Adventure Update

I am sorry that it has been so long between posts. Between getting settled in and getting the team up to speed, this blog hasn’t received the attention that I would like to give it. That said here is an update of how my first 3 weeks has gone.

After my adventure of getting to Addis Ababa, I quickly jumped into the digitization workshop that Steve had begun that morning. We had 14 students for our workshop and it was a lot of fun working with them. They all had a solid grasp of how to photograph manuscripts by the end of the week and we made some very interesting connections that could result in future projects. They were great students and it was very enjoyable to see them really understanding and enjoying the work that we are doing.

After completing the workshop, my apartment was finally available for me to move into. My apartment is above a school that is run by the Norwegian Lutheran Mission and is only a few miles from the university. It is a really nice place with two large bedrooms, a nice bathroom, and a good sized kitchen/living room. There is also a nice field and basketball court that has provided some excellent stress relief… even if my roommate, Kaleab, just about killed me when we played one-on-one and I discovered very quickly that I had not adjusted to the altitude yet!! It was a very close game until we tied it up at 12-12 and then I ran out of air and then he whupped me. The best part of this apartment is definitely the high-speed internet. Now high-speed here and high-speed in the US mean two very different things, but this connection is fast enough that video chatting is possible, which I never thought would work in Ethiopia!!! It has been a real blessing to be able to talk with Heather and with family as well as keeping in contact with Steve and keeping him updated on how the project is going.

The project is going really well. In our first 2 weeks of work, the four of us have combined for 40,485 shots!!! I am very pleased with this number and the guys on my team have improved quickly and continue to improve, which has been a lot of fun to see. Even if it means that the single-day shot record that I set last trip is certain to fall any day now… I guess it will give me some motivation to try and get it back! However, the problem has been that the manuscripts this time take quite a few more shots than the manuscripts that we shot last winter (Instead of averaging an expected 117 shots per manuscript, they are taking 158 shots. Though 51 more shots doesn’t sound like a ton, it becomes a very large number when multiplied across 3,300 manuscripts!!!). This means that the 3,300 manuscripts that we promised to the British Library could be very hard to come by if we don’t get into some shorter manuscripts soon. They won’t be able to question our shot count, but our number of manuscripts just isn’t as high as I would like.

Other than work, I spent Ethiopian Christmas (January 7^th) with Demeke and his family. It is always fun when I get invited over for dinner at their house and I always feel very welcome and always get fed waaaayyyy too much food. Every time I would get close to making some progress on the food on my plate, Demeke or his wife would add another heaping helping of something tasty and look very disappointed when I would say that I couldn’t possibly eat any more. Even though I came prepared by not eating lunch before going over, I was still very full by the end of the evening. Last weekend, Kaleab and I went to the Holy Trinity Church and to the National Museum, which are too major tourist attractions in Addis that I had never visited. Holy Trinity Church is a very impressive church made in the style of a western Cathedral. It is very impressive and it was very interesting to visit the tomb of Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia, which is inside the church. The National Museum has a great art display of both religious and modern art that was a lot of fun to look through. Kaleab was also a great tour guide when it came to the art and to the exhibits dealing with the different cultures within Ethiopia. It was a really fun day!

Well, I think that mostly catches you all up on what I have been up to. For those who aren’t on Facebook or for those who are and missed my post, I have put up some pictures of my apartment and of Holy Trinity Church and everyone should be able to check them out if you follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029801&id=98301193&l=9d5a562402

I hope that you are all well and I hope to update this blog much more often now that I am a bit more settled in. Until next time.

