New Years and new friends

3 January 2012

Libbey, Brian and me on our New Year's hike.

After a fun filled Christmas weekend in Hawasa and Wondo Genet, I barely had time to get working at my new site as New Years came the following weekend. We don’t frequently get permission or excuses to leave our sites so Theresa, Orion and I seized the opportunity and took off East to Dinsho, the entrance of Bale National Park and the home of a fellow volunteer Brian.

New Year's Eve sunset in Bale National Park

Brian is one of approximately 20 people who live(legally) inside Bale National Park. His closest neighbors are the bushbucks, hyenas, baboons and nyalla that frequent his compound, sometimes even coming into the kitchen looking for snacks. The variety of volunteer living conditions, work environments and communities is astounding. Just last week I was on a college campus where Bob and Nancy work at Ethiopia’s only forestry college. It was landscape full of avocado trees, monkeys, asphalt roads and even adults who are accustomed to foreigners and don’t harass them. Bob and Nancy teach at the college where they have an office and a house with a sink and even an oven inside! In Hawasa Rich works as an IT volunteer at the AIDS resource center. He too has a desk with a computer! Outside his office big city is full of ferengi grocery stores and offers postcard worthy views daily of the sun setting over lake Hawasa.

Brian’s electricity and cell phone reception doesn’t always work, he doesn’t have internet, an office or close neighbors to invite him to coffee, yet I covet his site the most. There are 4 simple reasons for this:

1)      Brian has a hot shower with great water pressure!

2)      At night the hyenas and warthogs surround his living quarters and they make so much noise it is frightening to walk 25 feet uphill in order to simply use the bathroom.

3)      When researchers come to visit the park they live in the dorm rooms next to Brian. This has given him opportunities to become involved with various projects including some work with National Geographic!

4)      There is a marvelous rickety old fence around the park and an admission fee that does a pretty great job ensuring that Brian and his wild friends have the place to themselves most of the time.



The sleepy town of Dinsho



Crossing a bridge of a waterfall on our hike N. of Dinsho

Fueling up with food before our celebration!

For New Years we went on a hike north of Dinsho with a flat rocky landscape so unlike the mountainous forests behind it I almost forgot where I was. We spent the evening cooking delicious food, staying warm over a bonfire and having a shameless dance party. Other volunteers have told me that the “Bale crew” is a fun one, and now I have witnessed it for myself. I am elated to be a part of it.