So the beard has left my life. It was time...probably past time. I tried to take a before and after picture, but before I share it with you let me just say that it is difficult to take a picture of yourself. You've got to get the camera far enough away from you, and the camera on my phone (gratitude shout-out again to Chris for the phone) requires you to touch a particular part of the screen to take a picture. If you miss by just a little, it pulls up a menu instead. I decided I needed to take the picture in the bathroom so I could see the phone screen in the mirror while taking the picture. Turns out you get weird pictures when you're trying to orient the camera to see the screen in the mirror (and your eyes are always looking somewhere besides at the lens). Also, can I just say that it is incredibly sketchy feeling taking a picture of yourself in your bathroom. I felt like a politician or a pro-sports athlete, and I don't mean that in a good way.
Anyway, I think you get the point...I used to have hair on my face, and now I don't. Moving on...
I forgot to mention this last week, but we had SPA farewell #7 on August 7 for Catherine. Catherine was the SPA for the Research & Extension Team. Previously, she was at Bridgespan (non-profit consulting firm spun off from Bain) then in Rwanda for a year with Partners in Health then with Teach for America headquarters in New York. She leaves ATA to go get her MBA at Stanford. She's very cool and here's wishing her the best of luck.
That same day we also said farewell to Rozina, the analyst for the Gender Team. Rozina is going to work for an NGO in Sudan. Both Rozina and Catherine didn't finish up until the end of that week, but we didn't know when the Eid holiday would be (seriously, no one knew if we had work on Thursday until after dark Wednesday night) so we celebrated on that Wednesday. Considering the farwells, the up-in-the-air holiday, and the US closing all its Middle East embassies, it was quite an eventful week (which begs the question why I didn't mention any of this last week).
Catherine said her entire farewell speech in Amharic, raising a bar that I will dramatically lower when I leave: I like to think of that as my service to the SPAs who leave after me; I mean seriously Catherine how selfish of you ;)
Rozina getting a farewell present before her speech.
Brief note to replace the diatribe I had planned: people of Ethiopia, I love ya, but holy crap, you can't treat your livestock like that. For a country that prides itself on telling investors they have the most livestock of any country in Africa, the livestock management practices here are...nonexistent is not anywhere near strong enough...let's go with abysmal. Dragging a sheep or goat by one leg while it hops on the other three is not herding. A whip is a signalling device to the animal. You're not supposed to actually hit the horse with it every 3 seconds while it pulls the carriage. Nor is it super effective to be continually beating the last animal in line when you are herding. I should not be able to see torn skin on your emaciated horse / mule where you continually whip it and where you put the harness on wrong.
Look, I think we've established that I love animals, but apart from that, these practices are not efficient or effective. Well maintained and treated livestock works harder / doesn't die as quickly and is more productive for dairy and meat.
Okay, so it still ended up being a diatribe, but seriously, I'm disappointed in how people treat cats/dogs here but I'm shocked that people would treat the livestock they depend upon for their livelihood so badly.
To end on a positive note (more pictures from the visit next time), on Monday night I had dinner with the new Uganda Mission President and all the missionaries in Ethiopia. Besides the senior couples, there are 26 missionaries in Ethiopia (4 in Awasa, 4 in two villages a little north of Awasa, 4 in Debre Zeit, 4 in Kaliti, 4 in Beklobet, and 6 in Meganaana). There were a few more at the table because the APs from Uganda came up with the Mission President. That's a lot of men (and a few women) of God at one table. By the way, if any senior couples want to come to Africa, apparently it's a shoe in. Much larger supply of opportunities than demand for them (just stay away from Egypt for right now).
Side note to the "by the way," speaking of Egypt, EgyptAir, you and I need to have a conversation. To put it nicely, your country is "unstable" right now. How much worse does it have to get for you to lower your ticket prices? Seriously, I figured I could get cheap tickets with everything that's going on, but your tickets are still more expensive than two other airlines. How is that possible? Who is willing to fly into or even through Cairo right now except me and wackos like me?
Anyway, I think you get the point...I used to have hair on my face, and now I don't. Moving on...
That same day we also said farewell to Rozina, the analyst for the Gender Team. Rozina is going to work for an NGO in Sudan. Both Rozina and Catherine didn't finish up until the end of that week, but we didn't know when the Eid holiday would be (seriously, no one knew if we had work on Thursday until after dark Wednesday night) so we celebrated on that Wednesday. Considering the farwells, the up-in-the-air holiday, and the US closing all its Middle East embassies, it was quite an eventful week (which begs the question why I didn't mention any of this last week).
Catherine said her entire farewell speech in Amharic, raising a bar that I will dramatically lower when I leave: I like to think of that as my service to the SPAs who leave after me; I mean seriously Catherine how selfish of you ;)
Rozina getting a farewell present before her speech.
Brief note to replace the diatribe I had planned: people of Ethiopia, I love ya, but holy crap, you can't treat your livestock like that. For a country that prides itself on telling investors they have the most livestock of any country in Africa, the livestock management practices here are...nonexistent is not anywhere near strong enough...let's go with abysmal. Dragging a sheep or goat by one leg while it hops on the other three is not herding. A whip is a signalling device to the animal. You're not supposed to actually hit the horse with it every 3 seconds while it pulls the carriage. Nor is it super effective to be continually beating the last animal in line when you are herding. I should not be able to see torn skin on your emaciated horse / mule where you continually whip it and where you put the harness on wrong.
Look, I think we've established that I love animals, but apart from that, these practices are not efficient or effective. Well maintained and treated livestock works harder / doesn't die as quickly and is more productive for dairy and meat.
Okay, so it still ended up being a diatribe, but seriously, I'm disappointed in how people treat cats/dogs here but I'm shocked that people would treat the livestock they depend upon for their livelihood so badly.
To end on a positive note (more pictures from the visit next time), on Monday night I had dinner with the new Uganda Mission President and all the missionaries in Ethiopia. Besides the senior couples, there are 26 missionaries in Ethiopia (4 in Awasa, 4 in two villages a little north of Awasa, 4 in Debre Zeit, 4 in Kaliti, 4 in Beklobet, and 6 in Meganaana). There were a few more at the table because the APs from Uganda came up with the Mission President. That's a lot of men (and a few women) of God at one table. By the way, if any senior couples want to come to Africa, apparently it's a shoe in. Much larger supply of opportunities than demand for them (just stay away from Egypt for right now).
Side note to the "by the way," speaking of Egypt, EgyptAir, you and I need to have a conversation. To put it nicely, your country is "unstable" right now. How much worse does it have to get for you to lower your ticket prices? Seriously, I figured I could get cheap tickets with everything that's going on, but your tickets are still more expensive than two other airlines. How is that possible? Who is willing to fly into or even through Cairo right now except me and wackos like me?
No comments:
Post a Comment