Midway Reflections

Midway reflection

Hi all,

I haven’t written any blogs in a long time. Part of that was because I was approaching them in a different way, trying to tell everything that had happened and exhausting myself in the process.

In summary, I’ve completed the last of my in-service trainings and have now branched out into my second year. I have about 9-10 months left in my service. I’ve been told that the second year of service is far more active than the first. This in part is because the first year is dedicated to learning your environment, the people, language and culture, as well as how things get done. Also because the people get to know you, what you’re capable of, and the way we work.

In a country where aid work is high, often people don’t believe that you will stay. Many organizations come for a short time do what they set out for (build a well, distribute food etc.) than leave. Peace corps is not like that, in part because we take the time to get to know who we are serving, and in part because we don’t come simply to give them something. We come instead to teach them when they are willing, how to do it themselves.

So far I have found truth in more work being available in the second year. I have in recent month finished a GRS training (teaching girls about gender, HIV, sex, and self-esteem through soccer program), a perma garden training with students, and have painted a world map on the side of the library (with an accompanying geography and brief history lesson at the school about America). These are things I’m very proud of and hope that I am able to continue in such work.

At the beginning of May we celebrated Ethiopian orthodox Easter (called Fasika). This particular holiday was special to me, because last year it was the first holiday I experienced in my town. It was a day full of family, music, and meat. It gave me a sense of “full circle”, to come back to the beginning and see how much I’ve changed.

I remember my first day in country being inwardly nervous to so much as walk outside. I hated the food and didn’t understand even the most basic greeting. The people who then were strangers are now my family, things that at first shocked me like how many bodies they fit on transportation, or having guns just casually carried around is now not odd at all. Things that were hard, like eating a vegan diet 90% of the time, no longer bothers me. I don’t mind dancing for strangers and being stared at anymore, I go shopping on my own, travel to new places alone and feel comfortable wandering the streets. To be sure I still struggle at times with harassment, feel the need for company of Americans, miss the foods of home, daily conveniences, and above all - hot showers! But, at the same time… I’m comfortable here.

I still struggle with language and somethings still scare me, but this place has also become beautiful to me. I enjoy the awkward jerking the shoulders they call dancing, and recognize their music sometimes, even singing along to words I don’t always know the meanings, and when I travel I see sprawling farm land and breathtaking mountains. I see a people working to find a place in the world of giants, and yet fiercely proud of the lives they have. They are a people who take a minimum of an hour a day just for coffee and community. People who will call you out for not enjoying yourself and talking. And if you’re not eating enough they are likely to feed you with their own hands. These people who are hospitable and don’t take “no, thank you” as an answer. A people who will call you off the side of the street to drink some tea and ask why they haven’t seen you for a few days. The children run after me on the street just to shake my hand and always ask to carry whatever is in my hands. And if I start talking about any topic of interest to one person, I soon have a crowd listening in.

I miss my home, I miss my family, I miss the food… I miss a lot. But faster than I think, this last year will be gone, and I’ll have all that back and this time now will be like a dream. So for now I live the dream, the rise and falls of an emotional roller-coaster of success, failure, and confusion, of utter boredom and mad rush, of sudden sickness and days in bed reading, of washing my clothes by hand, of cooking the same 5 foods over and over, of coffee right before bed and waking up to the sounds of roosters and baying bulls… and in the end, I’ll miss it all.

Here is to the year ahead and all it will bring.

Spring programs:

GRS

I had a week long training with my counterpart Turuwerk Wodage back in early December. She was a new counterpart due to my need of a female for this particular training. The GRS program is normally focused around a combination of soccer and HIV training for youth, this particular training I attended was also about gender equality and female health.

In the following months me and my female counterpart we able to teach 20 young girls in the 6^th and 7^th grade. They named themselves the Walia group after a mountain Ibex well known in this country. Though we were defiantly not the best soccer players we had a lot of fun and at the end we all got tested for HIV and passed. I hope the things I taught will help them stay clear.

Permagarden

My original plans to do a large permagarden training in the school failed utterly. Long story short I decided instead to do a small group training with my English teaching friend Brehanu Chekola. I went to his class and got 13 children interested.

We meet once a week on Wednesdays and though we had many delays and hiccups 7 children stuck through to the end. The learned about nutrition, water management, soil amendments and intercropping.

English workshop

I also helped Brehanu as a guest speaker in his after school extra English classes. I was a guest speaker 3 times and taught a few nursery songs, common greetings, and family trees.

Murals

People in Ethiopia sometimes ask me where I’m from, I answer “im American” to which they then ask “north or south?”… Now though I can understand where the confusion comes from I thought it a good opportunity to teach a bit. I spent a day in the school going room to room teaching briefly about where the USA is and how it was settled, emphasizing the fact that white man was actually a foreigner, and that people lived in America prior to settlement. The day was a resounding success and I was asked if I could provide world maps as teaching aid. As a counter proposal I offered to paint a mural instead.

The school offered to provide the supplies if I did the work. We chose a spot on the outside wall of the library and used fresh cement to smooth the stuccoed surface. Two close buy PCVs Alben and Elain came to help make the map. It was a fun 3 days and I have been asked to do a follow-up map of Ethiopia specifically in the next few weeks.

