Ababa and have her admitted to a hospital where she was treated. Although nearly everyone else had given up on her, “Her eyes tell me that there is a vibrant person in there that wants to come out!” It is unclear what may have triggered her illness. It may have been brought on by her poverty and lack of ability to care for her daughter who was then taken away from her, or some other traumatic event in her life, including being sexually molested while living on the streets. Her situation is further complicated by being HIV positive.

Even though the hospital may be one of the best mental hospital in East Africa, Keith felt like he was abandoning her at the hospital, a bit like in “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Ana shared a ward with 19 other women, each in varying stages of illness and delusions. Patients usually have a family member to watch after their affairs, provide them with care, food, tea, and other types of support. Keith was able to find a surrogate caregiver for a fee. In the meantime, Keith needed to deal with the typical Ethiopian bureaucracy of paperwork and signatures for her treatment.

After nearly two months of hospitalization, she returned to Finote Selam where the community was surprised at how “normal” she had become. She seemed to be recovering well emotionally, but was having difficulty adjusting to the HIV/AIDS medication, a common occurrence for the first few months as the body’s immune system is challenged by the medications. For the most part, she has reliably taken the medications on her own, but has occasional mishaps. She developed a severe infection on her head while Keith was away on Christmas holidays, an infection that is not that uncommon in AIDS patients. That has been treated and her life has some resemblance to normality.

Ismael

Keith’s reputation as a miracle worker and sympathetic soul has drawn others with mental illness to him for assistance. He and Ismael, the bike repair shopkeeper, have taken over 45 patients to the Addis Ababa hospital for treatment, a harried and eventful eight-hour mini bus experience, each direction. But Ana will always have a special place in his heart.

Keith has decided to extend his service and transfered to Mekelle at the beginning of this year to work with the Clinton Foundation to help improve the management of the country’s hospitals. This extension will allow him to occasionally check on Ana and his other projects. It seems that Ethiopia has had as much an effect on him as he has had on it. The extension will also give him an opportunity to travel further within and outside of Ethiopia and pursue his passion for photography. One of his recent photos, “Preparing the Garden for Planting,” was selected as a finalist in the Peace Corps 50th anniversary photo contest.

His wry, self-deprecating sense of humor comes through in his emails, blogs, and Facebook page, especially in the captions to his most exquisite photos. In a pre-Peace Corps experience in a Masaii village in Tanzania, he reflects, “The Masaii village people gave us gifts before we left; I was given a goat since I was the oldest member of our group.”

What keeps him going? Where does he get that passion for life? He explains that he believes in this adage: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, wow . . . what a ride!!!”

Preparing the Garden for Planting

Meeting Everyday Challenges in Ethiopia Head On: The Development of a Peer Support Network

Looking forward, looking back

By Teri Enomoto (Emdiber 09–11)

Eating kitfo with Tewolde

THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW YEAR is time to make resolutions and take a personal inventory. As many of us emerge from the holiday-induced haze like zombies from a horror movie, we begin to re-assess our lives. We put 2011 to bed as we look forward to new experiences, habits and personal growth.

Teri with her host parents Aschalew Taye and Helen Tayu of Dera

I find that while I am looking to the future, I also have one eye on the past. For many recently returned RPCVs, this is the time when the finality of two years of experiences coalesces and there is nothing that can be altered to that chapter of life on Ethiopian soil. It is not only about saying goodbye to one’s Ethiopian friends, family and town but also about a very distinct part of oneself; it is also about making peace with the experience by reconciling the good and the bad. It is a time to reminisce about what may end up being a very defining part of one’s life.

As I ruminate about my own Peace Corps experience, there are many things that I wished I could do over again: things I wished I said, people I wished I met and events in which I wished I participated. While I may have a few regrets, there are some events that fundamentally changed who I am in positive ways. One such experience was my involvement with the post’s Peer Support Network (PSN).

