Salem (Hello) from Ethiopia

Today was our last "official" day of our course on subsistence agriculture in Ethiopia. We were given the opportunity to be on the other side of the chalkboard (or LCD projector rather) as each of us gave a presentation on our own research project back home. Our audience was composed mainly of graduate students doing their M.Sc. at Hawassa University in agricultural research. We were surprised at how many Ethiopian students want to do a Ph.D. in Canada! After exchanging our email addresses with many students, we handed out the USB drives that were donated by Casey Davis from Morris Industries in Saskatoon. Thanks againg for your donation, all the students really appreciated them!

Once the presentations were over, we headed to the market to buy our groceries for our trekking trip in the Bale Mountains. The market was a very fun experience. As we entered the market, there were a few young men trying to convice us to buy a few live chickens to take home and cook up for dinner. We opted for the vegetarian options in the market instead and found so much wonderful food - potatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, carrots, green beans, cabbage, corn, fresh herbs and spices. After about a month of eating restaurant food, we are so excited to cook for each other!

We will be leaving for our trek on Saturday morning, so you may not hear from us for a few days. We are all very excited for our trek and hopefully have some wonderful stories and photos to share with you when we return.

Ameseuganalo (thanks) for reading our blog!

Alexis, Dani, Jenn, Amanda, Melissa, and Michelle

May 17 – Nech Sar National Park

Today we woke up to brilliant sunshine and baboons in the yard. Today was going to be a very exciting day, after our staple porridge and boiled egg breakfast we set out for Nech Sar National park. We paid 100 birr/person for the park fee and 65 birr for the guide (who brought along a gun just in case). To get to the Nech Sar plains we had to drive 25 km across the bridge of God. The first 5 km was in a low lying area that is mucky and densely forested. When there’s a lot of rain this area acts as a water way between the two lakes. As it was there was at least a half km stretch where we had to actually drive through a river. It was wild! There were also several deeply rutted spots and narrow fast moving waterways. Our drivers (Abyiot and Wibeshet) were awesome, they didn’t even put the land cruiser in four wheel drive (yet). The next 20 km was very rocky and steep, with lots of switchbacks. Part of the way there was a steep drop down into Lake Chamo at least a km below us. We can see hippos lounging in the bay. Mike thought some of the trail was about 35 degrees and sheer rock. Most of the time we were crawling along in the first gear. The group in the second vehicle had trouble climbing one of the steep hills. At one point, the vehicle stalled and started rolling backwards, Dani, Alexis and Jenn volunteered whole heartedly to get out of the vehicle in the effort to lighten the load. Abyiot managed to get the truck up the incline without any problems.

As usual, the scenery was spectacular. We saw duiker, baboons, peasants, squirrels and little lizards. After an hour and a half of serious off roading, we caught our first glimpse of the zebras. Amanda was so excited she hurled herself out the window and jumped right across Mike’s lap. After another steep climb, the Nech Sar plains were in sight. It was incredible, the vast stretch of relatively flat land and white grass that was surrounded by the rift mountains was probably the remains of some ancient lake. We soon realized that there were many zebra to be seen. They didn’t even appear to be scared of us, as we can get quite close to some of them. There were several small herds, two to six females and one male per harem. Maybe it’s their strips, but they appear to be in good condition. Zebras are actually quite stocky. Besides zebras we also saw gazelles and buzzards. Our guides said there are lions and cheetahs that live in the forest that hunts zebras at night.

As we make our way around the loop, we came across several herds of cattle. They weren’t supposed to graze in the park, but we can image the plight of the people – it would be difficult to respect wildlife preservation when your livelihood is starving on the other side of the mountain. After completing the loop of the plains, we ate crackers and canned pineapple overlooking both lakes and the bridge of God.
We took our drivers out for supper that night at the same restaurant we ate the night before. We had another great meal with wonderful company.

Amanda, Dani, Jenn, Melissa, Michelle, Alexis

May 15-16 Arba Minch

After interviewing the DAs on Friday, we left Sodo around 11 am for Arba Minch. Mike wasn’t kidding when he said that it’s a rough road. There’s a highway being built, but it’s under construction, as the result we had to zigzag around the road, sometimes way into the rural areas. It was so rough, the 80 km took us over 3 hours (with one pee break, with 4 girls peeing in the Acacia thorns with about 35 goats as audiences. The scenery along the way was amazing as usual. On our right, the Rift Mountains was swirling low lying clouds hovering overhead. After about an hour and a half of trail blazing, a huge lake came into view. It was the same shade as the sky, but the lake was a muddy blush color. Behind the lake there were varying degree of the rift mountain view, it was beautiful. We were so glad to get to Arba Minch, our butts sure took a beating. We stayed at the same chain of hotels as Sodo – Bekele Molla Hotels Wolaita. This hotel is much larger and much more scenic, overlooking lakes Abaya and Chamo with Rift Mountains in the background. There are beautiful trees and flowers everywhere and the restaurant patio overlooks the spectacular scenery. We went to a local restaurant for supper and had fried fish and chips. Food safety is not a big concern in Ethiopia, goats and cats can come freely as the patrons.

