Ethiopia 1: Gondor and Simiens Trek

Scott takes a rest in the modern Addis Ababa airport before an early flight to Gondor.

Bird's eye view of Addis.

Kids playing soccer in the streets of Gondor.

Our Gondor hotel courtyard.  Notice castle ruins in the background.

A little more developed than Zambia, but not much!  Scott and our Peace Corps friend Gordon pose in front of the pothole with the Gondor castle in the background.  At least they TRY to have sidewalks here!

Great view from our restaurant-top cafe.

Injera is a flatbread made from a fermented wheat-like grain called tef.  It is cooked and placed on large metal pan.

From the rooftop balcony of our hotel in Gondor, you could see a panoramic view of the city and surrounding mountains.

Gina getting lively while a man plays a vocale at a local bar.  We were definitely the only tourists, and the musicians went to all of the bar patrons singing songs about them in Ahmeric.

Drum player at the same bar.

A traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony involves roasting the fresh beans over hot coals while incense burns.  Then the beans are hand-pounded with a mortor and pestle, and the guest gets 3 cups of coffee!

Gina and Gordon relax at King Fasilades pool.  It's not full anymore but gets filled once a year for baptisms and religious ceremonies.

When in Rome, do as the Romans, and when in Gondor, ride a donkey cart!

We got up close and personal with the gelada baboons on our first day trekking the Simien mountains.

We hiked the Simiens just after the rainy season, which made for wonderful wildflowers!

Why is everybody looking at me?

We also saw this type of flower while hiking in Tanzania and Malawi.

Our group of 5 trekkers a guide, and an armed scout ("for the animals") reaching a rural village before our second camp.

Giant lobelia plants.

We were lucky enough to see three walia ibex.

View of Simiens on one of the world's most-switchbacked roads from Debark to Axum.

A monk shows us colorful paintings and Ahmeric text on a goatskin book several hundred years old.  It is still used in frequent services for the Ethiopian orthodox church.  This is the new St. Maryium church in Axum.  The old one was destroyed in attacks several hundered years ago.

No Longer Peace Corps Volunteers.

We had our official "ringing out" ceremony in Lusaka, which was bittersweet and surreal.  So we're off to new adventures but will hopefully keep this blog open to upload pictures of Ethiopia and Thailand.  Plan is to get back to the U.S. in mid-December.  Thank you family and friends for all of your correspondence and and good while we've been away.  It's been quite the experience.

Sol Town

Solwezi is one of those places that unlike our village, we got to know little by little as we traveled 4-10 hours (depending on transport) from our village to get there once a month.  It houses the provincial Peace Corps office, so was a welcome source of hot showers (when the power worked), internet (when the router worked), and a "real" grocery store (when it wasn't stocked out).

You have to look very carefully to find the only "welcome to Solwezi" sign around.  My friend Julie caught this in a good day as usually it's obstructed by women's underwear or other clothing for sale in the street.

Wikipedia claims that Solwezi has 65,000 inhabitants, but my guess is twice that if you include the Zambian, Congolese and other squatters who stick around hoping to get a job at one of the mines but aren't actually employed or living in any type of formal housing.  Because of two very well established copper and uranium mines in the area (Kansanshi and Lumwana) and the initial exploration and development of several more, Solwezi has been claimed to be the fastest-growing city in Africa . . . but not in a good way.  Unfortunately this uncontained growth has not been followed by any sort of urban planning or conservation efforts, so what you get is a sprawled-out conglomeration of urban slums with a few pockets of enormous wealth sprinkled in the outskirts.  A very interesting (but not usually pleasant) mix!

The town of Solwezi sprawled out along the horizon from a bluff that was once covered in trees.

Villagers cut/burn trees at a rapid pace to fuel the city's food and fuel needs.  It's typical to see bicycles stacked with 4-5 huge bags of hardwood charcoal coming down from the hills.  A majority of the population is not connected to the power grid, which experiences blackouts almost daily anyway, so they cook using charcoal.

A typical "neighborhood" with mud brick houses with corrugated roofs and trash littering the dusty road.

Even though Solwezi is urban, much of the population still utilizes the rivers and streams for bathing and washing.

There are only about 3 paved roads in the entire city.  Most are rivited with mosquito-breeding potholes in the rainy season and lines of dust in the dry season.

Gina meets up with a village counterpart who moved to Solwezi with her husband and daughters to seek a better life through employment at the mines.

Note trash pile to the right as there are no municipal waste collection services.  Most locals can't afford for a private waste collection service, so the trash either sits or gets burned.

Running water is hard to come by in these urban slums, so people either use the river or buy it by the bucketful at a kiosk like this one.  Problem is, it's not always open.

The backyard of the Peace Corps provincial office is a little oasis in the midst of it all.  Inside the walled yard is green grass, a small garden, and a backup water tower (left).  The grill in front is a fuel-efficient charcoal/wood burning stove that volunteers use to cook their meals during frequent blackouts.

Solwezi has a few extremely nice hotels to cater to the international mining personnel who come primarily from South Africa, Australia and Zimbabwe.  Apparently there is also a country club complete with zebras running around the golf course, but we never had the privilege of seeing because we're not exclusive members!

So, there are just a few redeeming qualities so one doesn't go crazy in Solwezi, but can't say I'm gonna miss it!

