3rd post from Juba

Stardate 3.21.11

As the voyage in South Sudan continues, the Pheagle (the US chartered plane) headed towards Akobo on the border with the neighboring country of Ethiopia. The natives were interestingly dressed and spoke a strange language…ok I can’t really keep that up. But the US Dept of State plane here is really called the Pheagle (combo of phoenix and eagle) and I did really take it for a two day trip to Akobo and Pibor.

We left for Akobo at around 8:30 and for the rest of the day it was a hot, humid and sweaty whirlwind. First we went to see a clinic in a nearby village of Deng Jok which was about 20-30 minutes away by car which included driving through a small river. No worries on the way there but on the way back one of the cars got stuck and we had to do some maneuvering to get it out. At the clinic we saw the regular clinic which includes a male midwife with one eye! To be a midwife here you go to school for about 3 years. And there were some other staff and community health management committee members handy for questions. The clinic also has a nutrition component for treating severe acute malnutrition. I must say that the difference between what a malnourished child in Ethiopia and Sudan looks like is amazing. The kids here look much healthier. I’m not quite sure why. My favorite was one little kid—maybe around 12 months—who was wearing a crocheted pantsuit outfit. Of course, I’m in a lightweight t-shirt sweating to death but these kids are all covered up and looking cool as cucumbers!

On the way back we stopped at another partners’ Farmer Training Site where they do demonstrations on the benefit of planting in rows, weeding, etc. Of course, it’s totally the wrong time of year for visiting an agriculture program (like visiting a farm in MD in January), but they appreciate the visit nonetheless.

We also visited a third partner’s borehole drilling project which is well on its way to completion.

By the time I got back to our “hotel” and I use that word loosely, I was knackered and very dehydrated. My water during the day heated up to the temperature of tea. Blech.

Our hotel was a bunch of local houses called tukuls which are basically one circular room with a locally made bed (iron and rope webbing). It was so hot in the tukul I asked them to pull my bed outside (and then the others in my group did the same) and I slept under a sheet and my bug bivvy which is like a sleeping bag shape but made of mosquito net and has a little plastic flexible rod that helps keep the netting off of your face/torso.

The following day we took of for the 2 hour drive to Pibor. We had a late start and the road was slow going because of the terrain. This is hard black cotton soil. Apparently it has two stages—muddy and impossible to drive through or dry as concrete and painful to drive through. So I guess the benefit of this trip was we had the later. But the roads were bad enough that one of the three cars lost a wheel. Not a tire. A wheel. The whole this was bent at an angle that looks like something from a Herbie the Love Bug movie. So after moving things into our car, shifting around people, making copious calls to make sure someone would come out for the two remaining people with the broken car, we continued bumping our way along the road. We eventually made it to a resting point where we had planned to spend 1 ½ hours, but it had taken us so long to get there that we only had a few minutes in the market and then had to press on. The town is inhabited by the Murle tribe which have some really good tribal markings and beads. Definitely look at the pictures! We tried to communicate but it was pretty pathetic. One guy gave a little kid a tennis ball and that was a hit. And once they figured out they could see their picture in the digital camera they were on board with photos!!

We finished the drive to Pibor and instead of having 4 hours there we had 2. So I visited a women’s group that had been provided jerry cans for water and hygiene and sanitation training and then the County Agriculture Office. The women were definitely the more interesting and I spent about 1 hour there talking with them about their understanding of hygiene, why they’ve decided to come back to Pibor after years of living in other places, etc. They have a lot of ideas and I’m hoping the local and international NGO can provide further training and support.

So here it is, Monday, and I’m not sure I’m fully hydrated yet. But it was a good trip and I’m glad I got to see the Murle women!

More soon,
Jane

Link to pictures:

Akobo/Pibor South Sudan

Slideshow:

2nd post from Juba!

Hi,

So since the last time I posted I’ve spent most of my time either working or asleep. Things are, as you can imagine, pretty busy here.

I’ve been on two trips so for now I’ll focus on that because the other day to day stuff is pretty boring.

The first trip was to visit a partner working with the communities in and around Lobonok in Central Equatoria State. Most of the people here fled to Uganda during the war but have been back for many months. And they were mostly able to stay together during their time in Uganda which is, frankly, amazing.

The programs focus on diversifying assets so people don’t rely entirely on farming for food security. Some of the groups have opened small shops to sell things like soap, sugar, soda, etc to others in the town. Other groups focus on tailoring/sewing or soap making. The groups have chosen these activities as something they’re interested in and that they feel there’s a market in. Many of these people also take part in adult literacy and numeracy classes. The motivation to be involved and find other opportunities is very apparent. What’s less apparent is how these groups will really function once the agency moves on. The skill level among community members is quite low, transportation is very difficult and supplies are sometimes hard or expensive to come by. All of which bring sustainability into question. But everyone hopes for positive things in South Sudan and improvements are being seen. So we’ll cross our fingers.

After that trip I spent a considerable amount of time focusing on the bureaucracy of allocating money to groups to do these projects. But I did manage to plan a trip to Agok. Now depending on who you ask, and which map you look at, Agok is either just south of Abyei in Warrap state or is in the very must southern area of Abyei. Under the CPA, Abyei is a special administrative area and one that the North and South are still talking about and trying to come to agreement on. It’s also a huge flashpoint and one that we all expect will deteriorate before it improves. Temperatures were in the high 40s (Celsius) which is REALLY hot! Even though I’ve adjusted to the heat, I can hardly be in that bright sun. In the shade it’s about 38C.

I visited a partner who is one of two NGOs provided almost all of the health services in the area. The Ministry of Health here is very weak and doesn’t have the funding or capacity to provide these services. Our original plan was to visit Abyei town and then stop to see where some of the people who’ve come from Khartoum are settled while awaiting an allocation of land for permanent settlement from the Abyei administration. However, due to insecurity in the area about 3 days before we left Juba, we changed our plan to not go to the town and just to visit the returnee areas which are quite a bit south and therefor much safer. When we got to Agok we learned that there had been additional fighting resulting in many people moving temporarily from Abyei town southwards where they feel safer. All of the NGOs in Abyei relocated their staff and the UN agencies went into a more contained mode.

To get to Abyei and the settlement locations from Agok you have to cross a river. There is only one bridge. So if anything happens to that bridge you’re stuck. Given the lack of options, we decided it was safest to not cross the bridge. That way, if there was any need to return to base quickly, we would be able to do so. So, we traveled north of Agok town towards the bridge where our partner has a health clinic instead.

On route to the clinic we saw many people on the move. We stopped to talk to a few and most were headed to Agok where they have family and where they will stay for a few weeks in case the fighting in Abyei gets worse. Most have left behind the father or uncle to watch the house and other assets. We also saw a lot of youngish men walking southwards with their guns and some supplies. But there was no hint of violence or tension. It was more that a lot of them had been told to make their way south and were walking/biking with their assets. But we’re not sure why or who they were.

At the clinic we talked to the main “doctor” who is actually a Community Health Worker. This is someone who’s received basic training but isn’t a doctor or a nurse. However, he’s responsible for running the clinic and identifying most problems and then referring those that are more complicated to the town where one NGO runs a large health clinic and hospital. Also on staff are Traditional Birth Attendants who do pre-natal visits and education, a vaccinator, a pharmacist (but not trained like one in the US), a growth monitoring person (mostly gives children under 5 their shots), and someone to look for malnutrition in children. Despite how scary that sounds in terms of not having a lot of qualified staff, this set up is actually quite good and this particular clinic has a lot more staff and training than others I’ve been to.

