Donors, Raw meat, and other tidbits

March Forward, Dear Mother Ethiopia!

 The title of my blog is that of the National Anthem of Ethiopia. I decided to use it for my blog title because:

• The oldest forms of human life have been found here ("Mother")
• Ethiopians pride themselves on their strength in war, and they certainly have proved themselves, having never been colonised despite various attempts. ("March")
• Ethiopia is currently developing very fast, and it's economy is growing rapidly ("Forward")
• The exclamation sounds like an encouraging call to move in a positive direction, which is relevant for many Ethiopians struggling for survival in areas with scant resources and a growing population
• This national anthem was adopted after the overthrowing of a military junta called the Derg in 1992. Always good to remember deposition of oppressive governments.

I'm such an (ex-) English Literature student....

Human-Centered Design

One of my assignments from Lem Ethiopia was to look for funding opportunities for them. I found a great one by IDEO and so I introduced Lem Ethiopia to the Human-Centered Design approach to creating solutions. They found the approach very interesting and innovative, but I wonder if they will pursue it further. I think it would be a great opportunity for a relatively small and traditional NGO looking to advance and broaden its horizons, but only time  will tell . . .

Population, Health, and Environment in Girar Jarso

 The main project I am involved with here is an integrated project in a poor rural community 110 km north of Addis. The project aims to improve the community’s knowledge and practice of natural resource management, reproductive health/family planning, harmful traditional practices, and alternative income generating activities. My role is to contribute at all stages of the baseline survey—its creation, its implementation (collecting quantitative and qualitative data), and analysing the data.

Donor influence

NGOs are often at the mercy of their donor’s ideology, for example, the Swedish Embassy is currently promoting the “rights-based approach." We have to tailor our project proposals to suit donors' ideologies, so a proposal for a particular project will look different depending on whom we are applying to for funding. Although a lot of these donors nowadays include “participation at all levels” or something along those lines, they are still very much bringing in (imposing?) their external ideologies, which may or may not be best for the recipient communities. How can this be countered? Can it be?

We're in the year 2005!

According to the Ethiopian calendar, we are still in 2005. The calendar has 13 months—12 have 30 days and the 13^th with 5 days was added in order to keep time with the Gregorian calendar. As for telling the time, just like in Kenya, subtract 6 hours from what you’re used to. It makes so much more sense, because when the sun rises the day starts around 1:00am (7:00am Gregorian time). The working day ends at 11:00am (5:00pm Gregorian time) and the night starts around 1:00pm (7:00pm Gregorian time).

Copy cat!

There is no law on international copyright in Ethiopia (local copyright does exist though).

Look familiar? Reminiscent of Starbucks perhaps?

Yes, this really is the logo of Ethiopia's Kaldi's Coffee.

There's a Safeway here too, completely unassociated with the original Safeway.

Truly a Hidden Gem (cliché I know, shh)

I promise this is not photoshopped.

Wenchi. A volcanic crater covered in lush green forests and cradling a stillwater lake with an island in the middle. 

We rode down on horses to get past the wet mud, marshes and rivers. We then stopped at a hot spring in the rocks and drank fresh bubbling carbonated water from another spring under a rock. After dismounting from the horses, we walked through deserted paths, among wide fields with wild horses and some wandering pastoralists with their goats. Upon reaching the lakeside we jumped in a boat and were ferried across to an island in the middle of the lake. There we paid a visit to the small local orthodox church and its bright paintings.

Drinking fresh sparkling water straight from the spring

Note to self to return here and camp at the lakeside.

Raw meat

I ate fresh raw meat yesterday. Still alive. "Tere sega" is a favourite food of Ethiopians.