Harbu Chulule is
awesome. I really am enjoying our stay in the town! I have come to the
conclusion from my time living in Ethiopia that Ethiopians are the nicest
people in the world… hands down! They become even nicer as soon as you attempt
to speak Amharic or Oromifa. Usually they laugh at you… but it is not so much
laughing at you as laughing from surprise of their language coming out of your
mouth. They are always ready to offer you chai or bunna (tea or coffee) and
never eat without offering to share their entire meal with you, and even make
you feel sorry for turning them down. It is definitely a genuine offer to share
their food, not a pity offer in order to be polite.
Our days in Harbu
Chulule begin early with Taedwondo class at 6am. The Taekwondo house is on the
other side of town so we have time to wake up in the 15 minute walk over. I
think I am getting stronger… slowly. I have not yet lost my ‘fat’ appearance as
our neighbor Robie has taken a couple opportunities to comment on my stomach
and how she can see my lunch. Gotta love African honesty! Believe me, I’m
trying really hard at Taekwondo!
We have breakfast which
is usually bread and eggs or kinjee. Kinjee is a type of porridge they eat here
which is made out of barley. We have not perfected the art of cooking it. It is
always edible but somehow never the same as it was when we ate it at Uncle Steven
and Aunty Eyeru’s. Maybe we’ll get lessons.
Our mornings are spent
visiting the school to give announcements to the students for the afternoon,
preparing the computer lab, planning for the afternoon, preparing an English
reference book we are working on, or more relaxed things like laundry.
After lunch we head over
to the school and split into two, a couple of us go to the IT room to teach
computers, and the other two go to an empty class for English practice.
Computers has been pretty difficult. The kids want to learn so badly, and in
order to have a chance for everybody to learn we have divided them into days
and times so each student gets one slot a week of an hour and a half. The power
here is very unreliable so often there is no power, or the computers will work
but they will turn off randomly. We have only been able to get 5 computers
working at a time, if you turn on another they all turn off. I think that the
room is hooked up on one power line so there is not really enough power coming
to run a whole computer lab. We have purchased extension chords in order to
hook up the computers, they were not even plugged in or arranged so that they
could be plugged in before we got there. The principle of the school, Burhanu,
is hoping to be able to rework some of the electrical wiring in order to have
more power in the computer lab. I really hope that it works.
We have met with the
females of the preparatory school twice now. The first time only 6 showed up,
and the second time we had about 12 girls. They are really smart girls, also
eager to learn, but they are shyer and significantly worse in English than many
of the boys. We are meeting with them on a weekly basis and have already
noticed that some of them are more outgoing to talk with us and to ask us
questions. Ralph’s team back in November really thought that the women here
needed empowerment and friendship because of a question one girl asked to one
of their team members. The question was ‘How do we stop being afraid?’ There is
a different mentality here about women for sure! When the kids are outside on
their breaks the women stand in one place, and the men somewhere else. They
rarely mix. When we asked why one boy said ‘It’s because they’re afraid of us.’
‘Why?’ ‘We don’t know’. I have never seen the boys be mean to any of the girls,
they are very helpful to eachother in computers if a girl is not understanding,
or anyone for that matter, they will translate and explain so that they
understand. It is a very different culture in regards to how the women act and
are treated. We are taking a message from the book ‘The Help’ by Kathryn
Sockets, where Aibeleen try’s to tell Mae Mobley that she is loved, despite how
she is treated by her mother. The message we are reminding them of each week is
‘You are beautiful, you are smart, you are important’.
We have also been trying
to get our sports day underway. It has been difficult to get all of the teams
together because one, basically the whole school signed up, and two, it is
really difficult to get them all when they have free time to meet because they
have a lot of make up classes in the afternoon. We are trying to find times
that will work better for them.
Seeing as we are living
at the Health Centre, I had a chance to ask Joel, one of the extension working
staff, what kind of education they have for children and parents living in town
about hygiene. There are a number of kids who clearly do not wash their face
very often, and you will see them on the street with flies everywhere,
especially in their eyes. After spending time with Dr. Asrat he explained the
great importance of this not to happen because flies are so dirty and can lead
to preventable diseases such as traucoma. I was able to go last week with
Lakatch, one of the health extension workers for the area. We visited ten
homes, and in the ones where the children hadn’t been washed we washed their
faces and she explained to the mothers the importance of keeping their face and
hands clean. Some of the younger kids were scared of me because they have never
seen a white person before. This is education that she and the other health
extension workers do anyway, but it was fun to see the homes of the people
living here in the town, as well as to meet some of the families. Joel thought
maybe having me there would make a difference to how they paid attention. Its
like at home, you are taught so many times in elementary school and by your
dentist that it is important to floss, but not everybody flosses. It is the
same here with washing. I really hope that it makes a difference to have me
along. I am learning some phrases in oromifa to help teach them. One is ‘wash
your children’s face regularily’ or, ‘fuula da’mman keessanii yeroohunda
dhiqaa!’ That coming out of a white girls mouth should get some attention from
parents!
Last weekend Uncle Steven and Aunty Eyeru met us with the kids in Woliso. Steven took Rilla, Janessa, David and I up to Wenchi crater where we road horses down to a hot spring waterfall and got to try sparkling spring water. It was absolutely beautiful in there. Really lush, green and hilly compared to the surrounding area. Compared with Harbu Chulule right now it is paradise!
For now life is amazing! I hope everyone back home can say the same!
