Where tortoises roam

Posted on 22 Feb 2013 by lornaofarabia

We have some unusual critters on campus.  Up on the field there are wild tortoises.  They like to eat the grass. I guess they don’t get in the way of the games too much; everyone seems to like having them there.

Sometimes the tortoises wander away to areas where they might cause problems or be in danger.

tortoise 1

Uh oh… tortoise in the faculty parking lot!

tortoise 2

We better alert the guards. But first Lorna will take a picture with Andreas in it so people can see how big these guys are.

tortoise 3

Let’s roll this fellow back up to the soccer field. All in a day’s work for our ICS guards.

Posted in Animals, International Community School | Leave a comment

International Day

Posted on 21 Feb 2013 by lornaofarabia

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It’s kind of a cliché to say that every day is international day at a school like ours.  Even so, many international schools around the world celebrate their multicultural character at an annual springtime event.  International Day is an opportunity for students (and parents and teachers) to display their national pride and to share their cultural distinction through dance, song, food, and ethnic dress.

International Day at ICS was this past Friday. What an incredible pageant it was!  It began with the all-school Parade of Nations, with students (and sometimes their whole families) circling the track in groups by country, all dressed in national costume.  Then the flag-bearer from each country welcomed the crowd and posted their country’s flag.  The choir sang the Ethiopian national anthem and “We Are the World.”  There was an Ethiopian dance performance.  Then the crowd moved to the amphitheater where students presented dances, songs, and poetry from their countries.  There was wonderful food from all around the world for lunch.

This year there were 84 different nations represented. Students with dual (or multiple) passports get to choose which country they want to walk with in the parade.  Sometimes for one reason or another a student doesn’t believe in this kind of nationalistic display; we had six students walk with the ICS school flag and eight more representing the United Nations.

Greece was one of the few countries not represented, probably because there is a Greek school in Addis which most Greek children attend. If Alekka’s second passport finally becomes a reality this year, she wants to celebrate that part of her heritage by carrying Greece’s flag at the 2014 International Day.

Posted in Expat experience, International Community School, Teaching | 2 Comments

Take two, they’re small

Posted on 12 Feb 2013 by lornaofarabia

There’s a problem with unwanted animals in this city.

I’m starting to think there’s a problem with unwanted animals everywhere.  In Damascus it was cats, in Sarajevo, dogs.  Here in Addis, it’s both.  This is a very poor country where people struggle to feed themselves and their children.  Some people keep a pet, but it’s easy to see that the additional costs of a litter of kittens or puppies could be unsustainable for a lot of folks.  And I don’t  know if anyone even does spaying here. I suppose you could find a farmer to neuter a pet animal for you, but no one’s going to do that for free to all the street dogs.

I’m sure that many Ethiopians find it hard to understand the soft spot faranji have for animals when there is so much human suffering all around.  Charity homes here are full of AIDS orphans and abandoned babies.  What kind of crazy person fusses over kittens when children go hungry?  It seems such a white western privilege, and a misuse of resources.

However, faranji that I am, I can’t accept the cruel methods some people use to rid themselves of unwanted litters.  One ICS teaching couple we know found six tiny puppies alive in the dumpster on their way home from school.  They brought them to their house, bottle-fed them, and eventually found homes for all but one. Their kids are pretty happy they got to keep that last one.

Yesterday morning there was an email to staff from another of our American teachers: someone tossed a bag containing five kittens over the wall into her yard on Friday.  Actually, the bag had four kittens in it: the fifth had fallen into a crack between two sections of the wall, where it remained, stuck and terrified, for two days until my friend’s husband devised a means to extract it.  I suppose whoever dumped the kittens figured the faranji would take care of them.  They were right.

kittens cropped

Guess what: #2 and #4 in this lineup have just joined our family.

Posted in Addis Ababa, Animals, Expat experience, Home life, Sarajevo | Tagged | 5 Comments

The commissary

Posted on 11 Feb 2013 by lornaofarabia

The commissary. The place Americans in Addis love to hate.

US embassies around the world run commissaries for their employees.  These places are shops, usually on embassy grounds, offering American consumer goods (food, toiletries, and alcohol) for sale to soldiers, embassy workers, and diplomats stationed overseas. Can’t live without Fritos, Kraft mac & cheese, and Snickers bars?  The commissary promises to make you feel like you never left Medford. You can even pay in US dollars with cash, check, or credit card.

