A Tale of Two Cities

I need to get one more blog up before a new series of activities begins. This month promises to be packed, but the trip I went on recently deserves an entry of its own. 

I have experienced an interesting nexus of events that seem related. I recently finished Carl Sandburg's biography of Abraham Lincoln. It is quite a long read, and worth it if you are a historian. What was most striking though was the extensive history of the Civil War that necessarily was a central focus of his first term in office. I had not considered the extent to which prosecuting a civil war is by definition a ruthless business. In order to get people to fight their countrymen, the penalty for desertion must be dire. And both sides executed a staggering number of men who for one reason or another did not want to fight. 

Bizwayo, our Project Manager and his daughter

That said, I was able to take a trip this month to Mekelle, the capital city of Tigray. I went with my colleague Solomon. There has been a peace treaty in effect since the end of November between the Govt. and Tigrayan Defence Forces (TPLF). In the past month, electricity, internet, fuel, and banking have been restored, to Tigray, as well as humanitarian aid brought in by air. (The roads are not open yet.) In the last several weeks, commercial air travel (Ethiopian Airlines) has begun flying there again. 

Because we have had a cash transfer emergency relief project running for the past 6 months, Solomon and I felt it would be a good opportunity to do some monitoring and evaluation. I was struck by the juxtaposition of my last two trips-- I was in Woldiya in January, a city that was invaded and occupied by the TPLF for many months before they were finally pushed out by Federal Forces. The departing militia left a path of destruction in its wake. 

Now I was visiting the capital city of the invading army, ready to hear stories of people here who spent over a year with no power, supplies, or communications, whatsoever, under constant threat of starvation as well as drone and MiG strikes. 

The suffering of Tigrayans was featured in the western media far more than the devastation they wreaked in their invasions of Afar and Amhara, and I don't doubt that the stories on both sides of this war--about its brutality, are probably true. As I learned in detail about the American Civil War, a war between people of the same country is generally marked by ruthlessness. 

I am very pleased to say that our invitation to visit was at the behest of our partner, the Meserete Kristos Church (Mennonite). I was always extremely impressed with their ability to stay relentlessly neutral throughout the conflict. The church in Amhara was often criticized and under threat for not being actively partisan and supportive of the war. The same was true in Tigray. 

But the relief the MKC and MCC provided, which was delivered in cash on the UN flights during the darkest days of the war, was made possible by that neutrality, as was the visit of Solomon and I this month. The Tigrayans we visited were grateful for the efforts of the Addis-based church to help them, even though they were theoretically 'the enemy'. We were welcomed as brothers by the Tigrayan Mennonites who had seen the generosity of their brethren in Amhara and Oromia. 

I have to say, this was my first visit to Mekelle ever, and I did not know what to expect. From the air though, it was obviously an enormous city, in fact, it is the second largest after Addis. It was hard to imagine that this city was completely shut down and isolated during the conflict. 

We arrived on a Saturday morning and were met off the plane by a small welcoming committee from the Mekelle MKC. They took us to lunch at what seemed like a very nice touristy cultural restaurant. I was surprised to see it quite busy, although there was no real evidence that the clientele were tourists. I did notice that I was the only foreigner I saw there during my whole visit. 

We stayed at the Yordannos Hotel which was open for business but did not seem to have more than a few people staying. It looked like it had been built by Italians and the rooms had a European feel. Very comfortable. (I heard later that they had almost no guests in the past 3 years, and even the staff who served us were only being paid the tips we gave.)

Mekelle on the ground looks a lot cleaner than Addis and better organized. Despite having been without food, electricity, fuel, banking, internet, phone, transport, school, medicine, or any govt. services for nearly 18 months. Now that most of these services had recently been restored, much of life looked almost normal. At least a façade of normal. There were shops open, cars and taxis and buses running, people bustling around, shopping, and generally looking pretty happy.

I am guessing the diaspora has sent money since banking has reopened, so even though jobs have not all been restored, there is commerce and shops are open. The roads from Amhara and Afar are still closed so the only things coming in are coming by plane, or else by WFP trucks through Afar. But strangely, it seems that the trucks that supply beverages--beer, wine, and soda have been allowed to cross as well (probably through bribes). In fact, I saw at least one double-trailer truck loaded with beer and soda pass through the center of town almost every hour! So there is an abundance of alcoholic beverages for sale and almost every shop along the road is selling it and people are sitting on low stools on sidewalks in front of these restaurants and shops drinking.

