What we ate

Posted on 18 Dec 2013 by lornaofarabia

Those of us on the conference trip were amazed by the food. As you would expect, Hong Kong has fantastic Chinese food, especially dim sum, but there is also every other kind of cuisine you could wish for. There are Belgian, Thai, Indian, British, German, and Italian places, with delicious dining experiences spanning the full spectrum from hole-in-the-wall noodle shops and street food to Michelin-starred fine dining establishments (61 of them in the 2013 guide). Here’s a little taste of what we tasted:

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Hong Kong

Posted on 14 Dec 2013 by lornaofarabia

Last Wednesday I flew to Hong Kong along with two ICS colleagues for the 3-day 21st Century Learning International conference. The conference itself was pretty inspirational, and I’ll try to post about that later this week. But meanwhile here are some pictures of our time in the city.

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Diplomatic weekend

Posted on 10 Dec 2013 by lornaofarabia

Last weekend was a busy one for the family.

The ICS Model United Nations club hosted the PanAfrica ADDMUN conference. The first of the 260 participating students to arrive flew in from Austria and Kenya on Tuesday night. In his capacity as one of two advisors to the club, Andreas was on duty from then until after the closing ceremony and dance Saturday night. Alekka isn’t in Model UN this year (she’s chosen to get more involved with an organization called Global Issues Network instead), but she also put in some long hours as a volunteer MUN page over the course of the weekend.

The opening day activities and the closing events were hosted at ICS, but the business of the conference was all conducted at the the UNECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa) building. The official venue provided just the right amount of gravitas for the council meetings. By all accounts, the first ICSMUN international conference was a great success.

Here are some photos. I only attended the getting-to-know-you event and the Ethiopian restaurant outing, so credit goes to the crew of ICS student photographers for most of these pictures.

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My big social event last weekend was the Diplomatic Spouses Bazaar. Kinda sounds like an embassy wife swap, but no, it’s better than that: it’s the best holiday bazaar in Addis. Just about every embassy in Addis Ababa (and because the city is home to the African Union, there are a LOT of them here) hosts a table and/or a cooked food stall where they sell the specialties of their various countries. It’s a great holiday shopping opportunity, and the only place in town to get certain exotic imported goods. Two of the most popular stalls are Canada (maple syrup) and Norway (smoked fish).

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I can’t post the photo of all the cool stuff I came home with: I did all my Christmas shopping at the bazaar and Santa’s got to have a few secrets this time of year.

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Deck the halls

Posted on 4 Dec 2013 by lornaofarabia

When we moved in to our new place, I couldn’t help but notice we were the only house on the street with no razor wire on the outer walls. I liked it that way, but the school didn’t think it was secure enough. I guess that makes sense. Having the only house on the street without a security system is probably inviting trouble.

Last month a pile of what looked like bicycle tires wrapped in brown paper appeared next to the driveway.  A couple of weeks later, the maintenance guys unwrapped them and started unrolling the wire coiled inside.

Now that we’re officially into the Christmas season, maybe I can convince myself it’s just big tinsel. Happy holidays!

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Posted in Addis Ababa, Home life | Tagged | 1 Comment

Giving thanks

Posted on 29 Nov 2013 by lornaofarabia

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. There was a different post here earlier today which is no longer up. I accidentally hit the “post” button last night on an unfinished piece that I was working on for after the holiday. Once it was published, I thought, oh well, I’ll just leave it. But reading it again this morning after arriving early on campus to Skype my kids, I decided it was too depressing for this day of thanks.

Instead, I’m going to tell you what I am thankful for right now. I could go on and on, but this is the top five:

1. I am thankful for my wonderful family here in Addis Ababa: we really are on a journey, aren’t we? I couldn’t have picked better companions.

2. I am thankful for my wonderful family, the ones who are not here. You’re great just for being you, but I also thank you for all doing all those things for us that we can’t. Remodeling burned up kitchens, handling our bank accounts, taking care of the dog and the chickens and the roses and the persimmon tree, gathering up exotic goodies to send through the mail, installing a new furnace, talking to the lawyers and insurance agents, finding and scanning documents, etc. etc. I wish we were all together today, but, lucky me, I’ll be seeing some of you very soon.

