Welcome to the Peruvian Amazon Jungle: From surreal dream… to the worst nightmare of my life

I flew home from Africa on May 10th, first to spend a day with a dear old friend of mine in London, and then to arrive in LA on May 11th. The plan was to spend 2 weeks in LA to see friends and family before heading to South America for 5 weeks, since it was cheaper than flying straight from Africa, and I had a free round-trip flight with Northwest Airlines/Delta. I ended up having a wonderful, loving 2 weeks spent re-connecting with my closest friends and family, and I´m so happy I got to decompress from my travels and reflect upon how wonderful this time of my life has been.

So May 25th I set off to Lima Perú on a 12-hour flight, and this time it was such a different experience than my first flight to Fiji when I started my 8-month ¨round the world¨ trip. I knew which clothes and equipment in my backpack would serve me the best, I knew how to meet people in my hostel, and most importantly I now knew what kind of a traveler I am—how to stay balanced, centered, grounded, safe and happy during my adventures. I had just purchased my Footprints South America Travel Book (which I wouldn´t recommend—it´s more like the Yellow Pages than a guide book, and I´ve heard the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet versions are more comprehensive), so I really didn´t know that much about Perú. Mostly I was just excited to speak Spanish and really connect with the culture, since I´ve always loved all things Latino, and hiking Machu Picchu has been the number one thing I´ve wanted to do for the past 10 years!

My first thought when I arrived in Perú was, ¨It smells like Guatemala, but looks like Spain.¨ J After being in Africa for 3 months, I was impressed with how developed it was, with busy freeways, tall buildings and a heavy smog in the air reminiscent of LA´s pollution. I appreciated chatting with the friendly and professional taxi driver, Enrique, who picked me up to take me to my great hostel, ¨Hitchhikers Backpackers¨ in the popular Mira Flores area. I ended up spending 2 and a half days in Lima to get oriented, taking the first day (Wednesday) to walk around the nearby Kennedy Park, and book a cheap flight to Iquitos in the northern Peruvian jungle for 5 days from Friday-Wednesday. Thursday morning in the hostel, I met a really friendly girl named Alicia, originally from Chicago but who now lives in Toronto. We checked out a wonderful Art Museum and then the Plaza de Armas in the City Center, meeting some Peruvian students our age who wanted to practice their English and chatting/dancing in the street with them for a few hours. We had delicious Peruvian-style Chinese food for lunch (chifa), and for dinner shared pizza and a delicious sweet alcoholic drink called ¨pisco sours,¨ as well as chocolate with churros for dessert. It was super fun!

Friday morning Alicia and I walked around the ¨Park of Love¨ by the ocean and had a cheap ¨menu ejecutivo¨ lunch of $3, before I had to leave for my flight to Iquitos at 3pm. I read a wonderful book in Spanish along the way, ¨The Storyteller¨ by a famous Peruvian author, Mario Vargas Llosa, about cultural clashes between the Western world and the Amazon jungle. Yay for continuing my tradition of reading a book about each country that I travel to while I´m there! Arriving at the Iquitos airport at 7pm was a really pleasant experience— I chatted with a information booth lady who gave me several maps, recommended a hostel, and told me the price for a ¨moto-taxi¨ is 8 soles or less than $3. Riding to the hostel in the humid weather with the wind fresh off the Amazon river in my face, I felt so independent, free, confident and happy... yay for really starting my adventures again! 

I loved my hostel, ¨La Casa de Samantha,¨ and met some really nice people right away. The next day (Saturday) I went to the zoo with Roger from Spain, and a couple from France named Lulu and Laurent. Although like other zoos I´ve visited in less developed parts of the world, it was pretty depressing-- the animals lived in poor conditions with little space to roam-- it was fantastic to see up-close all the animals we hoped to see the next day on our trip into the Amazon jungle. We saw jaguars, jungle cats, 20 foot anacondas, and a fish called ¨peiche¨ that´s 5 feet long! My favorite part was the pink dolphin, which is native to the Amazon river and smaller than the bottle-nose dolphin, pink in color, and with a really narrow beak. It was holding a 2 foot stick in its mouth near the wáter, and Roger grabbed it from its mouth to throw it, and it actually swam to retrieve it! We played fetch with the dolphin for about 20 minutes, and I was so surprised that like my experience swimming with dolphins in New Zealand, they really are just like dogs—smart, friendly and playful. After the zoo we went to a nearby research center, where we saw 13 baby manatees... the best part was that I got to feed milk to one of the babies! They are super gentle, peaceful animals… even if they´re not much to look at.



Back at the hostel that night, a group of 8 of us made dinner together (couple Lulu and Laurent from France, couple Josh from Sacramento CA and Virginique from France, friends Sophie and Katherine from Canada, and solo traveler Noelle from Canada), and decided to book our 3 day, 2 night tour into the Amazon jungle for the next morning. I didn´t really care for the tour guide from the company Amazon Adventures, Wilfred, who seemed overly direct and like he wasn´t the best communicator, but our group argued for a super cheap deal of 80 soles per day or $27.66, so we all agreed.

The next day, we woke up at 8am to leave our backpacks at the tour company, and then drove for an hour and a half to a little village called Nauta just south of Iquitos. We got on a motor boat, and then cruised for another hour and a half to a camp, where we had lunch of rice, fish and fried plantains. At around 2pm, we set off in a smaller canoe-type boat, and searched for animals for a few hours. We saw a few giant sloths in the trees, as well as butterflies, bats, all kinds of birds and a few monkeys. The jungle was beautiful and the wáter of the Amazon was super wide, slow and brown, like no other river I´ve ever seen! At one point we saw 3 pink dolphins swimming in the cross-section of two flows of wáter, so we stopped and got to swim with them! It was so fun, and I was proud of myself that I was able to temporarily conquer my phobia of snakes (including wáter-dwelling anacondas) to be able to do it! A few hours later our guide saw another sloth in a tree, and he actually scurried up the tree to bring it down for us! Probably not the most environmentally friendly action, but it was fun nevertheless to take my picture holding a sloth, which looked like a muppet up close. :) We then went cruising along the river for another few hours to see the sunset, and I swear that the whole time, I felt like I was lost in a surreal dream. I kept having to glance at the map of the earth on my flower tattoo to remember, ¨I´m in South America right now.¨ The jungle just looked so much like the other jungles I´ve seen in Belize, Guatemala, Fiji, and Thailand, and I felt really confused about where in the world I was! We went back for dinner in the evening, and later went out for another 2 hours from 9pm-11pm, and the sound of the motor made me doze off to sleep. Drifting in and out of consciousness, I again felt like I was lost in a serene dream… little did I know that my adventure in the jungle would soon turn into the worst nightmare of my life.