The next morning after breakfast, this amazing rain shower past over the hill just across from the restaurant patio. The rain was less than 1 km away and we can see and hear it like we’re in a bubble. It came down so hard we thought it was going to miss us, but before we knew it we were in the middle of it. Saturday afternoon, we went to the crocodile market, by the name we expected something more developed, maybe a gift shop, cafe? Nope, after navigating through a busy mucky trail, we pulled up to the swampy, vegetation covered edge of Lake Chamo. There was a path of stones and an overturned boat guiding us to the boat. We didn’t have to go very far to see either the hippos or the crocks: there were hippos submerging themselves and spraying water close to where we dock the boats and directly across the small bay there were about 10 crocks sunbathing themselves on the banks. As we troll close to the crocks, they scrambled into the water to float by us. As we cruise along the lake we got close to a herd of hippos. Our guide who we picked up in town for 1080 birrs, said there’re about 400 hippos and hundreds of crocks in the lake. Hippos can weigh from 600 to 2000 kg as adults. Crocks can be from 5 to 9 meters long. We were out of the lake for over an hour. Besides hippos and crocks, we also saw pelicans, fishing eagles, cranes, and storks. Of course the scenery is fabulous, with a fantastic view of the bridge of God – a strip of land 2 km wide between Lake Abaya and Chamo – and the great rift stretching on either side of us in fading layers. There are also numerous local fishermen floating along in narrow rifts using a log as a pedal, very brave considering all the dangerous animals in the water.

We had an amazing supper at the Arba Minch Tourist Hotel. Most of us had the grilled Nile perch, it was fresh and delicious, a fabulous way to end a fabulous day.

Amanda, Dani, Jenn, Michelle, Melissa, Alexis

May 14 Parade to the Waterfall

On our way back from research farm, we did a bit of off-roading to find a beautiful waterfall in the midst of rural Ethiopia. We picked up a “guide” off the street in Areka who was to help us find our way to the falls. We turned off onto a small country road which was strewn with rocks, dogs, donkeys, and farmers going to market. For a bunch of Saskatchewan girls traveling on this rural road, we were surprised to see so many people. To us, these rural areas were as densely populated as a Saskatoon neighborhood. Thousands of excited kids were waving their arms frantically and yelling “You! You! You! You!”. We have never seen something 2 feet tall move so fast. We felt like a float in a parade!

The road seemed to head off in a few different directions, which confused our first “guide”, so we picked up a couple more men off the street to help us find our way to the falls. We did reach the falls and were very impressed with the view of the gorge and the two waterfalls, which we estimate to be 100m tall. They were beautiful! There were many children who were collecting water from the falls below. We would have walk down, but darkness was approaching, and we did not have time to do the 2 hour hike.

Melissa, Alexis, Dani, Amanda, Michelle and Jenn

May 13-14 Conducting Interviews with the Farmers of the Wolaita, Ethiopia

The last three days spent in Sodo will be days we will never forget. Our whole reason for coming to Ethiopia was based on these three days. We were to interview farmers on their farming practices. What seemed like simple questions on paper were probably very personal questions for these farmers to answer, and yet they gave whole-hearted answers to six complete strangers who couldn't even speak their language. They were also very grateful that we were there talking to them. They all smiled and laughed when we asked our final question, “Do your children want to be farmers?” They must have thought this was such a ridiculous question to ask, as many replied, “Why would they want to be farmers? They look at us and see no benefit to agriculture.”

Alexis, Melissa, Michelle, Dani, Amanda, Jenn

May 12 - A Visit to Kabele

The day before our interviews, we wanted to get a sense of what life was like in the Kebele of Delbo Atwaro (a Kebele is similar to a rural municipality in Saskatchewan). We parked at the Agricultural Development Centre and walked in to see what a typical farm was like. We were escorted/followed by a group of curious children and farmers.

This visit was our first chance to see some of the local crops grown in this area. There were enset and coffee plants growing close to the house where the soil was most fertile. Maize, sweet potatoes, kale, beans, carrots, and herbs were also some of the commonly grown crops. This farm was 0.5 ha (the average size of a farm in this Kebele) which is much smaller than most of our gardens in Saskatchewan.

The children, women and men that had gathered around us were very excited about our digital cameras. They all wanted to have their pictures taken so they could see what they looked like! On of the most memorable moments was when we took a picture of an elderly woman inside her kitchen. She was so happy to see the picture, tears were coming from her eyes and she patted Dani on the back to thank her for taking the picture.

We were very lucky to be able to see what the inside of their homes were like. There were four main areas of the hut. One area was the kitchen, which was also the place were the animals were kept at night. There was a fire in the center for cooking and many pots scattered around the kitchen area. There was a separate area for sleeping at the other side of the hut. Everyone in the house slept together on grass mats. The main entrance to the hut would have been a common sitting area. There was a second story to the hut, which housed the chickens and stored grain. The diameter of the hut would have been no more than 5 m, so the total inside living space would be less than 200 sq. ft. (the size of a bedroom at home). There would be as many as 10 people, 3 cows, 2 sheep, and 4 chickens sharing this space!

Alexis, Melissa, Dani, Amanda, Jenn and Michelle

May 12 - Impressions of Sodo

We write these impressions of one of the most densely populated regions of Earth from the safe confines of our hotel in Sodo, Ethiopia. We sit in a lush courtyard, yet there are hundreds of people begging for food and money on the street. It is so appalling to walk the streets of Sodo and see people lying on the ground, clinging to life as they reach their hands to the sky, no doubt praying to God to save them. One woman in particular is so weak that she can no longer lift her head off the ground, yet somehow finds the strength to pray. What's even sadder is that we glance at her with a look of pity but just keep walking. We have learned that the people of Sodo are so aggressive that we have become scared to give anything away, especially money. It makes a person feel very helpless, but also selfish that we have hundreds of Birr in our pockets but are too scared to reach in and pull out one to give. Of those who are healthy enough to go about their daily activities of farming, fetching water and going to school, even these people show signs of malnourishment. It doesn't matter how many Sunday afternoons we spent watching World Vision on tv back home, nothing prepares you to see this. There are so many people living in this condition.

Alexis, Melissa, Michelle, Dani, Amanda, Jenn