Another Planting Underway

Just to let everyone know,  Wes was flown to Dubai and not to Tel Aviv for medical treatment.  I don’t know which hospital he is in, but it was felt that Dubai would be a better choice and so that is where he is. Alyssa is there with him.  They are in contact with Addis and the farm periodically.  Click here to read Alyssa's update

Almost everything is ready for the second round of planting to begin.  After the last week, things have settled down.  There have been many meetings held  with kabele leaders, village elders, and government officials.  Wally Odd has been here on the farm and is planning on staying for awhile. 

We have a few projects put on hold, while we are moving ahead with others.  The traditional hut is progressing slowly. 

The day to day living and working continues and we are now planning on 2000 hectares for this planting. 

Taz, (short for Tazmanian Devil) the new construction director, came in like a whirlwind, last week and has taken on the task of getting the new land cleared and the stumps, sticks, and bushes gathered and burned.

 He is also over the construction of Mark and Heidi's house, which is going along pretty fast.

The walls are up, the varnishing of the bricks is underway now.  The windows and doors are in and I think they should have a finished house in about one month.  Taz is a real character, I'm working on his language skills (swearing) when he comes to my house or is around me.  I found out that he has/had a band and so he plays the guitar and loves to sing.

Yesterday afternoon, the drill was filled with grain  in readiness for planting today.  Everyone was excited to see how the auger worked as the seedcart was filling.

 They still have to undo each quintal sack; grain does not come in bulk, only quintal sacks.  I think this is because they are not used to getting huge amounts of grain delivered for seeding.  So the transferring of grain into the seed cart is still more than a two man process.  As you can see, it takes everyone!


 We (forenjees) are constantly amazed at their (habeshas) amazement in the new technology that comes onto this farm.  I took pictures, because they were all standing, looking at the auger bin and watching in fascination as the seed disappeared right before their eyes.  The smiles of happiness were contagious, as they all realized there would be no more of that crazy method put together last April.   

Eventually, we would like to get seed grain delived out here in bulk so that seed could be dumped from the truck directly into the drill auger.  We might be dreaming.  Maybe Morrell Agro. will be a pioneer in trucking seed, as well as new farming methods in Ethiopia.  Right now, our farm is a mixture of Ethiopian farming practices and American farming practices.  Alan is trying to surge ahead and bring this country into the 21st century, while the majority of farmers here are stuck back in the 19th century.  You know, it is always a process.  Bracken disks the ground for planting during the night, and then during the day he is breaking out new ground for planting later.  Then Alan comes along during the day and plants with this big outfit, or rig, or seedcart and drill.  All of the above.

One day this week, two of the office workers were sent out to collect information for inventory of equipment here on the farm. They came to Alan, so he could help them fill in all of their blanks.  They wanted numbers, models, and brands.  They were standing in front of the new John Deere 8320R tractor and  he told them they could find all the information on the tractor.  They asked him what the model number and he pointed to the it  and said, "There it is, it's 8320R, Look!"  "What is the brand?" they asked.  "This is a John Deere!"  "This is a John Deere?" they asked.  Alan stood there wondering how anyone standing right in front of a John Deere tractor wouldn't recognize it for what it was.  The words said "John Deere", there was a running deer on it and it was John Deere green.  How could they have been living on this farm that long and not know what  a John Deere tractor was?   John Deeres are all around us; the tractors, the gators, the drills, all are John Deere.  You must be really unobservant if you don't recognize a John Deere.