There are also a huge number of young men in the town, mainly sitting around drinking, many are disabled. These are the demobilized TPLF fighters. Although there were also still many heavily armed young men as well, clearly all of the TPLF have not been demobilized, and in fact the Federal Govt. is not in control of Mekelle. It is still under the jurisdiction of the Tigrayan Defense Forces (TDF). As a consequence, civil servants are still not being paid, like teachers, so schools have not restarted, and in fact, children in Tigray have not been to school at all in 3 years!

Our activities began the next day on Sunday morning. We met first with the Mekele Relief Committee, made up of members of the MKC church including the Director of the Compassion project, 2 church leaders, (one was a woman), a community businessman, and Bizwayo, the Project Manager for the cash transfer project. There were 5 men and 3 women in the group. They talked about beneficiary selection and explained that they received lists of names from the Labor Office of vulnerable people then made selections within that group. Selection criteria included pregnant and lactating women, children under 5, people with HIV or other chronic illnesses, elderly widows, and female-headed households. There were far more needy people than there were available funds. The project helped about 685 beneficiaries. They will help the same number in the current phase of the project and are just completing getting beneficiaries set up with bank accounts as the banking system just became available again on the week we arrived.

One message that came out from meetings with both relief committees that we met with, was gratitude for the project manager Bizwayo, a Tigrayan member of the MKC who was in Addis when the conflict started and he was trapped for 11 months outside of Tigray (away from his family). He was instrumental though in making the case to MCC about the possibility of cash transfers on the UN flights that were still operating. Several NGOs had permission to do this, and MCC received it as well through MKC. People in Tigray described Bizwayo as like Joseph, sold as a slave to Egyptians who eventually saved his people because of his position in Egypt. It is an apt description because we never would have come up with this intervention on our own. It needed a strong advocate in Addis.  

 

After the meeting, we attended the church service of the Mekelle MKC. It was surprising to see everyone worshipping so joyously after the trauma they had gone through. But maybe that was the reason they did. We were warmly welcomed by the congregation and appreciated being able to participate in this service.

After the service, we visited homes of 4 families who had received cash transfers. I have recorded their stories at the end of this blog.

We also visited a project of a man named Abebe who was a street child before starting his NGO that supports street children in Tigray. He has a live-in orphanage for about 30 children that is fully staffed as well as a nearly constructed school. He is supported by Israeli donors. They managed somehow to get some money during the crisis and he was able to keep the children alive that were in his care.

Abebe used to help with the Anna Hofer project that MCC ran in Mekele for many years. Abebe said that the sister who ran it returned to Canada before the war. He does not know what became of the children that were there.

We returned to the hotel for the night.

On Monday we started early and took a 50km trip north to the town of Wukro. We passed through a major military checkpoint as Wukro is controlled by Federal Defense Forces. The trip did not take more than 45 minutes. Again we went to the MKC church and met the Wukro relief committee, we heard stories of the intervention and selection criteria. After meeting for about an hour, we went and visited 3 beneficiary households that are in the beneficiary stories report.

We drove back to Mekelle from Wukro after that.

We had a post-visit discussion with our partner and came to the following conclusions: Although the peace agreement and return of a number of essential services including, electricity, food, fuel, telecommunications, banking, commerce (but not school and the road between Tigray and Amhara is still blocked) we believe it would be very beneficial to do one more round of cash transfers but adjusted for the current cost of market items.  The problem is that for most people, they have not been able to return to any kind of paid employment until there is normalization of the economy which requires civil service to be functioning again. This has not happened yet so while the situation is not as completely dire as before, people are still currently extremely food insecure especially those who are very vulnerable. We also discussed possible future opportunities of organizing some of the beneficiaries into self-help groups. This could be a future intervention once the crisis phase is safely passed.

We returned to Addis the next morning. Outside the airport was completely packed with people holding tickets who were hoping to get on the flight. Apparently, there is a waiting list that goes on for many days. I was very relieved that we were able to book a round-trip ticket. I am sure it is because I was a foreigner coming from Addis. We got on board without issue, except that we had to check about 10 Kilos of local honey that was given to us by different people. (It is a specialty of Tigray.)