While I was there, one of the patients was a young boy—probably around 10—who had something like scabies on his legs. But because of the scratching it has turned into a bigger infection and there were open cuts. He was receiving a tetanus shot, treatment for the infection, and a thorough cleaning. His 23 year old brother has this as well but to a much lesser extent. One of the steps the doctor advised was for the family to wash their clothes and their bodies and whatever they were sleeping on as well. The germs, when people aren’t cleaning regularly, are quickly spread between family members and are much harder to eliminate. But, the good news is, with regular treatment, the boy will be fine. He will however have to have treatment every day for 5 days. All of which is provided free of charge by the clinic.

Since we left Agok, the situation in Abyei has gotten worse and things look like they will deteriorate and more fighting is likely. Hopefully with some intervention and diplomacy things will calm down, but as this situation hasn’t been resolved in the 5 years since the CPA was signed, I think it’s highly unlikely that it will be resolved before July. They also need to have their own referendum for determination (postponed from January 2011) which I’m sure will cause further upheaval.

Anyway—it was a really interesting field trip for me, and I’ve got a few others coming up, so stay tuned!! In the meantime, it’s back to work.

Jane



Link to photos of Lobonok and Agok/Abathok:

Lobonok CES and Agok Abyei South Sudan March 2011

Slideshow of the same:

First post from South Sudan

Hi all,

It seems apropos that my 100th blog post will come from Juba in South Sudan since my very first post was in 2007 from Khartoum North Sudan.

I arrived here on Wednesday Feb 2 and have been trying to stay hydrated against the heat since I stepped off of the plane. It's probably not worse than Baltimore in the summer, but I think living in cool, temperate climates for a few years has made it a difficult transition. So you go from air con to air con with spurts of profuse sweating in between.

My first couple of days have been spent orienting myself to life here and our programs--which are new to me. We have a livelihoods and markets specialist in from WDC so we're spending time with partners or organizations engaged in those activities.

On Friday we took a visit to the Juba Port where barges of people and their things are arriving via the Nile where they will seek onward transport to their towns. We talked to a few famlies, women and children, groups of families traveling together. Some people have been away for decades, others have never been here before but identify it as their home and are returning. They bring with them everything they own--tables, chairs, beds, clothes, food, and more. Everything they could possible bring is now stacked up around them as a makeshift shelter while they await either more items, family or onward transport. IOM, the International Organization for Migration, has been giving funding from many countries to help move people. On the day we visited, people who'd be waiting at the port for about a week were starting to load up their belongings onto huge trucks for tranport to a town called Torit. They will be loaded into a bus, but people wont go without their belongings so IOM has had to organize more trucks and trips than expected. Also, the huge volume of items they've brought with them make transport difficult. Some times only three families' belonging will fit into the truck. There are hundreds waiting now and IOM knows that 600+ are on a barge that should be arriving at any time. At this makeshift camp, UNICEf has started providing clean water and latrines. But there are still signs of open defecation in many spots. Despite the difficult conditions, many families are happy to be in Juba and excited for their new nation.

Some of my other activities have been less exciting...including a three hour long meeting where we were introduced to the concept of the development planning process and for which I will have to attend many subsequent meetings. The problem here is that many of the people who own businesses are not from South Sudan and many of the people who have stayed here during the years of war and subsequent 5 years of peace don't have the skills or finances that are needed. For example, you have people in government positions who are in charge of developing a budget. Which they will do. But the western concept of using that budget as a tool to monitor, track and plan your expenditures just doesn't exist. Many feel that if there is a need, there should be money. They will develop a budget one day and then a week later spend money of something they feel is needed but which isn't anywhere in their budget. So it's starting from a very basic level of what a budget it and how and why you need to stick to it. To imagine that happening on a massive scale as the new government takes control is a bit frightening. I'm not sure the money and the skills are here. Though there are MANY agencies and governments doing their best to help make sure the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) succeeds. Or at least muddles through a difficult transition.

Another group we went to visit isn't one that we fund, but an example of a successful organization that has survived for years with very little external support and an example of what can be done even when skills may not be what we hope. The Nile Community Development Organization or NICODO is a group of farmers and cattle owners who formed a cooperative years ago. Today they are buying milk, boiling it and either selling it or turning in to yogurt for sale. In addition to milk, they assist farmers with vaccinations for herds and farming inputs. Farmers deliver their milk and the amount is recorded in the ledger. At the end of the month the profits are divided among those who brought milk for sale. And NICODO keeps a bit to pay for staff and overhead costs. I took lots of pictures as some milk was being delivered while we were there. Though I can be adventurous at times, I just couldn't down the yogurt...which is very runny and not at all like American-style yogurt. It was an interesting program and gave us some good ideas for opportunities in other locations.

Some pictures of the port visit and NICODO are in the below.

Enjoy,
Jane


Link to album:

South Sudan Feb 2011

Slideshow:

Long weekend in Lamu and Ukambani Kenya 1.11

So I had a feeling my Sudan visa would come through. I was at the top of the list of people and everyone was pushing hard to get some visas approved. That meant that within a few weeks I’d probably be heading to Juba for a couple of months. So I started planning to go to Lamu for the long weekend. I then found out I’d be doing a drought assessment in the coastal province and the neighboring areas the following week... so it all worked out like kismet.

I departed my house on Friday afternoon and zipped through mercifully light (for Nairobi) traffic. I sped through check-in relatively quickly and had time for a coke light while I cleaned the dust out of all 4 of my camera filters (on 2 lenses). The flight was called and the waiting room emptied out. With minimal security, free seating and a small plane, boarding’s a snap!

A few hours later I landed in the small airstrip servicing the Lamu archipelago. It’s not actually on Lamu Island, but is just across the bay on a separate island. I was met by a representative (read helper) for Kizingo—the hotel where I’d be staying. I chose Kizingo based on the recommendation of the guy I sit next to at work. He’d described it as a quiet place where you could either be with other people, or by yourself, but that it was in a more secluded spot. Sounded perfect for my needs. Not being able to convince any of my friends to come for the weekend, I decided that some alone time with some books and the beach sounded just fine!

To get to Kizingo from Lamu’s airport you have to ride in a motorboat for about 30 minutes. It’s in a rather protected inlet/bay area and you ride between mangrove forests for 95% of the journey, passing other small inlets and a few small communities or rental homes. About 30 seconds after we started off on the trip I realized that a) it’s been ages since I’ve been to a beach and b) I love it. I love the salt-water smell. I love being in a boat. I love the animals that live in coastal environments. I love the beach. I just love it all. I felt all of the stress and worry melting away as we bounced and cruised through the small waves while we passed the mangroves by. For those that aren’t familiar with mangroves up close, they’re bizarre. When the tide is low, which is was, you can see the roots of the trees heading down through the water. It’s as though the tree has a mirror image, one with leaves and one without. They have bizarre twisty branches both heading down into the water and the up towards the sunshine…fighting with other trees to get the best spot, resulting in some strange shapes and leaning configurations. We passed a few other slowly moving boats, some local dhows full of fisherman coming and going, a small beach town and the local bus connection to the mainland where drivers park their cars or people off load before getting onto a boat to take them to the appropriate island location.

There were also birds, white cranes or herons of some sort, stalking the mangroves for fish. They would hold themselves totally still and then smack their beak down for a tasty bite. I saw a fish eagle perched in a tree—which looks very much like a bald eagle. There were a few dug out canoes left about –waiting for their owner to return. And some of the fishing dhows back from their morning run were listing to the side in low tide. There were few people swimming or fishing on the banks which just heightened the sense of calm and peacefulness on the river.

