6/18
As usual I am not doing a lot.  I have read two and a half books in the last two days, if that gives you an idea of how busy I am.  I have decided to quit trying to tell you when I am going to the gorge.  I can see it daily, but have still not been able to get down into it.  I had a set plan with a coworker to go this Tuesday.  But yesterday came and I met the person I was going with, only to find there was a problem.  I am not sure how it came up, or how the office even realized I was here.  But, it appears that the zonal agricultural office found out I was living in Gassera and had not been told I was here.  They were apparently a little pissed at having been left out of the loop and my liason called PC to sort it out.  From what I can understand, and that isn’t a lot, there was a letter that was supposed to be delivered to the zonal office but either someone at my office or someone at the PC office forgot to deliver it.  So now I have been told I am not allowed to go to any of the rural areas until it is sorted out.  That means that the few breaks I got to go explore with someone are now on hold until this is over.  So sitting at the office is the only thing I can do at the moment that is work related.  So for now I wait.  I do have faith that SOME DAY I will make it down there to see all the cool stuff I have been told is down there.  Last weekend was pretty interesting though.  I was in Robe to get some supplies and Devin and Jill were kind enough to let me get into their beehive just to get some experience.  It was a really interesting experience to see how they work to protect their hive and the progress they had made in making new combs.  Sadly we were not able to do a lot because they were too active from the relativly high afternoon temperature.  But, it was still a really interesting experience and made me even more interested in getting a beekeeping project going while I am here.  And hey, I only got stung twice, I am also sure I am not allergic!

6/13
So it seems like all PCVs do this at one point or another on their blogs so I figured I would get it over with.
Things I take for granted in the states.  Hopefully you will use this to take a second and think about all the little things that you take for granted on a day to day basis.
1.  You would think that the daily (and sometimes week long) power outages or the water that only works during the first few hours of he morning would make my list.  But honestly that doesn’t really bother me.  What gets me is the cell reception, or rather lack there of.  We have two cell towers in the town, but despite the fact that I can see them both out my front door, I have no cell reception at my house, only certain areas along the road (and beside the bathroom at work) have cell reception, and often even those spots do not work.
2.  Pizza, you can get it at almost any restaurant in the US, but here even the places that have beautiful pictures of it on the wall are only really teasing you.  I have taken to pointing at the picture and ordering it, just so when they say they don’t have it I can ask them why not.  Maybe one day they will get the idea and learn to make it.  But honestly, this goes for all food.  There is really only foreiner food in Addis and I am a day bus ride from there.
3.  I know I already mention food, but food DIVERSITY.  In Ethiopia they eat the same thing EVERY DAY.  I am not kidding.  They cook about three types of wat, but it seems that each family usually only cooks one type.  They occasionally have chopped up bits of meat cooked called tibs, and fir fir (the cooked remains of what ever injera they had left over).  There are a few special occasion dishes, but in general there really isn’t a whole lot more.  Even when I try to cook something new for myself there isn’t enough food diversity to do much new.  To get a different selection of vegetables I have to go to the special place in Robe, and then most of the squash, peppers, or egg plant are over ripe and wilting.
4. Privacy, not like at my house, when I am here I am in my own space.  Just out and about.  I have gotten used to the stairs and people yelling at me.  Thankfully here it is just a couple groups of kids in a few places.  But sometimes it is just too much.  Last weekend I went to the gorge to sit and relax while reading.  But first I had a kid come up and stare at me, then that kids (I assume) grandad came up and tried to get me to give the kid money.  I refused and told them to go away (not rude here), then a few minutes later another kid came over and started staring at me.  I ignored it, until her parents and some more kids created a crowd around me and started trying to look over my shoulder at what I was reading.  At that point there was no relaxing and I just had to go home.  As I said, I am used to it and usually it doesn’t get to me, but some times you just want your personal space and having people come take the thing out of your hand to look at it gets on your nerves.
5.  Things to do.  I have read twelve books since I have been here, and during PST I think I only read two or three of those.  I have watched about nine different seasons of various TV shows.  There is truly nothing to do on the weekends in this town.  I try to make a trip out during the weekends to get coffee and read in public so I can at least say hi to the people I know that I see on the street.  But there is no movie theater, mall, public park, I don’t have my dogs, or any other thing that you would normally do on the weekend in the states.  I have not even gotten a feel for where I can and can not go hiking yet.  Everything around me is crop land and I haven’t been to the gorge yet to get my bearings down there.  (right now that trip is planned for Tuesdays)

6.  Junk food.  Ya it is another food one, so I miss my American food OK.  I was watching a show the other day and the people where eating ice cream straight from the carton.  I almost had to turn the show off.  I have sadly been eating more candy than I care to admit.  It is hard to save the candy for the kids when I can hardly ever give it out, and it is the only real junk food I can get in my town.  (If I try to give out candy every kid within a mile seems to know and show up by the time the second piece is handed out.)  I am going to add cheese in this one too because GOD I miss cheese.