One surprise, when we returned to Addis is that the local flight was routed through the International terminal so we had to pass through Immigration. It seemed like a screening as if we were coming from a foreign country. We were questioned briefly about our visit there, as was everyone else. I am sure it was a precautionary screening given the people who were traveling from Mekelle to Addis.

Please see stories on home visits below.

Mekelle Home Visits:

Tadelech Bogale lives with her son Amen 7, two daughters and Yeabkal (17) her oldest son who had left to join the TPLF and fight. She has not heard from him since he left a year ago and is not able to get any information from the Tigrayan Defense Force about his whereabouts or if he is even alive. She suspects he was killed but does not know where.

Tadelech became deeply distraught as soon as she began her account of the 4 month period in which the cash transfers were being implemented. She is a widow. She had run out of food. Her son Amen was virtually starving and showing signs of severe malnutrition. She could not buy any food and had run out of all stocks. She sobbed as she recounted the story of telling her children she could not give them food.

She is also hypertensive and diabetic and had to make a nearly impossible choice of buying medicine for herself which she needed to be well enough to take care of her family and buying food. She began dividing her dosages in half, and for a time there was no medicine available at all anyway.

She described several periods of intense drone strikes. She and everyone in her household cowered undercover, the MiGs were even worse because they would carry a payload of several missiles.

By contrast she said the UN plane they would hear was like ‘an angel of God’ because they knew that Bizwayo (our project manager) was coming with money to support them. The cash transfer funds saved their lives during the worst 3 months.

Her son Amen now 7 has not been to school for 3 years because they have been closed. They do not know when schools will reopen. Some social services have begun but the federal civil society is not back on salary so there are no teachers, or other govt. workers.

2) Bizu Desalegn and Abel Tesfaye (13)

Bizu and her son Tesfaye are both HIV positive and were struggling during the time of war. Her husband is an Eritrean soldier and is completely out of the picture now. She is the head of household and before the war ran a small poultry enterprise that she received along with training in the past.

With the beginning of the conflict she lost her business and home. She and Abel now lives\ in an unused ‘suuk’ or store that her sister owns. (She said the relationship between she and her sister is tense because Bizu is a Pente Christian and her sister is Orthodox—Pente Christians are largely scorned by the Orthodox and even associated with the enemy Ethiopian Govt) They have no way of making any income and were on the verge of starvation when the cash relief came. She even described trying to eat ‘non-edible’ things to survive. When she had a bit of money she used it for food for Abel. This was hard on her as she had been on ARTs (until the supply ran out), and these were very difficult to take on an empty stomach.

Abel (13) has not been in school for 3 years as schools have been closed throughout the conflict and not reopened.

Bizu hopes the worst is over, and since she is living in an abandoned shop, hopes that someday she might be able to produce and sell a few things like bread and pasta.

Alemtsehay Tadesse and Araya Gebreselasie

Had been school math teachers until the conflict broke out and schools were closed. That was 3 years ago, when one includes the COVID lockdown in 2020. They are currently unemployed and unable to get work. They have 3 children ranging in age from 22 to 7. The youngest is living with them.

They had just built a small house right before the conflict broke out and had used all of their money. They found themselves suddenly and unexpectedly broke, without any income. They ran out of food and were struggling to find any way to eat and feed their youngest child.

They described the terror of drone and MiG strikes and being completely cut off from family, especially children that were not in Tigray.

Since the end of the conflict they are hoping things will improve for them, but currently they have not heard any news of a plan to reopen schools again.

Wukro Field visit

Five sisters living together: (oldest to youngest) Fiori Asnake, (son Haele Sitotaw not there), Alemnest Sitotaw, Adise Sitotaw, Mulu Sitotaw, Tibka Sitotaw, and (the son of Fiori- Semere Hadish)

The five sisters shared a small house with their mother. Their mother is currently in Addis Ababa with their adult son Haile, who is struggling with trauma. At the start of the conflict, they were separated from their oldest sister and her son Semere and their second sister Alemnest because they were going to Dessie (in Amhara) to start University when the border closed. Fiori and her son were arrested and imprisoned there for being Tigrayan. They were not able to return for much of the time of conflict.