Although I slept peacefully for 2 hours in an uncomfortable and wet position on a rocking boat, I didn´t get any sleep that night because Sophie next to me was sick and kept tossing and turning, and it was pretty humid and uncomfortable on our tiny beds, even though we had bednets to protect us from the mosquitos. The next day I had a small breakfast of an egg, an apple and a banana, before we set out to a more deep area of the jungle about a 3 hour boat ride away. I was really scared that we were planning on sleeping in hammocks with bednets in the jungle, since I was already close enough to the snakes and didn´t want to risk seeing any up close and freaking out and having it ruin my trip. But everyone with me really wanted to explore the jungle, so I figured it was a good opportunity for me to just deal with my phobia and not let it affect me. On the way there, I spied a huge 3-4 foot snake swimming across the river in front of us with its head out of the water, and screamed out enough expletives to let the rest of the group know just how huge my phobia is. :)

(Note: To those of you reading this who don´t know me well, my phobia of snakes has been something I´ve dealt with since I was 18, and I even had therapy in college to try and get over it. I planned my RTW trip around not having to deal with snakes, i.e. deciding to stay in snake-free New Zealand for one month vs. snake-infested Australia for one week, and my biggest fear about South America has always been the number of snakes that can kill me in one second. So it was a REALLY big deal for me to even want to go to the Amazon jungle, let alone deal with what I´m about to tell you!)


We arrived at a small sandy area of the jungle at around 1pm. Although we were all hungry for lunch, the guide told us that the weather was iffy, so it would be best if we snacked on bananas, pineapples and bread and just set out on our 1-3 hour hike, and promised us a big dinner when we got back to camp. Putting on our rubber boots (for all the wáter we would have to cross through, in addition to protecting our feet in case we step on a venemous snake, frog or spider... ugh!), I asked our guide if we would need a rain jacket, and he said no. So we all set off into the jungle at about 1:30pm, without hardly any food, a small bottle of wáter each, and no emergency equipment. Can you tell where this story is headed yet?


For the first two hours of machete-hacking our way through the dense bush, I was terrified out of my mind, jumping and saying terrible words under my breath at every twisted branch, leathered leaf and bright green or red tree root that resembled a snake. As I had learned the previous day in the zoo, there are tons of snakes in the Amazon jungle that can kill you with one single bite, and my imagination played tricks on me so that I literally saw them in my head everywhere I looked. I made Virginique walk in front of me, because she was so careful to hold branches back for me and warn me for holes in the ground, as we trudged forward. I was in my usual ¨Cassie state of fear¨ mode, where I jump and scream at every little thing that moves in a 15 foot radius, but dealt with it nevertheless.

After a few hours of hiking I finally started to feel comfortable, and even surprised myself that I was having fun. We came upon a palm tree and our guides had us chop it down, so we could eat the heart of palm for dinner. It was about 3pm and we had walked for about two hours, so I wanted to go back after that, but the guide didn´t ask us what we wanted to do, so we continued forward. After about 20 minutes it began to rain, and then a half hour later we asked our guides how far back it was, and they said an hour. I was pretty surprised, since I thought we were closer, and went with the flow. Another 30 minutes later, it was nearing 4pm, and we knew it would be dark at 6:30pm, so we again asked them how much farther. Lulu kind of snapped at the guide-- ¨I´m about to get my period, I´m hungry and tired, and I´m about to kill you if we don´t go back now! Are you lost?¨ They said no, and I tried to help the group be calm, since I didn´t really care about eating-- just wanted to stay safe from snakes. Right after this happened, the folks up front actually came across a boa, and I began to freak out, but thank goodness they killed it and tossed it where I couldn´t see it. Finally, it was 4:30pm, and the light was beginning to disperse unevenly so there weren´t shadows, and the guides admitted that they were a bit disoriented. We couldn´t believe it. They said because of the rain and the light, they had lost their way, and they just needed to examine the virtually stagnant water to see which way it was running, since that would tell them where the big river it was running to was. Are you kidding me??!


I really couldn´t believe it when it was 5pm, would be dark at 6pm and impossible to walk at 6:30pm, and we were lost in the jungle, like 6 hours from the nearest tiny village via canoe. All I could think about is ¨ what happens if someone gets bitten by a snake and we can´t deal with it for another day?¨ Having just been to the Amazon zoo, I knew every type of crazy scary animal that might creep up on us-- jaguars, wild cats, 20 foot anacondas, coral snakes, poison dart frogs, venemous spiders, you name it. We came close together in a tight line and continued to slowly walk as the light disappeared, and before we knew it, it was 6:15pm and impossible to walk any further. Thank goodness everyone in the group but me was a smoker, since we used their lighters to walk up hill toward a little clearing, where there weren´t as many trees and you could somewhat see the night sky, and we had a few logs to sit on. Our guide Wilfred wanted to go look for the river with his assistant guide Hugo, but our group wouldn´t let them both leave, saying we didn´t want to be left alone. At the time, I still had complete trust in their competence since they´d so far protected me from the snakes, so I wanted them to both look and hopefully find the way more quickly, but the group won and Wilfred stayed with us. 20 minutes later, Hugo returned, saying he still hadn´t found the river, and we´d have to wait until either the moon was bright enough to let him look for the river, or we´d have to wait until the morning. Although it had just rained and everything around us-- our clothes and bodies included-- was soaking wet, they chopped down a tree with the machete to make a fire. Slowly building it up with bigger and bigger pieces of wood, we began to peel off our clothes and dry them, as well as our hands and our feet. I watched myself shift from irrational fear of snakes to rational terror of spending a night in the Amazon jungle with no food, water, rain jacket or insect repellent... thinking ¨well THIS is what real fear is.¨ Cuddling beside Virginique and Katherine on a log, we quietly agreed that this was the most scared we´d ever been. I had already been quiet and morose for the hike, but I now let myself slip into a silent, knowing sense of what it would be like to die, like a prisoner must feel when waiting for the gallows. Although I said a few prayers for safety and return, my mind constantly raced on and on about how I was too young to die, there´s so many things I still need to accomplish in my life, and how if I was ironically the one to be bitten by a snake or eaten by a jaguar, I wanted to tell my fellow travelers to tell all my friends and family that I loved them.  Whereas while hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro, I consistently thought ¨I have to make it so I can tell people that I accomplished my goal,¨ this time I was thinking ¨I have to make it because I´m too young to die and have too much to accomplish still.¨ My worst fear in the world had actualized, and I was literally in Cassie Hell, not knowing how or whether I would survive.

It was by far the worst night of my life. The hours passed super slowly, as we stood, sat and lied down by the fire, slowly engaging in bouts of conversation and then silence. Sophie, Noelle and Josh had stomach cramps, and poor Lulu was at risk of a bladder infection because she didn´t have enough water to drink. The guides cut down palm fronds for us to rest upon, but the mosquitoes and fire ants pretty much ate us alive. Virginique and Josh were both wearing sleeveless shirts, and those of us lucky enough to be wearing long pants found that the damn mosquitoes could bite us through that too. I was scared out of my mind that a coral snake would bite me, or we´d spy a pair of gleaming cat eyes not too far from our fire, and I would die. At around 10pm I finally found a comfortable spot on the ground by the fire lying on my side with my head on a log, and was lucky enough to be next to the guide and Laurent, with Noelle alternating from lying on my thighs and spooning me. We were all sort of cuddled up like that till about 1am, slapping at mosquitoes and scratching at the fire ants, when it began to pour. The guides had decided to wait it out till morning, since they said there would be light at 4 or 5am, and we were finally completely dry, so the rain was devastating. We tried to hide under palm fronds, but it literally poured a massage-strength shower for an hour and a half. We were soaked to the bone and freezing, but there was nothing we could do but sit by the dwindling fire, deal with the heavier onslaught of mosquitos, and keep our faces dry with the leaves. It slightly let up at 3am, but continued to drizzle nonstop. At 4am we burned our guide´s boots so the rubber would make the mosquitos go away, which didn´t really do anything but make us breathe in nasty air. We tried to catch water from the leaves into our empty bottles, but even that tasted like smoke and was filled with dead mosquitoes. 

