Hawassa University

We had our first day on campus today. The most noticable difference at first is the guarded gates surrounding the campus. There are security guards at the gates making sure that only students and faculty get into the campus grounds. We arrived on campus around 8:30am, but as we past the first few buildings, we could see that classes had already started. The doors to the classrooms were open, and we looked inside to see a classroom packed with students sitting at little wooden desks, taking notes from the blackboard. We followed Mike to our classroom - a large boardroom with nice comfortable office chairs, red mahoganny desks, a LCD projector and laptop computer. We had to wait a while to start the lectures because they needed to turn the generator on to give power to the classroom! I really felt like we got the royal treatment on campus.

Dr. Abebe Tullu gave us a lecture on background information in Ethiopia including history, topography, climate, people and culture. We talked about the Nile River for a while. This river is very important to agriculture in Ethiopia, and is part of a river basin that is shared with 9 other countries. The most powerful country amoung them, Egypt, has much influence on how water in the Nile is used. There are many treaties that restrict the further construction of dams (in countries other than Eygpt), and also restrict irrigation, hydropower, and other uses of water in the Nile. Unfortunately Egypt only cares about the quantity of water that flows into its country, and could care a less about the quality of water in the Nile, as many industries dump thier effleunt directly into the river.

We also finalized our schedule for the next 2 weeks. We will spent the next 4 days in the classrooom at Hawassa University (the H means that it is south of Awassa), have a free day in Awassa on Sunday, and then drive to Sodo where we will spent the next 4 days interviewing farmers and agriculture development officiers (ag extension staff). Then its back to Awassa for a few days to discuss the data we collect and give research seminars to the students and faculty at Hawassa University.

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