The mother, a widow of 9 years, has a substance abuse problem with chat (a stimulant leaf), and struggled to support the other children during the war. Tibka, the youngest broke down as she described seeing her mother begging on the street to get food for the girls. Tibka also said that sometimes her mother would send them out into the rural areas to villages where chat could be acquired very cheaply, to support her habit.

They also talked about the terror of the drones and heavy artillery fire that landed in Wukro from both TPLF and Federal Defense forces. Eritrean soldiers also invaded the town, and they witnessed several people killed in the street, including 2 people from their church.

They described a routine of leaving home in the morning and hiding in the forest during the day when the shelling would happen then returning to their homes by night when it was quiet.

The support of cash transfers came at their most desperate time when they were out of food, and they could not even find members of the church who could give them anything.

Although the peace agreement does give them hope, none of the girls who have remained in Tigray have been able to attend school for the past 3 years.

 Mikrte Abraham and her three children Fanuel 11, Natnael 5, and Aman 2, live together in a small rented house. Mikrte’s husband is a Tigrayan soldier, currently imprisoned in the southern city of Hawassa as he was captured during the conflict. She does not know when, or if he is coming back. When the conflict was at its worst she to struggled find any food to feed her family. She used to sell coffee on the street, but when the economy crashed and they were locked down, she could not even do that. She resorted to trying to cook peanut shells for food, just to have something to give her children.

She also confirmed that her older children had not been able to attend school for the past 3 years.

 Final visit: Kiros Berihu had an autistic child and her husband was out of work. He had been a TPLF fighter but did actually return home. She believes he would never be able to return to work where he used to be as he had a job in Amhara as a skilled laborer. Since being part of the TPLF, he would not ever be hired again in Amhara.

 

Celebrations and Laments from farmers in Gojjam

Wheat harvest ready for threshing

We have ended these past two weeks in a time of tension and darkness. But we began with celebrations, and we have been on journeys since then.

First, the celebrations! On the last day of January, our housekeeper Yeshi had a birthday. We do our best to remember and recognize all our team members. David very kindly made a yummy chocolate cake the night before and we enjoyed it at tea time. And then the celebration continued into lunch…

Yeshi, Hana, Eyerus and Barry

Our longest-serving staff member, Muluneh Adamu, recently turned 60. We found out that he is obliged to officially retire by government labour law (though he is eligible to continue on with a new contract). So, within a week, we processed all the paperwork to release his pension fund, etc. And then our staff led the way in planning a celebration to recognize this milestone in his life. We all went out for a special lunch at an Ethiopian cultural restaurant. It was a very light-hearted time together. We enjoyed some special non-alcoholic honey mead called birs and big plates of delicious habesha food. Our logistics officer, Wonde, really loves to practice a special cultural gesture of love and care called “gursha”: he would take a sizeable portion of injera and sauce, and feed it to each of the rest of us. It’s funny and awkward, a bit the way one feels when seeing a bride and groom feed each other wedding cake. The team of staff sharing his plate complained that he was causing deforestation of their food supply, so we had to supplement from the rest of our plates. Anyway, it was quite a nice bonding time for all of us.

Gursha

We were also really happy to begin rehearsals again with our local community choir, Sing Again! We are preparing a selection of songs from movie soundtracks. It should be fun! Our kids continue to find good ways to connect with other kids in the neighborhood and have been enjoying weekly get togethers most weeks. We were also really delighted to help Oren's friend Barry finish his college applications and to see him receive his National ID card, necessary for his passport application.

Saturday was quite an unusual day on our compound. Our dear little cat Charley turns out to be female, a fact that was only too obvious recently when she became very loud and annoying. It was not seemly, in a compound is also a professional compound for our office. We do not have mental space for kittens and so we resolved to have her fixed. The vet turned up at 10 am, set up his portable operating table under a gazebo here, and we sedated Charley enough that she wouldn’t move. Paul was “enlisted to be the surgical assistant in giving our cat an ovariohysterectomy.” I absolutely could not bear it. In fact, I was really happy when I had to leave to take Oren to physiotherapy to work on loosening the sprained ankle that has been bothering him since November. Charley was very sick and dizzy when I got back, struggling with the anaesthesia. She had a plastic netting around her neck to keep her from licking her wound – a bit better than a cone, I guess, but still not very easy for her. She struggled to walk at all and actually fell down some steps at one point. It was very worrying and heartbreaking.

