Our training group with our language and culture facilitators on the right

Bale mountains

Split bamboo waddle fencing (all over Alemgena)

Alemgena, population: ??not much???

Our room

BioFarm primitive Insect trap

BioFarm Tour

BioFarm composting pile

Natural building, tree growing through center of pole frame thatch roof

Dancing at the Biofarm

3.2.1. Contact!

If anyone wants to get in touch with us, it is fairly simple. Email will work though we can only check erratically when we are in a town that has internet (like right now!). Snail mail is AWESOME, and we will gladly and joyously accept letters and packages! I think a 1 ounce letter takes about three 1st class stamps... a flat rate box, I hear, costs about $50 to send (eeks!). The Ethiopian mail system is remarkably smooth- most letters come within 1-3 weeks, and packages about a month or so. This address will be ours for the next two years!

Here's our info:

Jill Smedstad (and/or Devin Klarer)
PO Box 169
Bale Robe
Ethiopia

p.s. peanut m&m's and other tasty american treats will always be gratefully received!

 Jill in front of our new home for the next two years in the small grain farming town of Alemgena. We have one big room 18' x16' attached to our landlords house (Adam on the right). We also are lucky enough to have our own private shower and pit toilet in the same compound. On the right is Muhammed who teaches English at the elementary school. Almost every young person in Ethiopia highly desires to learn English.

 Biofarm research and envirotourism spot south of Addiss Ababa. These are rabbit cages.

Studying Afan Oromo. Amharic is the official language of Ethiopia and most spoken in large cities, but Afan Oromo is the overall most popular and the language of the rural people. Learning this language is likely the greatest challenge we will face here. We have already encountered huge problems in doing basic things like travel and shopping due to language barriers. We mostly speak in body language at this point!

 Jill and Tigist, our host mom in Bekoji. Tigist is only 25 but is raising four girls, speaks pretty good English (very lucky for us) and has even made Pizza for us. In a month, though, we will be left to cook for ourselves.

 Dusk in Bekoji. Elevation 9,300 feet (still haven't got the metric system down yet). Bekoji is home to some of the top middle and long distance runners in the world. All of the hotels in town are owned by local athletes who have running endorsements. It is very hard to run (or too breathe well at all) at 9300 feet!

The best coffee and beer cafe in town. The eight of us who are learning Amharic and Afan Oromo in Bekoji, and our good friend Chaalaa, whose name means "greater" in Afan Oromo.

Two of my four new "sisters" at my host family household are "Nanati" in the back and "Yikurwandu" in the front, four and two years old. Nanati is obsessed with "UNO". and Yikurwandu loves to rub her snotty nose all over everything, they are both amazing shoulder dancers; I wish i could put video on here.

Dusk at the Mercado Bus Station in Addis Ababa. Made it through the shouting crowds and finally found our bus to Robe. Nine hour bus ride through the Rift Valley and into the Bale Mountains. Jill's scarf, however, got lost somewhere on a minibus to our host site, Alemgena.