I think friends and family go without saying, but I do miss you all.
Honestly it has not been that hard to adapt to life here.  It is far different that what we are accustomed to in the US.  But the things that we find indispensable in the states are really not that big of a deal.  I could add hot showers (I take a shower about once a week, and it takes me about half an hour to boil enough water to make the shower water not icy), but really it doesn’t really matter to me.  I could add cars, everywhere I go I walk.  Once every two weeks I take a bus into town, but otherwise my feet are my ONLY transportation.  I could add supermarkets…well I do miss those, just not enough to make my top few.  I could add being able to microwave a meal right out of the freezer, but I have gotten pretty good about planning my meals and heck, all my ingredients are fresh, how can you beat that.  So really, there are a lot of things to be thankful for in the US.  But I challenge you to stop your day, and think about a couple things you take for granted.  And if you are the adventurous sort; actually go without something for a week.  Anyway, obligatory post out of the way.
On a more normal note.  This week has been as slow as every other one.  Only real difference is I finally got the material together for my garden.  I have finished two of the three beds.  Using a hoe on the end of a eucalyptus handle I had to assembly myself, I have single dug one ~6meter bed, and double dug another ~5meter bed.  I have ten large blisters on my hands, and still one more bed to go.  Once I find something I can use as a watering can I will start planting, but for now not only do I not have anything, but the water source is about forty feet away from my garden so I have to figure something out.  This weekend I am going to start working with another volunteer getting some hands on experience working with some bee hives.  Next week I am going to try to start really working on my community needs assessment.  It is not do for another two months, but I am bored, so might as well start working on it.  That is about it.  A whole week summed up into one small paragraph.  I have a couple plans for possible projects.  So lets hope one or two of them pan out.
Trey
6/8
So as I said I was supposed to go into the gulch last week, however, because I had installation visit by Peace Corps I wasn’t able to find the time.  I do plan to make it this week though.  I also am planning on going to the Sulfumar caves in the next few weekends.  Installation went well.  Because of a bunch of unforeseen events I was not able to pass out the invitations until the day before.  I expected only a few people to come, but out of about 45 invites, almost 40 people came.  (Installation is where PC comes out and explains to the community why we are here and what as volunteers hope to accomplish, etc.)  After I was getting even more greeting on the street and people telling me they want to work with me.  Otherwise it has been the same old same old.  I reaffirmed there is NOTHING to do in this town just to relax.  The pool “hall” is one table where the teenagers of the town play a game I have never seen, and gamble.  So I will be reading a lot of books and getting really good at doing nothing.  But my landlord the last two weekends has invites me over for coffee and breakfast, and I will probably be getting a horse after the next two months so I will have some places to visit on horseback.  Anyway, yesterday my counterpart and I went to the market to pick up some supplies.  He LOVES playing with my camera so I have a lot of pictures of it.  I am going to try to upload them with this blog post and give some explanations so here goes.
Market day:
In every town (pretty much) in Ethiopia there is a day or a few days where people come together to show of their products and sell supplies to the local community.  For example my town has two, a small one on Wednesday, and a large one on Saturday.  They sell everything from fruits and vegetables, to livestock, to clay pots and even manure.  Usually depending on what the product you can save as much as 1/3 the price you would pay for things in town.  Eggs in town are 2.50birr, at the market they are 2.00birr.  Most of the town will at some point on Saturday end up at the market.  It is where most people buy their weeks supplies of food.  For me it is an excellent opportunity to see the local culture and my counterpart was in a very sharing mood this weekend.  He pointed out different things that meant people were looking to be married and explained different styles of dress among other things. The first picture is of some hand made clay pots, as well as hand made Jebanahs (coffee pots).  These are made from the local clay around the river.  The second is of spices, these are mostly collected locally, although some of them are imported from other parts of the country, as you can see some of these are very familiar to Americans, I can get cumen seeds, mustard seeds, rosemary, among other things.  The third is some traditional Orthodox wraps.  These are draped over the shoulders or wrapped around the heads as a traditional part of their religion.  Next is some home made baskets, these are made to hold decorations as well as to use in sorting t’eff.  It is required that as a way to symbolize a women is ready to marry that she be able to make these.  Finally the last picture shows some Sudanese women.  In the very bottom of the gulch some Sudanese have migrated, they are prominent for their clay making.  They bring everything from pots, to injera pans for the injera making machines.  They are easy to ID because of their different style of dressing.
Family: I know you want pictures of me, but there are none.  The only one he even tried to take of me was of me eating a prickly pear and that wasn’t about to happen.  Sorry.  So I hope from this you can see a few similarities as well as differences, not only between America and Ethiopia, but also between the different people of Ethiopia.