Eventually, my ride came to an end. I think the captain was trying to scare me as he zoomed up to another moored boat and then did the ship equivalent of slamming on the breaks leading us to a smooth landing on the beach. I jumped off to the warm sand and was handed by bag, which was promptly taken by a hotel staff person, and then led to the main lounge/bar area. I was looking at the photos and options of activities on the wall and was handed a welcome mango juice. In that five-minute period my bag had been whisked away to Banda 3…my home for the next three nights. After a mere signature I was taken to my banda which is built much like the traditional homes on Lamu, though thankfully bigger and with running water.

The banda had a front porch with a table and sofa as well as a hanging “bed” set up. It's bigger and more sturdy than a hammock, but still hanging by thick ropes and able to swing back and forth. Through an open doorway was the large main room with a small desk and chair to the left, a table and two chairs to the right and a large bed surrounded by a mosquito net smack in the middle. Instead of a headboard then had designed a bit of a ledge that had his/her lights and a small area for your book and clock. Behind that was the closet and bath area—accessed on either side of the bed. The shower and toilet were on opposite sides with a sink in the middle. There was no door or window to close and the open air plus the high thatched ceiling gave it the air of a serene tropical retreat. Exactly what it was. It took me about 1 minute to unpack my things and set myself up on the front hammock bed thingy with my book.

I fell into a routine for those days: an activity in the morning, and then some reading and an afternoon nap. The first day I was there I joined another group going out snorkeling and to look for dolphins, who, if in the mood, would frolic about while we flapped around in the water. We did see two dolphins who were slightly curious but not totally interested in swimming and playing with us. Fair enough. It’s their house, they can do as they please. But we did have about 20 minutes of snorkeling around and watching them zoom around and down. It made me feel about as quick and graceful as a seal heading down main street!

So, having had a bit of fun with the dolphins, who left us for some squid, we headed off to the little island of coral for a look at the tropical fishes. And they did not disappoint. There were lots of fishes I’d seen at the Baltimore Aquarium growing up and on other snorkeling excursions…but there were definitely some new ones I’d never seen. By far the weirdest experience was swimming through these huge groups of benign jellyfish. Each one was about the size of a tea bag but you would swim through hundreds of them. Even knowing that they wouldn’t sting didn’t allay the creeping feeling of getting through them. Ugh. I shudder just remembering. I imagine it’s a bit like swimming through jello cubes. We stopped briefly for a stretch on the coral where we saw lots of crabs and some strange fish that can hop around on the rocks. It looks like a fish but can be out of water as much as it’s in water. Very weird and slightly disturbing. Then, back to the boat for the return trip. Despite a sun shirt and layers of sunscreen I did miss a few spots and now have a patch of bright red skin on my right hip where I wasn’t totally covered by the canvas roof of the small motor boat. I am still, weeks later, recovering. This close to the equator it only takes minutes!

The second morning I headed into Lamu town. I took the boat over and was met by a guide. I was never really clear on his name. I was supposed to meet Abdul but he was apparently not answering his phone, so his brother showed me around. From the moment we landed on shore, my guide was off. He sped from one place to another. “These are construction materials that come from X, Y and Z for A, B and C”. “This is the donkey clinic where people can bring their donkeys for care” (As an aside, one of the donkey’s looked about 2 days from death and had to be brought in in a special donkey ambulance—one of four cars on the island.) The tour continued—“here’s where they teach carvers, he’s an example of the old style of building, and here’s a new one. It’s being rehabilitated by a foreigner.” And on it went through a maze of narrow pathways where I had to jump out of the way of donkeys carrying construction materials X, Y and Z through the pathways or shimmy past women returning from market. Despite being told that Lamu was Muslim and to dress conservatively, I found that many of the island's Swahili inhabitants had no qualms about wearing sleeveless shirts or short skirts and I was longing to not be in my heavier sleeved t-shirt and longer pants. After two hours of walking through the streets and sweating my brains out I downed almost an entire liter of water and had a coke. My guide dropped me at the Lamu museum for a quick tour around. I can’t say it was the best museum but it definitely wasn’t the worst.

I returned to Kizingo and banda 3 and had a dip in the warm, but not so warms as to not be refreshing, waters of the bay. I did walk along the beach but there just wasn’t that same stretch we get in the US where the sand is kind of firmly packed and easy and enjoyable to walk on. As a result, 2 minutes of walking anywhere led to profuse sweating and the need to bathe in ice water.

Everything in Kizingo was made locally and mostly by the British owners with some local help. All of the materials are local, and the hangers are made out of branches. The loo (aka toilet) uses only 1 liter of water per flush and the electricity is principally solar with a generator back up. Many of the veggies are grown on site and the owners also have a chicken farm and are starting a quail farm. The exciting news while I was there was that the male quails where making foam balls…a sign that they’re ready to mate and fertilize the much-coveted eggs! Basically, you could enjoy yourself, eat well, and not feel as though you have sold your soul to the devil for destroying pristine land and beach with your presence. Just the way to pass a long weekend.

Unfortunately for me, all too soon my weekend was up and I had to take a 20 minute flight from Lamu's airport to the coastal mainland town of Malinidi. I got in early enough to mosey around my hotel and look for a nice spot to finish my book (the third of the trip) while I had a late lunch. The ideal spot—in terms of food availability and temperature—turned out to be beachside where a constant breeze kept me cool from the coastal heat. This also afforded me an excellent perch for people watching. Make that Euro-watching. Almost everyone at this place was Italian…and let me tell you, not all Italians show taste in their swimwear choices. There were small Italians in relatively “normal” suits, and fat Italians in hardly any suit at all. There were all shades of tan and burn and not a sun-screened person in sight. The was a person in a speedo that I had a hard time identifying as a woman and an effeminate person with long hair who I had a hard time identifying as a man. After a mind-boggling hour, I headed back to my room and repacked for the next four days of a work field trip.

This year Kenya had poor rains during the October –December period. That’s resulted in limited water and pasture in areas where pastoralists live and a failed maize harvest in the areas I visited. The areas really can’t support maize even when there are maize but most Kenyans feel that if they don’t have maize, they haven’t eaten. But slowly, after several years of poor rains, people are starting to be convinced that other cash-generating options and crops that will produce even in years of poor rain, might be the better choice. All in all it was a good four days and I got a good understanding of what that part of the country looks like and can support in terms of our programming. Hopefully with some of the upcoming activities, families will be able to focus on goats, poultry or cash crops so that in times of water stress they have some livelihoods options.

Now I’m off to Juba, South Sudan for a few months and will take memories of my long weekend at the beach and the scary visuals of the Italians in Malindi to take with me. More soon from a burgeoning new country……

Hopefully some of these links will work....

Some pictures from Lamu and Kizingos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/jane.e.strachan/LamuLongWeekend?feat=directlink

Lamu Long weekend

Some pictures from Ukambani:

https://picasaweb.google.com/jane.e.strachan/UkambaniKenya111?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDj3cmtw9bq7gE&feat=directlink

Ukambani Kenya 1/11

Nairobi National Park

A couple of weeks ago my friends and I decided to take our new residency cards, and my new (to me) Rav4 to the Nairobi National Park to scope out the wild animal scene in what is essentially downtown Nairobi--a city of 3 million. It takes about 30 minutes from my house to get here. And boy is it worth it. Who's coming to visit???

The link:

NBO Natl Park 10.03.10

The slideshow:

First post from Nairobi

Hi everyone,

In August I moved from Addis Ababa to Nairobi Kenya. I do the same type of work I did in Ethiopia—providing funding to NGOs who are doing humanitarian response and recovery programs—but it’s a regional position and I’ve covering a number of countries. Right now things are calm, but if things get busy in the region, it will be hectic.

