#projectten

[wanderlisa]

Six Months Later

Exactly six months ago I arrived in Ethiopia for the first time. Little did I know how life-changing that ten day trip would be. At the end of the trip I said to myself that I would never be able to live in Ethiopia long term. I love volunteering but actually living in Ethiopia would be too hard. I would miss the creature comforts I was used to from home. And I was right. It has been really hard living here and it's not getting easier. I only have nine days left, and I hate that I'm counting down. I want to live in the moment and appreciate being here. I think it's been harder for me than for other people because I really want to help everyone. It pains me to see people who are so poor. I wish I could do more. There's just so much need here. It's so overwhelming. Going to the hospital and seeing these sick children who have no hope of getting better really pains me. Many of these children would be able to be treated with Western medicine but they don't have access to it, or they can't afford it. It's not fair. I've had a quote on my Facebook profile for years that I really like: "Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live." - Bono of U2 I've been thinking about that quote a lot. Why was I so lucky to have been born in the United States into an upper middle class family and these children were born into poverty in Ethiopia? Why should I be able to do anything I want with my life, and for the people here it's extremely hard to escape the cycle of poverty? I don't have answers to these questions, and I probably never will. I'm only one person, but even the small things I am doing are hopefully making a difference. For example, when teaching a fifth grade class our lesson about parasites yesterday, one girl raised her hand. I thought she had a question, but instead she thanked us for being there. That meant the world to me, and makes me feel like I'm supposed to be here now. I'm going to try to make the most of my last nine days here.

[wanderlisa]

Time Flies...?

I've been thinking about time a lot lately. Time passes slowly in Africa. Maybe it's because of the slow pace of life here. How have I been in Africa less than five weeks? How did I reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro 25 days ago? It feels like it was months ago. Have I really only been in Ethiopia 17 days? How is that possible? I feel like I've been here a month, at least. And how do I still have two months left of my trip? And today is my half birthday. 28.5. I don't normally dwell on half birthdays, but as I'm nearing 30 I'm starting to freak out. I'm not ready. I'm trying not to think about it too much though. Perhaps this is irresponsible, but I feel like my real life is on hold for a few months. I still have so much time left in Africa, but I'm already starting to worry about what I'll do when I get home. I need to find a new job and I was hoping to gain some clarity on what I want to do by this point but I haven't yet. The good news is that I definitely want to go back to New York. I would never be able to stay in Africa long-term. It's just not for me. I'm finally starting to come to terms with being here, and it's getting easier, but I'm also looking forward to going home. I'm starting to appreciate that I'm doing something I've wanted to do for years. Even though it's been hard, I will never, ever regret taking advantage of this opportunity, and for that I'm grateful. I made this happen. I'm so lucky that I was able to just get up and go. I'll never be able to do this again. Also, the weather here is fantastic! I won't experience cold weather for six or seven months! If I ever again feel that it's too hard to be here I just need to remember that. The second week of volunteering was easier, and less emotionally draining, than the first. (Has it really only been two weeks of volunteering?!) We finished teaching our lesson on parasites to every grade in the school, first through eighth. I really hate teaching eighth graders. They're so obnoxious. We're starting at a new school this coming week, and hopefully we'll begin with the younger kids. We have been playing with the kids at the hospital every afternoon. I really dread going. It's so emotionally draining for me. It's also the same kids every day, so we're running out of games to play with them. There's only so much you can do when there's a language barrier. "Margaret" and her family left the hospital last week. I didn't get to say goodbye. I asked one of the doctors about their family and he said they were discharged. I asked if that meant they were better and he said yes but honestly, who knows? They may have just run out of money. I hope they end up being okay. This week I was playing with some kids in the oncology ward. There's very few kids there. I'm not sure what kind of cancer treatments they have in Ethiopia but I can't imagine they're very good. Someone from my group said one of the girls who was in the ward last week wasn't there this week. She certainly didn't get better... Even though I don't love going to the hospital, I'm actually really enjoying my volunteering projects and I feel like I might be making a difference. This week I started working on a brochure that contains the information from our lessons at the school. I'm so glad I'm getting to put my graphic design skills to good use! On Monday we're painting on the wall of the school so I'm excited for that as well. I wasn't feeling so well on Thursday and Friday. I'm not really sure what I had, but I decided to not go on the group trip this weekend. Only a few of us stayed behind, and I'm really enjoying having the house to ourselves. It's been so relaxing, and was just what I needed after another long week.