The commissary exists to serve US government employees. In some countries, especially in the developing world, it also offers membership to certain other American expats.  The countries where they do this are called “hardship posts” because you know how hard it is to survive without Skippy creamy peanut butter. Our school in Damascus was affiliated with the US embassy and the commissary had for many years been open to DCS teachers.  But the embassy there was downsizing to essential personnel at the time we arrived, and the commissary shut down before I ever even saw it. We probably wouldn’t have joined anyway. There were very few items I consider necessary that we couldn’t find at the store. Some items not sold in the supermarkets (bacon, for example) could be special-ordered through a Christian-owned neighborhood shop whose driver made weekly supply runs to Lebanon.

Here in Ethiopia, western goods are much harder to come by.  Baking supplies like chocolate and brown sugar are simply nonexistent, and some items like nuts and dried fruit command absurd prices (eight dollars for six walnuts, in the shell?).  Also, the local lamb and beef are very tough – fine for the stewed wats that are central to Ethiopian cuisine, but less satisfactory for barbecue or roasting.

In the fall, overseas-hired ICS teachers with US passports received invitations to join the Addis commissary.  For $125 per family per year, we have access to all the potato chips and Campbell’s soup our American dollars can buy.  They also sell Kenyan beef, lamb, and pork that is similar to American meat.

Unfortunately for us, teachers are barred from purchasing alcohol at American commissaries.  Sheesh.  I read that Senator Orrin Hatch was responsible for adding this moral turpitude restriction via a rider to some unrelated bill.  I can’t find a reliable reference to the law’s origin on the internet, and its authorship may just be a rumor.  Whoever it is that’s responsible for this nonsense, chances are I wouldn’t have voted for him anyway.

Some members, especially the long-term expats, gripe about the commissary.  There’s a lot of talk about how the store used to offer more variety, more desirable items, and more stock:  shelves of popular items are often bare, and there is a lot of hoarding going on. A common complaint among teachers is that there is too much shelf space allotted to the liquor section, but I suspect they might feel differently if that area wasn’t off-limits.  Sour grapes in the wine department.

Despite the negatives, I joined.  And look at all the goodies I came home with from our first shopping trip. Sadly, no Twinkies, not anymore….

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted in Addis Ababa, Expat experience, Food, Shopping | 2 Comments

Wheels

Posted on 9 Feb 2013 by lornaofarabia

I know a lot of you have been anxious for me to get to the end of the truck story. The car finally arrived a few days after I left for California, but sat in the parking lot well into January while the paperwork was being finished.  We took it out for the first time when I got back from the US.

Here it is in the school parking lot: our shiny new Hilux!  It feels great to have our own wheels.

Hilux2

Oh, and I am sure you’ll also be happy to know that Wolfy and Balto are home safe and sound.  And Alekka, too.

Posted in Ethiopia, Home life | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Adventures with Wolfy and Balto

Posted on 7 Feb 2013 by lornaofarabia

My daughter Alekka is away this week on her Grade 10 “Week without Walls” experience in northern Ethiopia.  Alekka took a camera on the trip; if she comes back with some good pictures, I think I’ll ask her to do a guest post about her adventures in Gondar and Lalibela.

The Week without Walls program begins in Grade 5, with each age level visiting a different location in Ethiopia to explore historical and natural sites and to do community service.  Some parents I’ve talked to are worried about their kids on these trips: small planes, crazy drivers, bedbugs, malaria, and unclean water figure prominently in their nightmares.  Am I concerned about Alekka?  Nope.  I guess the maternal jitters gene skipped a generation with me.  However, I am very worried about Wolfy and Balto.

Let me back up about eleven years.  While waiting for a flight in the Portland airport, we entertained 4-year-old Alekka with a visit to the gift shop. She fell instantly in love with a plush toy husky dog. Every night for the five weeks we were in Europe, Andreas told Alekka a bedtime story about Wolfy and his human companion Gwendolyn.  We were all enchanted by the tales. A near-tragedy occurred when Alekka left Wolfy behind in an Oxford B&B, but the inn owner saved the day by rushing us back in his own car to rescue our little stuffed friend. By the time we returned to Medford, Alekka and Wolfy were inseparable.

Alekka listened to hundreds more of Andreas’s Wolfy tales over the next few years, and spent hours in her room writing her own illustrated stories about his adventures.  When she was 7 years old we took another epic family vacation (with Wolfy, of course) across the United States and back by car.  Alekka spotted Wolfy’s twin in a Boston toy store, and from then on the doggie brothers Wolfy and Balto costarred in the wild adventures.

Fast forward to last winter… Wolfy and Balto are living contentedly with us in Damascus.  At the holiday break we meet our oldest son Dimitri in Vienna for Christmas, after which we all take the train to Prague for New Years.  Wolfy and Balto accompany Alekka, as always. We have a grand time.