A few weeks after I arrived, all of my things arrived from Ethiopia. I spent two three-day weekends unpacking my numerous boxes!! One of the photos below shows the massive pile of boxes in my parking spot after the first long day. Ugh. But I’m mostly settled in now with only a few things not in a new spot. So about my house—on the first floor there’s a entry way closet, bathroom, living room, dining room and kitchen with pantry and laundry room. I also have a little front porch and backyard (not pictured). On the second floor there’s a master bedroom with closet and bath and two other rooms and a second bathroom. The good thing about this house is all of the closets!! I still managed to fill them up—though I might not be super efficient in my use of space. Being mostly done with the unpacking gives me time to do fun things…..

For my birthday (still accepting cards and gifts ☺ ) some of my friends took me out for Thai food. For desert, they brought me a big ice cream “sundae” of sorts with fried figs stuck around the sides. Don’t worry—I shared. Some pictures of dinner are included below.

Yesterday, since a few of us got our residency cards this week which gives us discount prices at parks and touristy things, we went to the famous Sheldrick elephant/rhino orphanage and the giraffe center. At the elephant orphanage, they allow visitors for only one hour. During that hour they bring in two separate groups—each for 30 minutes, where they get bottles of specially designed formula and can play in the water/mud. While they’re playing, some of the care-ers explain both how the elephants were found and why they’re at the center, what kind of care they get, the center’s goal, and the reintroduction program. The hour just flew by but we took a minute to say hi to one of the rhino orphan also in residence.

After the elephant orphanage, we made a quick stop at the giraffe center. I’ve been before but feeding giraffes pellets on their long slimy purple tongues never gets old. The giraffes have a lot of space to walk around so they can come and go as they please, but a few were really piggy and got frisky if you were near the edge and didn’t have pellets at the ready for them!

So that’s about it for now. I have plenty of guest space and both of my Saturday outings are a great trip for visitors to Nairobi—so come on over!!

Miss you! Love, Jane


Link to the album:

Kenya Aug/Sept 2010

Slideshow:

Vacation 2010

Hi all,

So after I packed out of my house in Addis Ababa (above) and said goodbye to my day guard, I headed home for three weeks. The first week was work, the second week I went to Rainbow Lake/Lake Placid in the Adirondacks with my family and the third week I was in Baltimore wrapping things up and boosting the economy. Since the only interesting part (photographically) was the Adirondaks, here are some of the better shots.

Enjoy!
Jane

Site visits in Tigray and weekend stay at Gheralta Lodge

Hi all,

As I get ready to depart Ethiopia, I made a last field monitoring visit to Tigray and northern Amhara regions to check on some programs I hadn't seen. I spent a week visiting three programs and then the weekend enjoying a great lodge and great scenery.

The first day I visited a nutrition center we support which is very well run and making a huge difference. But, the area (if you look at the photos--you can see) is pretty barren and there's not much there. I really cannot fathom why people choose to stay here instead of moving to another area (as offered by the GoE). But, nonetheless, their culture emplores them to stay on the land of their ancestors and so they do. And when they need help, one of the NGOs we support provides it.

In this area of northern Amhara, called Abergale, the women do a lot of traditional tattooing that I found it fascinating.

After that visit, we headed north towards Adigrat which is near the Eritrean border. In the villages nearby I was looking at irrigation and potable water projects we've funded. Some were easier to get to than others!! All of these projects were great and the beneficiaires were engaged and appreciative. The photos show hand pumps, latrines, irrigation schemes, etc.

And the last NGO we visited was also doing nutrition programming, so we went to two more health facilities to chat with the beneficiaires.

After the work part of my trip I was dropped off at Gheralta Lodge which is about 1 1/2 hours from the capital of Tigray (the nearest airport). The area is mostly flat with huge rocky mountains poking up to form a little series. Centuries ago monks dug out the rock to make churches—and many are spectacularly painted.

The churches are accessible by various means. Some are very close to the road and you can drive to the steps and walk up, while others require 1-2 hours of hiking and the difficulty varies from a mild incline to something like bouldering. The spectacular views make it worth the effort.

The first churches I visited (two on the same peak) were Maryam Korkor and Danial Korkor. Hiking up was a task, but I was rewarded with some stunning views. The churches are really different from those of Lalibela and much less crowded. I was usually the only one there besides the guide and priest. Most of these churches have been dug into the rock, like caves, and then have had a more modern front entrance put on. The paintings inside vary but all have scenes related to the saint of that church and general biblical themes. The paintings are said to have been done by the monks who carved out the churches and can be dated back to anywhere from the 7th century forward. Some of them have been cleaned and repainted according to the original design or pictures, but others are original work.

I visited three churches in one day: one more difficult church, one that was right by the road, and one in between. They all had different views and different levels of painting and it was really differnt from anything else I've seen here.

After the churches, I sat on the patio reading my book and taking pictures of the animals. I made friends (via bread) with a cow, a donkey and a horse all grazing around the lodge property. I also left bread crumbs for the birds but they were more busy making nests. The pictures below have shots from all of the programs and weekend. There are tons but I edited as best I could!!

Enjoy,
Jane

Link to album:

Gheralta Lodge and TIgray

Slideshow:

Safia gets a new toy

Hi all,

For those of you who remember, Safia was transported to Addis from the unsafe hovel where I first say her in October and then to her new temporary home in November. She's still in her temporary home, but Born Free Foundation in Ethiopia is about to start the major building on the land given to them by the GoE. So I've been trying to go out to see her before the land is closed to the "public" and before i leave Ethiopia.

I did a little research and found out that "lion enrichment" in zoos includes a toy called a "Boomber Ball" so I ordered a few for Safia, the cheetahs and the other lions.

Here are some pictures from the day I gave Safia her new toy.

Born Free still needs support for the care of Safia and the other animals as well as for the construction of the new wildlife rescue, conservation and eduction center. Click here if you want to learn more and/or donate:

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/further-activities/born-free-ethiopia

The link:

Safia update

The slideshow:

Simien Mountains

My friends Jen and Sophia and I went to the Simien mountains for a long weekend. Both Jen and Sophia summited Ras Daschen--the fourth highest mountain in Africa--while I held down the fort at camp that day. But the trip was beautiful.

Here are some photos:

A recent trip to Gode

The following was written on Monday May 17th and Wednesday the 19th when no internet was available:

Well, since I don’t have the luxury of getting on my normally slow email to blog or update facebook, I’m forced to actually sit here and type.

So I woke up at 4:50a.m. to get ready for my second trip to Somali region in as many weeks. The flight on the Fokker 50 (can you guess the nickname we’ve got for it?) on takes off and lands twice before getting to my destination….the next great vacation spot in Ethiopia….Gode! The town is actually not bad. It seems small but I’m sure there are lots of people. It’s relatively flat, the roads are not paved but pretty good (probably because it hasn’t rained here in 7 days) and the people are very friendly! I was shown to my room at the UN guesthouse and was presently surprised…it’s really not too bad. Clean, has an a/c, has a bathroom, and a mosquito net. After being left to “rest” for an hour I spent at least that long trying to hook up my computer to the wireless. Usually macs are easier but nothing was getting through. Eventually I gave up and shot a quick email to my boss letting him know that, despite my inability to get a signal on the satellite phone I brought with me, I was indeed fine.