The Beginnings of a New Adventure

I am now writing you from Addis Ababa. The journey here was a bit... unpredictable. First, they were unable to check my bags all the way through from Wenatchee so I got to fly to Seattle, pull my bags off the plane, go through the airport, re-check them and then go through Sea-Tac security. Then my flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi was late and my ticket from Nairobi to Addis wasn't ready to go, so I missed my flight to Addis. Fortunately, I got a ticket for the next morning. Unfortunately, I had to spend the night in the Nairobi airport. Fortunately, I found a sleeping lounge in the basement of the airport... (think a 6x4 ft cell with a bed). It was an interesting experience, but I at least got to lay down for a few hours. I finally arrived in Addis 11 hours later than expected and went directly to work at the Institution of Ethiopian Studies. We are running a workshop for 14 people on how to digitize Ethiopian manuscripts. The students are very nice and I have enjoyed working with them. They are learning a lot, but it is slow-going as there is a lot to learn.
Other than a bout of jet lag (to be expected after crossing 11 time zones) I am doing really well. Obviously, I miss my friends and family, but the people here are kind and the friends that I have here are very caring and treat me like family. :) It has been especially fun to reconnect with my good friend Kaleab and I am looking forward to he and I moving into our apartment this weekend. I saw the outside of the building and it looks very nice. Perhaps I will have a strong enough internet connection next week that I can post pictures. I think it will be a nice place and Kaleab and I are very excited that the place has a basketball hoop and some fields to kick a soccer ball around. It will be a great stress reliever. I hope that you are all well and I will write more soon (I have to wrap up my time here at the internet cafe). Until next time.

It's That Time Again

Well, the time has come to leave behind the comforts of the holidays in Wenatchee and begin a new adventure. This newest adventure is six months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I will be completing my work at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies with a goal of nearly 400,000 pictures. I will be leading a digitization team of 3 men who are deacons in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, along with several volunteer students from the philology department. We begin training on the 28th and then begin the project as soon as we are able. I will be posting on this blog as often as I can, so please follow along with my adventures. More to follow once I arrive and get on my feet. Until next time.

Oy Vey

Ways to guarantee that I won't be giving anything to a beggar... run across 6 lanes of traffic holding your cane when you see me walk across the street and then start using the cane when you realize that I spotted you and then come up and tell me that you are incredibly crippled and can't possibly get a job... Come on, I am sorry that you have a very hard life, but don't insult my intelligence.
It was so ridiculous that it made me chuckle and thought that it pretty well encapsulated what it is to be a white American in Ethiopia. We are instantly targetted as prime sources of income for beggars, pan-handlers, sellers of DVDs/CDs/copies of Newsweek from 2004/maps of the world complete with the USSR/herb guaranteed to "bring you closer to the Almighty" (gotta love Rastas!). It is a very difficult thing that I have discussed on this blog in the past, how to deal with beggars in Ethiopia. It isn't easy. In fact, it is miserable and wears on me constantly. Telling a mother with a baby or a little kid that you won't be giving money kills a bit of your soul, but I can't in good conscience justify giving money everytime. It seems that foreigners giving establishes them as a reliable source of charity, when it has to be Ethiopia that begins to take care of its poor in order for long-time change to begin. That being said, I have no idea how Ethiopia would begin to make the changes that would bring this about. This is an incredibly poor, hard place that I honestly hope that change can come to... but I sure don't have any suggestions on how to make it happen.
On a little note, digitizing continues to cruise along. We have shot about 670 manuscripts (destroying our original goal of 400 total!). We also have shot about 75,000 pictures since arriving. It has been really exhausting, but what we are getting done is amazing. Well, I am going to close out by giving you a list of things I am looking forward to most about returning to North America. Until next time.
1. Having my cell phone back and being able to call family and friends
2. No cockroaches in my house
3. A hot shower / Not having an electrical outlet in my shower that I am constantly terrified that is going to electricute me and cause me to have the sorriest obituary ever.
4. A bacon cheeseburger and fries
5. Sports
6. Not having to hide out from beggars
7. Being able to sleep in my own bed (which also doesn't have cockroaches)
8. Familiar food and familiar surroundings/ anything familiar at all
9. Not getting laughed at by people as they look at the funny looking white guy
10. Fresh vegetables and fruit
It's funny how it's the little day-to-day things that you miss the most :)

