Different Resources

Dear Friends and Family but especially Jen and Emily,

I miss your giant filing cabinets of books. I'm just starting to evaluate the kids that are in my English Club and it is clear that I was a little too spoiled with all the reading and testing materials in your classroom. I keep thinking, "man, if I could teleport I could use this or that resource." And then I think, "I can find something similar on the internet," and then I remember, "Oh right, internet goes about the speed of the plates moving and costs about a quarter of my living allowance," so then I realize, "I have to write all my own evaluations and reading practice myself."

I miss paper.

I miss smart boards.

I miss iPads.

I miss evaluation systems that I didn't have to create.

I also miss the giant copier in the workroom, with all its fancy buttons and options that I knew. Our copier (we have a copier!) is a bit simpler than that although it does have a staple option (sans actual staples) and I have to ask the principle to make me copies.

Oh well, I must learn to make do.

Lessons Learned

Every so often we have to report our activities to the Peace Corps heads in the nation's capital so that the heads can report to the bigger heads in our nation's capital that the program here is impactful. As part of this reporting we are able to share the lessons we have learned. Our lessons are then dispatched to all the Peace Corps volunteers (our identities are hidden) so that we can learn from each other.

I wasn't part of the last reporting period because I haven't even passed my research phase yet, but I thought I'd share with you the lessons I've learned anyway.

Service has done nothing to lesson my addiction to television.

I really should go to the Woreda office more often because I like those people.

I cannot handle the world's weakest drug; caffeine.

I depend on easy access to the internet more than I care to admit.

Receiving letters is my greatest pleasure.

Addis Ababa

The capitol of Ethiopia is unlike the rest of the country. In the capitol there are big buildings, nice cars and lots and lots of restaurants that you would find in any major city in the western world. You can get Chinese food, Korean food, American food, Mexican food, Ethiopian food, and a vast amount of any kind of food. There is even a restaurant (rumored, I've never been there) that is akin to McDonald's. The restaurants have napkins and silverware at the table, prices on the menu in English and Amharic, and servers who don't get confused if you try to ask them for things. There are supermarkets where you can buy anything from children's toys to pop-tarts and candy.

            But in case you ever forget you are in Ethiopia just look out the window and remember that, above all else, cattle have the right of way. 

The Spider Chronicles, A Traitor is Discovered

I have found the breach! It seems that my ally, a trusted friend of almost a decade was the traitor behind the spider invasion of yesterday.

            My backpack. My trusty backpack! was acting as the spiders' base camp as they prepared their invasion. As I was pulling papers out of the pack I discovered the flattened remains of one of their brethren, a spider almost double the size of the previous day's attackers. He must have died in some kind of accident of shifting backpack contents. As an insider, my backpack must have revealed personal information that helped them in formulating their psychological assault.

            Well, the traitor has been dealt with. It is no longer my trusty travel companion but has been demoted to a mere storage facility. He is stationed far from the area of my fortress of bug defense where he can do no more harm.

           

The Spider Chronicles, The Invasion

The enemy, I fear, is getting stronger. I was able to hold them off this time, but the affront hit too close to home. I discovered the intruder late in the night, I had finished my business for the evening and was preparing my toilet when I spotted him. He was poised on the edge of my bed. I'm surprised he didn't strike before that moment. I would have been an easy unsuspecting target. We stared at each other for what seemed like hours, the spider and I.

            I searched for a weapon, but there were no good options at my disposal. My trusty bug spray would have soaked into my blankets. Yes, I would have defeated the spider but at the cost of poisoning my own sleeping quarters. I couldn't smash it with a shoe. It was perched on my sweater and could escape in the folds. There left only one option, close hand-to-spider body contact. Therefore, I grabbed a wad of tissue.

            For minutes we stared at each other. We were locked in a stalemate; both poised, neither striking. I tried to attack several times, but on every approach, weapon in hand, I lost my nerve and withdrew. I knew my own limitations and I had no chance. It was time to call in reinforcements in the form of my landlord Zed. He sallied forth bravely, and unflinchingly grabbed the spider with only a small morsel of tissue.

            I did not feel safe in my bed. I had to investigate how the intruder had entered. From where did he come? I turned my mattress up, looking in every corner to find the breach, but no, every corner of the net had been securely fastened under the weight of my mattress. The intruder must have slipped in as a stow-away on my sweater and that thought sickened me. He must have planned to strike in my sleep.

            Although the check of my fortifications hadn't revealed an immediate threat, I was not yet safe. There was another one, this time hanging on the wall of my bug net. Luckily he was on the right side of my fortress, that is, on the outside, not the inside. However, not all the bug net had been re-tucked under the mattress and the question remained; how do I batten down the hatches without alerting him to the weaknesses in my line of defense. Quickly I tucked the rest of the net in, securing the invader out. But not before bringing my shoes inside. With him still perched on the walls of my fortifications, I brought my shoes together. He tumbled down to the floor. Death was instantaneous.

            With two threats removed in the span of only a few minutes, it became clear to me that this was a planned invasion. The spiders initial attack only a few months prior was unsuccessful. I proved too powerful an adversary for a full frontal assault and they had changed their tactics to a covert invasion force.

            Although both spiders of this battle were smaller than the initial attacker, this battle was much harder won. Their powers in psychological warfare are unsettling. I fear that it is only a matter of time before I breakdown and then, at my weakest they will strike and I will be overcome.

            There was one good thing that came from the encounter, the search for where the spider had entered through my defenses revealed where my good anti-itch cream was hiding so . . . there's that.