[projecttenaustralia]

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[dejahinwonderland]

Forest Day #1

On our first Monday in the forest, we worked in our home for the next five months. There's a garden there that we just call "green garden". It's not an official name, it's just because we grow greens there. They're very hesitant about naming things here. Lior said that we should listen to the energy of the forest and she will tell us what the name is if we know how to listen. It sounds super hippy, but I am aware that sometimes we name something and it just doesn't fit. Things move very slowly in Harduf. Work days are short and nothing gets done immediately. It is all about making sure that you are really sure. I could never live that way. I was taught to trust your gut and make risky decisions and just go for it. I understand the pros of this way of living, but I want to accomplish so much more than this lifestyle would allow me to. Anyways, we spent the morning working in the garden with Dan. He lives in the forest as a kind of care taker. He works mostly in the garden. He is from Switzerland and Israel and is 30 years old. He's done a lot of traveling and seems to have a very kind, patient soul. We were working on some de-winterizing. I use that term even though it's summer here because the growing season for Israel starts in the fall instead of in the spring. You need the rain and cooler temperatures that only comes in the fall and winter. (Everyone who lives here keeps telling me it will be cold. There was a snow storm in March on the East coast last year. This sounds way better.) Most of our time was spent terracing and moving rocks and other debris. When the British took control from the Turkish, they planted pine trees all over the area. The pine trees are leaching the soil of all of their nutrients and their needles are ruining the top soil because they're so acidic. The Israeli encourages people to cut down all the pine trees, but that is going to take a while because you'll need to plant other things and give them a time period to lie fallow and be protected from animals in order to take hold. If you do it all at once there will be an unimaginable amount of erosion due to the pine needles ruining all the top soil and none of the new plants will take hold. Because of all of this, we had to bring new soil into our little garden on the hill. After everything (including the paths) were cleared of needles and major rocks, we had to re-outline the beds and fence with rocks, plow and aerate the existing soil, and then add in new soil. The new soil was from the cows. The cows are also a compost factory. When you let their manure be and add other dirt and maybe some other things (??? we didn't get a long lesson when we visited the dairy farm) the cows churn it up and it becomes excellent soil that doesn't smell and they have a lot of. So Dan got a truck full of it and we took it in wheelbarrows to the garden beds and spread it sll over. Even with ten plus Dan of us we were working about four hours just to get this much done (in addition to rotating our compost). It was really humid outside and I'm not a big fan of garden work, but I'm sure that once we get some things planted that we will be so proud of what we've done.

[dejahinwonderland]

Me with the puppy and kitten from the previous post (app doesn't let you insert pictures)

[dejahinwonderland]

Gan Habayit and the Grocery Store

(I know that I’m still super behind, but I’m catching up! I’ll be on a regular schedule before long, promise.)

The day that Vira got adopted (our first Sunday) we had a tour of גן הבית (Gan Habayit, Garden of the Home) and it was amazing. We started at the dairy farm (where we do not have he opportunity to volunteer). We fed baby cows from bottles (one tried to eat my dress!), fed adult cows from buckets, fed chickens from our hands, and collected fresh eggs! I was worried that feeding chickens from my hands would hurt, but they weren’t interested in pecking my hands. Then we all made our way over to the fields and dug sweet potatoes out of the ground, picked fresh herbs, and picked fresh sweet tomatoes. Everything was so delicious. We made ourselves a fresh meal from these things and a fee other items from around the farm or that were in the kitchen there. We made pita, roasted veggies, omelets, and salad. It was fantastic. One of the wof-ers (“world organic farmers”, which when spoken aloud sounds like wfr-es which is “wilderness first responders” and is very confusing to me) that is friends with our madrich, Lior, had found a puppy not that long ago and had also recently had a kitten follow him home, so I got to interact with MORE baby animals! It was amazing! The puppy looked so sad and had fleas and liked to hide, but the kitten was mischievous and got on the table to eat condiments before anyone noticed. The puppy loved to be held and would fall asleep whenever he was in my arms. It was so cute. We watched the sun set over the sunflowers and an amazing view, painting wondrous colors in the sky. It was a picture I will hold in my memory for a very long time. Some people went directly back to the forest, but two other girls, Lior, Faiz, and myself went to Shfaraam to go to the grocery store. It was small by American standards and very dirty. There were a lot of bugs and the floors needed several run overs with a buffer. There was a pretty small selection, especially of cereals that were under 20 shekels. It was very interesting to see what things were readily available compared to in America. I was definitely missing the states after that errand. I really appreciate how the Garin (lone soldier program) I looked into makes you live in Israel for at least three months first. I know that I love the people and the Judaism and culture and so much more about Israel, but it’s little things like the grocery store that truly feel foreign to me and I might not want to live with forever. We’ll see how I feel at the end of all this!

