Grade 8 Final Exams
Current School Water Source for Washing and Drinking
JDC Clean Water Development Project Behind School
Testing the Water
Friday, June 13, 2008
School and Clean Water Development Projects
Grade 8 Final Exams Current School Water Source for Washing and Drinking JDC Clean Water Development Project Behind School Testing the Water
Who Said Don't Talk to Strangers (aka Sorry, Mom)
A new life is beginning to shape for me as I settle into the city and make friends. The African Union headquarters are in Addis Ababa as well as hundreds of international embassies, government offices and nonprofit organizations such as UNICEF, USAID, Save the Children, the Red Cross and Clinton Foundation. I heard that there are an estimated 50,000 foreign workers in Addis making it a much more sociable place to meet an eclectic group of friends compared to Dnepropetrovsk. I imagine Kiev would have been similar but my small town in eastern Ukraine was rather homogeneous and closed to outsiders, perhaps a remnant of the Soviet-era.
In Ethiopia, white foreigners are despairingly, yet harmlessly, referred to as “farenges,” pronounced fah-ren-geez. Walking down the street or even passing by in a car someone inevitably yells, “look farenges!” and everyone turns around to stare. Less often, though not uncommon, is the “f-ck you, farenges.” I haven’t quite figured this one out. It’s usually followed by the foul-mouth assailant approaching you to ask where you’re from or offer a marriage proposal or discounted shoeshine. It’s a head-scratcher. I tell them, in the United States this is the wrong foot to get off on when trying to make new friends; its just not good customer service!
My closest Ethiopian friend is in Ghana for several weeks accompanying a group of Mother Teresa clinic spine patients awaiting surgery. Luckily, I met a great group of foreign friends and we are exploring the nightlife (live jazz bars to theatre) in Addis together. One is law professor at Addis Ababa University, another an English teacher, a missionary, one working for a major United States foundation and nine medical students from San Antonio of whom I’ve become especially fond. We spent a day together earlier this week sightseeing, shopping and hiking through the mountains at Entoto National Park. I am now a certified hypochondriac; fortunately they’re stocked with plenty of hand sanitizers and drugs.
The one thing many of my new friends have in common is that they are devout Christians. They attend church every Sunday and share a loosely defined set of conservative principles that are relatively unknown to me at home. For instance, one friend generally avoids R-rated movies largely due to what she describes as gratuitous violence. This was the topic of conversation last night at dinner. At first, I sat through the discussion without a peep not believing she was serious. Having lived in Los Angeles and with a brother-in-law who is a filmmaker, it didn’t occur to me that people might feel this way, at least not anymore. I was quickly amazed at her passion for the issue and her solid arguments (although of course, I disagreed).
Having lived in New York City for nearly seven years now, I guess my southern roots have all but been abandoned for more liberal Jewish thinking, sometimes making me feel like the odd-man out; I didn’t expect that here. Many of my friends have worked in Ethiopia for years. Their commitment, intellect and compassion are powerful and I believe there is a lot we can learn from each other. Besides being farenges, and whether we are Christians or Jews, in our hearts we are here for the same reasons and that makes us more the same than different. Strangers really do make the best friends.
In Ethiopia, white foreigners are despairingly, yet harmlessly, referred to as “farenges,” pronounced fah-ren-geez. Walking down the street or even passing by in a car someone inevitably yells, “look farenges!” and everyone turns around to stare. Less often, though not uncommon, is the “f-ck you, farenges.” I haven’t quite figured this one out. It’s usually followed by the foul-mouth assailant approaching you to ask where you’re from or offer a marriage proposal or discounted shoeshine. It’s a head-scratcher. I tell them, in the United States this is the wrong foot to get off on when trying to make new friends; its just not good customer service!
My closest Ethiopian friend is in Ghana for several weeks accompanying a group of Mother Teresa clinic spine patients awaiting surgery. Luckily, I met a great group of foreign friends and we are exploring the nightlife (live jazz bars to theatre) in Addis together. One is law professor at Addis Ababa University, another an English teacher, a missionary, one working for a major United States foundation and nine medical students from San Antonio of whom I’ve become especially fond. We spent a day together earlier this week sightseeing, shopping and hiking through the mountains at Entoto National Park. I am now a certified hypochondriac; fortunately they’re stocked with plenty of hand sanitizers and drugs.
The one thing many of my new friends have in common is that they are devout Christians. They attend church every Sunday and share a loosely defined set of conservative principles that are relatively unknown to me at home. For instance, one friend generally avoids R-rated movies largely due to what she describes as gratuitous violence. This was the topic of conversation last night at dinner. At first, I sat through the discussion without a peep not believing she was serious. Having lived in Los Angeles and with a brother-in-law who is a filmmaker, it didn’t occur to me that people might feel this way, at least not anymore. I was quickly amazed at her passion for the issue and her solid arguments (although of course, I disagreed).