For those of you who don’t require use of a sat phone on a regular basis, the whole point is that when you’re in the middle of nowhere, you can get a signal from multiple satellites we’ve tossed into space for expressly this purpose! And though expensive, it’s very helpful in areas of “diminished communication”. So why wasn’t the stupid thing working?!?! I’m starting to suspect that on my last trip into Somali region, when subjected to extreme scrutiny at the airport trying to leave, the military people were trying to pull ou the antenna instead of twist it to make it go up. Of course, they never even figured out where all of the buttons where—what with there being a little flap covering them up. Ding dongs. If they broke an expensive phone I’ll be ticked off! As it is I’m annoyed that I’m in the middle of no where and breaking security procedures left and right because I can’t connect through the flippin’ phone!

Anyway—we headed to the office for a briefing on program activities. A snippet would be maize—50kg seed planted year 1 first season, 45 kg planted year 1 second season (for three years and multiple crops. I must admit it was hard to stay focused for that part. After that we headed off to see some womens groups. All of the groups have been given basic training on developing group structures and policies, how to save and track money, etc.

The first was a group of women who’ve been given a donkey, a cart and the plastic barrel so that they can haul water and resell it. They make a pretty tidy profit! The next groups were three groups of 10 women each who’ve been organized into “petty trade” groups. They all sell basic groceries but one is also collecting and reselling incense, one is selling veggies, and one has lofty plans of a refrigerator for cold drinks to enhance the tea business they’ve got going in front of the store. The NGO I’m visited helped them by providing a start up grant and constructing the building where they now have their shops. All of the groups were really interesting and had their own dynamic, but it was amazing how empowered these muslin women in a small town (chosen because they are poorer, are head of their household, have limited earning opportunities, etc) have become and how they envision their future because of the opportunities they’ve received with this program.

To be honest, by the time we got to the last group of women, I was running out of questions. But they really wanted to chit chat anyway. The decided that since I was wearing jeans, they should try to convince me that I should dress as they are and promised that I would leave Gode in two days time dressed beautifully, with henna on my heads and with a new husband. The best part was when they said they would find someone for me, I could marry him and take him away. So I asked if they were trying to get rid of someone and everyone just cracked up. It was all downhill from there. I escaped only by saying that I was holding out for President Obama (of whom they all approved) and I promised that if I ever did marry Obama I would bring all 30 women to the White House. I warned them not to hold their breath but I’m not sure how that translates in Somali.

So at 6 pm we returned to the guesthouse and I again failed to get online. Instead, I watched the latest episode of Glee I downloaded from the iTunes in Addis (it only took about 12 hours or so). Then it was off to dinner which in a meat-focused town with few options means cold spaghetti. I decided that upon returning I would take advantage of the warm temperature to have a cold shower. I mean, there’s no hot water, so better to take a cold shower now while I’m hot instead of in the morning when I’m not.

While walking to my room I noticed the proliferation of crickets. I had seen some crickets earlier today, but imagine a march on the mall in Washington and convert all of those people to crickets and it will give you an idea of the number of crickets I’m talking about. There were also beetles, ants, and other things I can’t identify. But welcoming me to my room was a giant preying mantis. Yikes. Now as many of you know I’m a nature lover, but that doesn’t really translate to tolerance of creepy crawling, hopping flying things in my sleeping quarters. I made it past the crickets, beetles and the PM and gleefully shut my door thinking the worst was over.

I went into the bathroom and counted 8 crickets in my shower. Eeeeeewwwwww!!! So I decided, being a good environmentalist and conservationist, to try to flush them down the drain with water. No dice. Those things are smart. And in my attempts and remote cricket drowning I only succeeded in flushing the HUGE cockroach out of my drain. Double eewwww. Then, to add insult to injury, the water coming out of the tap was brown.

Now, I’ve stayed in some dodgy places. Some with scary dirty rooms, bathrooms that you’re glad you don’t ever have to go in again, etc. I think the real problem here is that my expectations where raised. I mean I’m at a UN guesthouse, it’s got a/c and electricity, there’s a nice (looking) bed, etc. So brown water and many of natures finest examples of entomology were just not warranted. Needless to say I will be tucking myself into the mosquito net very well both nights I’m here.

---Day 3
Yesterday we went out to visit more programs. The women really like having another woman come visit them and never hesitate to ask for more money or support. First we visited an irrigation program started a few years ago. The women were formed into a group and taught how to use irrigation from a nearby river to grow crops. This group of women (50) used to rely on livestock for income but because of years of drought have lost most of their herds. Now through the irrigation program they grow enough food for their families, stalks and grasses for their livestock (about 20 cows) and have some left over for sale. They’ve also used money to buy additional water pumps and have built another irrigation canal. So they’ve taken the idea and used it to increase their activities and make additional profit. Apparently at first the men weren’t really on board, but now that they understand the value, they’re involved as well.

After that we went to another petty trade group—nothing too different from those of the day before, and then we headed out of town to visit a water harvesting system called a birkhad. It collects rainwater in a 10x15x3 cement pit and is covered and locked. Then, when it’s not the rainy season and water is hard to come by they charge people for filling up their 20-liter containers. Most households use 2 of those 20-liter containers per day. When it doesn’t rain, they hire a truck to bring water from town (1 ½ hours away) and then increase the amount they charge to help cover the costs. But with increasing fuel costs it’s possible that this will run into a hitch; the cost of bring water out might be more than these people can afford to purchase. I’m not sure what will happen then. This year has had good rains so far so for now they’re in good shape. Long-term though???

It’s a hard job because you want to help people survive, but should we really be helping people live in an environment that isn’t really meant to hold this population size? Would it be better if people moved to cities where good jobs are few and far between and require far more education than most of the people in Ethiopia have? Quite the conundrum as we continue to provide relief and development activities in an area of subsistence farming and livestock production where the climate is changing and population size is booming. In school I learned that famine, floods and other extreme events were nature’s way of putting things back into balance—keeping the resources and populations (of people and animals) in check. But we’ve changed that with so much assistance. And some of these areas still have inhabitants when it probably shouldn’t. So when do we stop? How do we ethically stop? This is what I’m thinking about when we drive for hours through a desert-y environment.

Back at the UN guesthouse I eat some cheerios snack mix for dinner (I can only eat plain cold pasta so many times in a row before I balk). And after a small battle with a few crickets I clean up and head for bed. I got up at 6:50 this morning, packed up, ate a plate of oil with a bit of egg and some bread and headed to the airport. Though my flight was scheduled for departure at 11, you have to go through two security screenings before you get to the departure area. It’s now 11:36 and I’m sitting in the waiting room before the departure area so I thought I’d take this time to explain what my morning entailed.

You’re not allowed to drive all the way to the airport (security) so you have to walk for about 10 minutes to get to the first check. There the military checks your ticket and id, searches your bag thorough and by hand and then you get a pat down. The searing by hand is very invasive and takes a while. They check everything and since I travel with everything in little pouches and zippered compartments they get a kick out of it while I cringe. Today I had to show them that my camera lens was in fact a camera lens. So I switched lens and put it on the camera but you’re not allowed to take pictures at the airport or of military so how could I prove it? We settled on them looking at the digital display and nodding sagely. Then it was on to the spare tampax I carry. Hmmm…how to explain?? I went for “it’s for women…..only” which made the guy behind me laugh and seems to satisfy the examiner—though he doesn’t really speak English. After that exciting experience in the blazing sun, I walked to the “terminal”.

