2013-2014 Mudula Construction Projects

The second installment of our last day in Kembata Tembaro.

We made our way to Mudula to meet with the local officials, visit the Degale library build site, and further pin-down where we will be building next year’s KG/library.  Our first visit was with Ato Desta at the local worader office. Ejigu and I have a long and positive history with Ato Desta, so it was nice to catch up with him and his assistant.  We spent nearly 40 minutes talking through this year’s accomplishments and next year’s Mudula based projects.  Desta and his office are very supportive of the planned work, and our proving to be the most reliable officials Ejigu and I have worked with to date. 

Since Ejigu and I's first visit 6 months ago, Desta and ER have worked together deciding where the One Moon KG will be placed.  Through the process we have made sure to involve many layers of the local community.  His office personnel,  Ejigu and I have traveled to numerous communities in the area to preform ER’s needs assessments.  The process involves many steps, some of which are visiting the community, meeting village elders and community leaders to discuss demographics, population numbers, and land availability.  We have come to identify the obvious; KG's are needed everywhere.  Thus placement is critical.  

Within 18 kms going south of Mudula, there are 6 different communities ranging in size from 2- 4,000.  We spent time in each of these communities and found that each's population could nearly fill a KG on its own.  Families from communities like Koatana, Ferzano and Sigazoo seem to have 7 children on average, and those children have next to no opportunities for early childhood education.  When the children reach the age of 5 or 6 they can then start making the pilgrimage to either Mudula's  1-8 schools or Ferzano's.  The 12 or so km's between, offer nothing outside of a few scattered locations for informal and irregular and preschool tutorials.  The need is everywhere... but available land is not.

Mudula and its surrounding communities are snugly tucked within SW Ethiopia’s densely wooded and farmed highlands.  Open unused flat spaces are almost nonexistent, and for good reason.  Timber is coveted, and agriculture largely sustains the families of the region.  The few meda's (open field) that do exist, are owned by a very select few that sadly have no interest in giving up their prized grazing areas.  Ideally the KG would be located in between Ferzano and Mudula, but there is simply no where to build but the schools 45- 40 meter (minimum) foot print.  So ER, the worader office  and the south of Mudula communities are discussing whether the best location is within Ferzano's very large 1-8 compound.  We at ER feel that the location meets all of our KG/library criteria, and the community and worader office will finalize their own decision in next month’s mahabar (town hall like meeting).  I’ll be sure to share.

One thing to note (because those familiar with how Ethiopia politics work are probably shaking their head thinking the community will have little to say in such matters), Ato Desta went out of his way to tell Ejigu and I that especially when working in education, involving the community is key; because as he put it, without popular community support any school will fail.  A strong sentiment that hits home with ERs field team.  

We spent an hour re-visiting the Ferzano school compound and meeting with school officials and teachers. Plenty of the following photos will help you get a feel of the potential site.

On the way out we also made sure to visit the Degale library site.  The land is ready to be fenced in, and Ato Desta assured Ejigu and I there would be no issues in starting that work before the raining season.  Another very positive trip to Mudula.

Meeting with the head Worader official Ato Desta  and his assistant... also named Desta

Everyone's favorite tree... Sorry just a lazy drive by 

The usual greetings 

Meeting the school director 

Potential KG land for next years build

The school's compound is set up similar to Azedabo's.  Lots of farmland rented
out to the local community to help finance some of the school's costs

Taking numbers of students, teachers, and dropout rates 

Ferzano's very small and under-stocked library 

Close enough...

I dont think many folks in Ethiopia feel the same way

Talking shop outside a home sometimes used for informal KG schooling

The Degale library space. 

A little R&R does the weary mind and tired body well (kind of)

With Azedebo completed, and Fundame only a few coats of paint away, I snuck off to Kenya's southern beaches. Don't fret, Ejigu, Tamesgin, and Sallamnesh had it all under control. They each have received enough on the ground training that the school will be completed as if i never left. I return Monday afternoon for a final quality control inspection.

I spent the first part of my 6 days off competing in East African beach Ultimate Frisbee tournament, and the last 3 enjoying a quite beach life. Was a wonderful vacation; a more than healthy amount of running, and not too much basking.

Ethiopia's ultimate players association was able to get 8 people to make the trip. We had the smallest, but most cohesive (and definitely the best dressed) squad out of the 14 competing. We played well, had a great time, and earned 3rd place overall. Unfortunately, I am more fragile than my frame suggest. In a routine dive I suffered a class two shoulder dislocation in just our second game. It wasnt pretty, but I was able to get it back in, sorry no video this time, ate a handful of pills, got taped up and kept on going. You only really need one arm anyways ;-).

Tape doesn't stick all too well when your lubed up with SPF 50, sweating profusely, and perpetually pulling yourself out of the sand. Doi. After about 20 minutes of play it unraveled a bit and looked like a sporty mummy of sorts. My extra shmeedium size jersey helped keep what was left attached. It worked as well as it could have.  My arm stayed in its socket, and I got to enjoy the rest of the tournament on the field rather then on the sidelines.  Once back in Addis Ill be able to start the process of rehab.  Fun.

Heres a few shots of the great group of folks I got to spend the weekend with.  And some beachy shots, of course.

Breakfast before getting down.

The Team (we had 2 folks from Nairobi  for subs)

Berhan 

Dinner and robot-ing beachside

My place of living 

Starfish gallore

Cave roots

Tides out 

I was drinking allot of coconuts... allot. 

Rain circling in 

Where all the crabs hang in the day

My view during my morning runs, poor me

Hydration

My buddy Bill came along for the trip via his 25 year old Bday T

Had to spend a night in Mobbassa on the way back.

