Debre Markos, Ethiopia Travel Blogs

Break-down in the Blue Nile Gorge
Jun 10, 2005 (5 photos)

... . Apart from melting anything we put down, it also smelt horrible. We passed on an early dinner and decided to push on to Debre Markos instead of staying the night. We also took the opportunity to use the toilet, since the rule of thumb is to go when you ...

Colorful Characters
Dec 26, 2007

Today's entry begins in a slightly unorthodox fashion with the moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for. Every venture outside our little living compound inevitably yields a new situation to process, a new challenge to face, a new town ...

One for the Road?
Dec 28, 2007

"Hello, beautiful, do you need a boyfriend?" "No thanks, I already have one." "One for the road?"

Size and Length
Mar 2, 2008

"Yes, I think you have grown very fat! I think, as you adjust to life here, you will only continue to increase your size...and maybe even your length!" (Fittingly, this was said to me by a man whose name in Amharic means, "Liar." I hope he's right, ...

Market
Dec 22, 2007

This morning, KB and I accompanied my landlady to experience our first Saturday market. The local market runs every day except Sunday, but on Saturdays countless people from all of the surrounding villages and countryside stream into town, hauling straw ...

Amharic and the Future
Jan 23, 2008

In Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, the future is seemingly an afterthought. In regard to time, there exists one major tense division, between the past and the present. Future actions are described, then, merely through the provision of ...

Walk in the Countryside
Dec 18, 2007

This morning, KB and I walked into the countryside with my landlady, who volunteered to help us get fair prices on some food items we wanted to buy. We walked along the road leading northwest out of town until asphalt gave way to dirt. As we strolled down ...

An Unexpected Visitor and a Visit to School
Feb 2, 2008

It was about a month ago that an unexpected visitor appeared on my doorstep. I was just sitting down to quiet Saturday morning breakfast when I heard a knock on my front door. Somewhat reluctantly tearing myself away from a stack of warm banana pancakes ...

Challenges
Nov 29, 2007

... presence, while enabling noble results in the short run, leads me to wonder about the long run. What will this do for Ethiopia's future? Will it provide the means by which a vibrant country and a proud people will lift themselves out of poverty, or will ...

Donation
Nov 29, 2007

We visited a school today that had recently benefited from five new classrooms gifted by a German donor couple. The missionary couple who provided the funds specified that the classrooms must be used only in the instruction of blind students. There are ...

Catharsis
Nov 12, 2008

This entry should probably just be called "Catharsis." Perhaps, though, I can also rightly subtitle it "The Dark Side of International Volunteerism." So, here we go. Christen's Catharsis: The Dark Side of International Volunteerism Since the ...

Olympic Excitement
Aug 7, 2008

... , the name sparks association with fine coffee. Often, it sparks nothing at all. Once every four years, however, Ethiopia has a chance to shine brightly on the world stage for a distinction that is undeniably worthy and universally commanding of respect: ...

The Slump Month
Sep 4, 2008

... the departure of six more volunteers (four by choice, two four medical reasons), reducing our current numbers to just 30. Ethiopia had a mixed showing in world news. Four Olympic golds and the restoration of the ancient Axum obelisk to its rightful home ...

Home Again, Home Anew
Dec 16, 2007

... the true extent my friends' love for me when the girls, half-jokingly, began offering tampons - an extremely rare commodity in Ethiopia - to stop the torrent of blood flowing from my nostrils. In the end, there was no permanent damage (apart from blood ...

Routines
Jan 21, 2008

... you? Are you fine? Is it good? Is it selam [peace]? How is Debremarkos? Have you adjusted? The weather condition, does it suit you? Ethiopia, how do you see it? How is work? How are you? Are you fine?) We laugh off the postman's daily request that we take ...

Odds and Ends
Feb 6, 2008

Some odds and ends: "EasyMac", when one does not have a microwave, becomes merely "NormalMac". Indeed, if the exhortations printed on each packet are to be believed ("Made for the microwave. Just adding boiling water will not cook macaroni."), it ...

Introductions
Dec 24, 2007

... out from an advertisement for "International Fashion" in Addis Ababa. I asked the education official if he thought globalization had been good or bad for Ethiopia. He smiled and said, "I think no one escapes globalization. We all have to live together."

Christmas, part 3
Jan 8, 2008

... all joy in his lifetime, so he continued to do so after his death as truly the tastiest chicken I have eaten in Ethiopia. The compound was bustling with people for the Christmas holiday, with the renter's fiancée and my landlady's three youngest sons - ...

Valentine's Day
Feb 15, 2008

The soft glow of candlelight graces the room, waxing and waning as the flame flickers gently in the evening breeze that wafts in from the serenity outside. The air is laced with the sweet scent of eucalyptus. Magnificent chords swell forth from the ...

New Year and New Arrivals
Jan 1, 2008

The American new year began with new life - six of them, in fact. My landlady's younger dog had its first litter of six tiny little puppies, five black and one white with two black spots on his back. The puppies have not been the only recent addition ...

Christmas
Dec 25, 2007

... TBS's traditional marathon). I wore my Santa hat around the house like an idiot (thanks again to Suzanne and Bonnie). Ethiopia was even willing to help us out a little bit in our quest for American-style holiday celebration. Santa brought running water ...

Track Champions
Mar 14, 2008

... (at least, what's left of it) had failed to qualify for the competition. In the world of distance running, however, Ethiopia reigns supreme. I was having dinner in a local hotel with some friends on the Saturday night when Meseret Defar and Melelech ...

A New Phase
Jan 4, 2008

My Peace Corps experience has entered into a new phase in two major aspects. First, I am living (mostly) alone, for the first time in my life. Peace Corps has finally been able to secure a house for KB, and she moved across town on Wednesday - a story in ...

A "Typical" Day
Mar 25, 2008

... of my daily life can be attributed to unfamiliar cultural elements. Business is simply done a little differently here. I brought with me to Ethiopia a small blue planner covering the years 2008 and 2009, which I had planned to use in writing down all my ...

Special Needs Education
Feb 12, 2008

... she wants to be the best teacher she possibly can be. It is determination and drive like this that shines great hope for Ethiopia's future. I only hope that I can find a way to equip this determination and drive to better accomplish the noble ends that it ...

Cultural Frustrations
Jan 13, 2008

... social contracts dictate a very different dynamic to the interpersonal interactions making up everyday life. As a consumer in Ethiopia, for example, the absence of America's high degree of commercial competition, ease of price comparisons, accessibility ...

Timiket
Jan 20, 2008

Today marked the Ethiopian celebration of Timket (Epiphany). The festivities began over at KB's house with her landlord's family moving all their furniture out of the house and into the renters' quarters they will occupy during KB's stay. Generously, ...

Water, part 2
Dec 22, 2007

KB and I were sitting together in the living room, I writing, she organizing some photos on her laptop, Rosie Thomas singing sweetly into the evening from her place in KB's ITunes repertoire, when all of a sudden I put down my journal and pen, sat up in ...

Corruption
Jan 26, 2008

... the socialist-inspired Military Coordinating Committee known as the Derg), and higher levels of foreign investment. When asked about Ethiopia's biggest obstacle to greater benefits, he highlighted corruption. When I asked for examples, he gave two, one of ...

First Journey to Site
Nov 25, 2007

... . Even in the early morning, the bus station yard was already crawling with people. Buses traveling to destinations all over Ethiopia cleared their ways through a pulsing sea of people to line themselves up in one of four constantly shifting rows. As each ...