Touring Amhara

I was blesses to be able to take to in country vacations this last spring, one was a tour of historical sites in Amhara with two other volunteers Sadiya and Natanya who are based in Tigray. They first visited my site and I showed them a local hike and introduced them to my compound dog Charlie J then we went to Bahir Dar for a day to see other volunteers. We then made a trip to Gondar which I had not seen before and did a day hike to see some wild life and saw the castle where the emperors once lived. Finally we traveled up to Lalibela, and though I’ve been to the town before this was my first time seeing all 12 churches carved from stone.

Recently I took a trip to the simian mountain for a rigorous three day hike. I accompanied nearly 30 other volunteers as we hiked through staggeringly beautiful mountains and witnessed wild life rarely seen elsewhere in the country. The trip finalized in the second highest peak in Ethiopia over 14500ft. it was a great trip thought the hike down was miserable due to exhaustion, rain and hail. Good story though lol J

Trainings Galore: Fall

Trainings Galore

I apologise for not having updated my blog properly in a while. I’ve been intending too, but the last few months have been jam-packed with trainings, holidays, work, power outages, and vacations. But enough excuses... it's time to bite the bullet and make the update. It’s incredibly long, so I’ll make it in two parts.

QGIS

My first training was back in September directly following the Ethiopian New Year. The holiday was on Sep 12th, a Saturday. On Sunday I traveled to Bahir Dar (not an easy feat when everyone is returning from visiting family on the holiday). The training was locally conducted for each of the regions that Peace Corps works within Ethiopia (Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, and SNNPR). My region of Amhara had about 12 participants, most of whom were from my orientation training group, with a few who had been here longer.

The week-long training in Bahir Dar was on a computer-mapping program called QGIS (Quantum Geographic Information System). This is a free downloadable software version of the better known and far more expensive version ArcGIS. Back in college I took a semester long training in ArcGIS, so I have something to compare this training and software to.

First off, QGIS is free ... bonus! As that may be, certain features were not as streamlined as ArcGI, such as the printable map function (which was difficult to adjust). It also didn’t have as wide a selection of symbols. However, I found the system more than sufficient for most mapping needs. ArcGIS however has a wide variety of training manuals designed specifically for their program, QGIS does not. Our trainer had actually spent the better part of a year creating a manual for this program, along with many sample map creation exercises for this training. She is still going through final adjustments and edits, but when she is done she intends to make the manual a free online source. Personally, I felt the training was very good, and clearer than my original training in college on ArcGIS. However, that could be due to it being my second time around.  :)

Each training participant had to do a final project creating a reference map for their town and a project map. My map was a color-coded slope map to help inform areas at high risk of erosion. I also used the two maps and a Google Earth Pro-derived image map of my town in my CNA (Community Needs Assessment)

CNA (Community Needs Assessment)

After getting back from my QGIS training, I had one month to complete a Community Needs Assessment. This was a technical document reporting statistics and interview information on my town. The purpose of the document was to assess the strengths and weaknesses of my town to better inform possible projects for the volunteer to later conduct. The first few months in town is supposed to be dedicated to learning about infrastructure, programs, and the people. I had conducted interviews with each of the main institutions in town getting an understanding of history and where the people of Debre Zebit wanted to go. Simultaneously, I learned about a variety of helpful programs I did not know existed, as well as issues I did not know people were facing. (The CNA was previously posted, if anyone is inclined to read it on my blog). It was due at the start of my PDM workshop. On top of that, I also had the Quarterly Reporting due, which is all the statistics on trainings and development work I had conducted each quarter.

PDM (Project Design Management)

The PDM workshop was in October, one month after my QGIS training. This training was originally supposed to take place 3 months after I originally got to site. However, due to the turmoil of elections it was postponed to October.

The PDM workshop was designed to help facilitate a mutual understanding of program expectations between PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) and local CP (Counterpart). My CP is a man named Endawke Yohanes who works in the FTC (Farmers Training Center) as the plant science expert. In fact, he is considered among the best workers in the Amhara region as I recently found out. Our Debre Zebit FTC got an award this year for having the most successful projects and my CP Endawke got a reward as being among the best trainers. Most of the time he is very busy with his own work and has little time to plan new projects with me. As a result this PDM workshop was very fruitful in facilitating conversation about starting new programs that I can participate in.

It was decided between me and my Counterpart that a garden project in the school would be easiest to accomplish as a start program, and might foster interest in the community via the children to the parents. Upon returning to the town we set up meetings with the school director and it was agreed that the space behind the school could be used for school gardens as long as we waited for the wheat field to be harvested in December... It didn’t really turn out that way, but more on that later.

English Cinema Club

In the weeks following the PDM, I had several meetings with the school over the school Permagarden project. I also had to find a female counterpart for the GRS program before I left on vacation. On top of that I finally started my English Cinema program… which is a fancy name for watching movies with kids.

The idea behind the program was to find an interactive way for children to practice English comprehension skills. Though English films are popular here, they are all dubbed over with Amharic making exposure to English low. The original idea was that children would come and I would give an oral introduction to the film (mostly Disney): when was it made, was it based on a book, what are the cultural origins, etc… then they would watch the movie taking note of words of English they recognize in order to make sure they are actively trying to comprehend the language. After they would write a paragraph summary of what the film was about, thus working on writing skills, and I would ask them to share what they wrote, working on verbal skills.

Right off the bat I hit snags (of course). The first week we had a power outage, resulting in a very boring class on name introductions. The following week I found my computer speakers weren’t loud enough, forcing me to borrow from my host brother Binium (I bought my own a few weeks later). The children showed up an hour late resulting in either missing the film or me starting the film late. When I have to start late I end up not getting around to the after film portion. As a result they only really do the word list. The first week they just wrote down any random word they thought of, having no relation to the film whatsoever. Also students would come in to watch the film, and then I would find out later that they were supposed to be in class and all but two would up and leave… I’m working out the kinks, but I want to keep at it. I think it has potential.