Amy with Mesfin and me

Halfway through that afternoon, we received a long-anticipated visitor from MCC Canada, Amy Martens. In March 2020, Amy was in the airport in Toronto on her way to Ethiopia when the pandemic officially shut down travel, and she had to return home. We were very happy to welcome her 3 years later. Amy has been an amazing colleague, working alongside us with patience and deep discernment. Her domain has been food security projects, along with some of our emergency relief work. And we know she has been a faithful advocate on our behalf, as an intermediary with our big back-donor Canadian Food Gains Bank (CFGB).

Our family up at Entoto viewpoint

We had a quiet first evening with her, grilling chicken and nursing our ailing cat. Amy had been travelling for the past two weeks in Uganda and so it wasn’t bad for her to have some downtime. In the morning, we all got up early for church. I was preaching on communion Sunday, so it was interesting to have an MCC visitor join us on that occasion. After church, we ran home and changed and then drove up to Entoto Park to take Amy for a good long walk. We actually made it to the end viewpoint of the Park, 4 km in 40 minutes, snapped some photos, had lunch, and then walked back to our car. We arrived home 2 minutes ahead of our friends for small group bible study. Phew! We made it a fairly early night because Amy and I needed to get out the door by 6:30 am the next morning.

The welcome coffee ceremony for Amy

We took a quick local flight to Bahir Dar, the major city of Amhara region on Lake Tana. Normally, it takes about 10 minutes to check in and head to the gate. But the domestic terminal was packed – probably 8 times the normal volume. It seems like people are feeling better about flying than going by road right now. That was our reason for flying, too, when we could have driven in about the same amount of time. We just barely made it to the gate. That was the only really stressful part of our day.

The driver of our partner MSCFSO met us at the airport and took us for breakfast before we hit the road to drive south to Debre Markos, about 5 hours away. On this occasion, we somehow managed to do the entire drive without stopping. Unless you count stopping for a major religious procession at a town about halfway. Everywhere we went, people were dressed in black. Tadele, like all the other Orthodox people we met, was observing a three-day Sabbath fast for Nineveh (remembering Jonah’s time in the whale's belly). This is normally a time of preparation for the long Lenten fast. 

Black flags flying for the fast

This year, the Holy Synod also called people to fast and mourn for a schism along ethnic/political lines that has suddenly erupted in the Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Debre Markos is a hard-core Orthodox town and even the little 3-wheel bajaj taxis were flying black flags in observance.

We dropped our bags at our hotel, had a cold Coke each, and then made an appearance at the MSCFSO office. They had quite a reception ready, with introductions to the whole span of their work, and then an evening coffee ceremony with snacks. Amy is quite an important visitor for them -- they have worked directly with her a lot on preparing several CFGB grants. Currently, we are all working on a huge grant with the Canadian government to promote Nature-Based Solutions for climate resilience in a particular watershed in Amhara region. We all understand how important it is to really get to know one another well. Yihennew, the Program Manager, accompanied us through the whole visit, along with the Director Ato Mihretu. 

Area closure with check dams to stop erosion

We were exhausted by the time we got back to our hotel but refreshed in the morning when we began our field visit to the Kosso Amba - Tibtab watershed. I visited back in May with our Area Director Wawa. That was a different season -- things are much drier now. On the other hand, it was clear how many farmers are practicing conservation agriculture and leaving the crop stubble in the fields to stabilize the soil and stop erosion. We walked through the Tibtab watershed first, past a large area enclosure that was fenced off 3 years ago. The forest inside is even more impressive after 8 months. It will provide more sustainable firewood and charcoal for the community, along with cut-and-carry animal fodder made of acacia limbs.

Threshing in a designated area

We had come at the wheat threshing season. The watershed committee there had decided together that all threshing would happen in designated areas on top of the hill. It's more work for each farmer, but it also means less soil loss and erosion on each farmer's field.   