The Long Run

Though I have never run a marathon, I imagine that it must be a disheartening moment when you feel yourself starting to wind down and then come around the bend in the road and realize that you are just approaching the 13 mile checkpoint. That's about how a month long research trip in Ethiopia feels... you work your brains out, pray that it is almost time to rest, and then realize that you are exactly halfway through your work. It's not that it has been bad, it's just that doing the same monotonous thing for 6 days a week all day can get kind of old. However, we still have had some fun. On Saturday we went over to Demeke's house after work. Life is always good when you are invited over to Demeke's house. His wife is an incredible cook and your plate and your cup are always overflowing. Demeke isn't happy unless you are quickly and endlessly chowing down, so we did our best to accomodate him. It was great!! After dinner, Kaleab pulled out a guitar and a keyboard and we jammed for a while. This was one of my favorite memories of my first trip to Ethiopia and this jam was a ton of fun too. We played a bit of everything (From country tunes to Dispatch to John Denver to, of course, a health selection of Bob Marley songs). This was a great break and very refreshing to sit in a family's house and hang out.
On Sunday we went to Addis Alem, which is about 60 km west of Addis Ababa. It was really interesting to watch the countryside passing by, although the complete lack of padding on the Land Rover's seats added to the abundance of potholes meant for a very sore backside by the time our journey was over. In Addis Alem we got to walk around in a beautiful church as well as see some very interesting artifacts from Emperor Menelik and Emperor Haile Sallasie. The paintings in the church were especially impressive with many Bible stories and stories of Ethiopian saints represented on the walls. It was a fun day of seeing an area outside of the big city and kind of get a glimpse of rural life.
As for work, we have shot 570 manuscripts... well beyond our stated goal of 400. It was been very productive and we hope to keep up the pace. Thanks for the prayers, they are much appreciated. Whelp, time to go grab some dinner. Until next time.

Rescued by Wyclef Jean

Sorry that it has been so long since my last post... internet in Ethiopia can be hard to come by. Wednesday was Ethiopian Christmas here and it was a fun day for us. We purchased a hot plate and a pot and made a "Christmas Feast." Our feast consisted of potatoes, canned corn, and sweet chili sauce. Not a really grand feast, but shared with good company.
It has been really interesting watching the city prepare for the holiday. For two days prior to Christmas we watched people bring in truckloads of chickens, herding goats and sheep down the sidewalks, and watching men guide bulls through the busy city streets relying only on a rope halter. Definately a little different addition to rush hour traffic. Demeke explained that each family would butcher at least one of these animals to enjoy for their feast.
After our feast we took a taxi around for a tour of areas of the city we hadn't seen (and some areas that we had... the driver's English was limited and my Amharic vocab is limited to about 8 words...) It was really cool to see people decked out in their Christmas dressed with the men sharply dressed in suit coats and the women wearing beautiful dresses in traditional Ethiopic styles. It was a lot of fun to just people watch and take in a foreign place and unfamiliar culture.
On Sunday we did go up to Entoto. It is one of the old capitals of Ethiopia and was home to Emperor Menelik. There is a few amazing churches at Entoto as well as the old palace. However, the city is built on top of the mountains (which is saying something in Ethiopia), so the palace was moved down into the valley, Addis Ababa, at the request of the Queen because of how cold it could get on top of the mountains. There is a wonderful view and was a great time. The most fun was coming into the palace when we got mobbed by a group of school kids on field trip. Apparently tall white guys were a rarity for them ;) so they came over to play. They wanted us to take their pictures and then show them the shots on the view finder on our digital cameras. It was a lot of fun, although their method of getting my attention was pulling on my goatee when I wasn't looking at them, which was a bit startling at first... We all had a lot of fun and the kids got a kick out of it :)
As for the work part of the project, we are doing great!!! We hit 350 manuscripts today with 11 work days left... we promised to have at least 400 shot by the end of our time here. We are doing pretty good!! Also, I reclaimed the shots per day record for those keeping score at home. I set the first record with 2000, which stood for 24 hours when Erik took it down with 2024. However, on Monday I stole it back with 2410 shots in an 8 hour day!! The record has lasted so far, but it is only a matter of time until Erik makes his move to steal it back... These little records have been a lot of fun, plus if you have four guys in the same room doing the same thing it takes about 8 seconds until it is a competition.
I hope that you are all well, we are doing just fine although prayers for good health are still much appreciated because we are all feeling a bit rundown and Erik is pretty sick... Thanks :) Until next time.