3. I am thankful for my supportive friends, both near and far. I’ve leaned on a couple of you pretty heavily recently. Know that I’ll be there for you when you need me.

4. I am thankful for my job. Most schools will say they put students first; I can say from experience that this one really does.

5. I am thankful to be able to help hungry kids by baking bread, and I am thankful for my bread-consuming colleagues who don’t mind paying more than the going rate to help make that project a success.

And one more: it’s not in the top 5, but I’m pretty stoked. I am thankful there was celery at the farmer’s market this morning because now I can make my great-grandma’s stuffing for our big turkey dinner on Sunday!

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Stand back, we’re doing science

Posted on 28 Nov 2013 by lornaofarabia

A few weeks ago, while half the high school was away for Weeks Without Walls, our administration decided to do something special with the two grade levels left behind. Inspired by the revolution in Syria, Grade 9 completed a project-based learning activity in which they tried to answer the question “what’s worth fighting for?”

Grade 11, Alekka’s class, did something called the Group IV project. Group IV is the International Baccalaureate program’s term for the sciences. In the Group IV project, students from the different science disciplines – at our school, that’s chemistry, physics, and biology – work collaboratively to research and present on a topic.

Each small group, comprised of one student from each of the three disciplines, addresses a broad theme in whatever way they choose. This year the theme was “Ethiopia”.  One group asked the question “Why are Ethiopian runners so fast?” Another group investigated the efficiency of traditional Ethiopian biofuels (translation: cow dung). Another looked at various aspects of the leather industry. And another explored the effects of the Renaissance Dam project on the Nile.

Alekka’s group came up with the question “What are the special qualities of injera?” – injera being the staple food of our region. Over the course of the week, the chemistry student researched fermentation and yeast action; the biology student looked at the nutritional makeup of teff grain and the finished bread; Alekka as the physics student looked at the structure of injera as it cooks in terms of surface tension and so on.

The students made an appointment at the staff canteen to learn about how injera is made. I think the cook there got a good laugh out of their attempts.

How injera is supposed to turn out:

The Group IV student version:

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Monkeybites

Posted on 26 Nov 2013 by lornaofarabia

monkeyA message from Dr. John at the Swedish Clinic (our health provider of choice here in Addis): monkey bites reported in the city, rabies shots recommended. Sheesh. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

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The bread lady

Posted on 24 Nov 2013 by lornaofarabia

There are a number of food vendors who sell their wares on campus to ICS employees: we have the mushroom lady, the chicken lady, the pork butcher, the apple and pear guys, the bagel women, the cinnamon roll lady, and Michael the ice cream man.

As of tomorrow I am joining their ranks. I am poised to become the Bread Lady.

The various sellers all used to come to the school at different days and times but a few weeks ago the PTA came up with the great idea of rounding them up for a twice-monthly after-school ICS Farmers Market. I don’t have time to participate as a vendor, so my business plan is simply to bake as many loaves as I can and sell them from my desk in the library, first come, first served, until I run out. I’ll take orders in advance, too.

I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind since last year. The kind of bread my family likes – the crusty, chewy variety – is nowhere to be found in Addis, so I make our own bread at home. A lot of my friends like it too and I sometimes bake it for them. It seems there is a market for it. The problem is, I can’t really do it for free on a regular basis because of all the time involved (after all, I’m a teacher, not a baker).   And I don’t need a second paying job (again because I have a perfectly good one already), and anyway I couldn’t expect people to pay a price that would make it worth all the time involved.

IMG_3084But over the summer a thought occurred to me. I’d be happy to invest the time to make and sell the bread, and people might be willing to pay the price that makes it worth it, if I just donated all the profits to charity. Duh.  A private bake sale. I should have thought of that before. But better late than never. In August I ordered a case of bread flour from the commissary.