Heavy rains last year caused the creation of a few pretty serious gullies along the edges of the area closure. Those are part of the reason that we are working to get a 4th year of the project approved -- there are still parts of the watershed that need to be stabilized and repaired. This kind of work is not completed in only three years. 

a quick-growing new gully

We visited two other areas -- Gibto Amba and Kosso Amba.  I was so encouraged to see the visible growth of the trees planted in gullies to help stabilize the soil and halt the gully development. I clearly remember standing and looking at Wawa across a very bare red gully. Now that whole area was green with low shrubs. We walked a lot and saw many fields, edged with tree lucern planted in rows on the contour lines, one more defence against erosion. Quite a few farmers were using lupine as Green manure, growing it until just before the seeding stage and then cutting it into the soil to add biomass. Other farmers were growing lupine in order to collect and sell the seeds as snack food. Either way, it's a nitrogen-fixing indigenous plant that helps enrich the soil between grain crops. 

We had to drive back 30 minutes to the nearest town for lunch -- fasting lunch of lentil and vegetable dishes this time because of the church season. In the afternoon, we had time to meet with three different community groups. A self-help group talked about the profits they were able to make, the women mostly brewing local liquor and the men fattening animals. A revolving seed group talked about how they were able to pass on good seeds to their neighbours in the next season. And finally, the watershed committee talked about how much they appreciated MSCFSO and their approach to involving community members from the very beginning. 

Yihenew with lupine seeds,
in a lupine field

One question really struck me. MSCFSO's project has brought job opportunities to landless youth in this community, paying them cash-for-work to build the physical structures to repair gullies (check-dams) and to plant the trees and shrubs that are biological means of remediation. This income has made a huge difference in the lives of these young people. They have been able to live at home rather than migrate to cities. What will happen to these youth when the MSCFSO phases out their work in 12 months? There are few other opportunities for them in their home community. 

We asked the Self-help group members what hopes they had for their young adult children, and they all hoped their kids would have a better life. Farming is hard. They want their kids to get educated and leave. But who will grow food for the country if all these young people leave the land? And is life really better in the cities in a country with very high youth unemployment? At the end of our day, we met a University graduate who had come home to help his parents with their wheat harvest. He told us that if he got a better job, he probably wouldn't come back for this. 

That's a big rock!

As we drove back to Debre Markos in the evening, we found ourselves following a large dump truck. In the bed of the truck, pushing out the sides, was one enormous boulder. We found ourselves marvelling that anyone would want to move such a huge rock. How did they load it? How would they unload it? How in the world could it be valuable enough to be worth the cost of transport? it was quite a novel sight.

In the morning, we woke up even earlier to move on from Debre Markos to visit communities that are part of a different CFGB project, SCASI. First, we made a quick visit to some older watersheds. Projects in those places are now phased out, but farmers clearly continue to practice CA principles and maintain their fields against erosion. 

Then we headed up over a mountain northeast of Debre Markos. We climbed and climbed, up through a town called Rob Gebeya -- Wednesday market. It was Wednesday. There was a market! Farmers were streaming down from the highlands, with donkeys loaded with potatoes, the crop most suited to high altitude. We kept climbing up Ch'ok'e mountain until we reached the highest point on the road at almost 4000 m (13,100 ft). 

On Ch'ok'e Mountain

It was spectacular, with alpine heath vegetation that reminded me a lot of the Shira plateau on the Western slopes of Kilimanjaro. We stopped for about 20 minutes to breathe the fresh air and marvel at the view. We got the news that Yihennew had gotten a flat tire -- no surprise on the rough gravel roads we were travelling, so we didn't hurry too fast back down the other side of the mountain to the project communities. This is one of two Woredas where MSCFSO is implementing a new Scaling Up Conservation Agriculture (SCASI)

We met Farmer Anagew Sinishaw in his field in Bibugn woreda (_____Kebele). His homestead was built just on the edge of the main road, with his fields running off towards the valley. He had left the stubble of wheat in his lower field, while he had plowed his upper field. He immediately volunteered that this was the third year he had employed principles of Conservation Agriculture, and he was delighted with the results. This year, he had harvested a healthy crop of maize, and he showed us --  using his whole forearm -- the length of those ears of maize.

Anagew in his field

At first we were confused: how had Anagew been practicing conservation agriculture for three years already? This was only the first year of the SCASI program in his woreda. He explained that before SCASI, the Packard program had sponsored training for agriculture extension agents. He learned some general ideas about conservation agriculture at that point, though he only had been doing it in an organized way for this third year. Before these changes, his field was very infertile and he could only grow lupine.

