Believe it or not, today marks one month since
our departure. We like to think we've adjusted quite well to the way of life
here. Bucket baths, critters in our rooms, and venturing out for groceries are
becoming normal parts of our everyday routine.
After the busy week with the conference we've
been left with lots of ideas as to how to focus our time and efforts. We're
looking to visit Omega Farms (see Suzie's last post) and we're starting to form
a plan to produce an Enset manual http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/enset/descrip.shtml. This idea came about after watching a
documentary produced by Katie and Jenn (McGill's interns from last year) and
Sirawdink, a researcher here on campus. The documentary focused on the gender
roles associated with farming Enset, and featured some interviews with locals.
In these interviews we saw the need for resources on the propagation,
harvesting, and post-harvest management of the plant, so we thought we would
spend the next few weeks researching and then designing a farmer-friendly Enset
manual!
Meanwhile, I spent the week in bed with a delightful case of food poisoning! Raw vegetables are the prime suspect, and I
knew I shouldn't have eaten them, but I have a macho reputation that needed
upholding haha. This has led to countless people phoning to offer to bring me to the health clinic. Classic Ethiopian hospitality!
Sirawdink kindly lent me his guitar so that's done a great job at keeping me busy. I've had some fun trying my hand at some Ethiopian tunes. The music of Ethiopia is wildly unique in that every song almost without exception is played rhythmically in triplets or 'waltz', as well as some cool microtonal singing. Makes for an exotic experience for someone who has been primarily exposed to Western styles of music!
This week Suzie and I attended a neat lab on food preservation
with a post-harvest grad class. The class has been particularly friendly to us
and frequently take us out for buna (coffee) at what they call 'The 5 Star
Hotel'; a cool little hangout consisting of a tarp with benches inside. Can't
argue with the quality coffee though! I'm not really sure what Suzie's been up
to other than that, I've been living the hermit life while I recover. I'll let
her fill in the gaps on the next post.
That's all for now. Ciao!
Manny
Boiling rinds for pectin in PH lab
Awesome lady selling Samosas down the road
About to eat said Samosas
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