A Road to Literacy

This morning Ejigu and I finalized the assessment process for an ER sponsored library in Wanko, a neighboring town of Azedebo.  The school is about 5 kilometers up the chewed up main road going towards Mudula.  But Ejigu and I decided to try and scout a shortcut using the numerous small pathways leading directly behind my family’s house.  Not something we would even consider between the dusk and dawn, for those little walkways are the local hyena highway at that hour.  During the day though, they make for a beautiful tour of the community.

Along our walk we stumbled upon a long ago dismembered World Vision well.  The water is still pumping strong, and unless fixed, the well surely will one day go dry.  The plumbing has been removed (most likely for metal scrap money; happens all the time out here) allowing the water to continuously flow.  Another 300 meters along the way Ejigu and I came across a large coffee bean drying and cleansing operation.  After asking around, we sleuth-ed out that the woman are paid 8 ETB a day and the men 12.  Just that (below living wage even in Kembata-Tembaro) for the painstakingly labor of picking out all the bad seeds in the mountains of beans by hand.  Rough huh?  I tried to get in the facilities, but the security guard wasn’t having any white faced visitors with a camera that day.  Go figure.  I did manage to sneak my lens through the fence for a shot of row of the hundreds of sorting/drying beds. One day Ill make it back and talk my way into being allowed a small reconnaissance mission of the facilities to share with Moss/ Pizza Ranch family. 

After about 25 minutes of walking (at an Ejigu pace; he is a marathon runner) we arrived at Wanko’s grade 1-5 school.  School was in session, so we were able to actually say hello to a few teachers and students in action.  The first and second graders were sounding out Tembarsa phrases and crunching time’s tables, while the fourth and fifth graders were doing their best to imitate their teacher’s version of English pluralized nouns. Cats’s.  Ejigu and I were able to meet with the schools director, and received a thorough tour of the schools facilities.  It was positive final visit, that has lead us to endorse an ER sponsored library for the school.  As you can see from the following photo of the “library,” Wanko is in definite need.

There are still some questions to be answer and budgets to look over before the project begins to take shape.  The Addis ER office will play a critical role in these very important project stages.  For the time being, Ejigu and I are excited for what could become the second step in creating the “Durame to Mudula literacy cluster.” Azedebo, Fundame (site of our next school build) and Wanko all are situated near or on the main road leading from the Kembata and Tembaro’s major cities; Durame and Mudula.  The two cities are separated by around 80 minutes of driving on an unpaved and currently being redone roads.  The road boasts at least 9 first-fifth grade or first-eighth grade schools, each of which serving between 600-1200 students.  Ejigu and I have seen three other of the main roads school libraries, and Wanko’s library is unfortunately emblematic of those and most likely a majority of the rest. 

In 3 years’ time, the road work should be finished, along with multiple ER projects. Each will allow for their own opportunities for short term, and long term positive change within the larger K-T community. The regions farmers will have larger markets to utilize, retailer will have more products available to them, and transport within the area will be cheaper and more accessible. Meanwhile, Ethiopia Reads will follow in step. School/library builds, library sponsorship's  and hopefully numerous donkey mobile library programs (a recently re vamped and reintroduced ER project that brings libraries to remote country communities via horse, donkey and possibly even motorcycle).  Where the main road projects dont reach, ER's mobile literacy programming can.

As paved roads will foster financial growth and development, ER will work to ensure that high quality literacy education, professional training and critical education materials are made more and more available within the region.  Together these seemingly very different initiatives will work with one another to provide advancements with the potential for monumental change.  I can confidently share that all of us out here in ER’s K-T field team are especially proud to be custodians to such a significant project.     

This is why one should weld all pipe fittings together.

Its been a rainy week, hence the tarps over the product

The Wanko library.  The book collection is all that you see.

The current KG class.  Its a holiday so most the kids are supposedly at home.  

2cnd grade class.  They are all a little confused why a white guy is in the room.

One of the few unused rooms.  This ones for surplus food  for animals storage

Ejigu and I recommending a few things to a couple of the schools teachers

The view walking back to the build.

Time away spent well

For the past few days Lolo (the pup’s new name, I’ll explain later) and I have been traveling around Kembata-Tembaro with the incredible folks from Mudula Water and Clinic at a Time.  During my two and half days away from the jobsite, Ejigu and Temesgin worked together to guide the 20 person work crew through digging nearly 200 post holes.  Their and the communities effort was a success, and my trip with Liz McGovern and co. was an amazing one. All the landscaping was well executed, and my time away was inspiring, to say the very least.

Liz worked with an amazing group of very invested donors to coordinate an amazing two week visit of numerous current, and potential Ethiopian projects.  During my couple days with the group we delivered critical materials to four separate health centers (one of which is the relocated clinic that I journeyed to to have my arm relocated), visited new and old build sites (Kololo, and Azedebo) and spent time touring potential referal  health care facilities in Kembata-Tembaro for Mudula Waters Mid-wife program.  The group was great, everyone was incredibly positive, and always so very happy to see and often hold Lolo.  Its funny how she deflects nearly all of the attention from the 8-14 ferengies where ever we are. Seriously its pretty crazy. 

The following is a few shots of our time in Ambakuna, Mudula, and Kololo.  There is a lot more Id like to share, but tonight's uploads were averaging 35 minutes a photo :-/.  Hey but at least I have internet out here ... right?

The Ambakuna community eagerly assisting us in unloading much needed and appreciated materials

A shadowy shot of Liz and co, and the Ambakuna staff

Spotted this hot rad little number a day or two after the vote

A nice show of bright eyes and big smiles from a few Kololo kids

Two Kololo students posing infront of the school on their way home for lunch