Trey

4/8
Why is there so much forenji food!  But seriously I enjoy a lot of Ethiopian food, but having the selection of so much variety is really nice.  In fact yesterday was the first time I have had traditional food since being in Addis Abab and I proceeded to vomit it all up shortly after.  For those of you who don’t know all of the new volunteers who were supposed to go to the Oromia region (think state) were held in Addis due to protests and riots happening.  While the volunteers from SNNPR, Tigray, and Amhara regions were (all but a few along the borders) allowed to go to site.  I can not go into detail about why they are protesting, but it has caused several volunteers to be recalled from site for safety concerns.  Before you all get worried, Peace Corps is being cautious and not letting us go to site until they are sure everything has died down.  I have heard of no volunteers being in unsafe conditions and everyone is ok and accounted for.  Those of us in Addis are going a little crazy though.  There is only so many restaurants to go to, only a few movies are in the theater, and we have been asked not to be so loud when a lot of us hang out in the rooms.  So for most of us we are about to pull our hair out we are so anxious to be able to go to site.    But being in Addis gets expensive quickly, a lot of people have had to pull from their moving in allowance to pay for being in Addis and all the money I have saved up until now is gone.  I will admit that some of it is due to excessive luxuries though.  Two days ago a couple of us went to the Sheratan and spend the day at the pool.  I personally spent 6 hours straight in the water, BUT it did cost almost an entire days pay just to get into the pool.  It was worth it though, being able to sit in heated water that is not infested with shitosoma is an amazing feeling.  So for now we will sit at the hotel, or find things to do as much as we can.  There is still one museum I have yet to go to so that is on the agenda for the next couple of days.
Just for those of you who are interested I will touch on the swearing in ceremony quickly.  Last week we swore in as official volunteers (the next day a lot of us were told we didn’t get to go to site), we went to the US embassy, although we were only allowed in the ambassadors garden the whole time we were there.  The PC director Greg Engle gave a speech, then the US ambassador, finally the heads of the two programs PC is working with.  We then were called individually to receive our certificates from Greg and the ambassador, and when it was all finished there was a small buffet.  All together the whole thing took probably 4 hours including eating time, but in the end we finally got to drop the trainees title.
That is about all I can think of, I am not sure when I will be able to upload this, but I have yet to receive any questions or anything, so please feel free to ask.  At least right now it would give me something to do.
4/10
So latest news is that we will likely be moving out on Monday/Tuesday.  We are waiting on the assessment from the PC East African security head to give the OK.  But some people in the Amhara region are already being able to go back to site so it is looking good for us.  Everything recently seems pretty calm.  There have been a few more protests but everything seems to be going peacefully.  PC is of course going to be on the look out for a while, but it looks like everything is calming down again.
On a side note I want to wish my grandma a happy birthday!  I love and miss you!  And to all the mothers reading this blog happy mothers day from all of your PC kids.  We will all be thinking about you tomorrow even if we don’t get to speak to you.

4/23/14
So today marks six days until we finish training (for the most part) and return to Addis Ababa for swearing in.  It is a nervous time for some of the trainees, there are three major events in the next few days.  Tomorrow we have a test to see if we have learned the goals and methods of PC.  On Sat/Sun we have to run  a camp with thirty something kids from our host families.  On top of that we each have to hold an hour long training session to teach the kids something.  Finally on Monday we take our language placement test that determines if we can join PC, have to stay an extra week in Addis for more language training, or will not be allowed to swear in.  After that as I said, we will go to Addis for the last small bits of training, Addis day to buy supplies we can’t get at site, and the swearing in ceremony.  The ceremony will be held at the US embassy, we will have a formal setting where we meet the US ambassador, as well as some Ethiopian officials.  It will also be partly televised, so the PCT who has to speak at the ceremony has something even more to be nervous about.
As many of you know, this week was the end of Fasika.  That is the fasting season done the 55 days before Easter.  Easter being probably the most widley and prominantly celebrated holiday for Ethiopians.  It is a time where they celebrate the religious holiday, the family comes together, and they break fast.  So since Sunday Ethiopians all over the country have been slaughtering animals and eating COPIOUS amounts of meat.  I was really worried that it was going to be a hard time for me since I am a vegetarian.  Unfortunatly that problem was eliminated for me when my body decided to let an ameoba eat my intestines.  I was sick all day Sunday, and was not able to eat anything other than a banana all day.  Even the next day my worried family was trying to get me to eat and I barely could.  After the doctor gave me medicine I called on Tuesday to ask why I was still nauseous only to find out that the nausea from the ameoba had probably gone away and been replaced by the nausea from the medication.  So now battling stress, language six hours a day, I also have to contend with an upset stomach every few hours when the anti-nausea medicine for the anti-amebois medicine wears off.  But looking on the bright side, many of the other volunteers got sick from eating the Kitfo (raw meat dish) served for the end of Fasika, and even more so, we only have 6 days till it is over and the REALY PC experievnce starts!  So please, those of you back home, keep us in mind, send us some good luck to get past the next week to start our service!  
