Audit & AIDS Day & Audit

29 January 2006

The last post was "Whirlwind Tour," and little seems to have changed. Since
last, I have traveled again to Bahir Dar, conducted an audit, traveled to Addis,
traveled to Jimma, traveled to Aggaro for an AIDS Day, traveled to Jimma,
traveled to Addis, traveled to Jimma, traveled to Mizan Teferi, conducted an
audit, and finally back to Jimma. I will be here all of a day and a half before
traveling to Addis for training on something or other from FHI.

The first audit in Bahir Dar was so extraordinarily bad that my job was easy.
During the past year the records were stolen twice by deserting District
Treasurer's, and the District Budget Allocation was stolen once by the second
AWOL treasurer. They records they did have were generally incomplete,
illegible, and rarely corresponded in any meaningful way with Field records.
This doesn't reflect poorly on anyone currently active in the District, since
none of them had anything to do with the record keeping, nor (hopefully) with
the theft. In any case the audit was fairly straightforward: "nothing
reconciles and no records are available to balance." Basically we hit the reset
button on the district balance and have (again, hopefully) taught them how to
keep records this year.

This trip was my second to Bahir Dar, following the trip with my parents the
week before. The first time around I couldn't enjoy the city for the general
level of attention and distraction afforded three white tourists walking around
the city without a local escort. During the latter trip I was with Ethiopians
and was for the most part ignored by the town's population of beggar's and "tour
guides." I also had the opportunity to visit one of the many island
monasteries. The monastery was built in 1313 and has been inhabited by monks to
date. I spent a considerable amount of time talking with one monk in particular
who moved to the island 30 some odd years ago. He speaks impeccable english and
is obviously well educated; he told me he worked for the government of Hailie
Selassie before suffering severe injuries in an automobile accident. While
incapacitated in the hospital, he told God that if he was to be healed, he would
move to a monastery and serve the rest of his life there. He has not left the
island since. This man has lived on a secluded island monastery through two
hostile regime changes, including the "marxist" regime of Mengistu Mariam and
the "democratic" regime governance of Meles Zenawi. Strikingly, he asked one of
the elderly churchmen of our party to pray for him when we were preparing to
leave. For my stay in Ethiopia, this has been a singular event of reciprocity
between evangelical and orthodox. By no means does his action reflect a policy
of either group, but it was a spectacular moment for me. I am continually
trying to encourage the Orthodox and Evangelicals to consider one another as
Christian brothers and sisters, but the overwhelming tendency on either side is
to consider the other a perversion of the "true" faith.

Other than having a friends laptop stolen from his hotel room while we were
having breakfast, the trip was basically a success, after which we woke up at
3:30am to travel back to Addis. A bridge midway closes for construction between
10am and 2pm, and to be there before 10am you must leave Bahir Dar by 4am.
After a brief nights sleep in Addis I drove to Jimma with several guests for the
upcoming AIDS Day. Some of you may know that the international AIDS Day was
sometime back in December. We originally scheduled our event to coincide with
the international day, but because of political instability we were forced to
reschedule. No one is sure how, but Anbessu (the Director of Fayyaa) convinced
both the Federal President of Ethiopia and the Regional President of Oromia to
attend the event. The event was magnificent, and a rough guess of attendance
would be in the vicinity of 30,000. I haven't seen it, but I am told I appeared
twice on Ethiopia Television (ETV - the only public TV station) news broadcast,
and my interview is scheduled to appear in a longer profile on Fayyaa and the
AIDS Day to be aired sometime this week. Dan thinks this is an excellent
example of the denominations encouragement for NIVS to keep a low profile. I'm
also fairly certain that the Director of the Oromia HIV/AIDS Prevention and
Control Organization (OHAPCO) whom I met at the event thinks that I am somehow
affiliated with a giant donor organization, as he seemed overly enthusiastic
about making my acquaintance and inviting me to visit his office next time I'm
in Addis. I didn't have the heart to tell him I'm a volunteer.