The Addis staff decided that some form of peer support was needed because the number of PCVs doubled while the staff size did not. There were nine of us who were elected: four Volunteers from Group 2 (2008–10): Karen Simms (Fitche), Mike Mallon (Debre Sina), Peter Buonincontro (Fincha) and Rich Gelicame (Hawassa); and five from Group 3 (2009–11): Aimee Uchytil (Bichena), Laura Copeland (Quiha), Raymael Blackwell (Mizan Terefi), Sher Vogel (Mertolemariam), and myself. We underwent an emotionally intense three-day training in October 2010 with Daynese Santos, the Peace Corps Medical Officer in Swaziland. We learned about supporting fellow PCVs through active listening and communication skills, as well as identifying common service challenges, red flags and grief resulting from loss.

After the training, we had several long meetings where we collaborated on what we envisioned PSN to be. I recall the shortest meeting lasted six hours. We elected our officers with Karen as President, Rich as Logistician, Laura as Secretary and Sher as PR Coordinator. Our first step was to create an internal structure. We crafted a mission statement that reflected our aim: “To provide, with integrity and confidentiality, a supportive, non-judgmental, and safe environment that will endure and evolve to meet the diverse needs of every Peace Corps/Ethiopia trainee and volunteer.” We also drafted a constitution. Once we understood what our mission would be, we came up with a calendar of events that consisted of trainings and PCV support events (e.g., encouragement cards, care packages, etc.).

Rich devised a detailed budget based on the calendar of events. We proceeded to set upon the task of developing a framework for the trainings. We wanted to make these sessions systematic so that it would be sustainable; future PSN members would be able to facilitate training content because the topics would be preset and recorded in written form (e.g., pre-service training would involve diversity and resiliency issues while in-service training would deal with sharing community integration suggestions and experiences). We split up the content and each of us devised specific goals, objectives and activities for the sessions. We then reviewed and edited the content as a group and Karen formatted it into a working document that we called our Internal Manual. In addition, we began the process of establishing a manual that we would send to newly sworn in Volunteers with coping strategies, as well as identifying physical and emotional wellness issues. Each member was assigned a few topics to write.

We each contributed a photo and an inspiring quote in December which Mike used to create a color calendar for Volunteers and Staff. It included PCV birthdays and holidays (American and Ethiopian). He also sent congratulatory emails to Group 2 Volunteers who finished their service.

During the spring of 2011, we continued to work on the development, testing and modification of our training content. When Karen finished her service, we added Jess Miner (Assella) to supplement the team with the technical expertise of an art therapist. Sher completed the editing and layout process for both the Training Manual (formerly the Internal Manual) and the New PCV Manual. Emily DiGiovanni (Konso), Libbey Brown (Goba), Nancy Sturtevant (Wondo Genet), and Seth Kammer (Sebo) were elected from Group 4 (2010–12) and went through a PCV-run PSN training orientation.

I learned so much from the individuals on PSN. Each person brought such a unique personality and set of skills to the table. It was, and continues to be, a collaborative environment. I can honestly say that I have never been part of a group that was as hard-working and supportive as PSN and I may never be again. I would come out of our marathon meetings exhausted, overwhelmed with the ideas and options but satisfied with the work we were doing. As I look forward to the post-PC phase of my life, I will bring the skills I developed during this time with me as a thoughtful reminder of what can be achieved.

Peace Corps Teachers Are Back

A newly minted batch of PCVs include teachers who will teach and mentor teachers.

In August on the grounds of the American Embassy in Addis Ababa, 69 new PCVs were sworn in by U.S. Ambassador Donald Booth. Thirty-five of those PCVs will be working in education, a return to the task Peace Corps took up when it first came to Ethiopia in 1962. These new teachers will not be working in Ethiopia’s primary or secondary schools, says Nwando Diallo, Peace Corps Country Director in Ethiopia. They will be “part of a broader effort between USAID, Peace Corps and the Ministry of Education to strengthen the English language learning/speaking/reading culture in Ethiopia via the strengthening of English Language teachers.  Essentially, they will be Teacher Trainers/Mentors.”  These new Volunteers will work in Ethiopia’s Colleges of Teacher Education and as advisors to teachers working in primary and secondary  schools.

