Melkam Genna (Merry Christmas) ~ Jillian’s Version

So much has happened since we last wrote. For me, a Duodenal Ulcer and second guessing whether or not I could stay in Ethiopia even another day. For Adam, a Christmas morning encounter with a rabid cat and an extra week in Addis Ababa for his two Rabies post-exposure vaccines. We finally found some seeds for our vegetable garden! It’s amazing how much more uplifted, hopeful, and full of purpose I felt walking out of that seed shop in Piazza, Addis Ababa. Seeds purchased include: purple cabbage, lettuce, carrots, parsley, basil, bell peppers, tomoatoes, and leeks. Now let’s see if I can turn my black thumb green and help them grow. Any tips you may have (as I have no gardening books or resources here, would be helpful).

Adam returned to teaching here in Sodo and is just about to finish up Batch 1 and start Batch 2. Also, he officially submitted his application to be a School Designer for Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound! This is his dream job (for which I also think he is very qualified) and we are both keeping our fingers crossed for the opportunity to be a part of the ELOB team. It’s been somewhat difficult to stay totally present these last two weeks as we are so anxious to hear back about the future. One day at a time.

I set our “solar oven” (made from our old refrigerator box, cheap Korean tape, newspapers for insulation, black paint to attract the sun, aluminum foil from the U.S. and U.K., and styrafoam) out in the front yard two days ago around 2:15pm… just to see if it worked. I put one of our medium sized pots inside with about an inch of water, but wasn’t too optimistic about our design or construction. But to my amazement, after just one hour the inside was piping hot and there were even bubbles forming on the bottom of the pot! I made rice inside that night but it was done 2 hours before Adam came home from work… so I set the bowl of rice inside the oven to conserve the heat. Wow. It really is amazing. The sun is intense here so close to the equator… so I shouldn’t be too surprised. But I can’t tell you how excited I am to try some recipes in there and see how they go! The best part of the whole day was watching all the “turned heads” and perplexed looks on the faces of neighbors walking by. A woman even came out of her house in her robe, peered around the hedges, and looked frantically side-to-side like, “Who put that there and what is it doing?!” Only our next-door neighbor and friend Biru, who witnessed the construction last month, actually stepped into the garden to look inside. Then he looked up and found my face in the window upstairs, giving me a big smile and an emphatic thumbs up.

I brought some yogurt down from Addis on Wednesday and will try my hand at making some homemade yogurt tomorrow using the culture from this one. I don’t have a candy thermometer or a “slightly warm oven with a light left on,” but thanks to Nancy, I do have a glass mason jar to keep it all in.

Speaking of Nancy (my USAID Urban Gardens boss and friend), she has just been so incredibly amazing. She really is making our time here in Ethioipa in so many ways. Before I left her house on Wednesday, I woke up and she was whizzing around the house, pulling down baskets and plates, house plants and colorful table runners, serving trays and leisure books all to send with us back to Sodo. I had rented a private car to take me from Addis to Sodo this time instead of traveling by public bus, with the intention of bringing stuff from the city to make our home a bit more cozy and livable. I spent all day on Tuesday shuttling around Addis, bargaining (really for the first time since arriving, surprisingly… and not too well I might add), and checking things off the list. By the end of the day, I felt not only successful, but excited to go back to Sodo for the first time since arriving in Ethiopia. The additions to our house are too many to mention, but the best thing has been this big, stinky goat rug for the living room. We air it out everyday and that seems to help. Eventually the smell will dissipate altogether I think.

Backtracking even more…London, Paris, and Christmas in Addis Ababa. Our trip to the U.K. was truly magical. It was so wonderful to see, experience, and adventure with family outside of the U.S. On top of it all, I got to see Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath for the first time. My ulcer (which I didn’t know was an ulcer at the time) was really giving me hell on the trip though, which was how I realized that it wasn’t just Ethiopian food making me sick and I should probably get it checked out.

Christmas in Addis Ababa was different but really, really wonderful. We spent the morning celebrating just the two of us at Nancy’s apartment and in the afternoon went to another VSO’s house in town to celebrate with a traditional English feast, Secret Santa gift exchange, and charades. Adam and I were on the phone late into the night catching up with family and friends. Thanks to all of you who sent along packages, cards, and good wishes to us, making the day all the more special.

Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas was just celebrated on Thursday and Adam and I had more invitations than we knew what to do with! We’ve spent every day since Thursday traveling around Sodo, eating Ethiopian food, drinking buna, and meeting people’s families. It has been such a treat to be invited into the lives of so many people here. We spent most of the day with our good friends Habtamu and Shambel, taking Doro Wat (Chicken Stew) at Habtamu’s mother and father’s house just uptown. Things were relatively uneventful. It always amazes us how much television is the focus of social gatherings here. There’s only one channel and most DVD’s are of religious music videos (in both English and Amharic. They usually scramble to put on the English ones for us and then I have “Holy Spirit… holy spppeeeee-reeeeet” stuck in my head for days). At night, we visited our good friends and neighbors house to give their children some new clothes my mother purchased for them and delivered to us in the U.K. I can’t possibly express how ecstatic they were to open the gifts. Mita, the seven-year-old girl put all her clothes on at once and began laughing and dancing for almost 30 minutes. We have video to prove it! I haven’t seen her change out of those clothes in the last four days either. She and her brother Abi bring so much joy to our lives here. I don’t really know what we’d do without them.