An interesting aside: on the morning of the AIDS Day I called Anbessu to ask him
if I needed to take anyone else with me from Jimma to Aggaro. He asked that I
stop at Central Hotel were the government officials were staying and just wait
for them to leave. If anyone needed a ride I'd be there with extra room.
Apparently Anbessu never mentioned this to any of the officials, and after
arriving at Central Hotel I sat with the guest from FHI for about an hour and
half while we waited on the President to finish breakfast. When they were ready
a caravan of maybe 12 new Toyota Land Cruisers followed by 3 flatbed trucks with
soldiers left for Aggaro. During this time no one ever spoke to me or asked for
a ride, so I fired up the truck and followed the convoy. Before we left,
several groups of soldiers went ahead to close and secure the road for the
President's safety. After following at the back of the group behind the
soldiers for 10km or so the soldiers began to wave us away. I ignored them,
knowing that I of course belonged with the group (I had, in fact, written the
letter of invitation to the President's office). After a km of waving, they
radioed to a group of elite soldiers (blue uniforms) who dropped back and drove
beside me with angry faces and AK-47's ready (I actually have no idea what kind
of guns they use). They swerved behind me and tailed me for a few km's, came
alongside again, waved me off, and finally sped off to rejoin the other
soldiers. During this time no gun was ever actually pointed at me, which I
took as a sign that they couldn't really want me to go away. At some point
one of the vehicles in the convoy had to stop to add water. I pulled up to
wait, and someone must have realized that I really was part of the assembly.
After that stop I drove in style, safely inside the perimeter of soldiers.

The day after AIDS Day I drove back to Addis, again slept briefly, and woke up
at 4:30am to drive back to Jimma. Typical for Ethiopia, we made the 7hr trip
with 7 people in a vehicle that is tolerable with 5. I was dropped off in Jimma
to spend the night in my own bed and to meet with the district treasurer to
complete the SW District audit. Unlike Bahir Dar, SW Ethiopia District had near
perfect records, and the treasurer seemed genuinely troubled when I discovered a
10 birr ($1) transcription error that didn't affect the overall records in any
way. The difference between the two audits was striking, and I am told by the
assistant field director that this was the most positive audit of any district
yet in the Horn of Africa. The morning after the audit we were scheduled to
drive to Mizan Teferi for the assembly, but due to legal proceedings we couldn't
leave until around 3pm. This put us in Mizan around 9pm.

We stumbled into our hotel and were guided to our rooms. Mine was the only room
on the top floor of the hotel, which basically amounted to the roof. Mizan
suffers from a general water shortage meaning none of the rooms had fully
functioning bathrooms, but my room didn't offer anything by way of toilet
accommodations. I couldn't even find a public bathroom in the hotel, leaving me
with an empty water bottle in the corner. The several layers of linoleum
flooring were cracked and peeling, often revealing the concrete floor underneath
and providing ample opportunities for the various species of insects and
arachnids to move in and out of their dark abodes. Three empty glass bottles
were tossed in a corner. Open plumbing dominated another corner, I can only
guess as the interrupted attempts to provide toiletries. The cracked, faded
blue paint crumbled from the wall, especially in the far corner from the bed
which is apparently a water runnel in the wet season. I sat on the foam
mattress with that disquieting feeling one gets when they've sat too hastily on
a couch long past its prime, sinking farther than they ever thought possible.
Not to worry of course, I still had firm support for my back; by the time I
stopped sinking I was rooted firmly on the plywood base (at least, in the parts
of the bed covered by the plywood). On top of this, Mizan is oppressively hot
and doesn't seem to cool much at night. I slept without a sheet and with the
window wide open, hoping to catch even the faint whisperings of a breeze. My
sweat would have kept me up if I had ever to fall asleep. It seems the best
time to grind coffee in Mizan is 1am. "Grinding" coffee in Ethiopia consists
not in the speedy whirring of a machine, but in the slow pounding of stone
against stone. A friend on the floor below (the one whose laptop was stolen in
Bahir Dar) told me he actually got up to answer his door after the first half
hour, ready to shout "WHAT?" to who-ever it was that just wouldn't give up
waking him. At 6am the next morning someone did bang on my door, raising me
from the first full hour of sleep I had all night. Of course who ever was
banging on the door didn't speak a word of english and clearly wasn't looking
for me - unless to rob - so I didn't answer the door. To summarize, had I been
to Mizan to see Mizan, the trip would have been an abysmal disappointment.