The flour arrived a couple of weeks ago, but I still had to work out one last bit. I wanted to choose a recipient I really felt good about to receive any money the enterprise might generate. Now I have that as well. The school production of The Garbage King benefited a local organization called Our Father’s Kitchen, which runs three feeding stations for needy children affected by HIV/AIDS in Addis. Yasser Bagersh, the man who started OFK, came and spoke to our student actors at the post-show party last week. He won me over. A perfect fit for my product, too – bread for meals. If I sell one loaf of bread for 100 birr ($5.00), 30% will cover my expenses and the remaining 70 birr will buy 10 nutritious meals for hungry children.  I’ve got 8 loaves to take to work with me tomorrow. Let’s see how it goes.

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Saving grace

Posted on 16 Nov 2013 by lornaofarabia

Well, folks, it’s been quite a month so far, and not in a good way. Not to put too fine a point on it, I’d say it’s been craptastic. I won’t bore you with the unpleasant details. Thankfully there are fun times with family and friends to look forward to over the holidays.

New challenges have meant no time for two projects I was looking forward to in November: writing a travel memoir for NaNoWriMo, and launching a professional blog for librarians about transitioning our library here – and my own practice – into the 21st century. I’ll get back to those projects some other time (hopefully before the 21st century is over). Meanwhile there have been a few bright spots.gk-flier-letter-size-page-001Heading up the plus column is being on the production team for the middle school play. The middle school at ICS doesn’t usually do a full-length show but our teacher-friend Jo had a script she’d been itching to stage, and the school’s 50th anniversary year seemed the ideal time.

The Garbage King is adapted from an award-winning children’s novel by Jo’s friend Elizabeth Laird. It tells the story of a gang of Addis Ababa street kids and a well-to-do runaway; Laird based it on the real life of a former street child that she met here. Our production is the African premiere. Proceeds from the show go to an organization that works with street children.

The drama group is an after-school activity (aka ASA) as opposed to a regular class. As a result, most of the students who auditioned for TGK  (our school really goes in for the acronyms) had had no acting experience at all. Pretty ambitious project for a 6-week timeline, but the adults involved were an optimistic group.

The process of putting together this show is an excellent example of the value of arts education to students. It’s been wonderful to see these middle-schoolers overcoming self-consciousness, learning the fundamentals of dialog, movement, and costume while developing as an ensemble. We’re seeing kids with mediocre academic records or “bad attitude” learn extensive speaking parts, internalize complex stage directions, take positive risks, and support each other. On top of that, students have said that participating in this show caused them to look at real Addis street children in a more empathetic way.

Our first performances had a few glitches, but we’re proud of how far the actors have come, and I hope the kids are proud too. Tonight’s the final show and I’m confident they’ll nail it this time.

For the three of us, the production has been a whole-family activity: Andreas co-directed the play (with Jo), designed the set, and is running tech. Alekka led the student set-building and art team and is serving as ASM this weekend. I’ve been assisting the directors and this weekend I’m stage managing our three performances.  Kinda makes me want to start a theater.

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Essaouira

Posted on 5 Nov 2013 by lornaofarabia

After three nights in Marrakech, it was time to move on to our next destination, the coastal town of Essaouira. Riding on a public bus is an interesting experience no matter where you are, and Morocco was no exception. The bus was scheduled to leave at 2:30 but for some unexplained reason we were delayed by about 45 minutes. No matter, there was plenty going on to keep us occupied.

As we waited in our seats for the driver to show up, a parade of vendors and beggars boarded the bus and made its way up and down the aisle. First there was a man selling chocolate bars. Then a nut seller. Then a woman with a baby, begging. A man handed out Islamic pamphlets, then did a second pass asking for donations. Then came a man selling soft drinks. Then an armless beggar. Then a lady selling bananas (she came through a second time to collect the peels).

Finally we were on our way. The three hour ride was full of interesting sights, but sadly the windows were too dirty for photos. Too bad, the small towns were full of activity, and the coast when we got to it was lovely: reddish sand dunes contrasting with clear blue skies, green-blue sea and foamy whitecaps.

I made up for the photo shortage during our two days in Essaouira. In fact I think I overcompensated, especially in the rooftops and seagulls categories. Hope you enjoy the slideshow.

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