A few days later we’re back at the Prague train station getting ready for Dimitri to take the train back to Vienna to catch his flight home, while the rest of us are to continue on to Budapest.  Standing on the platform, I see Alekka unzip her carry-on bag.  She glances up at me, and I know immediately from her stricken look what has happened.  Wolfy and Balto have been left behind.  Somewhere.

Trixie All

From the book Knuffle Bunny Free by Mo Willems, wherein Trixie realizes she has left her beloved toy Knuffle Bunny on the airplane she flew in to visit her grandparents in Holland. Knuffle Bunny winds up in China. This is the same look Alekka gave me.

Where do any of us remember seeing them last?  We’re not sure…  maybe Vienna?  Maybe Prague? Were they on the train with us? Andreas races on foot back to the hotel.  I head to the railroad’s lost and found office (the Czech officials think I’m nuts – that’s OK, lots of people think I’m nuts).  No luck.  In the end, one very sad girl was riding on the overnight train to Hungary.

I emailed the Vienna hotel as soon as we arrived in Budapest.  A miracle!  Alekka had left the doggies in her bed, and the (very very considerate) hotel owners had saved them, suspecting they would be missed by someone.  Dimitri carried out the rescue mission, detouring to the hotel before his flight back to California. Wolfy and Balto had a pleasant sojourn with Uncle Dimitri in Davis, California before the big reunion in Oregon in July.  Whew.

Fast forward again to Addis Ababa… after Alekka left on Monday for Week without Walls, I had to get my computer (it’s the preferred medium for Doctor Who viewing) out of her room.  I noticed that the doggies were not perched atop her pillow in the usual way.  They were not there, not anywhere.  They could only be…  with Alekka on Week without Walls.  Aargh!!!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I am telling you right now, if they get left in Gondar, I am not going there to get them.  Seriously.  I’m not. Well, probably not.  I’ve already looked up the flight information.

Posted in Around Africa, Expat experience, Family, Home life, International Community School | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Reentry

Posted on 6 Feb 2013 by lornaofarabia

I feel I should apologize for, or at least explain, my two-month absence from this site.  I haven’t been malingering, not this time, anyway; more like I hit a bump in my life and had to take a break.  I’m ready to come back now.

One of the things expats often say is that it’s a wonderful existence until something goes seriously wrong at home.  Then it’s suddenly painfully hard to be posted thousands of miles away from people you care about.

My 88 year old mother, who had been living mostly independently since Dad died in 2006, developed a form of rapid-onset dementia over Thanksgiving weekend.  My sister Heather contacted me to say that Mom would need to move into assisted care as soon as possible, and that the doctors expected her condition to deteriorate significantly in the coming months.  Once Mom was settled into a nursing facility, something would have to be done with her empty house.  And I would need to get to California as soon as I could if I wanted to see her while she could still recognize me.

Anyone contemplating teaching overseas, especially if they might be called on to care for loved ones back home, should examine the contract benefits package carefully.  We are fortunate to work at a school that takes care of its people with generous family and bereavement leave.  The director gave me permission to use my family leave to take off two weeks early for the three-week winter break.  My initial plan was to stay in California for three weeks, visiting Mom at the nursing home and helping my sister get the house ready for sale or rental. Then I would fly back to Addis on Christmas Eve to spend the holiday with my husband and daughter here.  I figured I would need some down-time after sorting everything out in Nevada City, and we would still have almost two weeks after Christmas before school started again, so I booked a trip to Morocco for the three of us.

Events progressed differently than expected.  I had a pretty good week with Mom when I first arrived in California.  I’ll always remember the bright and crisp December day my sister and I wheeled her around the Sacramento Zoo.  Mom loved the flamingos and the tiger, and she smiled and chattered energetically about a big reunion party she was planning with long-deceased friends and relatives – strangely prophetic, looking back on it now.  A few days later Mom took a fall at the nursing home, and when she was released from the hospital it was back to her own home with a two week prognosis.

My four adult children had been planning to spend Christmas together at our house in Oregon, but when I cancelled my flight back to Addis they moved their holiday to Nevada City.  Heather and one of her daughters were there, too. With Mom’s hospital bed in the living room, lights and candles and all our familiar holiday decorations on display, it was a lovely, peaceful day. Mom’s wish for a white Christmas was granted – she could see fresh snow resting on the trees in the front yard through the big picture window.

Heather and I were there when Mom passed away early in the morning on January 6. We held a little ceremony for friends and family in celebration of her life on January 10, and the next day my niece Adrienne drove me to SFO to begin the two-day journey home to Addis in time for the start of school on January 14.  I’m adjusting slowly, still mourning – every time I see a new bird, I want to take a photo of it to share with Mom.  I expect I’ll be doing that for a long time.