At 5am it was still virtually pitch black, and the time somehow slowed down again just because we knew we were close to being able to leave our spot and search for the camp. A grueling 45 minutes later, our guide said we were ready to look, and we again got into a huge fight about where to go. The guides knew there was a big stream down the hill that would lead to the river, but they wanted to look up the hill just to find an easier path that wouldn´t require any fording. My friends were yelling that we should just look for the river, and I finally exploded at them, saying even though our guides were incompetent, I wanted to go with them because they knew more about what they were doing than them, and we should just stop arguing. Finally we set off down the hill toward the river, and crossed a big stream with a bit of balancing on a log... and wouldn´t you know it, we came upon the camp! It was a freaking 10 minutes walk from where we had spent our sleepless night! We hugged and kissed and danced in the rain we were so happy to be back safe, and I just kept muttering over and over, ¨I´m alive! I can´t believe we freaking survived!¨ I think I´m still coming out of shock about the whole, traumatizing experience.


Not having slept for 2 nights in a row, I passed out for virtually our whole ride home, on 2 separate two-hour boat rides and then our car ride back to Iquitos. My friends were irate and discussing all the ways we should make the company pay for putting our lives at risk, but I just wanted to forget about the whole experience and let bygones be bygones, still believing that it´s a mistake that could happen to anyone. When we got back to Iquitos and finally sat down to explain to our guide´s boss exactly what happened, it finally became clear to me just how crazy their incompetence and negligence was. They refunded us 110 soles of our 240 sole expense, or just under half of the $80 we paid, and we wrote bad recommendations for them before heading back to our hostels for dinner and sleep.


Today, I got to hang out with everyone a bit before leaving Iquitos, and we gathered information from our hostels and other sources to find out that our tour company-- Amazon Adventures-- was really bad. Apparently our guide wasn´t even a real guide, but a salesman, and on a previous trip, they took a lone German girl into the jungle for a drug-induced Shaman experience, and she was raped. While we became more angry through sharing these types of stories, we also realized that we got what we paid for, since the tour was so cheap. We all have a slight fever from having wet feet for two days straight, and other than that I´m just kind of still in shock that I freaking survived a night of being lost in the Amazon jungle. It was definitely my worst nightmare, but I also like to think that I learned something... to be grateful for my life, and I guess what doesn´t kill you only makes you stronger. Like for example, I firmly have decided that I want a pet boa when I´m home, so that I can finally conquer my snake phobia. I think I´ll name her Rosa, after the rose-colored dolphins I swam with in the Amazon. :) And she´ll be a tribute to the snake we had to kill in the jungle, so that I could make it through the worst night of my life with at least a shred of dignity, haha. 


As for the rest of my trip in Peru, I´m now back in Lima, and ready to head to the south tomorrow to surf down sand dunes, before heading on to Bolivia for a whole new host of adventures. In the future I will make sure that I pay the proper price for any tour that I book, and let people know exactly who I´m with and where I´m going if it´s a potentially sketchy situation. And I guess at the very least, it makes for a great story... I hope you´ve enjoyed the story more than I enjoyed the experience!

Massai Mara Safari with "The Big 6"

When I got picked up by my tour company for my 4-day safari to Massai Mara on Sunday, I was more excited by the amazingly cool people in my van than I was for the animals. My mid 20's roommate Corinne from Switzerland studied social anthropology on child soldiers in Nepal. 19 and 20 year-old friends Inger and Soulkie from Norway are traveling pretty much the SAME RTW (round-the-world) trip as me-- they even left January 5th, were in Bangkok at the same time as me on February 25th, and will be in Cuzco Peru hiking Machu Picchu at the same time as me on May 25th. Crazy! Then there's Tucker, a guy my age from San Francisco, who works in international sustainable development in the most impoverished countries like Angola, Vietnam and Afghanistan. And Italian Alecia who's in Kenya for 2 weeks for something related to kids' surgery. Topping off the impressive list is Kegi from Punjab India but who now lives in Seattle and works for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation! He's seriously the smartest and best traveled person I've met; he's not only been to over 110 countries but knows more about each of our countries of residence than we do. So that's our incredible van of amazing people! I couldn't have been happier to share such an amazing travel experience with such amazing fellow travelers. :)

Sunday morning we headed out to the Rift Valley, and it was BEAUTIFUL! It's more green and lush than Ethiopia, apparently because they experienced really good rain this season, and it's dotted with the Massai tribal people in their red checkered scarves herding goats. We saw zebra and giraffes along the way, and the "Lion King" soundtrack was stuck in my head the whole time, meanwhile "Africa" by Toto was stuck in Tucker's head, haha. We got to the campsite at 4pm and checked into our cool rural tents, then went for our first game drive at 4:15pm. Many animals were clustered near the entrance of the park-- wildebeasts, antelope, impala, thompson's gazelle, birds, zebras and giraffes! Then we went further and saw a topee (type of big antelope with shiny black fur on front and brown on the back, and curly horns), as well as a lioness hiding in the grass. It was amazing! Even though our car broke down within the first 10 minutes of being in the park and we had to stand amidst the animals a bit, hoping a lion wasn't nearby, haha.

The food that evening was really great, and on Monday we started the day with the song, "Lions, Tigers and Bears-- Oh My" stuck in my head, haha. Kegi left, and we knick-named ourselves "The Big 6" as we drove throughout the park. The day started with a few lions prowling the grass to try and catch a warthog, and then 2 cheetahs feasting while jackles and vultures waited. When the cheetahs had had enough, the jackles and vultures had a fight! Feathers flying and beaks and teeth snapping, it was incredible! Every time animals were in the process of eating or chasing others, I found that even though I was safely within the van, my adrenalin was racing at full speed.

For lunch we went to see crocodiles and hippos, and my favorite part of the day was at the end when we found ourselves in the middle of a buffalo-lion show-down. The lions had just killed a baby buffalo, and the buffalo were PISSED. We waited for a while in-between the groups of animals, with 2 lions hiding in the grass and the buffalos angrilly stomping at the dirt to try and intimidate the lions to leave. Finally the buffalo had dwindled down to a small group of 5 and they left to join the larger herd, and all of a sudden 4 mama lions and THIRTEEN baby lions came out of the tall grass to feed! They were beautiful, smelly little kitties-- just like a huge catbox-- and my friends and I all excitedly screamed we were so happy to see "Simba and Nala," haha.

Today "The Big 6" all left, so I joined another van of a Columbian couple named Ivan and Mari. Our driver Leowi is really cool and enjoys off-roading to show us the best animals, so that's been really fun. We started out the day with lions feasting on a buffalo, and then we went back to the Mara river to see hippos out of the water and better views of crocodiles. We also saw lions eating a 2-3 day-old giraffe! It smelled terrible, but was really impressive to watch! Driving back to camp we saw more topee, antelopes, dik-dik and giraffes among others, and I was happy that my ability to spot animals in the tall grass has only gotten better with a few days' practrice. At camp, I did a consistent hour-long run to prep for my Kili hike, and fortunately felt really good.

