Just another Pinch me day in Ethiopia

Thursday, March 12, 2009 (or sometime in July 2001, Ethiopian calendar):

It happened somewhere between Mekele and Aggaretselam, along the dirt road, flying along a ridge deep in the Ethiopian highlands. This is desert country, especially this time of year. The area is valleys, hills, mountains, and plateaus, all littered with villages. The colours really fail to translate photographically, but are shades of red, yellow, green and blue. My cameras couldn’t capture it. All along the road are people walking, often herding goats, cattle and camels (huge!). They often use typical Ethiopian scarves for shade, or umbrellas if they have a little money. Houses are stone, with straw of metal roofs, scattered up the hillsides.

A lonely walk - typical in this area

It’s a very poor area. Irrigation is not widely practiced, although it could work and several projects are promoting it. There is only sparse natural vegetation during this dry season. The climate is much like the area around Cache Creek in British Columbia – arid and desert-like. This area was one of the hardest hit during the famous famine of 1984, and it’s no wonder, looking at it now. Famine isn’t necessarily only a function of weather or lack of food – it is overall susceptibility, encompassing factors like natural resource management, politics, power, existing infrastructure and so on. But seeing the area firsthand, it becomes obvious that if all of those other factors were missing and you were hit with a (several) tough years, it could be very tough. Tough, but beautiful. It’s odd to watch a dollar-a-day farmer plough his land with cattle against a backdrop of million-dollar views.

We made it to Aggaretselam and I joined Teshome’s rope pump training session for local members of REST. With the odd English word, motions, and a good knowledge of the pump, I could catch about 15% of the session. After, he took the group out to their working pumps in the field, where they are enthusiastically using the pumps to irrigate with drip systems (tubular irrigation that delivers water much more efficiently than by bucket).

Teshome at work in a rope pump training session

Drip system in off-harvest season - what can happen with the right inputs (training, technology, and vision, among other things)

This is a bit of a rare opportunity for me. Most of my work has been in Addis in the office and workshop. Even as a tourist I will probably fall into the (fascinating and very worthwhile) tourist path. But here, staying in a town that virtually never sees a tourist (and where my hotel costs $2 a night), I can see real rural Ethiopia. I can walk the dusty streets with only hellos and inquisitive looks, and never once hear ‘give me money’?

Women watching a rope pump in action.

It’s interesting what reactions I get depending on the local population’s experience with tourism. Here, miles off the tourist track, I get only sublimely calm interaction, friendly looks and inspiring sights. And, perhaps in part for this reason, my photography has taken off in the past few days.

I have a stack of great shots I’m itching to share with everybody, the best of my time here so far. I will see what I can do in the next week with more time and a better connection.

I feel very lucky today, to be doing what I do here in Ethiopia.

B

Tagged as: drip irrigation, ethiopia, farmers, featured, irrigation, mekele, rest, rope pump, tigray