This year, he planted one 20 x 20 field with maize using conservation agriculture. Now he’s plowed that field and will plant potatoes (that was the reason he plowed). The following season he plans to plant barley, practicing the principle of crop rotation. In total he has 1600 m² under cultivation using conservation agriculture, including two other sections of land.

He elaborated on his maize field this last season, where he mixed both compost and chemical fertilizer into the soil. He also used mulch, which then decomposed. He could visibly see the change in soil color and could see how the mulch kept the soil moister.

Vermicompost

He participated in agriculture training through the SCASI program this year, but his wife Anchiney Muchey did not. He explained that she had just given birth when the program started and was very busy caring for their new baby. Some of the trainings included topics such as Green manure/cover crops, field layout training, compost production and the timing of chopping mulch and how to incorporate it. He feels very supported by his wife and kids and some of them help with the work. Most of his neighbors are also positive and are trying out CA on their own fields.

Anagew is also a member of the kebele Watershed Committee. He has been part of making decisions to enforce an area closure to allow the watershed at the center of the community to regenerate. That gully rehabilitation began several years ago through a Ministry of Agriculture initiative called the Soil and Land Management Program. We could easily see the stark contrast between the area where animals are allowed to graze (which was completely denuded of vegetation) and the area closure beside it where animals were forbidden to enter.

Anagew with maize

We walked back towards the road from Anagew’s field into his homestead, where he showed us what was left of the enormous ears of maize he had harvested. Then he took us around to his vermicompost box along the outside of the house. He had learned about preparing compost this year, and he had a nice setup, with a shaded, raised rectangular box, the frame built of eucalyptus poles and mud, lined with plastic and filled with soil and lots of worms. He is a little worried about the ants that seem to be drawn to the compost as well. 

We were about to leave and meet with some other farmers, but Anagew's wife pleaded with us to stay and have something to eat. We entered their home, made of the same building materials as the vermicompost structure, but with a very high roof. Anchiney brought out several trays of injera, with a little pile of dark ochre Awaze in the center (spicy berbere paste mixed with oil). The family also offered us glasses of the local beverage T'alla -- this one pretty basic and unfiltered. I was interested to try a few sips, but that was all I could manage. I was actually praying that it was fermented enough to protect me from whatever else might be in the liquid. 

I noticed some large colorful photo banners on the wall of their home, depicting a very attractive young woman congratulating her on her graduation from college. It turned out to be their daughter. They had just celebrated her wedding the past weekend there in the village. I wondered what a married college graduate would do when it comes to participating in the land her father is farming. 

Hail victims

We left Anagew's village and moved further north to visit one more SCASI community. the Mosaba kebele of Bibugn woreda. A group of men and women pulled up benches under the shade and we gave them a chance to share their stories. Sibeltal began by sharing how he had gotten training in conservation agriculture earlier in 2022. He used planting stations and Green manure cover crops with his wheat. In July, they had a light hail storm, but nothing was too badly damaged. Like most of his neighbors, he bought fertilizer on credit and added it to his field. The crop was growing beautifully and was looking almost ready to harvest in November. On the night of November 13, at about 9 pm a massive freak storm blew through the area, dumping rain and piles of hail for an hour and a half. People were terrified as they heard the sound of trees crashing down, hanging onto their roofs so they wouldn't get ripped off. People were scared for their lives. 

Hail the morning after

In the morning, when they ventured out of their homes, everything was white. The ground was covered with piles and piles of hail. The crop was covered with ice and ruined. It was 100% crop loss in that community. Everywhere, birds were dead, pelted by the hail. Their fruit trees -- the supplementary income they relied upon in times of crop failure were also badly damaged, all the fruit ruined. Mothers and fathers were weeping, as they took in the disaster. Yet these farmers gave thanks to God, that the storm had come at night. If it had come during the day, surely some of them would have lost their lives. 

Another man, Mosit, spelled out the bad situation they were in, going forward. They had all bought fertilizer on credit, anticipating paying off the debt with their wheat harvest.  The rain was so heavy that the fertilizer they had bought was all ruined. In addition, they had been given seeds to plant for the first season. They had used it all and had no seed left to invest in a new crop to try to dig themselves out of debt. The terms of their loans have been extended, but they are on borrowed time and don't see any way to pay it off, Many people have left the community, looking for work in order to feed their families. 