The next day we did one more game drive in the morning, and was psyched that we found 2 cheetahs chilling in the grass! Although I was really bummed not to see a leopard or rhino-- and therefore only saw 3 out of the "Big 5" (leopard, lion, rhino, elephant and buffalo)-- apparently it's a really big deal to see a cheetah, so I was excited to see a total of 4 on my safari. We also got to see them chasing antelope! I don't think they went full-speed, since they didn't actually catch them, but it was still really exciting to see them stretch out their long legs and heave their barrelling chests across the plains.

On the drive back to Nairobi, I got to chatting with an interesting 34 year-old photographer named Nick from LA, about his passion for charity to sexual abuse, women's and environmental causes. We had a great conversation about how he's trying to change the model industry in LA by educating models about photography techniques like air-brushing-- so cool! I think Jean Kilbourne from "Looks to Kill" would be proud of his efforts, along with my UC Davis friends who used to do educational workshops with me about media messages that affect women's body images. Hopefully we'll stay in touch back in LA.

Meanwhile, I must really be tired and ready to return to LA, because I was a DORK tonight while walking around Nairobi. I met up with my student friends at the University at 6pm for their environmental club meeting, and afterwards I decided to walk home. Apparently I took a wrong turn, because after walking 10 minutes I found myself on a long dark desolated highway road all by myself! It took me forever to realize I was in the wrong place, and even longer to realize that I couldn't catch a cab where I was. I got to the end, where maybe 10 young guys were lingering. CRAP! They slowly approached me and I turned to skiddadle, and thank goodness they yelled to me, "Don't worry-- we're like you, also looking for a ride-- we work in the museum next door." Just like my friendly Ethiopian friends, they payed for my taxi cab (matatu) ride back to my hostel! So nice! I texted this guy Dismus when I got home to thank him and let him know I was okay, and he immediately called me back to ask what qualities I look for in a man. ;) Well I guess you can't blame him for trying! Haha

Thursday I pretty much hung out in Nairobi, catching up on computer work and much-needed sleep. Friday Lucy from Shelter Tours picked me up at my hostels to make the last arrangements for my Kilimanjaro hike, and then hooked me up with her driver Freddie who drove me to the Mathare slums for a little tour. I got to meet up with a Rastafarian Drum Circle group of young people named Sambara, and then the Mathare Talent Youth Organization, both groups with gave me a little beautiful performance. So amazing! I think similarly to other youth group projects I've seen, often times the ones that focus on friendships, consistent meeting times and alternative livelihoods arts projects are often also the best ones that tackle sexual and reproductive health challenges, even though they lack basic services like informational pamphlets and contraceptive supplies.

Friday night was super fun, when my friend Jade's study-abroad brother Odongo, aka Ronald, picked me up at 8pm for a "night on the town" in Nairobi. He told me we'd go out "politely" which I loved-- means till 2am instead of the customary 6am-- and he was right! Him and his friend Tom took great care of me, hanging out at their "bachelor pad" before hitting up the "Westland" club district. We went to a place called "Sohos" and then "Black Diamond," and they bought all my drinks and complimented me on how pretty I am the whole night, saying "it's a Kenyan thing." So nice! No wonder my self-esteem is at an all-time high right now, haha.

Today (Saturday) we left in the morning for Arusha, Tanzania, for my Mt. Kilimanjaro hike. My Kenyan guide Joseph, aka Kariuke from the Kikuyu tribe, seems really nice-- I've been joking that he'll be my "best buddy" for the next week, and I really hope he pushes me to make it to the top, since I really have no idea if I'll make it! Wish me luck! :)

My Kenyan culture shock: “Stuff,” Mt. Kili prep, amazing youth activists, and reflecting on Ethiopia

Kenya is amazing and I can’t believe how much culture shock I’m having here. It may be because I had 6 hours sleep in the past two days, but the second I walked off the plane, I was like “WOAH… stuff!” I was so excited to see books, magnets, and tourist stuff—hats with brims, t-shirts with multiple designs, bottle openers, etc. I couldn’t believe the size of the airport, with 6 turn-styles for luggage, Vodafone SIM card counters, and ATMs! No way- ATMS!

This abundance was even more pronounced when two “Cassie Gardener” signs greeted me, one from Milimani Backpackers that I booked through hostelworld.com at midnight last night before leaving the office at 3am, and the other from the tourist company I’ve been communicating with, Lucy from Shelter Tours. I know it’s the tourism industry, but I seriously love Lucy and her colleagues! They picked a wonderful hostel for me, the YMCA walking distance from the city center and the University, and took care of EVERYTHING for my safari and Mt. Kilimanjaro hike. Though I hate being a “tourist,” I’ve decided to just go with the flow with my Kenyan vacation, since I only have 2.5 weeks and want to relax and have fun here. It’s a damn expensive vacation, haha, but I guess I just have to accept that.

So after going over the details of my itinerary and safari, they took me to the Shelter Tours Office and walked me through the WHOLE climb. OHMIFREAKINLORD I am SOOO excited! The climb seems crazy challenging, since I’ll start at 1,800 meters or 5,905 feet, and over 7 days ascend to 5,895 meters or 19,340 feet! Holy sh*t!!! The hike is actually higher in elevation than the hike to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal, which Lonely Planet says people take about 12 days to reach. And while doctors say you should sleep about 300 meters more each night when doing a hike like this, I’ll be ascending at about three times that rate. The worst is that on the last day, I’ll go to sleep at 6pm, then wake up at MIDNIGHT to climb to the Summit for a photo of the sun rise! AHHHH! I told them that I’m worried about making it since although I’m in decent shape, a) I haven’t been actively training, and b) I don’t have any proper gear. They totally assuaged my fears, saying mental toughness is the most important thing… THAT I have without a doubt! So yeah, I’m really excited, but crazy nervous and scared—it will certainly be the experience of a lifetime!

After talking about the Kili climb, it was 4pm and I was ready to fall over from lack of food, so Eric with the company took me to dinner, and later walked me back to my hostel. I was dumbstruck at all of the modern streets and businesses, and surprised myself to be thinking in Amharic! Who knew I learned so much in my short 2 months, haha. We had great conversations about Kenya’s economic development and environment, and it was so fascinating to compare Kenya to Ethiopia. Eric thinks Kenya is more developed than Ethiopia because “the people aren’t stuck in old ways… even rural farmers have a phone and a bank account.” It’s true that Kenya has much more education than Ethiopia, and they also have a much better geographic location, with the Mombassa port greatly helping trade with Europe and Asia. It’s interesting that Kenya’s English colonization probably “helped” its economy, because they invested in infrastructure and international trade, whereas Ethiopia’s independent communist rule in the 20^th century probably hindered it quite a bit. You can also tell that Kenya’s profiting much more off of its coffee trade—while Ethiopian coffee is the best I’ve had in my life, Kenyan coffee sucks, apparently because they export all of the best stuff. Sooo interesting.

After a decent 10 hours catch-up sleep, today was so much fun! My day started by Shelter Tours visiting me and providing me with all the equipment I’ll need to hike Mt. Kili-- $150 for everything which isn’t cheap, but better than buying it in the states and shipping it to myself. It’s also cheaper than ski rentals, so I guess it’s just what my dad always says—“the cost of running a railroad.” At 11:30am I met up with about 40 youth climate activists that my Ethiopian friends Tinbeb and Liyunesh introduced me to, about 6 of whom attended the Climate Change Negotiations—Grace, George, Winnie, Kevin, Sylvia, and Megh. They were doing a clean-up at the Chiromo River, part of the Nairobi River, right by the University of Nairobi in celebration of Earth Day. It was really fun! I interviewed an amazing young woman named Mercy about her environmental activism, and then participated in a bunch of “get to know you” games and a “flash mob dance” with them under the blazing sun. They gave me a t-shirt, and all wanted a picture with me and my email so we can be facebook friends!