4/28
It is finally over!  I have taken my language test (LPI) and I am done with tests for PST.  It seems like such a short time ago I arrived in Butajira.  Since my stay began I have had some many amazing experiences, made great friends, and formed another extension of my family, I will miss my family here and I do intend to visit them again at some point during my service.  We also finished camp, it went surprisingly well.  I will admit I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected, but by the end of the second day I was ready to be DONE with it.  The kids seemed to enjoy it a lot, there were some interesting talks, and our 32 kid camp with all host family children ended up being about 15 host family kids and the rest of the nearly 50 kids just walked up to us and joined in.  The logistics were intense, since we would not turn kids away we were on a mad dash to make sure we kept up with the snacks, there was no water at the school so we had to come up with a way to keep the kids hydrated, food had to be divided between nearly twice the amount we had planned, and supplied had to be shared by the kids to do the activities.  Still with all that we pulled it off with only one scraped knee, and happy children.
So now that it is over, tomorrow is for packing, then Wednesday it is off too Addis for swearing-in, then Saturday and Sunday morning for traveling and the official start of my two year service.  I am going to be really sad to see my friends off, but I know that we can (with some difficulty) keep in touch, and regardless I will see them again in 3 months for in-service training.
I CAN’T WAIT for some forenji (foreigner) food in Addis!  Nachos here I come!!!

4/14/14
Including this week we have three weeks left of training.  I can’t seem to decide if that is really soon or so far away.  It seems like we have lived in Butajira for a year already.  But, I know that soon we will be swearing in at the US embassy, leaving our new friends, and in my case going to a city with no other PC within two hours.  When they asked, I told PC that I didn’t care if there was another volunteer at my site.  Now I am wondering if it would have helped.  Regardless, there is always the call (and by always I mean almost never) and other means of communicating.  I am really excited though, I am ready to get out of Butajira and start my service.  I already have plans on what I want to get started as soon as I get to site.  I know I am supposed to take it slow the first few months but that is going to be hard.  I have started  list of things that I want to pick up on Addis day (where we get the day to go shopping for things in Addis that we can not find at site or our hub towns).  But between now and then we have a presentation in a school, a day and a half camp we have to run, and the language practicum.  This week especially we have language for six hours nearly every day.  It is going to be nearly impossible to stay focused for all of that and I am sure it is going to be difficult on the volunteers as well as the LCFs.  But life goes on, there are a couple people who have birthdays in between now and then so there will be opportunity to celebrate; plus the end of Fasicca is nearly here.  This Sunday marks the end of the two month fast the orthodox have been observing.  That means there will be celebrating, and people will start eating meat again.  For me as a vegetarian and animal lover though this marks a hard day.  Most orthodox housholds will slaughter an animal to cook for the celebration, this is done AT THEIR HOUSES.  I asked my father and from what I could understand they are planning on slaughtering a sheep, a goat, and a chicken, along with purchasing beef.  I have been trying to decide if I should see if PC will let me hide at the office, or if I should just lock myself in my room.  Unfortunately I think that leaving the house would be culturally rude and I think PC office is out of the question.  That means I will be wearing headphones, blaring music, and trying not to think about what is happening outdoors.  Hopefully my family will only make me come out when the mess has been cleaned up.  For other volunteers this is an exciting time.  For the last two months it has been difficult to get meat, and they are ready to go crazy for a protein fix.