I also started getting Amharic tutoring lessons from the school English teacher Brehano Chekola. It only lasted a month though, now I’m back to no tutor. He’s become a good friend and supporter, but working out a schedule to suit both our needs is a challenge. He asked me to help teach an English class once, handed me a book and left me in front of the children for half an hour. Teachers have done that to me a number of times. The Biology teacher asked if I would want to teach some time. I said, “Sure, if you tell me what on, and give me a translator.” He said,“ok” and then dragged me in front of his class right then! I ended up teaching on crop rotation and soil nutrition.

For a while I was just hanging out at the school and the 2^nd graders started just circling around me and staring, so I ended up looking at their level 1 and 2 English books and helping them out. Mostly we were going over colors, I ended up with a small following but then I got busy with other projects.

Safety Net

The week before I left for Germany my counterpart told me last minute that he is going to the Woreda (district) office for a week-long training. It put a kink in my plans, but I figured that I could spend a week packing and cleaning before I left to Germany. On Tuesday I got a call from my neighbor PCV who asked why I wasn’t at the training. So he convinced me to drop what I was doing and go to a training for the rest of the week.

Travel was an utter nightmare! My town being close enough to the training site to travel meant we took a Bajaj each morning and afternoon, but the drivers caught on that there was a training and doubled the prices, which we had no choice to pay because we could not walk and get there on time. Getting back home at night was worse because we were let out late and all the drivers were done with work for the day and we ended up paying double for a Bajaj that should only fit 4 people and ended up stuffing 9 into it! Needless to say I thought this dangerous, so I got permission to have work-leave and spend the remaining nights in a hotel.

The training was on the federal Safety Net Program (SNP). This program was developed by the government to provide a reliable income for the most at risk families in exchange for public services. The program must be applied to and preference is given to women- led households and landless children. Each participant works 5 days a month on government programs like hillside terracing, watershed management, building fences, and more. The rest of the time they can use to find other work. At the end of the month, they are paid with either a small sum of cash or food.

Despite all the trainings being in Amharic they did on occasion have English slide shows which I ascertained valuable insight into the program which I previously didn’t understand. For example, the participants can skip work days if they are attending certain development classes, like business planning. These at-risk families tend not to be able to get loans from banks, unless a group is going in together. These classes, if completed, help them draw up a business model and will give them a loan recommendation to the bank. Though the program as a whole has kinks and doesn’t always work the way it does on paper, I have respect for all the Ethiopian government is trying to do.

On Thursday night all the FTC workers from all the district towns got together and had a bonfire. An ox was killed and raw meat was passed around while waiting for the cooked sauces, a live band played with professional dancers dancing the cultural dances. Some of the people were having trouble starting the bonfire and threw some liter fluid on it, but it threw the flames and landed on the person standing on the other side who then started running around on fire! No "stop, drop, and roll". Luckily, it went out and he was only mildly singed. The rest of the night was dedicated to eating and dancing. The Ethiopians took particular pleasure making the forenj (foreigner) get up and dance. I think I killed it.  :)

Germany

I took half of the final training day off and visited my host sister instead. Hayminot (Haymi for short) runs a hair styling salon, specializing in braids and curl sets. Since I was going to visit my sister in Germany she wanted to do my hair in a very traditional style. It took much longer than I expected. Since my hair doesn’t match any of the braiding hair colors she had to basically turn my head into a wig, took a total of 6 hours but the result was certainly attention grabbing. If I ever do it again, I’ll probably skip the yellow and stick with the brown.

On Saturday I traveled all the way to Addis, spent the night in a far too expensive hotel, and got on the plane to Germany the next day. The people at the airport were all shocked and pleased when they saw me in full Ethiopian regalia. I had a layover in Dubai and struck up a conversation with an Ethiopian native that is living in Australia for work. He noticed my clothes and hair and couldn’t help himself. He ended up treating me to dinner. When I finally arrived in Germany it was early morning. My sister,  AnnDee and her husband, Jeff met me at the airport and were properly surprised at my attire (point!!!) and though they had jackets with them for the colder German weather, my hand-made cotton outfit was more than enough to keep me warm. We didn’t have a chance to explore Frankfurt because they had taken the train so we all just headed back to base, just stopping for sandwiches (appreciating how odd I looked, lol) and getting my first glimpse of the countryside. Germany is a lovely country with lots of open spaces between quaint towns. By the time we got home in the early afternoon we simply crashed. I was introduced to the two rambunctious puppies, Izzy and Sadie, and I’m happy to say they accepted me into their pack.

The first week in Germany was mainly spent getting ready for my sister's vegan Harvest Feast. We did a lot of shopping while I stocked up on 1^st world goodies! Oreos and a giant bag of Doritos were the first to go in the cart! Evenings were spent cleaning the house and watching Netflix. I was able to try some German dishes, as well as the German version of sushi and Mexican food, which I had been missing.

The vegan Harvest Feast was held the week before Thanksgiving, and was delectable. We had an engaged couple over for the celebration and spent all day cooking. We tried out a Sa’taan roast (wheat protein meat substitute) with roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, vegan gravy, pumpkin rolls and pumpkin pie with absolutely delectable coconut whipped cream (highly recommended).

