Invitation to Ethiopia

Ethiopia is in Eastern Africa

My next step in a bit over a week is to complete service and go to Arkansas to spend time with family as my house is Missouri is no longer my house. I’m looking forward to visiting and a bit of traveling. I’ve not lived in the same state as my mom and siblings in about 40 years, so looking forward to it is an understatement.

I was a little disappointed when I decided not to extend in Grenada – it would have been easy. However, I think it is the best decision all things considered. Besides, easy is overrated.

I’m hopefully not done with Peace Corps yet. I applied to “go anyway and do anything” and was invited to serve as an agriculture volunteer in Ethiopia departing in early January next year.

Upon accepting the invitation I was greeted with a list of medical tasks to complete before I’ll be accepted. I am a little worried about the tasks because when I go back to the states I’ll have to find new doctors, get appointments, and insurance for the tasks that will be due about a month after I return.

As I’m still in Peace Corps I’m working with my current doctor – the Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO) to try to get some of the tasks complete in the short time left. I’m not sure how successful this will be. I’ve been through it twice before so you just what you can and hope for the best.

I’d be a little more relaxed if I didn’t have to find new doctors, but things are the way they are.

Insurance


I would not have traded a corporate desk for a Peace Corps backpack as soon as I did had it not been for the Affordable Care Act, particularly the elimination of pre-existing conditions. My original plan was to serve one or two times and then find some place to settle down, live mainly off savings and find some way to make myself useful in improving things on the planet around family and friends.

I’ve been concerned with reduction, rather than improvement, of the law over the years. I don’t know if it will be killed completed rather than just continue to be mutilated. I’m still a few years from Medicare but I’m one of the lucky ones who would be able to manage somehow.

My friends in other countries who enjoy a less costly system with better services and outcomes don’t understand our system and I’m not able to defend it. I feel so very sorry for US citizens who struggle to live without the basics of effective and affordable health care. It is a drag on our economy, impedes the prosperity of families, and significantly reduces to quality of life for many. Worse, our system is an unnecessary death sentence for some.

Obamacare was never perfect but I’m glad it is still available for now.

Ethiopia


Ethiopia has a lot of history


And natural beauty
Ethiopia has recently been in the news for planting 350 million trees in 12 hours to help restore their forests (currently covering about 4% of the country, rather than 35% earlier in its history). The government is working to plant 4 billion. The recent surge in planting brings the country to 2.6 billion trees. Most are indigenous trees and I’m presuming they are being planted in appropriate areas – previously forested ecosystems, rather than savannas. Sounds like an exciting place for an agriculture volunteer.

Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed plants a tree as part of the reforestation project. (Office of the Prime Minister - Ethiopia)
Read more: at www.smithsonianmag.com/ and other places
If I make it to Ethiopia it will be different from service on Grenada. Ethiopia is landlocked so I will not be able to hit the beach for the afternoon. It might be somewhat like my service in Ghana – carrying buckets of water, pooping in a hole, and sketchy electricity. I have been told that the electricity might not be sketchy as it might not be available. So glad I like camping.

As much as I’ll miss the full size fridge, warm water showers when the tap is working, easy bus transport, nice beaches, and plentiful good food – I am looking forward to a different assignment that I can more directly use my interest in agriculture. As much as I love teaching, Grenada, and the Eastern Caribbean I am ready for a change.

People have wondered why I want live in the conditions that I’m likely to find in Ethiopia. Who wants to live in a single room for two years? Carry water for use. Boil water before filtering to drink and brush teeth? Take malaria meds? Try to learn a language that your ears and mouth don’t understand? (I’m not good at languages and I’ve already started practicing one of the primary languages in the country…)

It is not that I want to live in such conditions, although I don’t have a good reason why, with so much of the world, I should not. Rather, I’m interested in helping people who live in such conditions.

I’m not coming in as a white savior or anything. Just a person with a little different perspective, background, and training. Someone who is interested in learning how things are done in the place and maybe finding a way to help the smart hard working people figure how to make some improvements for themselves.

Trainees arrive


The trainees to Grenada arrived on Saturday. The current volunteers went to the airport to greet them. One of the reasons I’m staying longer than needed was so I could meet the volunteer and help with the transition. Due to logistics he is not homestaying (staying in a family home during training) in Munich, but I plan on finding time.

Greeting volunteers with Spice Island necklaces

So many pictures

New group

A tall man to replace me in Munich

Love always,
John

Comments

  1. ginnyAugust 4, 2019 at 1:19 PM

    I'll cross my fingers you'll through the medical tasks. Ethiopia is so interesting to me. I hope you are able to serve there. I will follow this service very closely, especially since you'll be focusing on agriculture. Good luck!! Ginny

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John MeisenbacherJanuary 4, 2020 at 4:07 PM

      Thanks.... Sorry I've been radio silent... Of course finally did get cleared...

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pito – brewed millet

Image
Corn, rice, and millet are the common grains grown in my region of Ghana. All three are used food, but millet is also used to produce the local brew – pito, or daa in the local language. “N nyu daa” - in Dagaree means “I drink pito.” There are several varieties of millet grown here – a red and white varieties have loose heads. These are used for pito and other foods. There is also a smaller seed variety with a tight head of seeds that is mainly used for porridge. (Don't have a picture of that variety yet.) In all varieties millet grows on a stalk with the grain head at the top of the stalk. White and red millet in the field Two bundles of while millet to be used for seed next season Converting a grain to alcohol is a common practice in various cultures. It provides a way to capture and digest the nutritional value of the grain. In some places, like Germany and the beer brewing monks, the making a beer was a way to preserve the harvest. In Ghana the millet is
Read more

Yam harvesting

Image
Roger and I went to farm to harvest yam on Saturday morning, September 13, 2014.  In Ghana a yam is a root crop that is different from a sweet potato.  We have sweet potatoes here as well. Yam recently harvested Preparing a yam for boiling The yam has a white flesh – softer than a white potato. In this area the yams are planted between April and June.  Harvest continues into December and January depending on the weather and pigs getting into the field. The plant is a vine – which is grown on stakes rather than allowed the spread out.  The plants are placed on a raised bed about 2 feet high.  The beds are surrounded by flat trenches.  This allows the rains to flow around, but not wipe out the yam crop.  Intercropping seems to be common practice with yams planted in the raised bed, soybeans around the edges, and rice in the trenches.  The occasional corn or okra plant is also among the yams – although the bulk of those crops are in other fields.   Row of ya
Read more

Mid-service Training

Image
This past week was mid-service training (MST). The conference was held on St. Lucia at the Mount of Prayer Coubaril run by the Benedictine Nuns. It was a lovely place with hospitable people as you would expect from Benedictines. A couple of years ago in Ghana I was able to spend a little time at a Benedictine Abby (popular with volunteers) – so it was a nice connection with the two Peace Corps services. I got a little spoiled with the great meals and the WiFi. I intentionally don’t have WiFi at my house so I’m less tempted to stay inside. I do have better data service than Dondometeng in the Upper West - no complaints there and so none here. Their Church Their view Their conference room Getting ready for a meal My room was the only one with a television.  It did work, but I didn't watch anything. My guess is the picture was a little fuzzy because of all the estrogen, but that's just a guy theory with a dirty phone This was actually my firs
Read more