But now to the fun stuff.  This week was out trips.  The healthies went to Ambo where the Ambo soda factory is; I have not gotten many details yet, but I believe they visited a hospital, and then went on a horse back ride down to a crater lake.  I know they had a pool at the hotel, as well as Pizza.  The Ag/Enviro group went to Awash national park.  The first day was really annoying, we got there, saw the amazing water falls, and the beautiful scenery!  Then PC put us in a hot room, with next to no ventilation, direct sun in some spots, and told us to sit for four hours and listen to talks about park conservation, and management.  Now normally these would be topics I would be very interested in, but when I know that there is a world wide known national park outside the room, along with it being 85+ degrees in the room we are sitting you can imagine I was less than willing to be there.  During the short break we had we looked out the window to the river below and saw a crocodile sun bathing, but as we had another lesson planned we could not go see it.  So after dinner we went back to the tens, that were surrounded by baboons, and monkeys, and spent the night around a campfire having fun and watching some cultural demonstrations.  That night it rained, hard, and when we tried to go to the hot springs the next morning the road to it was impassible so we could not get there.  It was a major disappointment.  We proceeded with the game drive though, and saw some awesome wildlife, sadly though we did not see any of the big cats, lions, leopards, or cheetahs; still the Onyx were beautiful, we saw two very endangered bat eared fox, wart hogs, monitor lizards, monkeys, and more birds then I could count.  After we went on a short hike to a local community, there were maybe three house holds, the whole compound was surrounded by Acacia branches with their thick thorns to prevent the carnivore from getting in to eat the goats and chickens.  It was the picture of what most people think of as Africa.  Mud huts, animals running around, and a very difficult existence.  After lunch we finally had an hour of free time, the first (and only) free time we had there, and I got to go on a small half hour hike.  I went along the waterfall trail and got to appreciate the beauty of the park.  When I got back to the falls I met up with some other volunteers and we sat on a rock near the falls, and enjoyed the spray of the water and watched a crocodile surf the current coming from the waterfall.  It was an amazing picture of nature in Africa, but also a reminder of what we have to protect.  We learned in the lesson the day before that the park due to politics and agricultural pressure has shrunk nearly by half in the last 6 years or so.  The river feeding the falls is the most exploited river in Africa for water and agriculture.  There are several species of wildlife in the park that are nearly extinct.  Even in Orynx has gone from several thousand, to about six hundred in the last ten or so years.  Without aggressive conservation measures the park could very well loose it’s battle to preserve Africa’s wildlife and habitat.  After language class (yes they made us take two hours of language there) we went on a thirty minute drive to another area of the park (that is having a massive highway built in it) to a hyena den.  As we made our way to the entrance we looked down into the crevices where Africa is separating due to tectonic activity and saw bats using the cracks as home.  As sun set about fifteen hyenas including babies made their way out of the den to wake up in the cool night air.  We left as it started to get too dark but soon they would have left to start the hunt.  After one more night in the tents we made our way back to Butajira.
The experience was a memory of Africa that I will always appreciate, though I still want to go see some other wildlife preserves in Africa; it wet my appetite for what I can see and be a part of during my two year stay.  I can’t wait to see what it’s other natural parks have in store for me.

Hello all, so first of all I am sorry for anyone who tried to reach me.  As I predicted there was no access to Internet at my site.  Plus the wireless network is next to non-existent so I was unable to stay in touch with anyone while at site.  I am going to try and describe my site as much as possible.  I did not take many pictures because I didn’t want to have to deal with the crowds of people that you get when Habisha see a forenji with a camera.  I will try and upload some stuff later though.
We all arrived in Addis Ababa on Sunday afternoon for meeting our liaisons on Monday.  The liaisons are the HCNs (host country nationals) that are to take us to site, show us around, and make sure we get everything that we are assigned done.  On Monday I found out that my liaison is not going to make it to Addis until late that night so I would not be able to meet him until the next day.  Also he would be missing all of the introductory sessions that PC would have given him to introduce him to PC.  I was then introduced to another trainee’s liaison because his town is relatively close to mine so I could ask his liaison a bit about my site and what to expect.  Four thirty in the morning Monday arrives and I find out that my liaison did not make it to Addis, and that I would meet him at my hub town Bali Robe.  On top of that there was confusion about who was supposed to be on what bus so one of the trainees did not show for the bus; we still have to pick up our liaisons from another hotel, and get to the bus station.  We managed to get there relatively on time though and it was still not a problem, because I was still with the other trainee’s liaison and their hub town is the same as mine.  On the way to Robe we passed a field near an AG project I saw a flock of Flamingos, otherwise despite the HCN next to me waking me up constantly because I “needed to see the country” it was a rather uneventful bus trip.  So after nearly thirteen hours of travel with only three stops (one in a field for people to pee) we arrive in Robe.  The Robe town is relatively large, still nothing like most of the other hub towns though.  But there is a couple Jill and Davin living in Robe and they met us that night and took us to get lunch.  On the way they showed us where we can get forenji food, and what places are good to eat, etc.  They are also working on a bee keeping project which is something I am interested in so I hope to be able to use them as a good resource.  