SAYING IT IN OROMIFA: a new PCV speaks; Ambassador Booth and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hailemariam listen at swearing in ceremony

The remaining 34 Volunteers sworn in at the ceremony will be working in projects to combat HIV/AIDS.  Since Peace Corps returned to Ethiopia in 2007 most of the PCVs have worked in health projects funded in part by USAID. They worked in projects designed to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, care and support of victims and services to help orphans and vulnerable children. In December 2010 31 PVCs were sworn in to work in environmental projects.

No good idea wilts for lack of cash

From latrines to computers Peace Corps Partnership Program in Ethiopia funds a wide range of projects for PCVs

by Janet Danzl Lee (Endeber 74–76)

A PCV’S STOLEN IPOD and shoeshine boys who came to the rescue were the impetus for a Peace Corps Partnership Program grant sponsored by PCV Bridget Kelly of Gebre Guracha in early 2011. Once her tormenters, these same shoeshine boys outran her to the bus stop, caught the thief, and proudly held the recovered booty up high on the return trip through town. This unexpected gesture of heroism brought together the bullies and the bullied into an endearing relationship with shared meals and an occasional movie at Bridget’s home. Not long after, one of the boys, Dawit, became seriously ill. The boys knocked at

BIGGER THAN AN IPHONE: Bridget Kelly and some local kids explore technology

Bridget’s door, and Dawit was escorted to the hospital where he was diagnosed with pneumonia, given medication, and sent back to recuperate on the streets. After spending a sleepless night herself, Bridget embarked upon a plan to find more permanent shelter for the boys and the idea for the Kuyu Boys’ Boarding Home was born.

Keith Keyser, was also touched by the children at his site in Finote Selam who shined shoes, peddled gum or lottery tickets, or just hung out with nothing to do. He had spoken to city officials who were interested in working with him in setting up a library. He then became aware of the work that was being done in Mekelle by Peace Corps Volunteers, both current and returned, working with Yohannes Gebregeorgis and theTigray Library and Literacy Development Project. He attended the library dedication in August 2010. Fashioning a Peace Corps Partnership Program grant after the successful one developed by the Mekelle volunteers, Nicholas Strnad, Shelley McCreery, and Danielle Hoekwater, Keith embarked on a quest of his own to raise the capital needed for a library project.

These are just a few examples of eighteen projects that Peace Corps Volunteers have sponsored since Peace Corps was reintroduced into Ethiopia in 2008.  Other projects include the establishment of a community mill, building neighborhood latrines, a “Second Chance Café,” a poultry farm, and reservoir construction.

The Peace Corps Partnership Program had its start worldwide in April 1964 as a mechanism for project assistance to Volunteers in their communities from U.S. donors. Today there are over 700 small-scale, community-initiated projects that cover a broad range of endeavors related to water, education, English language and learning, business, health, and agriculture. The grants provide the Volunteers with much needed financial assistance to enable them to complete the projects, and the donors are assured 100 percent of their donations support the work at hand.

LIBRARY BUILDER: Keith Keyser near Finote Selam

Once a PCV decides to embark on a project, s/he must garner community support, which must contribute financially or in-kind at least 25 percent of the cost of the project.  The PCV must then complete a lengthy proposal, which is signed by the Volunteer, community partner, and the Country Director.  It is then forwarded to The Office of Private Sector Initiatives, where it is approved or returned for additional information. Once it is finalized, a summary of the project is posted on the Peace Corps Partnership web site and the PCV is allowed to solicit funds and direct donors to the site. Credit card donations are accepted and the donor immediately receives a receipt with a follow up letter from Peace Corps headquarters. The site is updated regularly and both the PCV and donors can watch the progress of the grant as the donations arrive. PCVs send out appeals to contacts via email and other social media. The use of Facebook has been quite effective in promoting the projects and soliciting funding. Although the burden is primarily on the Volunteer to raise the necessary capital, when the fund is nearing completion, the remaining amount is quickly capped off and the grant is fully funded.  Special corporate grant money may be used for this purpose.