The following week's highlight was the Rhine River cruise, where we got to see a bunch of lovely German towns along the Rhine River. We started out at sunrise by climbing onto a bus and dozing for the next hour or so. We were awakened as the bus proceeded to back up a huge hill on a narrow street, cars on either side. When we finally reached the top we all cheered for the bus driver's daring feat. We were all terrified AND impressed.

At the top of the hill was the first part of our tour - a castle tour. The castle was part of a long chain of castles along the river that all were owned by different individuals demanding a toll tax. This was because back in the day Germany was not a single country but rather a smattering of settlements. The castle was home to an overwhelming and gaudy display of hunting trophies, though it also had a quaint chapel, lovely paintings, and a library. There were a few suits of armor around, including child-sized armor and model suits. We were allowed to try on a helmet, which I found to be very fun. My favorite though was the view from the top of the walls. I felt very much the "high Lady". :P

We broke for breakfast at the castle and then drove to another town up the river. Here we stopped at a local wine and cuckoo clock shop and were allowed to try the local ice wine and some selections of brandy. It was my first time trying any brandy, and I instantly fell in love with the peach brandy. We just had to buy a bottle. ;)

From there we jumped on the boat and floated down the Rhine River looking at all the castles, statues, churches and just the German architecture while sipping on some macchiato. They hosted a small raffle and Jeff won a lovely Christmas ornament. At the end we stopped at a town which hosts a Christmas market. We ate a complimentary German meal and then explored the town decked out in lights and decorations. The stalls sold many delectable foods including bratwurst, fried mushrooms, chestnuts, soups, and crepes. Also the German specialty of gluwein, which is a hot spiced-wine served in special mugs. Everywhere there were special crafts and knickknacks to peruse. After that, we climbed back on the bus to head home.

AnnDee and I went off to get our hair done before I went back to Ethiopia. She got pink put on the bottom half of her hair and put a few pink streaks in mine too. I also got my hair trimmed, which was much needed after a year in country. The next morning she gave my hair a blowout and we headed out to the Frankfurt airport to say goodbye. 

Community Needs Assesment (CNA) of Debre Zebit

I. INTRODUCTION:

This study and analysis was conducted in Debre Zebit, North Wollo, Amhara, Meket Woreda. Located in North Wollo Zone which is 182 Km from Bahir Dar, the capital city of Amhara region in Ethiopia, via Lay Gayent, 145 Km from Woldia. There are 8360 (4092 male 4268 female) people recorded in the kebele this year[1].

The CNA (Community Needs Assesment) is an overview of current community standing of institutions resources and issues, as well as wishes and hopes in which direction the community wants to grow. By analyzing resources and needs a more effective plan on achievable and successful projects can be made.

II. INFORMATION COLLECTION TECHNIQUES:

This information was gathered both by interviews and personal observations. A thorough interview was held with each of the major institutions Health Clinic, school, Farmer Training Center, and local tree nursery. Day to day observations were made of the town and layout, observing natural structures, resources and small business practices. Job shadowing of both a teacher and an agriculture DA was conducted on multiple days. In addition inquires of statistics and surveys already conducted in the town was looked into both in physical copy and online search for information. A community map and seasonal calendar were developed with help of DA’s at the FTC. Personal analysis of slope and land use were conducted through the mapping tool QGIS. And finally a priority ranking of projects was established with my counterpart Endawke Yohanes.

III. COMMUNITY PROFILE: 

History of your community: The Debre Zebit community was established around 1878 EC. The town was established because of flat ground and water resources available making it a prime location to establish a farming community.[2]

Geographic characteristics: the Town is situated on the top of a very large plateau at 2900m above sea level[3]. The plateau is large and stretches across multiple woredas. The woreda Meket both includes this plateau as well as the land beneath it. As a result though the main town of Debre Zebit is located along the road at 2800m[4] many of the farmers also live beneath the mountain ranging to 1800m[5]. This makes reaching the other members of the community that are not atop the plateau much more difficult.

Population: [6]

Age	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0-5	1007	968	1975	23.6244
6-17	1021	994	2015	24.10287
18-24	580	543	1123	13.43301
25-44	705	752	1457	17.42823
45-64	598	532	1130	13.51675
65+	357	303	660	7.894737
Total	4268	4092	8360

It should also be noted that as shown on the population chart there is a drop in population in the years 18-24. The reason could be attributed to either leaving for university or simply moving away from town to find better job opportunities.

The Main type of work conducted in Debre Zebit is that of a farmer. According to the FTC records 98% of the population are farmers.[7] The rest of the population centering around the main road are teachers, administration workers, police/guards, FTC DA’s along with Bajaj drivers, small store, restaurant, coffee, and tea houses owners. Many people have an additional small businesses on the side such as a sewing machine, mill, hay mattress manufacture, Gabi weave, pool table and raw materials purchased then refined and sold at market (suro, berbery, cotton exc). The unemployed find work at odd end jobs, like shint bet construction, new buildings, or “Safety Net” work centered on watershed management.

Communications:

Transportation: Both bus and Bajaj transportation is available. Though there is no bus stop in town the minibuses come through town 2-4 an hour. However these minibuses are often crowded and full making it sometimes necessary to wait several hours for transport. The two nearest towns that provide bank, post and wider selection of shopping options are Flaket or Nefas Mucha both are 10 birr to travel too. Travel to Flaket is easier due to Bajaj transportation in addition to minibus transport. However Bajaj will only take you half way to Agrit resulting in a need to transfer. When transport is in higher demand like market day (Saturday and Monday) or the end of the day transport cost can increase from 10 birr to as much as 20 birr. 