When I arrived I met who I thought was my liaison.  I later realized that he still was not my person, but rather someone who was sent to retrieve me and make sure I get to my site.  The conversation with him that night consisted of introductions, and then both the liaisons left to go to where ever they stayed the night, with only a “we will pick you up here at 5:30a tomorrow.  So the next morning it was ANOTHER bus ride to get to my town of Gasera.  It was a mud road, during the rain, in the fog, and it was COLD.  When I arrived at the town it was basically a big mud puddle.  As dreary as it was I remember thinking “what the heck am I getting myself into”.  First thing we did was go to see my “house”, it was in a rather large compound, surrounded by a sheet metal fense.  The landlord’s family seemed very nice though.  But when I saw my room I was less than thrilled.  It is not finished, they still have to place some water proofing around the baseboards to make sure it doesn’t flood, but that was not a problem.  The fact is it is SMALL.  It is only a single bedroom, I have to fit a bed, something for my cloths, a desk, and a stove top into a room that is about 20-25 square feet!  It is probably about the size of the room I had at my parents house without a closet or anything.  I have already been considering some space saving ideas, but I still don’t know how this is going to work out.  So after seeing my house we went to the bank to set up an account.  But, since the power was out, as is usual in Ethiopia when it rains, we were not able to set it up because they couldn’t get a copy of my ID.  About this time it stopped raining, we head up towards the AG office and on the way I met my actual liaison (this being the time I realized the guy leading me around wasn’t him), together with another person named Melaku we went to the AG office for me to meet people, and the police station so I can introduce myself.  We then head to breakfast and are joined with my landlords brother (Sami) who also lives in the house.  The entire time Sami was around he absolutely refused to let me pay for anything.  After breakfast we head back to the bank, got my account set up, went to the post office and got a box and address (to follow), and then it was lunch time, about 2 hours after I ate breakfast.  So the four of us went to lunch, they seemed very impressed that I would eat the local food, which is the same as I have been eating for the last month, and would even use Injera.  Around this time I also realized something, absolutely everyone we talked to were speaking Amharic.  Now if you remember I am learning Oromifa and have completely stopped learning Amharic with the exception of tutoring my host brother.  I asked about this and they told me that in Gasera town they all speak Amharic to each other, many of them are bi-lingual, but Amharic is dominant.  However in the surrounding Kabele’s they will likely only speak Oromifa.  That combined with the fact that I am pretty sure my landlord ONLY speaks Amharic means I will very likely have to learn BOTH languages.  So after lunch they took me back to the AG office where a training for the AG leaders in the individual Kabeles were having a training.  They took me in the room and had me introduce myself to about 50 people I have never met, in Oromifa, with the little language I know.  Basically I said my name, where I am from, and that I am Peace Corps, and turned to the speaker and told him “that is about all I know.”  Finally they took me to “paradise.” It is the place all the locals go to de-stress and relax.  I walk out through this empty field on the edge of town about 10 minutes walk from my house.  And in front of me opens up this ENORMOUS canyon.  It was truly beautiful, the area we were standing on was a side canyon to the main one and inside of it were numerous small houses with AG plots in the midst of the trees and lush valley.  They explained that it is one of the rural areas I will be working in, there are about 12 natural springs that feed the area and are used for irrigation, and that about two hours from me is a natural cave system with people who have traditionally lived in them for hundreds of years.  Up until that point I had been a little bumbed, it seemed like a nice enough town, but it was not really what I had asked for.  That though truly made me realize how nice of an area I am in.  That night my landlord made me dinner, I found out that she was kicking her son out of one of the beds and I would sleep in the house since my room wasn’t ready, and I had several hours to just sit and read, something of a rarity since I have been in Ethiopia.  Then next day I met up with Melaku again, my liaison did not seem interested in helping me that day, and Sami had to go to Robe to get some supplies.  So it was just me and him all day, we went back to the AG office and I talked to some of the people there, we got the last of my important errands done, he showed me some of the rural area around town as well as his house, and even got some prices on furniture.  I learned a lot about him that day, and I have to say I am impressed and a little intimidated.  He is in the rural development office, already has about 90 permagardens (something that PC wants us to have as a primary project) going, he is self educated in local Flora, including the scientific name, is very well versed in politics, world issues, speaks six different languages, along with a slew of other things.  All of this with no access to the Internet in town.  I know he is going to be a huge help to me though, and I intend to ask PC to make him my community counterpart when I return to site.  Despite the rain that afternoon it turned into a beautiful day, the sun was out, the mud had dried, I met some important people, had coffee, and tea (within 10 minutes of each other), interacted with some HCNs in Oromifa, and learned the basic layout of the town.  The only other sad part to the visit was with my landlords family.  I am not sure because I did not know if it was culturally appropriate to ask, but I believe that my landlords new baby is very sick.  She would not bring him out of the bedroom, she was always tending to him, several people visited and sat with them, and most significantly the smell of rotted flesh was filling the house.  Still though when she dealt with me she was very cheerful, even though she seemed very disturbed when not talking to me, and she was very courteous.
