Just like that

After almost 5 and a half months of digging, swinging, pouring, mixing, pounding, cleaning, leveling, painting. The Kololo school is complete.   We all took a moment to pose with the finished project on our way back to Addis.

The project manager

The assistant project manager 

The volunteer

The Kololo Valley

A few weeks back while waiting for a bus to Hadero. You can see an unpainted Kololo school just a above my shoulder. The school site sits near the top of the rolling Kololo valley.  Got to love X's panoramic shots.

If you havnt yet, make sure to give his blog a look.

http://pensiveramblingman.blogspot.com

Finishing Up

Last week was the final big work week in Kololo.  The school build is nearly complete.  Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent finishing the bathroom, and touching up cement work on the water management system.  We will be having a big party to celebrate at the end of the week.  We are planning on purchasing and cooking up a few lambs and chickens Friday afternoon.  Xavier and I will also use X's compact projector to showcase many of the photos and videos we have taken throughout the build.  Everyone will be pretty excited to see the school rebuilt before their eyes.

Following the party, X and I will use our cameras to create a virtual tour of the buildings.  A video of the party as well as the tour will be on the blog soon after.

Gazan and Sallmnesh priming the facia before its installed.

Tamesken and Tessema working to finish up the rest of the cement pour.

Ijigu monitoring the mix, as the cement is blended with two types of aggregate.

Dancing in Kololo

The kiddies love there afternoon dance party/work out viewing.  The radio goes on, I pick up the weights, and the kids let loose a combination of mimicking my various exercises, and shaking away.  I am not kidding here, the other day while I was doing my pushups Tashagre gave me a condescending look and got down on all fours and pumped 7 pushups.  The entire time he pushed on up, he stared me down, as if saying "you aint sh*!." I lost it, and completely broke down laughing.  It was just too good.  He smiled got up and preceded to fetch a tea pot (why, no one knows) and got back to dancing .  Real shame X was not around to get that moment on tape.

Please take note of Tashagare's air guitar.  I did not show him that one.

Kids got them selves a swing

The kiddies cobbled together hammock has a but a few rides left.  Sadly the new playtoy has been swung ragged.  No matter, that doesnt stop everyone from enjoying the last few days flight. 

Kololo kiddies know how to share.

Relaxing Sundays

     So this is what Sundays usually like by about 10am at our place. The solar is out, the hammocks are up (mine is hiding, but you can see the kids new cobbled together hammock/swing on the left) and plenty of linens are hung to dry.

Check out our cute but horrid new neighbor. That little calf
some how makes a noise like an old beat in Buick.

   The morning is spent catching up on emails and reading. Thanks to the Gutenberg project, I am now in the throes of Dumas's Count of Monte Cristo (got to make time for some fun reads every now and again). By
1pm I roll out of the hammock and make my way to the waterfall for basking, hot rocks, and a cool soak. If we are not attending a coffee ceremony, I usually make it back by five, and retire to the hammock and read until the sun dips to low to light my kindle. Dinner follows and my bed soon after. Oh and there's the typical food fare of fruit and ferries throughout the day.

We got it pretty rough ;-).

One of the last times I'll have this view for quite awhile.
It will be sincerely missed, though the audience will not be.

The kids enjoy their hammocking a little more than I do.
  Theirsis made from the bags our hay (for the cob mix) was delivered
in by neighboring farmers.

Creature in the Night

Ok, so this isn't for the squeamish. Though there are no pictures for the scare, rather everyone's imagination, including my own...

To start things off, Ijigu and I have pretty much acclimated to the many bumps in that go in the Kololo night, including those left on our bodies from not so friendly crawlies. Remember one of the first blog post on the bugs, yea, those. As the rainy season approaches showers are occurring regularly in the late afternoons and into the evenings. Now if you lived In a burrow, hole, crack and it started to flood you'd leave and look for dry ground, nature largely does the same. Our house, like all those in Kololo, are dry, and the space inside them becomes quite sought after this time a year.

The day I returned from Addis, Ijigu told a harrowing tale of a 2 meter long snake squirling it's way into the house leaving him to defend himself and our good friend and cook Sallamnesh. Needless to say he did what is expected of an Ethiopian city-slicker, and ran for assistance. Note, I don't blame the guy, supposedly there are Green Mambas out here, and the thing beast was "greenish." Well, I am pretty upset that I missed out at what happened next. Sallamnesh cooly grabbed a pan and a stick (shield and sword) and fanned at the ornery reptile until it got bored of hissing and slithered out the way it came. Well that's what was thought; it made its way out the front door.

I didn't pay the story to much thought. Figured those sorts of run ins, like hose we've had with other East African creatures are mostly inevitable, if your out here long enough that is.

A few days later I woke in the middle of the night. With a sheet metal roof, and wildlife and weather abound that happens. Though this time I woke to something more jarring then a hyenas calling or a thunderstorms bangs and clangs over head. Rather I came to due to slowly moving weight on my leg just inside the knee. It was pronounced enough that I quickly scampered to my feet. We sleep on single foldout faulty spring loaded beds, with bed-nets over head. It's amazing I was even able to keep my balance on the contraption. Ijigu heard a muffled, "Oh what the f$&@," and stumbled his way into my room to see a grown man surfing on his cot with an over sized ITN veil. Needless to say, we were unable to spot the snuggle buddy.

So a few days have passed, and we are a little unsure if the thing that found it's way into my sheets was a snake, rodent, or giant spider. I am hoping for a mammal, Ijigu seems to think that I simply got bad JuJu regardless.

Today Ijigu and I returned from work to find that something really wanted to get in our mud home. That hole you see is about the size of a softball, and all that dirt and rock strewn about is not for effect. Whatever Shawshank Redemptioned its way in this afternoon, needed some space to make a proper entrance.

Its nearly time to pass out, and we haven't closed up the void yet in hopes that whatever it is leaves the way it came.

For good measure I might be breaking out the mummy sleeping bag tonight.

Sleep tight ;-)