Having lived in New York City for nearly seven years now, I guess my southern roots have all but been abandoned for more liberal Jewish thinking, sometimes making me feel like the odd-man out; I didn’t expect that here. Many of my friends have worked in Ethiopia for years. Their commitment, intellect and compassion are powerful and I believe there is a lot we can learn from each other. Besides being farenges, and whether we are Christians or Jews, in our hearts we are here for the same reasons and that makes us more the same than different. Strangers really do make the best friends.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Empowering Women and Educating Families
As you know, I like to write in the dark. It helps pass the long nights without electricity which are now every other day. Ethiopia relies on hydroelectric power and without rain during the short rainy season, we find ourselves in this dim predicament. Today, though, I am writing from the well-lit and air-conditioned Sheraton lobby sipping a glass of white wine and considering how many bar snacks I can reasonably fold into a napkin for later. I already have a muffin and two imported Red Delicious apples in my purse.
I found my middle-ground since I last wrote: laps at the hotel pool followed by the city’s only veggie burger. This is it. The one place that lets me pretend I haven’t just seen what I did. The place that lets me forget that rat running across my foot on a home visit to a client in her mud hut. It is the place where I try to erase memories of sick children with curable disease who will die because they are poor; where I put overwhelming poverty in a box. Even with this retreat, I still often go home and cry. My emotions are not my own in Ethiopia .
Last week was spent with a small delegation of Board members from Italy ’s Rita Levi Montalcini foundation. Montalcini, the 99-year old Nobel Peace Prize recipient used her prize money to establish a foundation dedicated to empowering African women through education. The foundation grants JDC funds to maintain full-ride scholarships each year for 15 girls from no or low income rural families to attend the four-year college at Unity University College (UUC) in Addis. Because they have a harder adjustment than most students, “Project for the Future” also includes a one-year preparatory program that helps the girls catch up with their classmates in English (all university classes are taught in English in the country), math and science.
I had lunch with three recent graduates. One is a nurse, another in marketing and the third in government. From large families with up to ten siblings, some also orphaned, these young women were the first in their family to attend college. Now employed, they are the primary bread-winners in their family. They invited their younger and older siblings to live with them in Addis; they are paying for their tuition in order to provide them with the same educational opportunities they were afforded in hopes of creating a better future for their families.
Ethiopian girls make up less than 25% of students in higher education because they marry early and almost always have more difficult economic situations than their male counterparts. Also, they receive less than 10% of government scholarships, making this program even more important. UUC does its part by ensuring an even male to female student body (out of 8,000 undergraduate/graduate students) and assigning a special “Project for the Future” office to work with our girls.
It is often said that when you educate a woman, you educate an entire family. This couldn’t be closer to the truth. It is one of the most beautiful projects here - full of optimism and another escape that fills me with hope.
I found my middle-ground since I last wrote: laps at the hotel pool followed by the city’s only veggie burger. This is it. The one place that lets me pretend I haven’t just seen what I did. The place that lets me forget that rat running across my foot on a home visit to a client in her mud hut. It is the place where I try to erase memories of sick children with curable disease who will die because they are poor; where I put overwhelming poverty in a box. Even with this retreat, I still often go home and cry. My emotions are not my own in Ethiopia .
Last week was spent with a small delegation of Board members from Italy ’s Rita Levi Montalcini foundation. Montalcini, the 99-year old Nobel Peace Prize recipient used her prize money to establish a foundation dedicated to empowering African women through education. The foundation grants JDC funds to maintain full-ride scholarships each year for 15 girls from no or low income rural families to attend the four-year college at Unity University College (UUC) in Addis. Because they have a harder adjustment than most students, “Project for the Future” also includes a one-year preparatory program that helps the girls catch up with their classmates in English (all university classes are taught in English in the country), math and science.
I had lunch with three recent graduates. One is a nurse, another in marketing and the third in government. From large families with up to ten siblings, some also orphaned, these young women were the first in their family to attend college. Now employed, they are the primary bread-winners in their family. They invited their younger and older siblings to live with them in Addis; they are paying for their tuition in order to provide them with the same educational opportunities they were afforded in hopes of creating a better future for their families.
Ethiopian girls make up less than 25% of students in higher education because they marry early and almost always have more difficult economic situations than their male counterparts. Also, they receive less than 10% of government scholarships, making this program even more important. UUC does its part by ensuring an even male to female student body (out of 8,000 undergraduate/graduate students) and assigning a special “Project for the Future” office to work with our girls.
It is often said that when you educate a woman, you educate an entire family. This couldn’t be closer to the truth. It is one of the most beautiful projects here - full of optimism and another escape that fills me with hope.
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