Ethiopia!

Where should I even begin? I apologize in advance for a really long and rambling post.

First, Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never colonized. This is a good thing because they have some of the most genuine culture in Africa - they have their own calendar, their own method of telling time, their own alphabet etc. In Ethiopia, it's the year 2002. So when you travel in Ethiopia you're seven (well now it's eight) or so years younger.

It's also a bad thing that they were never colonized because their development has been extremely slow & incremental. However, the genuine culture of this beautiful country is slowly falling by the wayside & tourism is creeping in...

When we were in the capitol city, Addis Ababa, we went to the African Union (pictured above), and the American embassy. The African Union is an amazing place that is working toward incredible changes. Because of the efforts of the African Union, the 52 member countries of Africa took a single position on an issue (climate change) two years ago and sent one representative to the climate change summit in Copenhagen this past fall.

No one place has ever made me feel so inspired & motivated ever. I felt like the walls were whispering to me: Gill, come work here. You need to be here, and we need you.

Here is some art in the African Union:

All of the billboards in Ethiopia have some sort of social message. Most were for contraceptives, but this one was my favorite:

The same day we visited a school for Autistic children - the ONLY one in the entire country & the first of its kind in Eastern Africa. This was an especially emotional experience for me because I have an Autistic cousin & I know how much my aunt relies on & appreciates special education & Autism centers like this one. The Joy Center uses holistic treatment - this is standard in the US and most western countries, but it is amazing in its own right. The owner & founder of the Joy Center had a son with Autism. JoJo was never diagnosed, but his mother researched tirelessly until she found a condition that matched his symptoms. Autism awareness was nonexistent when JoJo was born & now it's still struggling but it's becoming more known thanks to the Joy Center.

This is our Addis tour guide & friend Aklilu in front of the Joy Center:

Aklilu also took us to an HIV & AIDS clinic called WiseUp. HIV/AIDS is a huge issue in Ethiopia but it's also completely stigmatized. Generally, people only go to get tested after their partner becomes ill or dies. This clinic teaches single mothers a trade like sewing, ceramics etc. so they can earn a living for themselves.

Later, we all went to Aklilu's home, no castle, for a traditional Ethiopian dinner & a traditional coffee ceremony (Ethiopia is one of the origins of coffee). Here are the freshly roasted beans:

And here is my first sip of the stuff:

It was STRONG and strangely fruity.

One of the most notable Ethiopian foods is called Injara - a spongey bread made from Teff. Above is a picture of cows "threshing the teff" or walking on it to get the grain out of the stalk. I wasn't a huge fan of Injara, and I probably won't try it again because when we watched the threshing, we saw one of the workers catch the cows' excrement in his bare hands....

All of these pictures of Addis probably don't do it justice. It was definitely the most modernized part of Ethiopia that we saw (whatever modernization means) but we still saw a scene similar to this one in the middle of the city:

We only stayed in Addis for a few days... then it was off to the Omo River Valley to see some indigenous tribes and go camping!

On our way, we stopped because one of the cars in our caravan got lost & we had to wait for it.. we were messing around, playing games like leap frog & quickly attracted a crowd. We started taking pictures with them & they had never seen a digital picture before, but they were absolutely amazed & soon after we showed them, all they wanted to do was take pictures with us!

We stayed for a few days at the Paradise Lodge in Abra Minch & this is where we ate breakfast:

Needless to say, it was absolutely breath taking.

The first tribe we visited was my favorite - The Dorze. They are completely self sustaining & live off of one tree, the false banana tree. They make their homes from it, bread from it, baskets... everything! I learned later that they were much different from the other tribes we would visit.

They also weave products from cotton, so of course we all bought scarves:

All of the kids were fascinated with us - all they wanted were for us to pick them up & hold them. Technically they were working & it probably wasn't the best of us to be holding them all day but how can you resist?!

But the more tribes we visited the more disheartened I got.

The more kids I saw working instead of learning.

The more malnourished bellies I saw.

It only got harder. We saw people deliberately exploiting their culture to make money & this made me madder than hell. It's pure human greed at its worst. Most of these tribes are completely self sustaining - they make & grow their own food, they make & use their own medicines, they make crafts to sell & trade for whatever money they need. But yet, they dress up in clothing that is traditionally reserved for sacred holidays, they elaborately paint their faces w

ith mud every single day even though that tradition is normally only practiced on special occasions. And why do they do it? Because they charge you to take pictures with them & they know the more painted they are, the more outlandish their outfits are, the more they know you will want to take their picture. [I refused to take any pictures of the tribes, but I stole the three above from friends that went with me... is that still immoral? probably]

And it's only going to get worse. They are currently building a highway that goes directly into the Omo Valley & passes (almost intrudes upon) all of the villages we visited.

This is the highway under construction (it is still pretty charming how the road block is scattered rocks):

On a lighter note:

January 7th - Christmas in Ethiopia! We went on a boat ride & saw incredible sized crocodiles, pelicans AND I saw a hippopotamus on Christmas!!!!

