It
was another early morning. We left at 8am and started our busy day. It took us
about two hours to get to Debre Zeit , a town 45 kilometers outside Addis
Ababa. It was not a pleasant drive. Traffic was bad, the weather was hot, and
air pollution was severe. It was almost impossible to open the window to get
fresh air. When we finally arrived, everyone felt relieved and was pumped by
the fresh air in the country side.
Our
first visit was a chicken farm run by the Dutch. The owner introduced the farm
to us. About 25 years ago, lots of businessmen from Holland decided to come to
Ethiopia and start farming businesses. The owner of this farm told us that the object
of the chicken farm is to create jobs and alleviate poverty as an alternative
to hand-outs. The chicken farm was a combination of missionary and farm. The
owner said that there is a bible study class for the people there, and the farm
is in progress to start a school for three hundred children. Instead of sending
their profit back to Holland, the Dutch spend the money here in Ethiopia to
build schools for children and create jobs for locals. (They are noble people).
We also visited their compound for baby chickens. They flew 6000 baby chickens
from Holland two weeks ago and they are hoping that one day they can reproduce
chickens here in Ethiopia. All of us paid close attention, especially Aubrey.
One
of our Dutch friends also showed us around Genesis farm, a farm focused more on
plants. Their motto is “food for the body and food for the soul”, which means
they not only provide food for locals, but also provide them with spiritual
guidance.
After
looking around the farm, we went to a resort which is located on the town close
to the farm. The resort was right next to a large lake, so we could enjoy the
view and the food. We all ate Western food there. While we were eating lunch,
three cats approached to us and walked around us. Ms. Turlington, who is a cat-lover,
took many pictures of those cats. After lunch, we went to another café to view
the better scene of a different lake. Some of us drank macchiato in the café and
enjoyed the view there.
It
was a long way back to the house. The traffic was not any better than this
morning and the afternoon sun gave some of us sunburns. Luckily we stopped by a
nice ice cream store. All of us truly enjoyed it, especially Julia. She said ice
cream was the highlight of the day. The drive from the ice cream shop to the
house did not seem that long because of Will’s (our friend from the house) “sweet
and sour game”. He waved to and greeted every local Ethiopian we encountered on
the road. Those who greeted back were “sweet” and those who ignored him were “sour”.
It was entertaining.
We
had an Ethiopian guest, Nahu, a friend of Biniam’s, join us for dinner tonight.
He is very knowledgeable and everyone learned a lot from him. He talked about Ethiopian
history, education, economy, medical care, traditions, and religion. For
example, we learned that Ethiopians are extremely proud of their identities
because Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that has never been colonized by
western culture. Ethiopia is also the safest country in Africa for white people
because of the lack of animosity. We indeed gained deeper understandings of
Ethiopian culture tonight.
Right
now everyone is gathering around in the living room staring at a special,
hand-labeled American map provided by our friend, Matt. After being immersed in
African culture for several days, I guess all of us are missing America a
little bit. It’s been a fantastic day
and we are all looking forward to tomorrow! - Erin Xu, ‘13 and Yeon Mi Hwang, ‘14
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