The PCPP funding is wired to the bank account of the Volunteer and then the real work begins ordering materials and supervising the project.  The PCV must account for all expenses and write a final report detailing whether the goals and objectives of the project were met, the impact on the community, and future anticipated outcomes. The PCV is highly encouraged to send thank you notes to the donors and to regularly apprise donors of the progress of the project throughout.

The PCPP funding does make a real difference in the day-to-day lives of the recipients. As testimonial, each month, two sections of a three-week Introduction to Computers course is taught at the PCPP-sponsored computer lab at the Segenat Children and Youth Library in Mekelle, enabling boys and girls to receive basic knowledge of computers and computing.  The classes are taught free of charge by experienced IT professionals.

To view current Ethiopia PCPP requests click on this Peace Corps link, key in “Ethiopia” and check out and support current Ethiopian projects.

More details on PCV teachers returning to Ethiopia

Peace Corps is looking for 40  seasoned ESL teachers to work in teacher training projects

by Nancy E. Horn  (Addis Ababa 66–68)

DURING MY LAST VISIT to Ethiopia this summer, I met with Nwando Diallo, the Peace Corps Director in Addis Ababa. She was very busy finalizing Peace Corps’ agreement with the Ministry of Education to bring over 40 English as Second Language teachers in May 2011.  USAID will fund the program initially.  The Ministry  would love to field 300 ESL teachers,  but budget restrictions clearly prevent the deployment of  a number of that size at this time.

The plan, subject to further adjustments of course, calls for five Volunteers to be placed at different Teacher Training Colleges. The remainder of the PCVs will go to  Cluster Center schools that are not too far from the Training Colleges. Under present arrangements, Ethiopia’s  more than 35 Teacher Training Colleges take students who have completed 10^th grade and pass an entrance exam. Students remain at the Training Colleges for three years,  first earning a certificate and then a diploma.  After completion of their studies, they are deployed within their own regions.

Cluster Center Schools emerged as the result of over 20 years of  USAID-funded work by the Academy for Educational Development  to develop a workable process for in-service teacher training. Faculty from Teacher Training Colleges visit the Cluster Center schools to deliver workshops.  Under the management of the Woreda Education Office, teachers in surrounding satellite schools attend the workshops. They are expected to return to their respective schools to pass on what they have learned.  But because of a number of problems, teachers do not always share what they have learned with their colleagues.

USAID and Peace Corps, working in partnership, hope to overcome this cascading blockage by putting PCVs who are experienced ESL teachers at the Cluster Center Schools to provide guidance and follow-up to the workshops.  The PCVs at the Cluster Schools will visit the satellite schools to assist the teachers in delivering workshops in their respective schools.

The Teacher Training Colleges are located in the regional capitals, with very livable surroundings compared to the environments we served in the ’60s and ’70s.  These towns have electricity, running water, and shops that sell just about everything. The locations have a good bus transportation system and both government and private hospitals.

Sound enticing?  Recruitment for these positions will soon be taking place.  Check out the Peace Corps Website or stop in to your local Peace Corps recruiting office and find out more. Training, in country only, should begin some time in May, 2011, with PCVs moving into their locations and beginning their work with the start of the school year in September.

Get in touch with me if you would like more information – horn.n@att.net – and then let me twist your arm a bit.

Break out the old copy books. Peace Corps teachers are returning to Ethiopian schools

In the coming year, Peace Corps will tinker with the assignments new PCVs in Ethiopia will undertake. Projects in agriculture, the environment, and education are in the works

by Barry Hillenbrand (Debre Markos 63–65)

When Peace Corps returned to Ethiopia in 2007 the new PCVs were assigned to work with PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Part of the funding for the grand return of Peace Corps to Ethiopia came out of PEPFAR’s budget, and that helped speed Peace Corps back to Ethiopia in the days when funding was a particular problem. The new groups of  Volunteers have all worked fighting Ethiopia’s pressing AIDS crisis.