New Records and Successful Inventions

The trip continues to be a big success. Despite the fact that we keep
losing power (and the water turned off yesterday in the apartment,
which was a bummer), we are getting a ton of manuscripts shot.
Yesterday I set the new record for shots in a day with 2000, which I
thought would be untouchable... until Erik hit 2030 today. Game on!
The healthy competition has been a lot of fun and we are all able to
keep laughing despite long hours and hard work. We have shot over 200
manuscripts and over 23,000 images in five days, which is really
exciting for us.
Also, my experiment... the foot pedal, has been a huge success. I am
able to click the camera by tapping my toe, which means that I have
both hands free to work with the manuscript and turn pages. It has
been great and the rest of the guys wish I had made them one :) Many
thanks to my dad for helping me perfect the design!
As for fun, we are looking forward to Orthodox Christmas on the 6th,
which is supposed to be a big party across town. On Sunday, we are
also going to the old capital of Ntoto, which has a few very old,
beautiful churches. It should be a great adventure. We are also
looking at getting out into the countryside a little to get a
different view of Ethiopia, since I have never been outside of
downtown in my 2 trips here. I hope a few of these options work out,
especially a trip to one of the big monasteries, either Debre Libanos
or Debre Berhane.
Well, I better get going... I need to get some laundry soap or I am
going to run out of clean socks. Until next time.

Firing on All Cylinders

Well, we just had our second day of work at the Institute of Ethiopian
Studies and things are going great. We have shot 75 manuscripts in
these past two days, which has been a major accomplishment (I shot 20
manuscripts today, a new personal record!). The place we are staying
is pretty nice, they typically turn off the music in the night club
downstairs by midnight, which is much appreciated (reggae night isn't
bad, but dance night sucked). Also, we are hoping for a water heater
soon, which will make morning showers a much less shocking ordeal. It
has been great to see old friends and I have received very warm
greetings from many of the people we spent time with this summer.
Hanging out with Demeke and his son Kaleab has been especially fun,
they are great guys. We are all doing well and if you are inclined,
prayers for continued good health would be much appreciated. I will
keep you posted on how things are going as I get the chance. Until
next time.

The Adventure Begins

We have safely made it to Addis. The trip was smooth, although 36
hours is a long travel time and we were grateful to arrive. It has
been great seeing our friend Demeke again and he takes great care of
us. Our apartment is much nicer than last time (and only on the second
floor!!). The only downside is that there is a nightclub downstairs,
so I drifted off to sleep with Rhianna and Pink rocking out at the
same volume as a jetliner directly below my bed. Thankfully the
earplugs did the job. Just wanted to let you know we are here, I will
write more soon. Until next time.

Back on the Road

Well, I am heading back to Africa, so you know what that means... time to start blogging again! I am leaving tomorrow and will be in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the next four weeks. I am going to try and update this whenever the internet will allow. (As those followed my blog this summer may remember, Ethiopian internet means the entire country essentially shares one 56k modem.) I hope that you all have a happy holidays and that you join me in my adventure as you are able. Until next time.

Safari Part Three: One Final Game Drive

This morning’s game drive was a nice way to bring this safari adventure to a close. We set off and just found whatever we could see. I finally saw a big bull elephant, which was very cool other than when he started very suddenly because he didn’t hear us coming. It is rather alarming to see something that big move that fast. We also found some more lions walking in single-file down the road. It was beautiful and a lot of fun to watch the antelope get really skittish as this predatory parade marched on by. I also finally got to see a buffalo up close. I had resigned myself to it not happening because the big herd had already moved south into Tanzania, so chances weren’t good. However, 1 km from the lodge we found an old bull grazing by the side of the road. It was very cool to see this natural tank just wandering around. All in all it was an amazing adventure. I saw four of the Big Five (elephant, rhino, buffalo, and lion, but no leopard). I also got to hang out near several elephant herds, lion prides, and my amazing experience with the giraffe herd. Also very cool was walking out my door last night to go to dinner and finding myself in the middle of a herd of zebra. First, I was very glad that it wasn’t a herd or pride of something hungrier or meaner. Second, they are such a beautiful animal and just let me walk right through the herd as long as I moved slowly. Overall, it was a great trip and I hope that I will be able to return someday.

Dad, second retirement party location: Masai Mara, you would love it.