On Saturday I headed back to Robe to meet Jill and Davin.  I arrived much later than I wanted due to the fact that my landlord would not let me leave till after they cooked and served me breakfast, then the bus tried to go down a side road and turned back because the mud was so bad we started to get stuck.  On a side note I want to say that when I use the word bus this is not the kind of bus you would ride in America to get through town.  This is a bus that is probably 15 feet tall with large all terrain tires on it, usually covered on all sides with a coat of mud.  And with all of this we could not get through that way.  It does not leave me with much hope of getting into Robe on the weekends during the 4-5 months of rainy season.  So after backtracking and finally making it to Robe, I managed to catch the second half of the lecture they were co-leading on bee keeping.  It was very interesting and a great introduction for me.  Yesterday we started the trek back to Addis, on the bus ride I was squished between two people and had absolutly NO room, when we finally reached Addis the road we needed was closed so it took about an extra hour to get where we needed.  But, we finally reached the hotel and were able to go to an expensive dinner with all the money I saved, and had ice cream after while playing with a couple of puppies, one of the first ones I have seen here that were obviously well cared for.  We finished the night watching movies with some of the other trainees and today we will go back to Butajira.
So to sum up: my site is rainy, cold, but very progressive and I think I will have support for whatever projects I work on; getting there  is a two day ordeal that I hope to not have to repeat often, I have no internet or cell reception (part of that seems to be my phone though so I might be able to improve that), my liaison sucks, but if I can get Melaku as my counterpart I think I will be in a good spot, I have about 10 other PC volunteers within about 6 hours of me so I should be able to meet with them often.  And finally I am within a few hours of Bali national park, the home of the Ethiopian wolves, baboons (which I saw) and a host of other wildlife and hiking.  So while my site might not have been what I had in mind, I should easily be able tin integrate, and make a difference in the community.
There is about a dozen other details I could put in here, but honestly I am hungry and tired of typing so those will have to trickle into other posts.  For all of the families of the trainees reading this, you should know that everyone got too and from their sites safely (if not a little flea/bed bug bitten), and so far the worst stories I have heard were of worthless counterparts and nothing worse.  For everyone else, if you dozed off in the middle of this post I don’t blame you, I am sorry for being so long winded but apparently some of you like that so I hope you enjoyed.

3/19
It is weird how time passes in this place.  The long days of language and lessons seem to pass painfully slowly while the weeks fly by.  It is hard to believe that tomorrow I will be learning where I am going to spend the next two years of my life.  I am so anxious, will it be what I asked for, or will I be completely shocked.  I have tried to keep my expectations to a minimal, I am hoping to be happily surprised.  Before we get assigned a location we have an interview (a few weeks back), while they already have us assigned roughly, it may change due to requested conditions, or our skill as observed by the teachers and LCFs.  I asked for it to be an area with wildlife, preferably somewhere that I could work with animals, even if it was just bees; but there are few options with animals.  And somewhere where it isn’t cold.  I could have listed a million things I would have liked.  But I know that the more you ask for, the less specific you are likely to get.  So by limiting what I asked for I hope I will come out on top.  Regardless of where I get, on Monday all the trainees are going to meet their temporary counterparts, then on Tuesday we will travel to our respective sites.  After nearly a week we will return to Addis on our own.  Believe it or not, this is the part I am most excited about.  Will I get lost, or go straight there, I will have little to no assistance so it should be quite the adventure.  After that we will return to Butajira for the remainder of our training.  We have hit the over one month mark in country.  As we get ready for tomorrow we also have to keep in mind that on Friday we have the “mock LPI” to determine our advances, strengths, and weakness in the language.  While not a test it still has many of the trainees worried.  We also have our interview with Dan the country training coordinator.  Finally we also have the soccer game between the trainees and the staff tomorrow.  From what I understand it is at the soccer stadium and the teachers have been practicing.  There is even a rumor that there is a teacher who almost went pro.  The ag group beat the health 5/0 two weeks ago.  I am not so sure they are going to do so well this week.  It promises to be an interesting day to say the least.
  It seems like yesterday we arrived in Addis, the time we have spent since then has been a blur, but without a doubt the adventure of a life time.  I look forward to the two years and two months remaining of my service her.  I know it will be a roller coaster, some days I will be dying to go home.  I will want to call PC and early terminate right then, and at other times I will be at complete awe of the country, people, and culture.  I have seen and heard the effects of peace corps service and I know no one is immune.  But I also know that the friendships and family I have back in the states, and the ones I am making now will be the only thing that keeps my sanity.

3/21
Yesterday was exactly what I expected.  Hectic and nerves were high.  We had language lessons in he morning.  We went over transportation.  I am glad we got to that because next Sunday I will be traveling back from my site on my own.  I am still excited to see how that part goes.  But I got my big news, where I will be going!  It is a new site, there has never been a volunteer there before, they really don’t even know what Peace Corps is.  They are apparently excited for me to be coming though.  I am a little worried about the lack of expectations.  Especially if they have ever dealt with an NGO.  Some organisations like to come into a town or wareda and give handouts.  This is about the opposite of how PC operates.  I am hoping they are not expecting me to come in and start giving them things.  It will be an interesting experience trying to communicate the gaols and methods of PC in broken language.  I am excited to travel to Addis on Sunday.  We already have plans to go get some good forenji food.  The Ethiopian food is good, but VERY repetitive.  I am still being fed more than I can possibly eat, but the repetition gets a bit old.