Ode to Nshima

Ode to Nshima (Gina's Post):

Oh nshima yamakamba how you stick in my stomach like a bomba. 
I don't even bite because you are like bubble gum.
And if I don't eat you it's insulting to the mum.
In Zambia I've definitely had my fill . . .
Let's just hope someday it doesn't kill . . . me.

That's right, folks.  Scott and I had our last nshima meal yesterday, and I can't say I'm gonna miss it too much.  When I told the villagers we didn't eat cassava nshima at ALL in America, all I got was shocked expressions, and at least 20 people recommended I bring the smelly white cassava flour home to show how people really eat over here (I heard secondhand that it's been intercepted at customs because it's a white powder, so I didn't even try).  Well, yes, they eat sleep and breathe the stuff, but most westerners can't handle more than a small handful before getting a very heavy feeling in the gut if they're lucky, and excruciating stomach pain if they're not.  It DOES have the benefit of making one full, which is a plus in a culture that just a few generations ago was just hunting and gathering their food.  So, Zambians in general are ecstatic about eating nshima, which has been replaced by maize in most parts.  Unfortunately, cassava nshima is still the staple food in our area, and because it's such an integral part of daily life, I decided to give a step-by-step in the its life--from transplant to a meal.  There is a Lunda word for each and every step, and most of the words relate ONLY to cassava nshima, no other food . . . which is telling to the importance of this crazy food in everyday life.  It's eaten 2-3 times per day with various relishes such as greens, beans or dried fish:


1) kudima niyahanga- making mounds

Cassava is probably so popular here because it doesn't require seeds; just take a cutting, plant it diagonally, and viola, you have a staple food (after a few more steps).

2) kuketehula mu yinkunku- cutting off stem to transplant
 3) kutumba- planting stems in mounds

These young plants have at least a year to go before the root can be harvested for food.

 4) kusela- weeding (cassava root takes 1-2 years to mature)
5) kwanda sombe- pulling leaves off after 3 months to boil and eat

The tender leaves are ready to harvest and eat much earlier than the root.

 6) kwimba niykamba- pulling out the root
7) kuzambika- soaking 4-6 days, depending on the climate, until it is soft and fermented

In our area, they soak in hand-dug ponds/puddles in the flood plain.

In Malawi, they soak in clay pots filled with lake water.  Note the bubbles on the left indicate fermentation.

 8) kuzambula- removing from soaking water
9) kusohola- pounding with a large stick to remove the peels
10) kufumisha mafu- removing the peels
11) kwanyika- drying in the sun for 1-4 days (over fire in rainy season)

The white bowl in the front is dried cassava, while the leaves on the upper right are cassava leaves ready to be boiled and eaten as a relish for the nshima.

 12) kutchwa- pounding

This young lady uses a mortar carved from a tree trunk and pestle to crush the dried fermented cassava into a fine powder.

 13) kusefwa- sifting

Once it is sifted, it is finer than cake flour, but much more dense.

 14) kuhonda- cooking in boiling water to make a thick porridge

This is a relatively small pot meant for 2-4 people.  Sometimes families will cook enough for 20 or more people at a time!

 15) kuketula na makasa- taking a handful to form a lump
16) kukama- rolling into hand like silly putty
17) kupanga masa- making balls
18) kabwimbwa- making a little bowl with one's fingers

The center is like a spoon and can pick up juice from the vegetables or meat.

 19) kutanta- dipping the nshima bowl into sauce

The relish is eaten from a communal bowl.

 20) kuminya- swallowing!

The purplish colored mounds are made from pure cassava meal, while the whiter ones are a mix of maize and cassave meal.  One bowl will feed 6-10 people seated together.  This was cooked by some lovely village ladies for our going away party.

Normally the men and women eat separately.

September/October Photos, Part 1

Craft night in the village.  Amazing how popular cut-up straws and dental floss can be!

One of the many porridge demonstrations to help kids get better nutrition.  This one mixed pounded boiled cassava, sweet potatoes, and pounded greens and sesame seeds.  It was a huge success!

Almost all villagers walk 2-3 kilometers to their fields every day and harvest what they can carry on their heads!

This drama group was just trained how to do skits about HIV prevention.

Volunteers enjoying time with the monkey before he was turned over to ZAWA (Zambian wildlife authority).  A different Peace Corps volunteer saw him almost being poached by villagers, so intervened.

It's bush meat season!  This one is a shoulder of dika.  It's also building season and villagers are in a rush to get their houses finished or added-onto before the rains come.  The one in the background is making a window frame.

Peace Corps volunteers were all honored guests at the Chisemwa Cha Lunda traditional ceremony.

And a little bike excursion to Luawu mission after the ceremony.

Not rocks . . . termite mounds that come in crazy formations!

The traditional drink for ceremonies like Chisemwa Cha Lunda is fermented millet that sits in dried gourds for several days until it starts to bubble!

These kids wanted a sneak peek of the ceremony!

Peace Corps volunteers posing with the Chief and his wife.

Scott and Costa stop for a refreshing water break on one last bike trip to the Zambezi source.

The source monument is technically 5k from the Congo, but they put the sign here for tourists like us to think they went there anyway.

I think these trees drank up all the source water, because the Zambezi source itself was dried up when we went there.

Ladies showing off their new dresses they got because their families had built proper pit latrine toilets.  Thanks Aunt Joan!

Some bush trails near our house.

Badger and her kitten one day they had to be separated and go to two different Peace Corps volunteers before we left the village :(.