Road condition: The main road is a paved road built by a Chinese company only a 5 years ago. This road runs all the way from Bahir Dar to Woldia. However it does not go up through the desert to Labibella, though there is currently construction for such a road. The road is in fairly good condition aside from a few locations that weathering has damaged it. The rest of the Kebele must be traveled via dirt paths and some more treacherous mountain paths. There are a few areas that cobble stones have been poorly attempted but never finished such as the path to the town center or the path to market.

Telephones: there are no land lines in the kebele but a cell tower is present and solar generated. Coverage is very good and we usually don’t have many network outages that last more than a few hours. Further the ability to use network for internet is good and usually quite consistent though costly.

Education:

There is one primary school in the town teaching 1^st- 8^th grade with 1305 students and 3 extension schools in the kebele teaching grade 1^st-4^th grade totaling 750 students[8]. In order to attend 9^th -10 grade students must travel to the adjacent Kebele Kokit and further to the main woreda town of Flakit for 11^th-12^th grade.

Below is a grad breakdown by gender for the accumulated schools of Debre Zebit[9]

Total Grade and Gender Distribution for Debre Zebit School Cluster
Grade	Male	Female	Total
1st	164	171	335
2nd	158	201	359
3rd	172	139	311
4th	158	136	294
5th	155	131	286
6th	108	107	215
7th	51	91	142
8th	55	58	113

Though the school Administration claims only 33 students are not attending[10] the English teacher Berhanu Chekola said that this year has been particularly hard getting students to school due to the low rain fall. The teachers have been told to go out and collect students even from other kebeles if they must. But the student’s families cannot afford the school supplies this year due to small harvests[11]. Looking at the grade breakdown of attendance each subsequent year holds fewer and fewer students. In part due to need at home and in part due to traveling further and further to get to school after year 4, 8, 11, and university respectively. Many students will not attend school every day, in part because many students must hike up a cliff to reach the main town where the students go to school after 4^th year. Also many students are kept home to work the fields with their families.

The school also provides services for deaf and blind students through the two special needs teacher. On record there are 29 special needs students; 14 blind (4 male 10 female) 14 deaf (9 male, 5 female) and one blind and deaf male student.

There is an Environment Club at the school also referred to as the “Garden Club”. The focus of the club is on farming and last year managed a school garden. Children are assigned weekly duties such as watering and weeding the garden. Official meeting happen once a month on the 21^st after school is over at 5pm. The end of year meeting before summer included a question game show and guest speakers from the Woreda Office, yearly participation rewards and dancing.

Further the primary school has good English club which is looking for further development called Mini Media including activities such as drama and music. Official meetings are on the 29^th. 

Below is a list of all clubs in the main Debre Zebit School, though the records of male and female attendance are from 2006 EC it gives a reference for general size and gender distribution. I’m told the clubs, chairperson and meeting dates are all the same from 2006 EC[12]

	clubs	activity’s	chairman	male	female	total	monthly meeting
1	civics and ethical education	behavior	Habten Babur	18	25	43	29th
2	mini media	music, drama, English practice	brehanu chekola	30	20	50	29th
3	Physical Education	Sports	Turu Werk	30	20	50	29th
4	science and technology	engineering	Mogist Aduna	40	30	70	12th
5	gender club	gender equality	Emet Adana	-	56	56	27th
6	Environmental education	garden	Leo Mare	25	20	45	21st
7	library	reading	Melish Brehan	30	22	52	29th
8	hiv	hiv education and prevention	Abay Tesfo	30	20	50	29th
9	hidase dam	teach about the Abay dam	Wanay Makonan	14	12	26	23rd
10	traffic	car dangers	Ababich Sandaku	59	27	86	16th
11	peace	tolerance education	Bizuye Tarike	24	24	48	19th
12	hygiene and sanitation	health protection	Tarike Mandefro	22	15	37	12th
13	tax	how to pay taxis	Mogis Aduna	38	20	58	12th
14	tomorrow teachers	training future teachers	Demos Baleta	19	45	64	29th
15	civic	support poor students	Malke Mabratu	40	16	56	21st
16	gostamari	improve participation of students	Wanay Makonan	50	25	75	12th
17	children protect	first aid	Saman Edimasu	17	45	62	21st

Agriculture and Environment:

Debre Zebit is first and foremost a rural Farming town. 98% of the working population within Debre Zebit are farmers[13]. Of the 3425 ha in Debre Zebit 1069 ha are dedicated as farm land[14]. The main farming system is still the traditional form of ox with traditional plough and broadcast sowing[15]. The FTC is promoting a shift to row planting and developing flood irrigation.

Farmers and non-farmers alike do plant small scale gardens in their yards aside from the main crops. Mostly they plant onions and Garlic, though some also plant Cabbage, peppers, chard, beets, or tomatoes in a few garden beds[16]. Further some families plant Dubduba (a large squash that looks like a watermelon on the outside) along fences as a lattice. Some add compost as soil amendments but scatter sowing is common for these garden beds (though model farmers are implementing line sowing) and weeding is only done occasionally. The garden area is around 250 m² [17]. Cultivating the ground beneath a bed to break up clay layer is uncommon though adding soil atop the ground to raise it up is common practiced. The farmers which do produce compost use the dug earth method and usually 3m^{3 [18]}.