After our sites were announced we got packets of information, usually about four pages of details about what the site is like, a little information about our houses, and what we should expect to be doing once we reach site.  I am not sure how big my site is, the woreda (county) has about 87,000 people in it.  The language is strongly slanted towards Afan Oromo (what I have been learning) but about 20% speak Amharic so there should be some opportunity for me to learn that as well.  It is about a 11-12 hour bus ride from the capital to my site.  I am not looking forward to that at all, but I expected it since I asked for a rural community.  I will be given money to buy a bicycle though so the area should be nice enough that bikes are not abnormal.  I am going to be staying in a singe bed room, I do not know how large it is though so I am not sure what it will accommodate.  There is some conflicting information about what I should expect about Internet.  One place it says that at my office I will have Internet, but in another it says the nearest Internet is two hours away.   Regardless I will find out on Tuesday, well maybe Wednesday since I will be on a bus all day, and will update either while I am there or when I get back to Addis.  Oh, and I guess you probably want to know the actual site.  I am going to Gasera, it is relatively close to the Bali mountains, and in the middle of the Southern Oromia region.

Well guys, as most of you know I have been in Philadelphia since yesterday.  It has been fun being here, I got to see the sights, walked around and had good food.  During my layover in Charlotte I ran into two Ethiopian nationals who thanked me and shook my had for going to volunteer in their country.  Once in Philly I ran into some volunteers going to Tanzania, although we were not at the same hotel we talked on the shuttle ride over and it was great meeting them.  After they got off at their hotel the driver spoke up that he was from Sudan, especially since I am currently reading an incredible (very sad) book called What is the What, I was very excited to talk to him and get a more current and real life perspective from him.  Once I got to the hotel I met up with some volunteer going to Madagascar, we went and had dinner, I finally met some volunteers going to Ethiopia late last night and we stayed up past 2am talking and getting to know each other.  It was just an incredible experience getting to meet the people who are going through the exact same thing I am and worry and excited and all the other motions I am feeling right now.  So today we got up and did staging briefings for most of the afternoon, my group is actually larger than I thought with 64 volunteers.  It was a lot of review from information they had already provided us, but there was a very strong participation from the volunteers so we got to know each other, our backgrounds, and what we were all worried/excited about.  It was good to know that just about everyone had the same anxieties as I do.  So tonight the Ethiopia/Madagascar volunteers are going to dinner for one last time in the US.  Then tomorrow we ship off, after 21 hours of travel we will land in Ethiopia Wed. afternoon, then the real fun begins.
So for one last time I want to thank all of you for your thoughts and support.  I hope to be able to keep up with all of you on a regular basis, but please remember we will be going through 8 hour a day training sessions for the next 3 months.  All accounts say it is a tough, strict regiment, so the updates might be scattered.  Thank you for your patients with the response/update time.  Know I already miss all of you, and I can’t wait till I get to see all of you again.

P.S. for those of you have asked.  Ship things to.
Eugene Foerster/PCT
U.S. Peace Corps/Ethiopia P.O. Box 7788
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

I just wanted to check in, for those of you who read my last post you will know that I have been waiting on the staging information.  That is the time and place where I will meet to receive my final information, attend some lectures, meet my fellow volunteers, and in general get set to go.  I have been getting home every day and checking to see if I had mail.  I got a surprise today, not a letter, but an email (I guess I should assume that PC is with the times and doesn’t use paper anymore).  It stated that I will be meeting in Philadelphia February 10th for staging.  I was hoping to meet in Atlanta so I could visit with family and friends, but PC has other plans.    So after staging I will fly out on the 11th, and arrive in country to start my official service!
It is long awaited news, and it is just one more thing that makes this a reality.  Every day I get a little more excited, and admittedly, a little more anxious to leave.  After reading Michael’s blog I have an even better idea of what to expect.  I am looking forward to the amazing experience that I am about to embark on, as well as wary of the hardships I have in store for me.  Over the next few weeks I will be saying bye to many of you, in case any of you reading this are not in one of the groups seeing me off I want to say goodbye for a few years.  I know I will be a changed person when I return but I hope to stay in touch and pick right back up where I left off.
I will try to post again soon after I arrive in country, if I am lucky maybe with a couple pictures.  If not know I will try to keep a regular blog, but once I know where I will be stationed I should have a better idea of how often I will be able to check in.
I couldn’t have gotten here without all your support, and I won’t be able to make it without knowing you guys are here for me.  My hope going forward is that I can live up to the PC’s expectations and represent an America that you all would be proud to call home.