A last note : the end of my mother’s life was rough on us all, but I have only the highest praise for the wonderful staff and volunteers at Hospice of the Foothills in Nevada City.  It was their caring support, and that of my children, and my sister and her daughters, that made it possible for Mom to spend her final weeks at home.

snowy yard 5

Posted in Elsewhere, Family | 2 Comments

Sounds like a problem to me

Posted on 4 Dec 2012 by lornaofarabia

From: ABDULKADER Kedir
Date: Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 2:07 PM
Subject: Omega transit
To: Andreas

dear Andreas
    this is inform you that we send all relevant document to Djibouti
but there is a system problem on Djibouti customs office and now
they are discusing with addis ababa customs office to avoid a
problem.
 
kindly regards
Abdulkader
Something tells me we won’t be seeing that Hilux for a while.
Posted in Ethiopia, Expat experience | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Tastes like licorice

Posted on 3 Dec 2012 by lornaofarabia
‘We want two Anis del Toro.’
‘Do you want it with water?’
‘I don’t know,’ the girl said. ‘Is it good with water?’
‘It’s all right.’
‘You want them with water?’ asked the woman.
‘Yes, with water.’
‘It tastes like licorice,’ the girl said and put the glass down.
‘That’s the way with everything.’
‘Yes,’ said the girl. ‘Everything tastes of licorice.’

            – Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants”

So what is with with the licorice, anyway?  We all know ouzo, of course (or at least we do if we spend much time around our house.)

But what’s surprising is when we move to Syria and find that the local liquor – the one they sell at the gift shops in nunneries and at the somewhat discreet Christian bottle shops in the old city – is anise-flavored arak, a sort of cross between Greek ouzo and its herb-infused moonshine cousin tsipouro.

Then we go to Ethiopia and lo and behold, the cheap local stuff manufactured by the National Alcohol & Liquor Factory right here in Addis is ouzo, too.  It even says so on the bottle.

But why is there an elk on the label?

But why is there an elk on the label?

Greeks have a long history in Ethiopia (you can be sure I’ll have more to say about that later) so I guess that’s where they got the idea.  And Greeks were in Syria, too.  And Syrians came to Ethiopia.  And Spain, where the Anis del Toro comes from, is just across from Morocco (in North Africa)… so….  this merits further research.

Wouldn’t you know, someone’s already done it.

That’s the way with everything. I’ll take mine straight, no water.

Thanks, Alekka, for pointing out the Hemingway passage; and Mr. Lucky, for teaching the short story form to grade 10.

Posted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Food | Comments Off on Tastes like licorice

Guards! Guards!

Posted on 2 Dec 2012 by lornaofarabia

A few of my Facebook friends are surprised by the presence of guards in our lives here.  What are they guarding?  And what are they protecting it against?

Guards are standard faranji household staff in Addis (“staff.” This is the first time I’ve lived in a household with “staff.” It’s funny what you can get used to). Guards are employed to keep one eye on your belongings, and the other on the neighborhood for signs of trouble.

There is a huge economic divide in Ethiopia. We count ourselves among the haves in a country where 80% of the people live on less than two dollars a day.  Violent crime is rare but theft is common, hence the guards. Since the main purpose is to deter thieves, most ordinary household and school guards are not heavily armed with machine guns like our guards in Syria were; a simple nightstick usually serves the purpose.

Also, the government is relatively new and while people are hopeful about the country’s future, no one knows for certain how stable it is. There is always some concern about civil unrest and guards watch out for anything that might be brewing. (For those of you who followed our Syria adventures, don’t get worried.  Everything seems to be quite calm and peaceful here. It just doesn’t hurt to be prepared.)

As apartment residents, the school assigned us a housekeeper of our own but we share the guards with our neighbors (by contrast, the package for teachers with free-standing houses is a housekeeper and two guards).  The Varnero complex has a walled perimeter with a guardhouse by the gate that is manned 24/7.  Our guards know all the residents by sight so as soon as they  see us coming they open the big gate for our cars and taxis, or the little gate for us when we want to walk outside the walls of the compound. There are two additional night guards, ICS employees, whose job it is to watch the stairwell and elevator in the 12-unit ICS Varnero faranji building.

Two of our gate guards at work.

Two of our gate guards at work.

A few weeks ago the Varnero faranji got a message from the school’s head of security asking if we wanted to hire two more guards for our garage now that some of us had purchased cars.  Those men would also be responsible for washing our vehicles and sweeping the basement garage.  At first we balked at the idea – how many guards do we really need? Now we’re considering it.  That’s two more jobs for men who need them.

Posted in Addis Ababa, Home life | 3 Comments