There is one Farmers Training Center (FTC) in the community located centrally in the town directly next to the primary school, health center and administration office. Within the FTC is 1.8 km² of land that is used as a demonstration site currently for multiple projects. Listed below:

·         A large garden of 10 beds of approximately 1x5m used to grow cabbage, carrots, kale, garlic, and beets. Three dug compost piles are in the garden area, of about 2x6m and 1m depth and used as soil amendments for the garden beds.

·         A heard of sheep and a single male imported ox are kept in a barn like enclosure and let out to graze the FTC grounds twice a day under supervision. The ox has been used for breeding. A development of a chicken coop was attempted this summer but the chicks were eaten soon after purchase.

·          The FTC also has three water catchment ponds dug, though only two are operational. One in cement lined and designed to connect to ditches funnelling roof run off, the second is plastic lined and located closer to the field.

·         The fields are used in demonstration of line sowing and is currently growing an improved wheat variety. A smaller field is growing potatoes.

·         In the field they have built contour ditch and berms to prevent erosion, further they have been planting trees in the open areas and around the perimeter of the fields.

·         This summer apple trees were planted to develop an example orchard in the coming years.

·          Finally two modern bee hives are kept on the premises.

Trainings such as line sowing fertilizer application and new technology demonstrations are done on the field at the FTC watched by around 60 farmers at a time. The DA’s also will go out and help farmers set up their own compost pile and do line sowing on demonstration fields outside the FTC such as the school field, health centre field, and model farmer fields.

Seasonal Calendar of FTC[19]

	Tseday	Bega	Belg	Kremt
Crops grown	Root and veg crops	Root and veg crops	Potato and maize and sorghum	Sowing: cereal, grain, maize,
Trainings at FTC	Irrigation, harvesting,	Irrigation, land prep (plowing),	Compost, row sowing, fertilizer application	Sowing grain, and row sowing, fertilizer application, pesticide, weeding,
Projects held	Soil and water conservation	Soil and water conservation use	Tree seedling prep,	Tree planting

In the Meket Woreda there are 7 towns which have tree nurseries; Debre Zebit, Kokit, Sisiyay, Dibiko, Berafaf, Hamusit and Boya[20]. The two closest tree nurseries are that which is in Debre Zebit and Kokit. Debre Zebit site, though within the kebele, is difficult to get to, requiring an hour long hike down from the plateau and a hike back up when finished. The tree nursery in Kokit (next town over) is a short 10 min Bajaj ride (10km) followed by a 10 min hike along mostly flat ground (.5 km) and holds a more advanced nursery site with apple tree experts.

The Debre Zebit nursery site was established 3 years ago for the purpose of soil and water conservation. The site is approximately 3 km from main town and FTC however it is at the bottom of the plateau and difficult to travel to. The seedlings are planted in June and July and allowed to mature for only two months before being transplanted to hillsides at the start of rain season[21]. The tree seedlings are managed on a family farm and a few additional workers totalling 20 workers[22]. Seeds are received from the Woreda and are watered from a dug water pond that saved rain and stream water and is then flood irrigated. After the trees are transplanted to the hillsides the farm plants potatoes and onions in the same space.

Debre Zebit Tree Nursery chart[23]

Tree Species	forging/native	Tree Use	numbers grown	When planted
Eucalyptus	foreign	Wood/lumber	15000	June/July 2months
Suspania	native	forage	300000	June/July 2 month
Trilusur	native	forage	150000	June/July 2 months

There is very limited environmental education in my community. In the schools environmental ed. is present in the Biology classes and in the Environmental club but in limited quantity. The environmental club is led by Leo Mare and main activity is a school garden. Outside of school there is education through the watershed conservation programs run by the FTC. The people mainly participating in building check dams and contour trenching are those part of the Safety Net program. Though individual farmers have agreed to the contouring for soil conservation purposes.

Social issues: Issues in the community center around poverty and hunger. There are many family’s participating in the Safety Net program designed for food security and public works but moor people wish to participate than are excepted. last year there were 1671 beneficiaries of the program[24].

Resources in the community:

Natural Resources: according to the FTC there are 1090 ha of Trees, 5 ha of streams, 3 rivers, 2 small lakes (lakes 50m²) in Debre Zebit.[25] In Addition it is said by the DA’s that wild life includes the baboon, tiger, small monkey, hyena, Ethiopian wolf, aardvark, and bat eared fox[26] though quantities were not mentioned.

Community Map[27]:

Community Organization Table[28]

Community Group	MISSION	MEMBERS	PROJECTS
Iddir 1	Community contribution for funerals (Town 1)	Goshe Makonet (pres.) Worge Muchaye (sec.) Gate Mulalem (tres.) 270 members	Funeral prep
Iddir 2	“” (Town 2)	Tesfa Mokonan (pres.) Tesfay Yarid (Sec.) Goro Asefa (tres.) 190 members	“”
Iddir 3	“” (Zigay)	Emagne Lebay (pres.) Manges Adisu (Sec.) Balay Dubala (Acount.) 205 members	“”
Iddir 4	“” (Dabiza)	Mangey Mokonan (pres.) Enanaw Agnge (sec.) Maqey Tegey (tres.) 180 members	“”
Iddir 5	“” (Kola Debiza)	Fiker Desey (pres.) Warash Yesu (sec.) Mokurya Adebaby (tres.) 125 members	“”
Iddir 6	“” (Gideba)	Gety Begoye (pres.) Wandimy Worey (sec.) Kes Inouy Mangiste (tres.) 133 members	“”
Iddir 7	“” Ambotija	Demeka Asafe (pres.) Worku Getana (sec.) Achenef Mereti (tres.) 115 members	“”
Iddir 8	“” Emdgat	Kanye Tarkgen (pre.) Sambel Maquanent (sec.) Melesa Demedy (tres.) 139 members	“”
Mahabarat	Farmers Co-op	Mula Makonan (pres.) Yohanes Makonan (acoun.) Kes. Werku Alen (Tres.) Berhan Ama (distr.) Belay Dubal (distr.) Kondy Muche(distr.) Babu Mangiste (distr.) 460 members	Fertilizer, Salt, Sugar, Students supplies, Soap, Seeds,