After the event, I got to chat with some of them one-on-one and it was sooo interesting to get a better sense of Kenyan culture and perceptions of Ethiopia. With their wide bright smiles, big lips, full cheeks, round laughing eyes, and darker skin, they really look like my beautiful Kenyan friends I’ve met before, and different from the Ethiopian look I’ve gotten used to. Yet they’re exactly the same in terms of being ridiculously warm and friendly! Kevin has been to Ethiopia before, and we had a really interesting conversation about how he also felt like “the other” as a foreigner there. He said it’s a very deep, proud and close-knit culture, and I totally agreed. Then, I talked with Megh and Winnie about their experiences in Copenhagen. Apparently they were told to be quiet on a bus, so they “pulled a Swahili” and pretended like they didn’t understand what was asked of them. ;) It was really interesting to hear them praise Denmark’s socialist government and provision of health care and education, and how shocked they were at $30 standard meals that are equivalent to 20,000 Kenyan shillings. They told me all about Kenya’s corruption, and how “change has to come from the top and the bottom. It’s not like we’re expecting one individual to rise up, like an Obama thing—everyone needs to want change.” WOAH. Damn I love how Obama is seen as a hero here… I just wish he was doing a bit more to really warrant everyone’s devotion!

After our meal (which they insisted on paying for, saying “it’s a Kenyan thing”), George, Megh, his cousin Jemina, and her friend Anne and I went to a bar till about midnight. It was super fun, and the malt lager beer was pretty tasty. We ended up getting in a pretty lengthy conversation about dating and sexuality in Kenya, and I was really pleased to learn a ton more from them in a few hours than I did from my somewhat conservative Ethiopian friends during my two months there. Again, I think it’s evidence that Nairobi is a modern city, whereas Addis Ababa still has a pretty far ways to go. Or maybe just that George’s friends were trying to hit on me, haha. Either way, my first few days in Kenya have been incredibly fun and packed… and I can’t wait for my safari that begins tomorrow! Let’s hope I see the big 5… and remember what they are! ;)

Found my Motivation, Passion, Purpose and Commitment in Ethiopia

Today I finally left Ethiopia after my 2-month internship with PHE-Ethiopia, and it was by far the most difficult thing I’ve had to do so far during my trip. Last night Negash organized a good bye dinner for me at a Traditional Cultural Show with my favorite people—Mery, Mesy, Thamar, Teshe, Yemmy and Befekadu, along with an American woman named Anne who was visiting from San Francisco with the Packard Foundation. Again, I found myself looking at each of them with love and affection, so grateful that I’ve met so many amazing people and friends here. Yay for accomplishing my #1 goal of my RTW trip!

To revisit my “what I found in each country I’ve traveled to” theme, there’s no doubt that I found my motivation, passion, purpose and commitment in Ethiopia. Those are the words that most strongly came to my mind during each of my visits to rural areas, or engagements with the reproductive health and environmental movements within the country. Considering the fact that I was there for 2 months and made great friends, I could say a million things about the inner and outer beauty of Ethiopians, whose friendly, gracious and hospitable demeanors touched my life. But when I look inside myself at how this experience changed me, it all comes back to my “pivotal moment for global justice,” and how I’m more focused on my purpose and mission than I’ve ever been before.

Mostly, it was the visits to the rural areas that sent my mind and heart racing with the urgent need to take action for Africa, seeing hundreds of barefoot women walking on the side of the road with 50+ pounds of sticks on their backs. It was also during my visit to Gedeo zone, driving down the road and seeing a person walking or sitting every 10 seconds, and realizing the incredible population growth and density challenges facing the country. Of the country’s 80 million people, 80% or 64 million people live in rural areas, and desperately require more basic social services like education and health care, and better infrastructure like roads and electricity. Without that, how can they ever participate in the economy outside of their subsistence agricultural ways, and get ahead to escape poverty?

Finally, attending the Earth Day events yesterday on “Financing Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation” really shook me, as I learned how $100 billion of aid from developed countries is required to avoid the displacement and death of hundreds of millions of the most poor and vulnerable people who live in the developing world. Here are just some of the facts I learned, many of which I already had a vague idea about, but which resonated much more strongly with me because I’ve been living here and witnessing these challenges first-hand:

-“Africa is a continent that is hit hardest by climate change, with droughts, rising sea levels, desertification and disease. In Africa, climate change is a matter of survival.” –Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

-The African Development Bank said that climate change hinders economic development in Africa, for example the economy is largely dependent on agriculture, 95% of which is rain-fed. Climate change impacts are magnified where poverty is high and social safety net structures are weak. Addressing climate change impacts requires substantial financial resources, since climate change costs Africa 2% of GDP per year by 2040, rising with significant regional variations. All countries in Northern Africa are cost over 10%! “Climate proofing” will add 40% to costs of meeting the MDGs in Africa, but these costs are low compared with the economic benefits of adaptation and mitigation.

-The European Union addressed donors’ commitment for adaption and mitigation financing in Africa, and said that it’s difficult to quantify global financial needs because bottom-up country analyses are not available. (Hello potential MPH project! :)) However, the EU is on track with their 2012 Kyoto commitments, committed to support Africa with 2.4 billion Euros annually from 2010-2012, making up 1/3 of the global commitment. 1/3 of these funds are for adaptation, and 2/3 are for mitigation. They say that additional funds are required to scale up to 100 billion USD per year by 2020, and small-scale projects must be transparent, have effective monitoring, and community ownership in order to receive funding. The EU ended saying they’re very committed, and are ready to do more than what they pledged at Copenhagen if developing and “emerging” countries (i.e. China, India, Brazil) move along. In the end, the international dimension of long-term finance is only part of the picture, and national efforts are of equal importance by engaging in meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation. (Negash would certainly agree with this, since Ethiopian culture is very much about taking actions for themselves!)

-A representative with Oxfam in the U.S. then presented similar information to the EU but giving a U.S. and civil society perspective, posing questions such as whether the agreements made at Copenhagen are legally binding and how we can come up with more innovative small-scale projects worthy of $100 billion/year investment by 2020. Right now countries agreed on “fast-start finance” for “approaching $30 billion” from 2010-2020, and what happens now will set the conditions for being able to scale up these efforts by 2020. Since we don’t want funding to compete with other aid commitments like health clinics and schools, projects need to be really transparent about where funding is going and how it’s classified as climate change mitigation or adaptation. For example, Oxfam released a new report that offered successful coping mechanisms, like drought-resistant seeds, diversifying livelihoods off the farm, diversifying agriculture, and the Ethiopian government subsidizing cook stoves. (Although I spoke with her after the event and she wasn’t familiar with the integrated PHE approach, she seemed really supportive and hopes Oxfam can get more involved—let’s hope so!)