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. David & Amy Mostert! Married (officially but not finally) on Saturday January 9th in California. Wish I could have been there. We’re really looking forward to the next one in 2011. Thanks for taking my head on a stick to the Bacholerette party though. What an honor! Did I drink too much?

Adam and I recorded a 5 minute-video, Christmas original song and greeting. It’s too large to post but if you’d like to get it via email, just let us know!

Jumping ahead, I’ll be heading down to an area in southern Ethiopia called Konso from the 31st through the 8th to observe and help out with a Permaculture Design Certificate course happening at an eco-lodge there. I’ve known about this place for almost a year and have been very eager to visit. It’s the type of place I imagine I’d want to take anyone who comes to visit us to: sleeping in traditional tukuls, solar heated showers, composting toilets, and most importantly, fresh, organic vegetables and fruits from the gardens. The place is called, Strawberry Fields. Check them out at www.permalodge.org

I plan to return to Sodo in time for Adam’s 31st birthday on February 10th and his mother Carolynne is also coming out to visit over that time! We are so excited to see and travel with her. Just after Adam’s birthday, we’re planning to go stay at a lodge near Addis called, Bishangari. You can check this place out at: http://bishangari.com
It also looks very cool. Plus, we’re hoping to take the three boys from Selamta who are sponsored and loved by Adam’s family. What a treat!

Other things simmering on our one burner stove:
For my birthday in March, we’re talking about trying for a one-week horse trek in northern Ethiopia with a group called Equus Ethiopia (Although I may like Strawberry Fields so much, I’d rather go back there with Adam for a week. We’ll see). The equestrian treks look pretty epic, and get you into and through the land in a way that is otherwise inaccessible to most people. Mom, if you come to visit, I’d love to do something like this with you! Check out: www.equus-ethiopia.com

And lastly, a ten-day trip to Phuket, Thailand is in the works for either April or June thanks to a wonderful 30th birthday gift to Adam from Carolynne. It’s taken us almost a year to make a plan with it, but we are so looking forward to a relaxing week of beaches, scuba diving, and good food!

My New Years Resolutions include:
1) Flossing my teeth every day (so far so good)
2) Read a book each month. I just finished The Boy Who Harnassed the Wind and am currently reading The White Mans Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good
3) Design and launch a personal website!
4) Make paper at home from local Ethiopian plant fibers
5) Complete one polished piece of writing: poetry, children’s book, book arts book, memoir, etc.
6) Learn to prepare an Ethiopian buna ceremony (coffee) from start to finish.
7) Be here today, every day.

As for now, I’m back in Sodo, working on some Urban Gardens projects from afar and am hoping to travel to the northern regions of Dessie, Gondar, and Bahir Dar in March to conduct some more interviews and photograph the program’s gardeners there. I have also connected with at least four local NGO’s and organizations in Sodo who are eager to have me back (after being unavailable for one month) and to discuss how I might be able to help them. Most of these opportunities are some combination of HIV/AIDS healthcare and interventions and developing school and home gardens. The groups seem most excited to have me on board in order to write and secure grants and funding for them. I am willing to do some of this, as I understand grant writing is a skill I can potentially both offer and gain something from myself, however my true interest lies in the tangible work of connecting with the people themselves. We’ll see how things develop this week.

Adam and I are doing really, really well here. We certainly have our down days and our struggles… days when everything breaks or shuts off or unwinds or runs out. Usually, though, one of us is feeling “up” enough to pull the other through it. I can’t imagine being here without Adam. Plus, if all else fails, we do have a guitar and songbook. Yesterday morning we spent almost two hours in our pj’s drinking tea and singing through the book… including Martin Sexton’s “Glory Bound,” Joni Mitchell’s “Circle Game,” and plenty of Ray LaMontagne to soothe our souls.

Thank you so much for your unyielding support, you know who you are. Especially during the holidays when I was struggling so much to stay present and felt like I had so many big decisions to make. Being here has made me fall even more in love with each and every one of you. I am so grateful to this global community that continues to grow. Please do write when you can. Engaging and sharing with you in a reciprocal way really illuminates and enriches our experiences here.

Stinky goat rug

The mysterious solar oven in our front yard

Pot of water inside Solar Oven

Christmas with Habtamu and parents

Swimming for the first time in months! Ghion Hotel, A.A.

SEEDS! But no growing instructions

Christmas evening next-door at Biru and Birtukan's

Chupi!

Buying vegetables with the kids this evening on the way home

On the way home from town. Kids still in their new clothes!

Me & Mita in the Bajaj today

Having buna above the bus station today with Biru and kids

Biru and Abi in town today

Our favorite kiddos~ Abi and Mita

~ by Jillian & Adam on January 10, 2010.