Community infrastructure [29]

·         11 churchs: Kidanmehret (2), Mekhal, Gorges (2), Mariam (3), Gabriel, Kiros, Kuskwam

·         4 schools: Debre Zebit(1-8), Dabeza (1-4), amboticha (1-4), Midichat (1-4)

·         2 sport fields: Debre Zebit school field, Dabeza school field

·         26 wells

Government Institutions and Programs[30]

·         FTC, Safety net, 4 schools, health center,1 health clinic, police station, Kebele administration building, Tree Nursury, environmental conservation activities,

IV. STRENGTHS & OPPORTUNITIES

The Community of Debre Zebit has a lot going for them. Despite being a rural town in a small Woreda, Debre Zebit has schools, health center, and FTC. Also this FTC is considered one of the most active with so many projects going and looking to start new ones. These projects include terracing, water and soil conservation, bee keeping, a new apple orchard, reforestation, and promotion of new animal breeds. Debre Zebit further has good cell signal, electricity, a main paved road linking it easily to major cities, a farmers Co-op making distribution of fertilizer available to members, and a wealth of classes available through the school, health center and FTC.

Members of this Kebele are motivated always finding small things to make and sell, growing gardens even in the smallest plots increasing food security, and always curious and asking questions. The people have already helped to contour trench many of the “at risk” farms planting trees on steep hill sides and are working at rehabilitation of gullies. Many members come to town and farmer meetings showing engagement in where this town is headed.

V. CHALLENGES, WEAKNESSES and GAP ANALYSIS

The major factors inhibiting food security lies heavily in the environment, large swaths of land have already been eroded down to rock and cannot be even reforested. Further the farmers are struggling with loss of soil fertility and farmers do not grow a diversity of nutritious foods found in other kebeles. Few farmers grow carrots, beets, chard, or fruits like apples, mangoes, and avocadoes, though they can be grown within Debre Zebit with some assistance. As a result those items when available don’t make it to market or they are sold at high prices. Also there is high resistance to new crops or foods due to it not culturally/historically being part of their diet.

Though rain is plentiful during the rainy season very few rain catchment and irrigation systems are set up resulting in lost opportunities for second harvests and a dependence on consistent rain. When years like this one were rain was lower than usual happen farmers become less secure and can’t send their children to school.

Though farmers will sometimes rotate their crops they have mostly the same types of cereal crops being grown instead of following a nutrient balances system which will threaten the long term health of the soil. Soil amendments are done mostly for small gardens and usually only incorporate compost. Alternative soil amendments are not known and reliance on artificial fertilizer is high.

Knowledge of the intercropping concept exists but the understanding of root structures, compatible growing times, supportive plants, and spacing is lacking and as a result no one practices it.

Steep slopes to travel from the lower Kebele to the plateau make a large divide in availability of resources and knowledge to farmers lower in the Kebele. Further during rainy season the climb up to the plataue can be treacherous. As well since so much high slope is present in the kebele, erosion is a serious problem and much more must be done to preserve the land.

Slope map of Mekiet Woreda and Kebele 011 (Debre Zebit)[31]

            The primary trees in the Kebele are Eucalyptus trees, which are known for being water hungry and to possess toxins which inhibit growth of other plants. Though there is an effort to reintroduce Suspania and Trilusur (two native trees used for forage) in the watershed, there is very few farmers who seek to plant anything but Eucalyptus trees believing them of most economic value. Teachings on agroforestry is nonexistent and farmers rarely incorporate any trees into their fields.

            In regards to schools, while talking to both students and teachers at the school it has been noted that the students who have been learning English for 8 years may have excellent written grammatical skills yet they have little to no ability to speak. Desire to have verbal practice is present but sufficient verbal coaching is nonexistent. It has also been expressed that teaching on HIV and family Planning is minimal and that the schools would benefits from such a program.

           

VI. POSSIBLE PROJECTS

Current projects

            Beekeeping: beekeeping is present in my community and the FTC is trying to promote modern and traditional Hives. I can support this project by giving management trainings to bee keepers of farmers that wish to transition away from the traditional hive. I can further teach about honey processing and other bee wax products.

            Compost training: the FTC is currently working with Farmers on setting up annual compost piles. They mainly teach the dug composting method. I could potentially teach the alternative heap style compost method which has less work involved in set up and may be more appealing to certain individuals.

            Environment/Garden Club: the environment club has a focused on teaching students about gardening. I can enhance this by setting up a permagarden and teaching about water saving, companion planting, intercropping, crop rotation, and composting.

            Reforestation: the current tree nursery is far away and has poor tree raising techniques. I propose starting an additional tree nursery at the school with the environment club. This would be closer to FTC, easier to manage, and teach children about reforestation.