Nevertheless the trip was remarkable for the district assembly. This was my
first experience with a large, vibrant Nazarene (or any other) worship service
in Ethiopia. The Jimma church is the largest of any "urban" community we have
and can be quite interesting at times, but is tiny compared to the throngs of
people packed into an old qabele "town" hall, screaming praise choruses at the
top of their lungs. I am certain I will be deaf when I leave Ethiopia. During
the assembly we also incorporated a small indigenous denomination into the
Church of the Nazarene. Through an apparent hodge-podge of theology, these
loosely Lutheran affiliated churches joined a Wesleyan-Holiness denomination.
How ironic. If either spins in their grave I would assume it to be Luther.

In any event I'm now back in Jimma enjoying a few hours of down time lying on my
bed, writing emails and listening to Hank Williams (courtesy Nana Guillot). In
a few days I'll be back in a hotel somewhere in Addis so I'll enjoy my room
while I can.

Until next time, apologize to your sister for my negligence. I'll write her soon.

Michael

Whirlwind Tour

16 Jan 06

My parents have now safely arrived and resumed normal life after spending two weeks with me in Ethiopia.  After a brief respite on MLK day they'll have to return to the daily grind.  (Actually, mom has to work on MLK day.  Sadly my Alma Matter, Southern Nazarene University, continues its RACIST practice of beginning school each spring semester on MLK day.  I encourage any current students or faculty to simply boycott class on this day.  Don't even hand out syllabii - just don't show up.)  I am sad to see them go, but it was wonderful to have them here.  The following is loosely revised from my written journal during their trip here.

03 Jan 06

After considerable confusion and discussion, I have rented a Land Cruiser from a man named Bantomlick (Banty).  During the process I alternated between being tired and extremely frustrated, or both.  The man I originally rented from changed the agreement on the last day and informed me we could not have the car without a driver.  I contacted a friend of mine, who assured me he could find someone willing to rent to me without driver.  After calling about 30 people, and having two agree and then change their mind within 30 minutes, we ended with no vehicle or driver.  I had to pick my parents up at 7pm at the airport, so at 6pm I told my friend to just get me a vehicle, driver or not.  Through the confusion of the itinerary, etc, we ended up with a much older Land Cruiser, a cranky driver, and no air conditioning.  When the driver picked me up the Land Cruiser had 4 ethiopians already in it, leaving barely enough room for me, let alone my parents.  During the drive to the airport there were heated debates between the ethiopians regarding the fact that they had to go to the airport at all.  Aparently my contact person didn't work this into the agreement.  At several points the driver pulled over and refused to drive at all.  I sat through all of this in silence, too tired and sick (I contracted tonselitis during all this) to participate in the fight.  When we arrived at the airport I made my only demand - that none of the argument continue in front of my parents.  Now my parents have arrived and we are sleeping at the Miller's.  Tomorrow we'll drive to Jimma, hopefully with a more workable driver.

08 Jan 06

Driver issues ended up working out.  The owner of the Land Cruiser showed up as the driver the next morning, giving us a fresh start.  His english is decent, and he has bent over backwords to help us and make our trip go well.  I think I still would prefer to not have a driver, but having one has had significant advantages.

Arrived in Lalibela today around 5pm.  Staying at the Jerusalem hotel with prices far above normal Ethiopian rates.  The view, however, makes the rate well worth it, and the rooms were a nice contrast to the room we had in our overnight stop in Dessie.  Mom thinks the room in Dessie is the worst she's ever stayed in.  I didn't think it was that bad so if you want details maybe she'll post them in the comments.  (I can't get pictures to upload right now, but hopefully in the future you'll see the pictures from our balcony here.  In the states I can't imagine how much you'd pay for a room with this view.)  The drive was similarly gorgeous, though an air conditioned vehicle would have made a huge difference.  The weather was actually rather cool, but to keep the inside from boiling you had to have windows rolled down.  The roads are mainly dirt, and given the general lack of rain during this season, produce huge clouds of dust in the wake of passing vehicles.  We are all coughing and sneezing from dust and coal fires.

Also during the drive our driver became sick, ostensibly from the yellow pastry/cake he had for breakfast.  He stopped several times to, er, return the cake to the world, and ultimately had to ask me to drive.  Ironic, eh?  Driving was fun, but I admit rather taxing, and I'm glad I don't have to do it eight or ten hours a day.  Upon arriving in Lalibela Banty also helped us hire a guide.  Aparently this turned out for the best as well, as another couple touring the churches seemed to get rather angry at their guide when they found out how much less we payed ours.