-A representative from the Ministry of Health discussed how health is one of the areas most affected by climate change, since weather extremes like heavy rains, floods, and disasters like hurricanes endanger health (malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, cholera, meningitis asthma, heart and respiratory disease), and also destroy property and affect livelihoods. For example, rising sea levels could cause coastal flooding and population displacement, affecting unknown of people since over half the world’s population lives 60k from shorelines. In Ethiopia, health risks are grave, since there’s only 2,000 doctors, 1,000 health offices, 30,000 health extension workers and 20,000 nurses for a population of 80 million!! He said we are not at all capable to cope with climate change, since a stronger health system, more and better qualified workers, better medical equipment and drugs, and infrastructure are all needed… and they all require more finance! (I was really moved to hear all this and excited to be going into an MPH to focus my skills and research on these critical issues!)

After these sessions among others, I was in a bit of shock at all I’d heard about what we need to do to help Ethiopia adapt to climate change, and was rambling to Mery and Mesy about it in line for lunch. “Did you know all that before? How do you guys think the PHE approach can help?” They both gravely nodded that they’d heard it, and laughed at how anxious I was to do something about it. Mery told me, “You know what I like about you? You know who you are, and exactly what you want to do in the world. Like you’re always planning out your next steps—what you’re going to do in Kenya, Latin America, and on your campus next year. You’re the most focused person I’ve ever met!” I laughed and told her she just happened to meet me at a time in my life where yes I’m very focused, and realized that this is what Ethiopia has given me—it’s focused my motivation, passion, purpose and commitment like never before. I was really touched when she told me that I inspire her… both of our eyes teared up as we realized we’d have to say good bye for God knows how long the next day. So sweet!

So, as I go to Kenya and Latin America after that, I’m so invigorated knowing that like I said in my “pivotal moment” blog, Ethiopia will always be a part of me.  I’m again so grateful that I did this before my MPH program next year, so that I can look back to all that I learned and continue to fight for sustainable development and reproductive health in Ethiopia. And who knows, hopefully I’ll return sooner than later, ideally for research or work in the next 1-2 years! Ciao, and AMASEGENALLO, Ethiopia!

Uber-honest reflections from a white OC girl in Ethiopia

Since my blog and my life regularly take up sensitive or "taboo" topics of sex, politics, poverty and international aid among other things, I thought it would be interesting to add a few more to the mix that have weighed heavily on my mind throughout my journey: race and culture. As a Sociology and Women's Studies major in college, I'm trained to think in broad general trends of how individuals and groups of people relate to one another within multiple types of social categories. I think I'm also naturally intuitive, introspective and curious about people, so on every long drive I've made in NZ, OZ, Thailand or Ethiopia, I find myself forgetting who I am, and lost in an imaginative world of what would it be like to walk in X person on the side of the road's shoes for a day. This tendency has been the most extreme in Ethiopia, where I constantly find myself in utter awe, astonishment and perplexity at the lives of the thousands of people I pass.

Basically, I've never felt so much as "the other" in my whole life, both culturally and racially. I've had tons of really interesting moments-- where I forget that I'm white, where I want to be darker to fit in, but mostly where I'm supremely grateful to have been born into my circumstances, like "thank God that I'm not that barefoot woman on the side of the road carrying 50 pounds of sticks on my back right now." Then of course it's "How can I utilize my own social standing and privilege to try and make life better for her?" I want to write a little about these reflections, to show what I think I've learned about myself, race and culture, and maybe someone reading this will reflect upon themselves and learn something too.

Before getting into it, I want to make two disclaimers about these "uber honest" reflections. #1 is that I acknowledge by unique perspective as a privileged white girl from Orange County (the OC). I was raised in upper-middle-class standards, with a loving family where I never wanted for anything. I'm traveling and volunteering in Ethiopia not only because I can, but because I was afforded the education and opportunities to be able to save $15k over four years and travel the world for 8 months. Granted I worked hard and took advantage of opportunities, but like my Mom says, I didn't encounter too many closed doors along my path due to my culture or the color of my skin. So take what I'm saying with a grain of salt, and know that I'm genuinely aware that just being able to reflect on these issues is very touchy-- and I hope I don't offend anyone.

#2 is that culture has been on my mind a lot anyways, because of a somewhat recent heart ache in my personal life that has me a little bitter. After dating off and on for four years, my best friend and boyfriend-- who happens to be Armenian-- ruptured our relationship last August because I'm not Armenian. Sure there were other factors, like the fact that we were 3,000+ miles apart, but the main reason he said was that he felt a "disconnect" between us based on lack of shared background, culture, and common understanding. It really threw me for a loop, not only because he'd never before hinted that this might be a problem for him in the long-term, but it forced me to look at my own questionably biased standards for wanting a "diverse, ethnic man" as a partner. Why is it that in my brief dating history, I'm never attracted to "regular white guys" like my Dad would want? Will a diverse guy even want to be with me, or will he also feel this "disconnect"? Is a disconnect even such a bad thing... aren't we all ultimately a little disconnected, and isn't that part of the beauty of relationships with diverse people-- learning more about ourselves and the world?

So this has been my framework for day-dreaming about the huge "disconnect" I've felt while in Ethiopia, both while struggling to learn Amharic to keep up with my beautiful Habesha friends' conversations, and while going on long drives and imagining what life is like for the tons of people we pass on the road. While I've never felt so much like "the other," I also have a new appreciation and understanding of what it must be like to be a person of color in the states, and even then I know that I'll never fully get it, just like I'll never fully get life in Ethiopia. I think the fact that I'm so consistently conscious of the "disconnect" between me and the people here reflects how privileged I really am in the states, and how I've been able to "become" Mexican or Armenian based on my solid friendships with people of that background. It's like I can easily imagine what it would be like to be born a person of color in the states, to the point that I forget that my ethnic friends look different from me. Here, I forget all the time that I'm white, and then harshly wake up to it when a kid screams ferenje (foreigner) at me while I drive by, or all eyes turn to me when I walk into a restaurant. I've gotten used to it, and acknowledge that it's a cultural difference and normal here, but it's still pretty unsettling.

The most uncomfortable I've been with all this was over the past few days hanging with my Habesha friends who mostly spoke Amharic around me. It was cool at first, trying to learn new words and purposefully goofing up to make them laugh at me. But over time I found myself feeling frustrated, hurt, even angry or thinking they must not like me. I found these emotions ebbed and flowed with my coffee intake, haha, but even when I was happily caffeinated, these sneaking suspicions lingered in the back of my mind when an hour-lunch would pass where 90% of the conversation excluded me.

Today driving from Kombulcha to Addis, I again meditated on the "disconnect" between myself and the people here, and realized it really could be a million reasons-- lack of attention to African issues in the media and in my education, my personal history of having few African American/black friends, how totally different the lifestyle and culture here is from anything I've before experienced, or how different I physically look from the people here. I realized that it's definitely not looks that separate us, but culture, lifestyle and alternate existences in terms of rural vs. urban, indigenous vs. modern. For example, my idea of nature is romantic-- i.e. Anne of Green Gables spinning daisy chains in the grass--whereas young women my age here deal with nature by carrying bundles of sticks for hours and toiling over a stove. It makes me wonder when my grandmother, or even her grandmother, did that, or if anyone in my English/Scottish/German ancestry carried sticks for miles. I look at the rural landscape, and it simply doesn't remind me of anything I've seen before, even where there's eucalyptus and jacaranda and bougainvillea plants. The hills are just too roughly tilled, like every grain of soil has run through someone's rough hand. There's too many people in every direction, and it's a drier, rockier green than I've seen in other places, like the plants and trees are struggling harder to survive. There's virtually no sign of modernity, and this land, this place is foreign to me in every sense of the word.