But many RPCVs had hoped that Peace Corps/Ethiopia would return to education, a program that made a lasting impression all over the country. Indeed, the new PCVs, hard at work with AIDS programs, were constantly running into people who would ask if they knew “Mr. Bob from Ohio who taught maths” or some other long-remembered teacher they had in secondary school thirty or forty years ago. Peace Corps — and America — still has a good reputation across the country because of Peace Corps teachers.

It now seems that Peace Corps will be returning to teaching. This year Peace Corp will expand assignments for new PCVs to include projects in agriculture and the environment, as well as continuing work in health. In the summer of 2011, PCVs will be sent to Ethiopia to work not only in health and agriculture, but also in teaching. The summer 2011 group may number as many as 70 PCVs. It will probably include English teachers, as well as primary school teachers and English teacher trainers. But details of the new programs, including the size and specialities of the new contingent, are still being worked out by Peace Corps and the Ministry of Education.

Keep clicking into the HERALD. More details are on the way.

Getting to know you – once again

The first group of the new batch of Ethiopia PCVs heads home after two years. The verdict: hard work and many rewards, great and simple. Peace Corps now has solid roots in Ethiopia

by Christen Smith (Debre Marcos 2007-2009)

The September dawn of the new Ethiopian year found me back with my host family in Weliso, nearly two years after I had stumbled awkwardly into their lives as a newly arrived Volunteer from America. Much had changed since then. My little sister, just three years old when we met, was starting to read and write, and my little brother had transformed from a clumsy boy of twelve to a stylishly dressed young man of fourteen. My momma’s oldest son had perceptibly shed the immaturity of his early twenties and was increasingly stepping into a role as “man of the house.”

My adoptive relatives, however, were not the only ones who had grown. As lively conversation filled the house along with the sweet, spicy aroma of the traditional doro wot, I found myself able to engage fully in the festivities, bantering in my improved Amharic and showing off my familiarity and ease with Ethiopian holiday customs.

The coffee ceremony

Though I had always been treated as a member of the family and a member of the Weliso community, now I truly felt it. And now as my momma played the gracious hostess, introducing me to the stream of relatives, friends, and neighbors that filtered through the house throughout the day, I found that the majority of our guests simply replied, “Yes, I know, I already know her.”

As the first group of Volunteers entering Ethiopia since Peace Corps’ exit from the country in 1999, we have spent most of our two years letting Ethiopia get to know us. To be sure, there is an entire generation of Ethiopians who remember fondly their Peace Corps teachers and will not hesitate to ask us, with eager light in their eyes, if we know “Mr. John” or “Miss Kim.” Yet ten years of absence and the initiation of a new health program, rather than Peace Corps’ more familiar work in education, has placed the task of reteaching on our shoulders.

Starting work with our community counterparts meant first correcting their assumptions that we would pay their salaries, provide them with computers, or purchase new Land Cruisers for their organizations. We became well acquainted with that puzzled expression that would come over the faces of community members when we tried to explain that our role was to “establish linkages,” “build capacity,” and “empower the community to help itself.”

Lalibela door

I showed up on the doorsteps of countless local organizations, offering free labor and all but begging them to find a use for my skills, to be told with a smile and a handshake, “We will certainly call you.” I will let you guess how many calls I received. The process of finding work in our communities was slow, and, discouraged — some of us left Peace Corps Ethiopia. Out of the 42 who completed training and swore in as Volunteers, 19 of us will finish our service at the end of the year. Many of those who left did so in order to pursue jobs or graduate study, while two Volunteers transferred to an English-teaching Peace Corps program in China. (Seven were forced to leave the program due to medical, safety, or administrative circumstances.)

Nevertheless, despite the uphill path we have traveled, Peace Corps has accomplished encouraging results in its first two years in-country. In two years, Peace Corps Volunteers have reached 6,477 people with HIV prevention messages, linked 2,987 HIV-positive people to care and support services, and met the needs of 2,631 orphans and vulnerable children. Within their communities, Volunteers have developed data-management and referral systems for hospitals, taught life and relationship skills to Ethiopian youth, and established small business ventures, including local mills and computer centers, to help people living with HIV to support themselves.