On the way to, from & around the Omo Valley, I spent probably 40 hours in that vehicle with those people. In the middle, Seyoum, our amazing tour guide who is also a BAMF & my best friend. In the green is Steph, my other best friend, my roommate from last year. Next to her is Hailey & next to me is Brittney - I didn't know these girls before the trip but I am so lucky that we all ended up in the same vehicle! These two were the most sane, grounded, wonderful people on our trip & I am really missing them as I'm typing this!

Overall, Ethiopia was fascinating & wonderful & I know I'll go back someday. One of my favorite countries.

Cairo, Egypt

So I lied. I slept most of the day yesterday, unintentionally. So I'll have to start reliving my adventure today. I'll start in Egypt - because that was the first country we visited. It was also the last country we visited, but I'll get to that later. This was one of my first glimpses of Cairo - after I woke up from a short nap on the bus. I quickly realized that I was not in America, or English speaking Europe. All of the shop signs were in Arabic & there were palm trees! We had an awesome tour guide named Hany, who also guided President Obama when he gave his speech to the Middle East last year. More on that later.

Our hotel was down this street. But we couldn't turn onto that street because that car you see in the picture that looks like it's driving down that street, was parked. In the middle of the road. And while it seems quite clear that only one car would fit down that road, it was not a one way. Traffic was one of the most memorable things about Cairo. It was shocking. At night, if the road is lit, drivers don't see a need to turn on their headlights. And on our way to dinner, one of our hosts Omar got into a car accident in his brand new vehicle. He didn't call the police, or get the driver's insurance info or anything & seemed surprised when we asked these questions.

Speaking of dinner... We went to a really nice restaurant called Cedars with a bunch of students from the Middle East Partnership Initiative that my professor taught. It was so amazing to sit down with these people, who are so different than us, and so similar at the same time, and talk about so many different things. Things that people would normally never discuss at dinner: religion, politics, the whole nine yards. Not only is it taboo for us to talk about these things at dinner, but for them, it's taboo to talk about these things at all. Especially politics. I felt so lucky to gain these insights that I would never have an opportunity to gain otherwise.

As far as the food went, it was as amazing as the conversation. I had Fatta Shawerma (meat, veggies & rice with Egyptian tomato sauce) and Mombar (sheep intestine stuffed with rice). It was absolutely delicious but I couldn't even eat half of it. I normally don't get appetizers because I hate wasting food, but we all had to order 40 Egyptian pounds (about $8) worth of food because it was after 10pm...

The next day we went sight seeing. We saw the tomb of President Sadat, and the place he was assassinated:
The Pyramids (yes, this was the 2nd day of our trip):
Rode camels from one side of the pyramids to the other and down to the Sphynx:
Matt's camel would not stay with the caravan & insisted on sniffing the back sides of the other camels, especially the ones who weren't in our caravan (and thus were being ridden by people we didn't know, and who did not speak English)
Our tour guide Hany told us that when President Obama visited the Sphynx, he went down and stood between its paws (not open to the public) and had a long conversation with it. I thought that was pretty interesting. He also told us that Obama walked from the Pyramids to the Sphynx, which I thought was a rough ride on a camel. Definitely some treacherous terrain. I'm impressed.
At the end of our trip, we spent a few more days in Egypt. Our first night back, Egypt won the Africa Cup of Nations (soccer tournament) in a tough game against Ghana. Cairo was insane! There were young children hanging out of cars, waving flags everywhere, pick up trucks with 30 people in the back (we even saw/heard one pick up truck that had a very loud drum set in the back along with its crowd), people with blow torches, banging pots & pans, climbing on top of statues - it was AWESOME. Here's one picture of a guy with a flag, whose friend was amazed by Americans.
All we wanted to do was get out & join the crowd but our security guard forbid us. We were on our way to the Pyramids sound & light show:

And this is the view of Cairo at night from our last hotel:
On our last day in Cairo, we went to the Egyptian museum & saw some of King Tut's caskets, a bunch of his jewelry, his famous golden face mask thing (I forget what it's called) & mummiesssssssssssss. We saw mummies of some of the most famous rulers of ancient Egypt, like Queen Hatshepsut (the only notable female pharaoh) and Ramses II. All in all, Cairo was unforgettable. But it was only one part of our journey.

Spring Semester

Hello Dear Friends,

I've returned from a wonderful month of exploration, cultural discoveries, inspiration and adventures. I've returned and found myself in a snowy, uninspiring tundra - similar to the Delaware that I left behind.

Oh how I was hoping that the climate would have magically altered itself to resemble Ethiopia's while I was gone.

But Alas! It hasn't. And the snow on the ground when I got off the plane served as a prompt reminder that I need to shape up, put my big girl winter boots on (not that I have winter boots), and deal with life again.

However, this has proved to be quite uninspiring. So I think I'll recount my adventure one country at a time, through six posts... starting tomorrow.

But here's one from Thailand for those who, like me, are suffering from the winter blues