In this case, the terminal is a corrugated tin shack that’s been painted pink on the outside and blue on the inside (gender equality?). Also a hot and painful experience, you check in with the guy at the desk, get your luggage weighed on an old scale with different metal weights for balance and then have your bag rechecked. The first check was the military or police, while this check is the airline. I did have to show here a few things, but she was pretty blasé about the whole thing and I got through that pretty quickly. Since then, I’ve been waiting. And waiting. And waiting. I actually broke down and bought a warm coke just to have something to do. Turns out, the plan (which as previously mentioned has to make two stops before it gets here) has stopped with mechanical difficulties. So they had to send a new plane. Apparently now it’s en route and they’re starting the process of the additional body screening so we can go into the departure room—basically a smaller room that could fit about 6 cows. As soon as the plane lands, they’ll walk us out to the runway where we’ll wait for disembarking passengers before we can load up. Did I mention the blazing sun?? Anyway—at least it’s progress and at 2 hours late, it’s not too bad! At least I’ve got the computer and a book!

Here's a link to my photos....

Gode, Somali Region May 10

and the slideshow in case the link doesn't work:

Saturday, May 8, 2010

My Extended Stay in the EU, My Trek Back to Addis and then some!

Right, as usual, it’s been ages since I’ve written. I mean really, it’s only interesting if I’ve been up to some good high jinx! So, after my debacle getting home in December, I returned to Addis and resumed my normal life. Nothing too interesting there. I requested to take a one-week course at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (on infectious diseases and humanitarian emergencies—because well, frankly, it’s cool!) and after copious approvals and a quick “we’re full—no we have a spot!” I headed off to London for a week after a quick visit to my sister and her family in Tanzania.

I arrived in Dar on a Thursday afternoon and just started sweating. Now Addis, climate-wise, is an ideal location. It’s generally in the upper sixties or low to mid seventies. And at night I get to snuggle into my comforter. But Dar in April is heat and humidity central. By the time I got to my sister’s office (after being stuck in traffic for some time) I was essentially soaking. After a day in Dar we headed off to Zanzibar. The boys promptly started a race on the beach and I think the pictures are telling of how much fun they were having. Graham is the younger one—and more victorious, but Miles still looks like he’s having fun. After some more time back in Dar, I headed back to Addis and was on another plane to London less than 24 hours later.



After a few nondescript days in London, news of the Icelandic volcano eruption was the news. Since my flight didn’t take off until Monday, I figured my dreams of an extra day in London weren’t going to become a reality. So I empathized with my fellow classmates—especially the one trying to get to his brother’s wedding on Saturday in the US—and didn’t think much about it. On Saturday, I took the train to Bristol to visit a friend from Ethiopia who is on maternity leave. Nine-day old babies are cute!! And as usual per my visits to England, it was beautiful weather. Kids were running around in the fountain in their bathing or birthday suits!

On Sunday, I figured I didn’t have a chance of flying out but I needed to head back to London to try to make plans. I emailed my office on Sunday night and said I had two options: stay in London and wait or try to make my way to Rome where flights were taking off. And there’s a daily flight between Addis and Rome on ET plus a few others.
On Monday, the decision was—get a move on. So I booked in for another night at the hotel (it was quite nice really—I recommend the Montcalm near Marble Arch) and headed to St. Pancras Station which I mentally refer to as “pancreas”. I mean—it’s not that hard a switch to make right? I got to St. Pancras and walked a least half a mile from the tube stop to the actual terminal, where of course I found the queue.

Eurostar, being one of basically two options out of England to mainland Europe, was quite popular. I joined the queue and listened to other people’s chatter. The woman behind me worked for a publishing house who was trying to get a very old author who only had one shirt with him back to his house in France. The woman behind her was traveling from South Korea and wanted to get back to her planned trip. A very loud man much further back in line but who insisted on talking to any other Italian in the queue—despite the distance—was talking about what I assume was a family emergency and why he should be able to skip to the front of the line. (At some point he disappeared from the line so maybe he did manage to convince someone though not the people he was trying to cut in front of—including me—yeah right, I live in Africa so I know how to be pushy and queue). And the stories went on and on. After a mere three hours (and even in Dansko clogs your feet will hurt) I got to an agent. Oh—I forgot to mention that the Eurostar website was down because so many people were trying to buy tickets! So seeing a friendly agent was very exciting. Of course, like many people in the queue, I wanted to go to Paris. Was I able to go the next morning?? Well yes, I could. So I purchase my (expensive) ticket and headed into the planning the next phase of my journey. Of course, everyone else had the same idea so the queue at another office for European rail travel was extremely long; and after 3 hours in the first one, I just couldn’t handle it.

So on Tuesday I checked out of my hotel and headed back to “the pancreas” for my Eurostar trip. It’s all very civilized I must say as you jet through security (beverages allowed), get your passport stamped, and wait with your fellow rail folk.
After a mere few hours we were deposited in Gare du Nor in Paris. There I promptly queued up, yet again, for a ticket from Paris to Rome. Fortunately, that queue wasn’t more than 1 hour and I got a ticket for the next night. That’s right—a night train. Fortunately it was straight through from Paris to Rome without stopping. Unfortunately that meant a 15 hour + train ride. Now I like trains, but 15 hours is a bit much even for me. But before I bored my express to Roma I met up with a friend from the US who is now back in France. Pictures below are of my walk around Paris and looking at lovely blooming flowers and having lunch with Solene and Livi.

When I downloaded these photos, I still had the ones from my December stranding so you get both Copenhagen and Paris!



Now for those of you who haven’t been in the 15-hour version of train’s economy class, I must say it’s better than I thought it would be. The little cabin had two benches facing each other—each with three seats. Of course, all seats were full. Then later at night you convert the seat to beds. One hangs down from the ceiling at all times, the middle bed is created from the back of the seat and the bottom bed is from the bottom of the seat but is further lowered. I had the bottom couchette and must say that I slept pretty comfortably. We didn’t have any big snorers and even though the Italian couple with colds managed to keep the sniffles in.

So we arrived in Rome late—for some reason we stopped for about half an hour around 11 pm and then I think there was another delay. But I hopped into a taxi and headed for what would be my 5th and last hotel of the trip. A mere 10 hours later I was on a flight to Dubai and after many lines at the Dubai airport between flights—which I somehow managed to avoid—I arrived back in Addis.

Of course, since I was in Europe for an extra week I’d lost some time. And my desk officer was arriving a few days later…so it was back to the grindstone. Sorting through emails, planning one trip, preparing for another that was already planned for later that week. Yikes. But we headed down to SNNP—less than a week after I’d been back—to visit a few projects. While I’d been to these areas before, I hadn’t seen these projects and it was interesting. Then we headed back to Addis for a day, and then off again to Jijiga—the capitol of Somali Region. I hadn’t been to JJ either and due to excessive recent rains it was quite lush and green—whereas I’d been expecting a desert–like environment.



In between the two trips I managed a quick trip out of Addis to visit Safia. If you don’t know what I’m talking about read my earlier posts. Safi is doing well in her temporary home and now has some cheetahs in nearby (but she can’t see them) cages. I’ve also been informed that a male lion will be brought out and then will get to hang out together. Safi gets something like norplant before that happens!! And then others will move there too. So her new home is starting to shape up. I don’t think she recognizes me, but I think she growls less at me than at others so I pretend. I’ve ordered her a new toy so she has a little more mental stimulation (though she has one now) and I think she’ll have a good life. Not the same as being free, but better than being dead which I think is the reality we’d be faced with if James from Born Free hadn’t gone to get her. I’ve also learned, from some 6 year old Daisy Scouts, that I’m in a video that Born Free uses to teach kids about what Born Free does, how animals are treated in Ethiopia, etc. So to at least a few 6 year olds in Addis, I’m pretty cool.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Jane in Rwanda January 2010

Hi all,

Just after I got back from Christmas this year, I went to Rwanda for a work conference. After the conference ended, I took a few extra days to go visit the gorillas in Volcanoes National Park and the genocide museum in Kigali. It's something I've wanted to do since I was in high school and I'm so glad I had the chance to go. Here are some photos of my hotel in Kigali--the famous Milles Colline (of Hotel Rwanda fame), the drive to the park and of course the gorillas. You're not allowed to use a flash around the gorillas so some of my pictures are a little blurry due to a slow shutter speed, but I think there are some good ones, and even the blurry ones are pretty cool!