09 Jan 06

Toured the first half of churches this morning.  The guide broke the churches into three groups.  The first symbolize the earthly Jerusalem, the second Noah's Ark, and the third the heavenly Jerusalem.  The first group includes the largest two churches, and are supposedly the most impressive.  Because they are protected by UNESCO scaffolding and awning, however, their full grandeur is somewhat lost.  As such, I found the second group by far the most impressive.

At the church of St. Michael I received blessing from the priest and kissed the cross of St. Lalibela.  I tried to appropriately cross myself afterwords but I'm fairly certain I did it wrong.  I think this was the only time I saw a high priest smile.  In another church I didn't pull out my camera to take a picture of the cross, and the priest seemed surprised.  To oblige him I took a picture, realizing the expectations the priests have.  Our guide told us the priests are addicted to pictures.  All of the priests wear sunglasses inside the dark churches.  I have no idea what the reason is for this but I do enjoy the look it gives them, dressed in traditional Ethiopian Ortodox robes holding 800 year old crosses, wearing modern 5 dollar sunglasses.

To reach the various churches we've had to do quite a bit of walking on old, steep cobblestone paths laid by the Italians.  This has slowed my parents down a bit, which is understandable given my new gps shows the elevation to be 7900'.  I'm now sitting on the balcony of my hotel room, enjoying one of the most spectacular views I could hope for.  Children yell hello to me from the dusty road below.  Women are gridning grain and coffee.  Eucalyptus trees rustle and bend in the wind.  Tomorrow we will move on to Bahir Dar but I could stay here a very long time.

10 Jan 06

Arrived in Bahir Dar around 3pm.  staying at the Dib Anbessa, a beautiful hotel overlooking the lake.  After lunch yesterday we finished the tour of Lalibela churches by visiting the set symbolizing the heavenly Jerusalem.  During this final set of churches we visited "hell", a 75 meter tunnel connecting two of the churchs.  No lights, no hand rails, low ceiling.  I walked mom through extremely slowly.  Aparently there is a network of tunnels connecting the churches, but most are now closed for security and safety reasons.

After arriving at the hotel today we spent a short amount of time walking the streets.  We fairly quickly withdrew back to the hotel, as every time we tried to move out we were surrounded by beggars or people trying to sell various things to us.  I am more used to this than my parents, but even for me it is extremely tiring and Bahir Dar was worse than normal.  Everywhere we go we are seen as sources of money.  I have come to terms with being stared at or called to; occassionally a child will grab my hand to walk with me for some distance, content to just be near me.  Most of the time, however, I am more likely to be nearly assaulted for money.  It isn't as bad in Jimma anymore since people are used to my presence, but in other areas the feeling is intense.  Here [in Bahir Dar] it is impossible to walk without a beggar following on one side, a child following behind trying to sell tissue, and a group of young "tour guides" on the other trying to hire out their services.  I have been told by others who want to justify this behavior that "this is just a different culture - its acceptable here."  Frankly, this isn't true.  Begging is excepted, but the constant barrage and solicitation towards foreigners would never be tolerated by a local.  Foreigners are targeted because they are greater sources of wealth.  This is something I will continue to struggle with; I want to be sensitive to the obvious wealth disparity and find a way to better the plight of others (I did sell everything and move to Ethiopia), but the targeting of white tourists or ex-patriats will do nothing to help the long term economic situation in Ethiopia, and can only harm it. 

13 Jan 06

Friday the 13th.  Did some shopping with Sheri Miller today and parents picked up their last few souvenier items.  Finished the evening by dinner with the Miller's at a restaraunt overlooking Addis, build on the side of Entoto [mountain].  Dropped my parents off at the airport just a bit ago and will sleep following another chapter of Kafka.  I'm ready to sleep in my own bed again, but it looks like that's at least a week away still.  I have to travel back to Bahir Dar on Wednesday to conduct the Northwest Ethiopia District audit.  The following saturday is the District Assembly.  Sunday drive back to Addis, Monday jump on a plane for Jimma.  Tuesday Fayyaa is conducting a community AIDS Day with an estimated 30,000 in attendance.  Wednesday I'll do the Southwest Ethiopia District audit, then drive to Mizan for their District Assembly.  Someday it'll slow down...