Kebele chief and hail survivor

It is a pretty awful situation for these farmers. Normally the government has a disaster response department that would help them with recovery. However, much of northern Amhara along the Tigray border is still devastated by the conflict, with many displaced people struggling to make ends meet. Water systems and schools need to be rebuilt, and many people missed a year of farming. There are just too many disasters going on here, all at the same time. MCC feels the same, as it tries to respond to longer-term crises like the war in Ukraine and the earthquake that happened just the day before we met these farmers. And the structure of the SCASI project is rather rigid, with a new back donor from Norway, making it hard to suggest changes and additions to the budget. We are trying to think about how to advocate for this small community in their time of need.

As we were preparing to part ways with the MSCFSO team, they very graciously gave us gifts of wonderful Gojjam honey to take back with us to Addis and Winnipeg. They are a very dedicated group of people, working extra hard for their communities in all kinds of holistic ways. 

We continued driving up North, following the gravel road until it met with another major route coming from Addis. It was a windy way, full of switchbacks and very dry countryside. Once more, we decided to just drive all the way through to Bahir Dar rather than stop. We had an early dinner there at our hotel and got some rest. 

On Thursday, the last day of our northern visit, Mesfin had suggested that we give ourselves a little time to enjoy the scenery. We were a little delayed by a flat tire. Our driver made sure to repair the spare before we continued our journey, so we were a bit delayed. Then we drove out to the Blue Nile files, a few kilometers beyond the place where the Blue Nile exits Lake Tana. We found a very kind guide named Dawit who led us expertly on a circuit trail around all sides of the falls. We first crossed the Portuguese bridge, one of 3 old stone bridges in the country, built by an empire looking for converts to Catholicism. The bridge crossed the Nile, noisy with rapids on one side, and calm as it flowed towards Sudan on the other side. We then climbed up a long rocky hill to a point where we could down into the next valley and see several parts of the falls. Originally it was a massive expanse of falls, in 5 separate streams. 

Being funny at the falls

But in the 1950s, Italy had kindly constructed a hydroelectric dam  (reparations for their past wrongs?). Now sometimes 90% of the water goes through the power plant and the falls are much diminished from what they had originally been. On the day we went, there was still a decent amount of water going over the falls and creating spray. Dawit made sure to take photos of each of us and various intervals. I also enjoyed the birdwatching, especially the little bee-eaters that love that environment. 

Next, we crossed over a suspension bridge and then down right up to the point of high spray. We got a very refreshing light shower, which felt great on a warm day. It was quite an exhilarating place to visit. We finally returned across the Nile by a short boat trip and found our driver. He took us back to Bahir Dar where we settled down on a floating restaurant to enjoy some fresh lake fish. We were just heading out to the airport when we started getting rumors of unrest and people demonstrating back in Addis. It was quite unsettling to know our kids were just getting out of school, we were far away, and we didn't know if it would be safe for them on the roads. When we got through to our staff, we heard that things were normal and calm -- it had been just a localized problem in one neighborhood. But this was the climate of political-religious tension we were coming back home to. 

At Blue Nile falls

We had planned for some work meetings on Friday, Amy's last day. Sadly, she was quite ill and really needed to rest before getting on a long plane ride. The government had mandated that schools be closed Friday, so we kept our kids at home. And meanwhile, I was on the phone and email with our Church council, trying to discern if we should meet as normal at our church building on Sunday. In the end, we made a plan for neighborhood worship in four different locations on the periphery of the city. I'm glad we decided that, because at the last minute, the government announced road closures through most of the center of town, part of security drills in advance of the big African Union summit that begins this coming weekend. So, on Sunday morning, we had worship with 12 teens and 7 adults in our backyard. 

We had a few other adventures over the weekend, including Paul resolving a traffic fine before flying to Tigray. But I think this blog is long enough and I will stop there. 

Dark church at sunrise in Debre Markos

 

 Bonus photos below:

With MSCFSO staff at Bibugn

On the Portuguese bridge

Fish lunch on a floating restaurant, with Malt soda Senq

Saturday night fire pit dinner

Lutheran ordination service on Sunday afternoon

Gully full of trees now

Men on the Tibtab watershed committee, a living Ethiopian flag

Good grain storage with airtight PICS bags

Little bee eater

Blue Nile Falls, Tis Abay

Another bee eater