Working in Dessie, Volunteer Nichole Starr developed a home-based care manual and used it to conduct trainings for people caring for AIDS patients. Nancy Ross in Adama organized soccer tournaments for children orphaned or otherwise made vulnerable by the AIDS epidemic. Eden Yimam organized small-scale farmers in his town, Dejen, into a sustainable agricultural enterprise that makes most effective use of their shared land. Meanwhile, Karen Preskey in Agaro created a support group for HIV-positive mothers, training mentor-mothers and antenatal care providers to increasingly prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus. These examples represent just a small slice of the varied work conducted by Peace Corps Volunteers in their first two years in Ethiopia.

In Axum

Over these past two years, we have also seen growth and improvement in our program itself. At the outset, Peace Corps Ethiopia struggled to define goals and objectives that were appropriate for Ethiopia and realistic for Volunteers. We wrestled with questions of where we should work, with whom we should partner, and in what sorts of areas we should focus. Staff turnover in our first year was nearly constant, leading to a lack of consistency in policies and vision. We are still attempting to arrive at the best working relationship between the Peace Corps office,  Volunteers, and the Ethiopians with whom we work. The goal is for Peace Corps to support Volunteers in their efforts to meet the needs of Ethiopians and their organizations, but without intruding upon PCVs’ work or treating them like children. Using the input of the two training groups of Volunteer now in Ethiopia, however, we are slowly but surely arriving at that point.

As an example, I, along with three fellow Volunteers and five of our Ethiopian language and culture trainers, have been involved with efforts to improve language training to better prepare Volunteers to live and work in their communities. We spent a number of grueling, full weeks together hashing out issues of content, fighting to help each other understand cultural differences in teaching and learning between Ethiopians and Americans, and eventually producing a new manual to serve as the basis for future language trainings. At the end of this gargantuan task, as we reflected upon what we had accomplished together, one of our Ethiopian colleagues warmly thanked us for “teaching us [the Ethiopian trainers] so many things about the Amharic language.” It was one of those very poignant Peace Corps moments that teaches you that just by taking another’s perspective, you can learn new things about subjects you thought you already knew everything about. That is undoubtedly what I will miss most about Peace Corps, the opportunity to challenge myself with new perspectives and use those perspectives to create positive change, both in myself and the world around me.

As I approached the end of my service, I realized how much of Ethiopia has entered into who I am. There are the big things, such as a greater value on time spent simply enjoying the company of friends and neighbors, sitting and sharing life together. And then there are the little things, too, like my astounding lack of hesitation in consuming buttered meat for breakfast, or my now ingrained impulse to accompany expressions of greeting, thanks, or even simple acknowledgement with a respectful bow of the head. I’ll miss strolling through beautiful countryside, walking into town with an entourage of sheep and donkeys, sitting on the balcony of my favorite juice bar, enjoying a fresh mango-guava-avocado mix and watching the colorful parade of people and goods heading to market. Of course, there are also elements of Ethiopian life that I think I’ll do fine without — the constant attention, the “YouYouYou!”s and “MoneyMoneyMoney!”s, the almost complete nonexistence of women in social arenas. But with all its ups and downs, joys and frustrations, every moment of my Peace Corps experience in Ethiopia has taught me something that I will always carry with me.

For all of us Volunteers, Ethiopia will forevermore be a part of our lives. I believe that through the friendships we have made and the work that we have done, we have had a lasting impact on Ethiopia, too. If nothing else, maybe when future groups of Volunteers explain that they are with the Peace Corps, they will be met with the response, “Yes, I know, I already know it.”

Editor’s note: Christen, along with other members of her group, left Ethiopia in mid-November. She is now living in Winston-Salem, N.C.

In December, 41 new PCVs were sworn in at the U.S. Embassy in Addis. This is the third group to serve in Ethiopia since Peace Corps returned in 2007. This brings the total of PCVs to have worked in Ethiopia to 3,012. Peace Corps/Ethiopia is currently focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support, and assistance to orphans and vulnerable children. They work in partnership with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief , commonly called PEPFAR.