Through these reflections, I realized that the disconnect I feel here in Ethiopia isn't me vs. Africans, or me vs. African rural land. Rather, it's me vs. myself-- basically becoming conscious of my own forgotten connection to the land, the soil, the rain, and how to "work it." ;)

I felt really happy to realize the origin of my feelings of disconnect, because I feared that it was race-related and based upon how different I look and act vs. people on the side of the road here. Truly, it feels very strange deep down to be ferenje, and almost fills me with sorrow and fear that I could never be like the people here, just like I couldn't "wish myself" to be Armenian. But the beauty is that I realize that the opposite of fear is love... so rather than feel guilty for being white, or fearful that I might be racist for thinking all this, I realize that I need to continue loving all people quite generally, with an open, accepting and embracing heart. And while it's important and beautiful to acknowledge our differences in lifestyle, culture, race and relation to our "roots," I think ultimately we can all love one another as equals, as children of God, and as fellow human beings the world over. Yay for diversity, to realize what you already knew about how despite all our differences, we're all in this together, and we're all ultimately one. :)

Vacation of a Lifetime with PHE and Ladybirds

Wow, the past 5 days of traveling to the Northern historical sites with my friends Mesy (PHE), Mery and Nardy (Ladybirds) have been so much fun. While the language barrier was a bit rough at times (see my next blog, Uber-honest confessions from a white OC girl in Ethiopia), overall we had an incredible time and became really close friends. We also took about a million and a half hilarious pictures, which I’m sure we’ll all treasure our whole lifetimes!

Thursday April 15, Mery picked me up in our land cruiser with chill driver Solomon at 6am, and we quickly scooped up Nardy and Mesy before hitting the road out of Addis. We slept on and off, and woke up to the gorgeous Nile River valley opening up below us in a flat yellow landscape dotted with scrappy green brush and mesa-like flat hills. Since none of us understood the geology of the place, we called Negash to get his view, and he told us the valley was caused by two tectonic plates pulling apart, similar to the Rift Valley. Super cool! He also tasked us with a few work-related items, of course. :) At breakfast, Mery cracked me up when we paid for our meal and I owed her some change, and she said “I’m gonna make you dance for this one bihr!” I belly-laughed and everyone in the restaurant stopped to stare and laugh. Then in the car Nardy said she identified 5 of my laughs… belly, chat, office, movie and fake. AWESOME. :)

565 kilometers later, we arrived in the touristy city of Bahir Dar at around 5pm. We checked into the super nice Papyrus Hotel and I went for a swim in the pool, where I actually pulled off a back flip off the diving board (woo hoo!), and made friends with a fellow swimmer named Desaline. I just swam 10 laps, ‘cuz I’m starting to get really nervous about being in shape to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro in a few weeks! We had dinner and then went to the Balgeru cultural show, where I drank pretty strong tej (honey wine) and got invited to shimmy-shake it with the dancers on stage. Mery said she was proud of me and the lady next to me said I was a professional, haha… but oh well, it was fun.

Friday April 16 was pretty action-packed, with visiting the Entos Jesus Monastery on Lake Tana, cruising around the lake to see birds and a hippo, and then driving out about an hour to hike to the origin of the Nile river, aka Nile Falls. I really enjoyed talking with our 26 year-old tour guide Zelanam along the way, who had really pretty golden eyes and an interest in international media and politics.  He explained all of the religious symbols of the churches we saw, and answered all my questions about the environment and tourism in the area. At the falls, I actually swam to the other side for a photo! I was much more scared of alligators and crocodiles than being seen by everyone in my undies, haha, and thank goodness survived to tell the tale. ;) That night Zelanam took me to the gym for an hour, and then we all went out to the Fasika cultural show and stayed in the Blue Nile Hotel, where again I was asked to shake what my mama gave me in front of everyone. Good times!

The next day we woke up at 5:30am to drive 180k to Gonder, where we had a tense breakfast at 9am in deciding whether we’d have enough time to drive the next 365k to Lalibela. It turned out the road is super rough and it wouldn’t feasibly work, so I had to sacrifice my last day in Addis and accept the fact that our 6 day trip would now be 5 days. Tired of arguing and resigned to our new plan, we ended up having a blast in Gonder, taking hundreds of photos of the “Fasiladas” castle which is also known as the “Camelot of Africa.” We checked into our Kwara Hotel by the Piazza, where I again exercised by climbing 77 stairs with my backpack 10 times… hopefully it will help to have strong hamstrings on Mt. Kili! After our pizza lunch we visited the beautiful Debre Berhan Selassie church, where the girls were really moved by what an ancient priest told them in Amharic about life and how to be a good person, then we drove to the Fasilada’s Bath to take a few more fun pictures of the beautiful trees and stones. That night we went to the Balgeru Cultural Show, where the girls said I was famous because men kept approaching me and one apparently fell in love with me, haha.

Driving the 365k to Lalibela the next day was certainly a bumpy, long adventure! We started at 5am since it was supposed to be a 10 hour drive, and we drove through villages, pebble-strewn roads, stacks of wood and people moving those stacks of wood everywhere. Everyone on the side of the road wore cloth scarves and the men carried dula sticks to brace their shoulders on long walks. The dark brown, dark green and yellow landscape with clear blue skies was breathtaking! We passed by all these men on the road with the wisest old withered faces, and I just thought about how they must have the most incredible stories to tell, the most fantastic belief systems, and the most diverse skills sets of anyone I’d ever seen. I had a ton of fantasies about organizing events on campus next year to have people try carrying huge loads on their head, or doing a week of action on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Let’s hope I’m not too crazy busy next year to be a student activist again! :)

We arrived in Lalibela at the top of a dusty, rocky mountain in the middle of nowhere at about 3pm, and it was SO worth the trip! It’s full of 11 rock-hewn churches that are out of this world, like nothing I’ve ever seen before, from the 12th-13th century, and excavated by chisels and axes from the top down! Inside are barrel arches, vaults and frescoes, and I was dumbfounded to discover that there were no European influences in constructing them—they’re entirely Ethiopian. It’s actually a big mystery on how they were constructed in the first places… my Lonely Planet said researchers say it took 40,000 people working to do it, but the locals—and my friends—believe it was accomplished by angels. I had a big discussion with them on whether aliens or angels were the more likely architects, haha. ;)

Although the churches were architecturally fascinating, the insides were more calm, peaceful and serene than any church I’ve been in. Gracing the cold stone with my fingertips or stepping on the carpet-covered rock floor filled me with warm tingles throughout my whole body, and you could just feel the profound history everywhere, perhaps because it’s a “mecca” destination for so many Orthodox believers. While it was really special for me, it was even more so to watch how Mery, Mesy and Nardy were spiritually moved by the place, as they chatted with the priests and ritualistically kissed the gold crosses of each church we visited.

That night we stayed in the Lal Hotel and had a chill night with no electricity, and the next day we saw the remaining 6 churches we hadn’t seen the previous day. I bought a ton of souvenirs before we hit the road at 1pm, making it half-way south to Addis and checking into the Sunny Side Hotel in Kombolcha at 8pm. It was our last night and of course we had to end it with an adventure, eating tibbs and shiro at a local restaurant and then walking 20 minutes home in the dark, clutching each others arms and laughing at how kinda dangerous it was. ;) The next day we had a delicious mango and avocado mixed juice before leaving at 8am, and we were able to make it back to Addis by 5pm, just in time to meet Negash at the office and get a few work things done in time for Earth Day. Overall the vacation was SO much fun, and I’m really happy it only cost me $300. I can’t believe that I leave Addis in 3 short days—I’m totally not ready—but at least I’ve had this wonderful time to bond with my Habesha friends!