[dejahinwonderland]

The Saga of Vira the Dog

This post will mostly be about Vira. Some of it will be about other things. Read on.

So when we arrived at our home in Shar La’adam (sp) (henceforth known as “the forest”) we were greeted by a very friendly German Shepard that we called “Vira”. I was *so* excited to have a dog with us. I’ve been wanting a dog for a long time and she was so friendly and smart. She followed us everywhere. We started taking care of her a little bit and on Friday (our second full day as a group) I gave her a bath in preparation for shabbat. Shabbat as a group was nice. It’s so strange to be the most religious person in a group again. I led a short kabbalat shabbat service and even though everyone is from different places (one German, one Hungarian, one Franc, four from Ohio, one from Florida, one from California, and myself) those of us who are from practicing families knew the same tunes. All summer I had felt really out of place and a bit like an outsider because I knew next to nothing about Judaism compared to some of these people and knew none of the tunes. The way that I participate in religion is with my voice and now hopefully I’ll be more able to do that. We lost two people (one of whom just graduated from a conservatory as a classically trained singer, but now I think I’m one of the strongest singers) but ten is a good number. I think we’ve bonded a good amount and everyone is getting along. On Monday we went and toured Beit Eliysha, which is the center for special needs. Most of Harduf is actually made up of people who are here for treatment for something, which is is super interesting. We saw the stables (with goats, donkeys, chickens, sheep, and horses), the bakery, the kitchen, the pottery workshop, the paper shop, and the garden. It all looked amazing, but I fell in love with the horses right away. I love working with animals, especially horses and after doing a five day horse back trip at the end of the summer, I knew that I really wanted to be there. I would also have loved the bakery, but one of our participants is a pastry chef and there was only one spot for the bakery. It was so neat to see how the center works and how the treatment for adults with special needs is different here than in America. In the afternoon we went to tour Gan Ha’Bayit, which is the organic farm connected to Harduf. Vira came with us, like she did everywhere and we met a man who was willing to adopt her right away. One of our staff members (Faiz) knew him and vouched for his character so we let him adopt her. Our only goal was to make sure that she had a good home. It had actually been very frustrating for me because I had wanted nothing more than to make sure that she was taken care of and happy and was willing to do whatever it took. This dog found us and asked us for help. But the other participants didn’t seem to care as much as I did. I’ve noticed that I often care very deeply about things or am very neutral. The other people didn’t want her to be hurt, but also weren’t as willing to help as I was. This man had the resources (financial and transportation) to be able to take her to the vet right away. When he did, it turned out that she was V-chipped! He returned her to her family that night. It turned out that her name is Gina and that she had had two puppies that are still missing. She’s been gone for several days and I miss her so much, but I’m sure her family is so happy to have her back. I had GoFundMe return all the money we had raised (about $100 in 24 hours) and suggested to our donors that they donate that money to a charity called Spay Israel (http://www.spayisrael.org.il/) that helps stray animals get veterinary care that they need in addition to getting them fixed before finding them a good home. I’m so glad that this dog wandered into our lives and she has definitely touched me. I know that she doesn’t know what I did for her, but that doesn’t make my feeling of accomplishment any less. She’s a great dog.

[projecttenaustralia]

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