I don't know if I had posted this before, but we are in the middle of the period of fasting before Ramadan for the Muslims.  I would say 90% of the people here on the farm are Muslims, so we are dealing with fasting.  They fast from sunup to sundown and eat after sundown and before sunup and I think for some of them they eat all through the night.  I know that some of them who live close by the farm compound are up all night long eating, singing, and praying.  I know because they wake me up at night.  They have been fasting since Aug. 9, and go to September 9, I believe. Then on Ramadan, they have a big celebration and they make a lot of food; goat, cakes, injera, ambasha (bread), lots of wot (stew) and more.  They are looking forward to it, for sure.  When they fast, they get so tired and draggy, we can hardly get any work out of them.  They won't take any food or water, even if they're sick.  Ashreka and Zakir got into a huge argument today over whether or not Ashreka broke her fast by accidentally tasting some salt.  When I looked at her funny, she spit it out and said, "Oh, I forgot!"  Zakir pounced on her and said, "You break your fast, it is over for you!"  "No, no," she screamed back.  "It was mistake!"  "No, you break it, you are over!"  The screaming went on for about two minutes.  I finally had to come between them because Ashreka looked like she was going to climb over the table and strangle him.  You know how irritating teenage boys are, who think they know everything?  That's how Zakir is with Ashreka.  I finally calmed them both down and told Ashreka and Zakir that it was a mistake and that she could continue fasting.  Whoa, what is the big deal with accidentally breaking a fast?  I'll have to look it up on google.  I know it is important, but we almost had a homicide over it. 

I made some tarts today, but I first sent Ashreka to go outside and work a little so I didn't have her wishing she could have a taste.  They turned out pretty good, if I may say so.  I saw some tarts like this on my daughters blog, and they looked really good.  Hers had strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and something else, and mine are just like hers, but tropical with mango, pineapple, and bananas.

 UUM UUM GOOD!  They turned out great.  I don't cook and bake like this everyday, just once in a while when I think I can tackle the all afternoon project.    Nadi said they were delicious and he had two.  But, he said he still likes cinnamon rolls better.  What man doesn't?  I heard or read once upon a time, that the smell that a man likes very best is baking cinnamon rolls.  Not perfume on a woman, or the smell of roasting meat, it is cinnamon rolls!  Nadi is just like Alan and every other man out here.  One day when I was baking cinnamon rolls, my porch filled up with men just taking in the aroma.  Both Ethiopian and Americans, they were just walking by my house, and suddenly they were attracted to my porch by the delicious baking smell.  Soo funny. 

This young man is one of the daily laborers who usually helps water the garden. He looks like he is about 12 or 13, and he loves to come and talk to me when I go out into the garden area. The other day, I found him out in back and was surprised to see him sporting this lovely woman's blouse.

I asked him to come round to the front of my house so I could take a picture of him in his lacy blouse. Unfortunately, he put on his cool jacket and wouldn’t take it off, so you don’t get the whole effect of the puffed and gathered sleeves, darn it. He looked so sweet, I just had to tell him how much I liked his blouse. I’m sure he didn’t have a clue that he was wearing a woman’s blouse. You see alot of boys and men wearing women's clothes here.  They don't have a clue.
Here is a pictures of July and Ethan Richards, Nia’s mom and little brother, my next door neighbors.

And speaking of Nia, here she is in Alyssa’s flower bed, showing off the flowers. I don’t think the flowers can hold a candle to her smile.

This is Selam. I think he is going to be hired on here soon to work closely with Alan. He speaks very good English, comes from Addis and he just barely got set up on his own email account. He is very nice and friendly. He is holding Elyn, Heidi’s little boy.

Here’s another picture of Nia and Elyn on my porch. Cutie Patooties!

Here's a picture of one of my pet peeves - the laundry station.  Yes, I still have laundry issues.  I'm designing laundry stations to be constructed between the houses and over at the dorms.  I have to get them designed just right.  We will be sooooo happy when the laundry can be done out of the mud and dirt.

And for last, here's a picture of a little baby girl that they brought to the clinic for me to diagnose.  I think this is an umbilical hernia - my best guess.  What do you all think?

I sent the baby and parents to Ginir to the clinic there.  I had to pay for the trip up and back for both of them because were so poor.  Our's is a free clinic.  It cost me about 200 birr - about $15.00.  That's what I do sometimes - send them on the bus to Ginir when I can't figure it out or they need better help than what we can provide.  BTW - does this child look like she's starving.  No!  Most the babies I see are fat little chunksters. 

Well, that's all for today, until next time.