My new obsession: building an international youth movement

The last few days have been exhausting! I'm leaving Ethiopia in 8 days and really don't want to go. Ever since my visit to Gedeo Zone, I've been emblazened, if that's a word, basically full of energy and passion to bust out as much work as I possibly can before I go. :) In addition to writing reports, finishing brochures and the newsletter, and writing blog entries for partner organizations' websites, I've been emailing just about all of my colleagues and activist friends under the sun back in the states about the need, the urgency, the complexity, and the potential of taking action here. I feel like my first month here was all about learning PHE in Ethiopia-- the organization, the partners, the projects-- and now it's really about delivering both in raising awareness about these issues in Ethiopia, and among my friends and contacts back in the U.S., to increase funding for all the great, important work that's being done!

In the past few days, I've also become really excited about a new project Negash has assigned me, basically writing a proposal to increase their work involving youth leaders and advocates in these issues. Since this is my main area of interest and expertise, and because I've already met amazing youth through the Sex and Environment presentation I gave at Addis Ababa University, I'm so happy to have the opportunity to push this forward! Over half of the world's global population is under the age of 25, and the economic, reproductive health and environmental choices they have available to them will impact our world for years to come. Moreover, considering how pressing challenges like climate change, water scarcity, unmet need for family planning and population growth will affect our lives, it's up to youth leaders around the world to stand up and have decision-making power on these issues that affect our health and our livelihoods. At the same time, youth are such an amazing target audience for taking forward integrated development concepts on population, health and environment, often because they tend to see the globalizing world in a more holistic fashion and aren't bogged down by pre-Cairo ideas of "population control" which really stagnate efforts to advance our movement for global reproductive health and sustainable development solutions. So far I haven't seen too much youth leadership here, so this is a fantastic opportunity for me to help PHE-Ethiopia be a leader in integrating and involving youth in their programs and policies! :)

Meanwhile, I've been chatting with my good friend and fellow activist Kimberley Schroeder over the past few days, to find out what's being done about a concept we were really excited about in the months preceding the Copenhagen Climate Change Negotiations last December: "building an international youth movement for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) as just, equitable climate change solutions." We worked together and with other organizations to draft a youth policy statement about these issues, and it was really exciting to create a finished product that people could endorse, because these issues are so complex and controversial. There's tons of evidence that SRHR will help not only with climate change adaptation, since smaller and healthier families and households will be more resilient to climate change impacts that affect food, water and health care availability, but that it will also help with mitigation. In fact new research by demographer Brian O'Neil in CO shows that slowing population growth to 8 billion as opposed to 12 billion by the year 2050 may account for 1 billion tons of CO2 emissions, or "1 wedge" of Socolow and Pacala's stabilization wedges model, which is huge. And keep in mind, when I say "slowing population growth" this is through advancing SRHR, gender equality and sustainable development solutions that we should be doing anyways.

After the disappointing outcome around Copenhagen and I left my position with Sierra Club, I felt like we kind of dropped the ball on all of this, but now I'm excited to work with Kimberley again on all of it. After emailing a ton of people to find out what's being done, I finally decided to just DO SOMETHING, and am now going to create a "youth advocacy video" to raise the voices of youth leaders in the Global South about their opionions on these issues. I'm really excited!

So the past few days, I've been meeting with a few youth leaders here in Addis, and while it's been so incredibly encouraging and motivating, I've also continued to be stunned by how wonderful Ethiopians are. Sunday April 11th I met up with my new friend Alex at the Addis Ababa University campus, a youth environmental club leader I met when I gave my Sex and Environment presentation there. He was so sweet-- took me to the Ethnographic Museum for an hour to look at beautiful baskets, clothes, coffee pots, jewelry, musical instruments and paintings. I loved the moon-shaped Ethiopian faces and olive-shaped eyes in religious pictures-- so different from the pasty skin and tired eyes in European paintings. Ethiopians are so beautiful, it's like there's no need to idealize them! ;) Alex and I talked and ate burgers for an hour, about his approaching graduation and possible ways that he could integrate PHE into his future environmental career. I gave him a printed version of Sierra Club's activist guide, so hopefully it will help him if he chooses to do more organizing or advocacy on these issues before graduation.

Then, my friend Helen and four of her friends with the Gender Club on campus came to meet up with us. I really love Helen-- what an amazing woman! She's almost completely blind, yet is a huge leader on her campus and in the community, partnering with tons of groups to do charity work and raise awareness about violence against women, despite the campus police's refusal to do anything about it. We had a great conversation about the outcomes of Copenhagen, the environmental movement and how it intersects with women's issues-- I was so impressed with how engaged they all are. Then the best part was when the Gender Club pressured Alex on what his club is doing for the environment-- "You need to work hard to keep students engaged! Have at least one panel discussion every two weeks! We're working with the Sports Club, Disability Club, Peace and Charity Clubs... what are you doing?" Then they really wowed me-- Helen said to Alex, "if you are willing, we are eager to work with you on gender, sexual and reproductive health and the environment." AWESOME! Alex later told me that it was too good to be true for him to hear that, because his club lacked adequate volunteers to do many environmental actions. Yay for coalition-building. :) Finally, I couldn't believe that before we left, Helen and her Gender Club friends actually gave me a birthday present of a traditional purse and scarf. Are you kidding me? So sweet! And Alex ended up accompanying me back to my house, paying for my taxi bus of course. Did I mention that I love Ethiopians?

All of this culminated today, when I interviewed two amazing youth climate activists who attended the Copenhagen Climate Negotiations representing all Ethiopian youth, Tinbeb and her sister Liyunesh Yohannes. They are seriously the most inspring young women I've ever met. They told me all about how over the past year, they worked as volunteers to build awareness among youth audiences and farmers in Ethiopia about climate change. Last October 24th, for 350.org's International Day of Action for Climate Change, they mobilized 15,000 youth to march in Addis Ababa! It was the largest action to take place around the world, and they did it with virtually no funding-- just $200 for a government permit to have a marching band on the road. Since then, they attended the Copenhagen Climate Change Negotiations to pressure their decision-makers for a fair agreement, and came back to start their own organization, the Ethiopian National Youth Coalition on Climate Change (EYNCCC). They are organized with student networks throughout the country, and received a grant from the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington DC to plant 1 million trees over the next year. It was exhausting just to hear about all that they're doing, but so encouraging to see how this is their life, their campaign, their movement, and how excited they are to work with youth throughout the whole world-- many of whom they met in Copenhagen-- to advance these critical solutions. I'm also really excited that they're partnering with PHE-Ethiopia to also integrate livelihoods, poverty reduction, gender equity and health care into their efforts... and hopefully if PHE-Ethiopia gets funding, they can receive more training and have the opportunity to visit PHE field projects to further strengthen youth leadership on these issues!

Hopefully I'll see them next week for a big Earth Day Celebration that EYNCCC and PHE-Ethiopia are co-sponsoring in addition to other organizations, and they're also going to introduce me to youth climate activists in Kenya. Yay for inspiring youth leaders!