It was definitely worth a trip!!!!

Link to the album:

Rwanda Jan 2010

What you'll see:

Friday, January 1, 2010

Safia update

Hi everyone,

I was just doing a little look at Born Free's website and found the following update. Thanks to those of you who've supported my little lion!! I'll see here when I got back to Addis and will keep you posted!

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/big-cats/big-cat-rescue/safia-rescue/moving-safia/

Happy New Year!!!
Jane

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

My holiday travel experience

As some of you know, I had a hard time getting home for the holidays this year. I left Addis Thursday the 17th on the KLM flight that travels to Amsterdam via Khartoum. In Khartoum there was some issue (it was 1ish in the morning so I’m not clear on what the problem actually was but there was a delay in loading passengers and then they had to take all of the luggage off and match it with the passenger list and then reload). This delayed our arrival into Amsterdam for 2+ hours. Normally, flying to Dulles this wouldn’t matter, but I had chosen to fly to Detroit and then into Baltimore—which is a much shorter connection—and which I missed. I then spent two nights in Amsterdam and one night in Copehagen while I was routed and re-routed to Dulles (as Baltimore was too difficult). Ugh. So while I left on Thursday night and should have arrived on Friday, I actually arrived on Monday afternoon. While I was roaming around the airport, freezing cold cities, sitting on stalled trains, and enjoying my hotel, I wrote down a few things that I would tweet, if I was on twitter. So to recount the tale of my journey, I bring you my tweets below.

I did finally get home and with my luggage (though it arrived 30 minutes later on a different plane) and have since spent a little under a week in Phily with my sister and her family and the holidays with my mom, dad, sisters and families and my younger half brother and sister (and two dogs and a cat). Now I’m back in Baltimore for a few days and then to DC before heading back to Addis. Good times.

Anyway—here are my tweets: (BTW—care of Veronica Mars I’ve learned the Battlestar Gallactica cuss word of frac which I now use liberally)

• Sleeping on the floor of the plane during KLM delay—better than the seat!
• Sweat! Booked on a new flight and bumped to biz class!
• Sorry my flight is when? Oh, frac.
• Could this line be any longer?
• Why yes it could!
• I’ve just met the most helpful man in all of schipol. Hotel, vouchers, care kit? Sweet.
• I guess my room’s not that bad.
• Dinner is that bad.
• Oh frac that storm on the east coast.
• I’m going where?
• Would this woman just SHUT UP?! That is NOT helpful and frankly, I don’t care. None of us do.
• Well, this is a nicer hotel than last night. And another "care kit". I think I'm starting to hoard.
• Train into Amsterdam success!!
• What a lovely canal boat ride!
• Frac it’s cold!
• All set for the cold with my new (very expensive) hat and gloves.
• Now too tired to explore anymore.
• Train back to Schipol successfully boarded!
• Um, why are we stopping?
• Crazy man on the train tracks in the tunnel up ahead.
• Now police are coming.
• Now police are calling in the special police.
• Seriously? A suicide? I’m totally transportationally cursed.
• No I don’t speak French (said in French) so they keep trying to talk to me.
• Shared a cab to airport with other strandees—so that makes plane, train and automobile.
• It’s like the Amazing Race---but not fun.
• Please let Sunday be my luck day…cuz Saturday sure wasn’t.
• Who’s heard of SAS??
• Biz class in a small plane = middle seat empty. Boo.
• If KLM pawns me off to SAS and that flight is delayed—who takes care of me?
• It’s fracing snowing in Amsterdam. You’re kidding right?
• Next year, Christmas on a beach please.
• How can people bike in this cold?
• We’re almost ready to take off. Copenhagen here I come!
• After Schipol, Cope feels like I’m in the Toledo Airport of EU but with good shopping.
• My flight is what?!?!?!
• Canceled in case you couldn’t guess.
• I think I might cry.
• How the heck do I get out of this airport?!?!
• Oh. Cute dress.
• Copenhagen is cool—just freezing.
• People are jogging? Total nutters.
• Ugh—that guy's breath is rank.
• Me and one other woman in the hotel bar? Not a good sign.
• Misery loves company.
• Brittany Murphy died?
• Ah---on to London. Long live the Queen.
• Oh, you’ve been stuck since yesterday? So what?! I’ve been wearing this outfit for 5 DAYS!!!
• Ah London, good to be back.
• What’s the I see? A departure time???
• Holy crap! The Virgin Atlantic lounge is sa-wheet!! Pool table, food, bar, barber, kids play area?? Crazy!
• Boarding a plane to Dulles---yippee!!!
• “Upper Class” on VA is SA-WHEET!!! There’s disco lighting and my seat turns into a bed. Yeah!!
• Through customs in a breeze.
• My luggage is where? No I don’t mind waiting another 30 minutes.
• Madeleine Albright just left Dulles---didn’t see her. Bummer. I love her!
• Reunited and it feels so good!
• Ah the DC beltway. What joy.
• Home at last!!!

Hope everyone had a great holiday and here's wishing you a Happy New Year!!!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Some photos from South Omo

Hi everyone,

I went to South Omo Zone with a colleague to monitor some programs and so I could check out the situation.

Here are some photo highlights:

Trip to South Omo

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving weekend—a lot to be thankful for, especially for one lioness.

As you may read already, when traveling to southern Ethiopia to monitor programs I learned of and saw a lioness cub and then worked with James at The Born Free Foundation in Ethiopia to bring her back to Addis in a safer, healthier environment. While James was able to quickly bring Safia back to Addis, the issue of where to keep her remained. Safia spent a few weeks at James’ house (eating lots of meat and a whole chicken!) while he worked to establish a new temporary home for her on the new BFF land.

The Born Free Foundation (BFF) has been able to get 73 hectares of land about 25 kilometers from Addis Ababa from the Government of Ethiopia to use as a new wildlife center. The perimeter has been staked out and BFF now has trained and uniformed guards patrolling the area while BFF works on installing the perimeter fencing.

This weekend, I got to help James and the vet move Safia to her new home. It’s a temporary enclosure where she’ll live for a few months while the perimeter fencing and a larger permanent enclosure is built.

I arrived at James’ house in the morning and while we waited for the wildlife veterinarian I said hello to his other animals. BFF currently cares for a number of lions in a zoon in Addis, several additional lions and a cheetah currently living at the President’s house, and some animals residing with James. They include a cheetah, an owl, and several tortoises of varying sizes. The cheetah, Menelink, has a few toys that she likes to bring over to you and likes to be pet through the fence. Amazing!!!

Once the vet arrived, she got down to business. First up was darting Safia with anesthesia so that we had better access to her and she could be moved. From upstairs we could hear her growling. I thought it was cute…others found it a bit more intimidating. Once Safia was asleep, we brought her outside, got her weight (27kg), took her temperature, listened to her heartbeat, checked her stool (she has worms), and looked at her front left paw which is at a bit of an angle—though useable. I was also given the honors of cutting off the chain which has been around her neck since she was at the village where I first saw her.

Once the health check was over, we loaded her into a dog crate and headed out to the new site and she was transferred into her new quarters. We waited a while and she slowly started to come out of the anesthesia. If she focused on us close to her (but on the other side of the fence) she would growl. She eventually was able to shuffle herself around a bit and got herself into the corner of the room (she seems to like corners!).

