Ethiopia Trip Update #4

I am so pleased and relieved that my two day training session on Thursday and Friday went well. I had been studying, organizing and planning for this session for three months and spent an inordinate amount of time preparing. Over 40 NGO’s from throughout the country registered for the session and they are working on a wide variety of issues around health care, AIDS/HIV especially for kids, reproductive rights and family planning, disaster and famine relief, rural community development, and women’s groups that are fighting the female circumcision issue.

I don’t know why I was so worried about this session because I have conducted literally hundreds of training workshops on this topic, but I was concerned about the cultural and language issues distracting from a rhythm I need to feel comfortable in the training sessions. It did take me about 4 hours until I started to relax and then the rest of the training was super. Ethiopian people and NGO’s are very formal that have their coffee and tea breaks at a certain times as well as the lunches. Having these breaks is a ritual and the coffee they make is almost a sacred ceremony.

During the past 10 days I have been consulting and working with local NGO’s that would be similar to grassroots organizations in the US. Even though the gravity of the issues they are dealing with is multiplied on steroids 100 times in Ethiopia, the organizational and capacity building concerns are essentially the same. The Execute Directors are almost totally focused on their programs and projects so their infrastructures are weak and they don’t have many resources to strengthen their capacity. The government does not support NGO’s at all and these organizations get almost all of their funding thru sub-contracts with large international NGO’s that receivegrants from international funders for specific projects. This makes the NGO’s very dependent upon the internationalNGO’s for their resources. One of the key roles my host organization asked of me was to provide training and consulting to help the local NGO’s diversity and broaden out their funding base. This is the same issue with nonprofit organizations throughout the United States.

I found the people who attended the training session wonderfully warm and attentive and was thrilled that they participated so well and there was little language difficulties as long as I went slow and did not get into my New York accent. The NGO sector in Ethiopia and throughout the world is one of the fastest growing parts of a society. These civil society organizations represent, especially in third world countries the ONLY safety net for multitudes of impoverished people but they are the primary vehicles for societies to practice freedom and democracy. The reason why many countries, including Ethiopia is not more supportive of NGO’s is that they are independent of the government and represent a threat to the existing power structures. These organizations, especially the indigenous groups I work with are critical to the lives of millions of the most destitute people and represent the hope for the future. I was very grateful to be able to spend so much time working with and learning from these organizations and hope in a small way I was helpful in motivating and inspiring them to continue their critical work.

My host organization is an umbrella organization that is a membership organization of about 250 of theNGO’s and is similar to our state nonprofit associations in the US. The evaluations of the training came in very positive and they would like me to come back again to continue my training and support. The big challenge for me will be trying to limit the follow-up contact with these organizations because of their need for continuous support and their desire to have further contact with me is so great. I totally enjoyed working with these organizations

This afternoon Daniel, Yohannes and I went to the Macado that is a largest marketplace in Addis and in Africa.. We have been warned by all the tourist books and people to don’t go there alone, leave your valuables at home and keep your hands in your pocket. That was very good advice even though nothing bad happened to us. This is a marketplace unlike any shopping I have ever done. The only thing that is even remotely like this place would be the Shuck or the markets in the old city of Jerusalem. This place just goes on and on and never stops, and is teeming with people and in three hours we did not see one person who was a gringo .Therefore everywhere we walked people starred at us and kids came up wanting money. Between dancing around big rocks and people in the narrow streets, we had to watch out for cows, goats and even rams walking in the middle of the Macado. Because we were a gringo we were targeted as prime bait to be charged three or four times the normal price so everything was a negotiation. It was an interesting experience and is quite a contrast with shopping at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.

This is Daniels last night in Ethiopia. He will be flying back to the states leaving at midnight and arriving in Boston on Monday to start his second semester at Brandeis. I loved having him with me and it really did not feel like a father/son trip but two friends experiencing a unique part of the world and trying to understand it through our privileged eyes. Every night we would spend time talking about our experiences and what is means to us and how can we possibly integrate our time here with our knowledge of the world and our background as American’s. Daniel is a very special young man and I am so proud of him. I was bursting with pride when we spent Sabbath dinner last night with Dr. Rick Hodes who is this amazing man who has dedicated 16 years in Ethiopia taking care of the Jewish Ethiopia population and on the Sabbath he takes care of the Mother Teresa Orphanes. In fact, he has adopted many of these kids and he had about 20 of them at his home last night for dinner. Every one of these kids has a severe physical disability and this man bring laughter and hope to their lives and they all call him Dad. During this week Daniel spent time with these kids and when we went to Rick’s house the kids came up to Daniel and gave him “high fives” and truly were happy to see him. Daniel taught them a new card game they are addicted to and it was tremendous seeing how easily Daniel fit into this group and how much the kids enjoyed spending time with him. It made me proud to be his father. I will miss him a lot when he leaves.

On Wednesday of this week I am traveling to Southern Ethiopia to the coffee growing region of the country. This is also the malaria section and has recently had turmoil with the burning of churches in Jimma last week where I will be flying into. I am spending time with a Catholic order of priests that has developed a series of schools, health clinics, HIV/AID programs for kids, and other service projects in this southern and western province of the country. This is also the area which is the birthplace for coffee so almost the entire economy is built on raising coffee beans. It is very hot and humid but considering the cold wave Denver is having I should not complain.