            Watershed management: the FTC works in contour trenching and Check Dams for Watershed management this can be promoted more and perhaps have education included for the community so it’s not just work, but something they can own as a community goal and take pride in. (erosion class)

            English Club: the English club dose minor amounts of interactive and verbal practice, I wish to team up with the English teacher to meet after school weekly rather than monthly, to do skits and games. Many students have complained of a lack of verbal skills practice, I will make myself available afterschool once a week for simple practice and home work help.

Potential/Future Projects

Permagarden Development: after Creating my own example Permagarden at the FTC interest has been garnered as to how and why my Garden was made in this particular fashion, though it does take some planning little imputes are necessary and can be found around the compound. I would like to do small group trainings, a family and a few friends in a compound, and from there move from group to group. I would like to use this as a spring board for promoting the consumption of beet greens. This would help meet needs for nutrition and food security, as well as possible sources of income.

Intercrop Training: though people are interested in the Permagardens, most people do not think they can attend a full week long training (even for only two hours a day). But many people have shown an interest in intercrop trainings. I have done 7 intercropping trainings that were prompted spur of the moment by locals so far. Intercropping would help increase crop resilience to disease, balance soil nutrition and increase overall yield. All that is required is seeds and knowledge, this can be used to garner interest in classes on soil amendments and crop rotation cycles.

Roof water catchment systems: in my compound a make shift gutter has been set up to fill buckets during the rainy season, this only attempts to cache two or three buckets at a time, I propose attaching a bucket overflow system to harvest higher amounts of water, by using large rain barrels and attaching multiple rain barrels with pipes to automatically fill the next barrel when full. This will take a little engineering and supplies from the city. Hopefully neighbors will see the system and start saving roof run off. However start-up costs will be slow so buying one rain barrel at a time is best and most cost effective.

Film Club: I have many Disney films in English stored on my computer and am informed that there are speakers that can be attached at the school. I wish to improve English skills in a fun interactive way, as well as teach about culture and a little touch of history. My plan is to give a quick culture or history lesson based on the film then let children watch the film keeping a word bank of words they heard and don’t know, at the end they will be asked to write one paragraph summary of the movie in English for extra credit, this will improve their listening and comprehension skills as well as give a platform to discuss culture such as colonialization, last names, pets in developed countries, cars, farms, and more.

Basic computer skills class: it is rumored that the school may be getting a few computers from the government for student use. Since both teachers and especially students have limited knowledge of computers, and since it is a very important knowledge for professionals I wish to start an basic computer skills course covering topics like word, excel and internet browsing.

HIV/Family Planning Classes: I was asked by the school English teacher if I could teach a course on family planning covering topics of birth control and why limiting family size may be beneficial. This topic is very close to HIV/ AIDS knowledge and doing a week long combined lessons would be beneficial. I wish to partner with a nearby health PCV and the health Center to talk about availability of contraception’s and the science behind HIV.

Priority Ranking of REAL Projects according to CP 10/15/15

	Permagarden	Intercrop	Club Garden	roof catch	Bee keeping	compost	Erosion class	Sch. Tree. nurs
Permagarden
Intercrop	Inter.
Club Garden	club	Inter.
roof catch	roof	roof	club
Bee keeping	bee	inter	club	roof
Compost	Comp.	comp	comp	comp	comp
Erosion class.	erosion	erosion	erosion	erosion	erosion	erosion
Sch. Tree. nurs	tree	tree	tree	tree	tree	tree	tree

 

1.      School tree nursery

2.      Erosion Class

3.      Compost preparation training

4.      Club Garden

5.      Intercrop trainings

6.      Permagarden trainings

 ***Since both school tree nursery and garden development are linked to the Environmen/garden club at the school, It make chronological sence to start with the permagarden training and follow with the tree nursery establishment.

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[1] Endawke Yohanes 30 yr, Plant Science DA “FTC Stats” 10/5/2015

[2]Atse Yohanes, town chairman, history questions 10/10/2015

[3] Alemsew Tesfay 35 yr natural resource DA “FTC interview” 6/4/2015

[4] Google Earth Pro 10/18/2013 imagery

[5] Google Earth Pro 10/18/2013 imagery

[6] FTC Stats

[7] Alemsew FTC interview

[8] Baleta dress 28yr, educational supervisor, “school stats” 10/7/2015

[9] Baleta dress “school stats”

[10] Baleta dress “school stats”

[11] Berhanu Chekola, 7^th-8^th English teacher, 9/21/15

[12] Debre Zebit Club Roster 2006

[13] Alemsew FTC interview

[14] Endawke Yohanes 30 yr, Plant Science DA “FTC interview” 7/30/2015

[15] Alemsew FTC interview

[16] Endawke FTC interview

[17] Endawke FTC interview

[18] Endawke FTC interview

[19] Endawke FTC interview

[20] Yetebiya Digisie, 60 yr, farmer/ Nursery overseer “Tree Nursery interview” 5/8/2015

[21] Tree nursery interview

[22] Tree nursery interview

[23] Tree nursery interview

[24] PSNP 4 Beneficiary Information 2007

[25] Endawke Yohanes “FTC interview”

[26] Endawke Yohanes “FTC interview”

[27] Rendered Via Google Earth Pro by Nicole Stinchcomb 10/13/2015

[28] Endawke Yohanes 30yr, plant Science DE “community Groups/structures” 10/7/2015

[29] Endawke Yohanes, 30 yr, Plant Science DA, “Community Groups/structures interview”

[30] Community Groups/structures

[31] Nicole Stinchcomb, G12 Real Project, UTM 37N Renderd in QGIS, data from Colombia university