A bit later James put in her dinner and she seemed to perk up a bit. I mean, who wouldn’t get excited at 1.5 kg of raw meat (plus a deworming pill and some calcium powder) in close proximity? Kidding aside, the instinct for meat was really strong. So she shuffled herself over to the meat and ate a bit…but it was like watching a little kid who wants the food but is so tired they can’t stay awake. And she kept up the growling when we moved around so that we wouldn’t get too close to her meat!


After a bit of the meat, her curiosity got the best of her and she drunkenly made her way over to the gate outside. The set up is similar to that of a zoo in the states where there’s the indoor enclosure where she’ll be at night and then a gate that can be opened so she can be outside or inside as she chooses during the day. She needs to be inside at night because there are hyenas, baboons and other animals that might find her—say we say interesting?—and she’s still quite young and can’t really defend herself. Another perimeter fence will be built with barbed wire and that will help as well.

Watching Safia go outside was really cool. It was the first time she’d been in the sunlight or felt wind for months. She tentatively stepped off of the concrete to the dirt and then went back inside. She came back out, took a few more steps off of the concrete and again went back inside. After another 15 minutes or so she managed to walk down to the far corner of the enclosure. By the time we left, she’d walked about halfway back up and had settled in a semi-sunny area to bask.

Needless to say I think she’s quite happy. I’m going to go back out on Friday to say hello and see how she’s getting on in her new home. I’m glad I told James about her, but I’m really glad that BFF has been able to set her up so nicely and so quickly. She really is a bit free now and will have a much better life. I’m going to try to keep supporting BFF and Safia in particular while I’m in Ethiopia. Maybe I should start looking for work in the conservation field???

A big thanks from Safia, James and me to those of you who’ve helped out and supported the costs for keeping her. The ones I know of are Stephen F, Eyerusalem H, Jamie S in Ethiopia (or by way of a staff person in my office) and Michelle S, Johanna O, Stef H and Sarah G in the US. Your contributions are making a HUGE difference!!!



To view the photos, click here.

Born Free and Safia

Abrazos to all,
Jane

To contribute for Safia:
http://bornfree.wildlifedirect.org/category/born-free-ethiopia/
http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/further-activities/born-free-ethiopia/

(Let me know of your contribution and I'll tell James...you might get a shout out like Michelle S!)

If the link doesn't work, this slideshow will show you the same:

Monday, November 30, 2009

Help me help a lioness

Hi all--

Most of you know or remember how much I LOVE animals. Here is Ethiopia it's particularly hard to see the goats/sheep on the side of the road for sale, the donkeys carrying ridiculously heavy loads back and forth, the sad and hungry street dogs. It can be overwhelming. But I've recently found a small way I can make a difference and I'm hoping you can help me.

When on a site visit with one of my NGO partners, I went to a town where there was a man with a lion cub in his back room. I asked to see it and took this quick photo while I urged them to give her to the "proper authorities" as she would grow so quickly. I didn't know who the proper authorities were, but when I got back to Addis after a few other trips, the deputy of my agency had just visited the new program manager of the Born Free Foundation in Ethiopia. I emailed him and he followed up with a phone call and he was heading out for the two day drive a few days later. I've never seen anyone move so fast.

He got the local authorities and the lion "owner" to give her up (as they'd realized they really couldn't afford to feed her) and has brought her back to Addis. She's in a temporary enclosure while BFF sets up the permanent animal sanctuary outside of Addis. I've offered to volunteer with James to both try to get work crews together for the new site, but also to help out in whatever way necessary. Needless to say we're happy that he was able to rescue her from the stick hut where she was chained up and being poked and teased by kids.

Right now Safia is eating about $10 of food per day and that will more than double as she grows. I've attached a picture of her from later September. I'm hoping to see her again this weekend and will send out a follow up to those who are interested. The enclosure she's being moved to here in Addis while they set up the permanent center will cost about $600. James is looking for people to sponsor Safia as right now BF is paying for all of the food and other costs (for Safia, the two cheetahs he's got, the owl and the tortoises!).

If you're interested in making a donation to something really worthwhile and which I can provide updates on, it would be much appreciated. If you're in Addis, see me. If you're elsewhere and want to help out, go to one of the sites below and you can either donate for Ethiopia or just in general as they're now paying all costs. Just put in a reference to me and Safia (the lioness--we've discovered) if you can so James knows who sent you.

Sites: http://bornfree.wildlifedirect.org/category/born-free-ethiopia/
http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/further-activities/born-free-ethiopia/

This would be a great Christmas present for someone who loves animals!!! It's also tax deductible :-) !!!

Please pass this on as you see appropriate.
Jane

Monday, October 12, 2009

Two more trips to the field....lovely!

Hi,

So our protection officer was out for a few weeks and we made two trips to two areas of Ethiopia where our partners are working but which I had not yet visited. Both trips proved to be fascinating....and a bit of a trip!

The first trip was to a town called Kersa Dula in the Somali Region of Ethiopia where people had been displaced due to fighting but had returned with assistance from a partner that we give funding to. So we chatted with community members for a bit and visited the water point that has been rehabilitated to alleviate some of the tension with the neighboring community. The next day we traveled to another displaced persons camp and talked with some of the women and children about the issues they face. The driving to this region takes one and a half days so on the way back we stopped in Awassa and enjoyed a soda by the lake (with monkeys and birds galore).

Ethio-Kersa Dula/Hudet 9/28-10/3

Link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.e.strachan/EthioKersaDulaHudet928103?authkey=Gv1sRgCNjI34z3yoKXbg&feat=directlink


The second trip was to the Gambella region of Ethiopia which borders Sudan. There are Sudanese refugees but again, we were looking at Ethiopians who've been displaced within Ethiopia. The people in Gambella really don't "look" like other Ethiopians. They look much more Sudanese. So you'll see in the photos a difference there. The second village we went to is accessible by boat and we saw lots of cool birds (this country is really a bird watchers dream) and some crocodiles! The community isn't getting flooded out this year (thankfully) and we're funding our partner in the region to provide a clean water point in the coming months which should help with many of the basic health/hygiene issues as right now they're using river water (which they don't boil though they know they should).

Ethio-Gambella 10-09

Link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.e.strachan/EthioGambella1009?authkey=Gv1sRgCLv7y9KNwtf7Sg&feat=directlink

Anyway--both trips were really interesting for me since I haven't been to these areas or seen the programs of these two partners.

Now I'm in Nairobi for a week and then heading to a training in Kigali Rwanda (where I hope to take the weekend to look for mountain gorillas!!!).

In the meantime I'm being treated for amoebas and feeling MUCH better. Thank goodness for access to quality medications! And things are going along with work well. I've had a few requests for photos of my house so when I get back (and now that it's not raining) I'll take some and post them in early November.

Thanks for all of your emails and notes and enjoy this latest batch of photos!!

Abrazos,
Jane



P.S. -I'm hoping the slide show and links will work, but if not, let me know and I'll try a different post option.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Take 2 on the photo links

Let's see if this works:

Photos from trip to Asebe Tefari and Blue Nile Falls:


or

http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.e.strachan/EthiopiaBlueNileFallsAndAsebeTefariSeptember2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCJK7penu0erq6AE&feat=directlink

Photos from Mom's trip to Lalibela
http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.e.strachan/EthioLalibelaWithMom72772902?authkey=Gv1sRgCLG1z4bbh_TaJQ&feat=directlink

or

Ethio-Lalibela with Mom 7/27-7/29

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