Safari Part Two: Hippo Pools Smell Like Tillamook and Other Life Altering Insights

Well, maybe no more insights, but hippo pools do stink like Tillamook on a soggy day (if you have been there, you know what smell I mean). Since I wrote last I have gone on four game drives. They have been great and very unique from one another. The first night we went on a three hour game drive. I was paired up with a very nice British family that were on a weeklong safari across Kenya, they ending up being great safari companions. We started seeing some waterbucks, antelopes, and a well-hidden warthog. We also encountered a small herd of elephants (small in numbers of course). After this we started driving and spotted a black rhino way off in the distance. Even in the Masai Mara, spotting black rhino, especially at night, is a rare deal. At this point our driver, Wilson, went tearing off down a side track and then off the track onto the crest of a hill. We were actually tracking a rhino and the embarrassing thing was that we couldn’t find it… how do you lose a rhino? Then finally we spotted him and get within 20 yards of him. It was really cool. After this we spotted several female lions and then a den of spotted hyenas. Needless to say, a very fulfilling first day of safari.
The second day began with coffee prior to the sun coming up. I would like to say that I was well-rested, but the before mentioned hippos are quite loud when they wander by your window. Only slightly more unnerving was the lion that was growling outside the cabins. Two of Africa’s greatest killers hanging out by my room, sweet ;). We quickly tracked down some more lions and watched as they half-heartedly watched a herd of buffalo. I have seen plenty of Animal Channel shows with the buffalo posting rear guards to keep an eye out for predators, but it was pretty cool to actually watch them do it and then mock charge the lions when they got a little too close. The rest of the morning was spent cruising around looking at gazelles and antelopes and checking in on the lions again. At the end of this trip the Brits headed out and Wilson and I headed south towards Tanzania to see what we could find. What we found was the beginning of the great migration. It was pretty incredible to watch lines and lines of zebras flooding into the Mara from Tanzania’s Serengeti. There were thousands of zebras and hundreds of wildebeest everywhere we looked. Wilson said by the end of the migration there will be 1.5 million wildebeest and 400,000 zebras on the Mara! Unfortunately, our search for leopard and cheetah was unfulfilled, but other than that it was a great morning.
In the evening a gal working in Nairobi for the CDC joined us for the evening safari. This time we can upon a pride of fourteen lions lazing about under a tree. They had eaten a zebra earlier in the day and were letting that digest off. We were just feet away, it was pretty impressive. We next watched one of the dominant male lions of the area prowling about. He was quite the creature, the way he moved you could see why he was the king of the jungle. There was nothing that scared this old boy, he just wandered around. I was starting to get awful tired of watching lions though (which in any other circumstance than on a 3 day safari sounds ridiculous, I know). The evening was quickly saved when we found ourselves in the middle of a herd of 11 giraffes. It was incredible, they were everywhere. They are a beautiful creature and I was snapping pictures off as fast as I could. After spending a while with the giraffes we headed back, but stopped to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the Mara. What a great full day of safaris!

The Much Awaited (Well.. Maybe...) Safari Series

Safari Part One: Sorry John, You are Wrong, Heaven Ain’t in West Virginia…
It’s in Kenya. Well I have been on safari for 3 hours and have already seen one of the Big Five (elephant). Not bad considering that was on the drive from the landing strip to the lodge. First off, the flight… my ride to the airport was a half hour late and I arrived at the airport and five minutes later got on the plane. A little nerve racking. The plane was a twelve seater in the same way that a 6 person tent fits 6 people (anorexic circus midgets maybe… maybe). We took off while looking over the pilot’s shoulder (flying through fog and clouds is kind of terrifying when you can see out the front of the plane and realize that he can’t see anything). While flying in I saw several Masai villages complete with goat and cattle corrals (just like on TV, who knew?). I also saw several wildebeest and a small group of elephants. Upon getting off the plane after landing on a dirt runway (soft landing, but a new experience), and paying $80 in park fees, I was off to the lodge. On the way we saw elephants, a hartebeest, and a small harem of impala. That was on the five minute drive to the lodge! The lodge is incredible posh with soft beds and a beautiful deck that overlooks the Mara. I have just been sitting here, watching baboons forage and birds flutter around in the acacia trees from my deck. This is one of the few lodges on the Mara that does not have a fence around it, which means there is potential to see all kinds of animals on the grounds and there are many reminders to not get yourself eaten if something hungry wanders in J. Well, I may go watch the hippos for a little while and then go on my game drive in an hour, more later.

Returned and Confused

Well, I made it back to Portland yesterday. The return flights were very long (8 hours from Nairobi to Amsterdam, 5 hours in Amsterdam, and then 10.5 from Amsterdam to Portland), but weren't too bad. Fortunately both planes had those seat-back entertainment systems so I watched like 7 movies yesterday.
The transition to being back has been odd to say the least. After the whirlwind of getting through customs, saying bye to Steve, and heading out to the car with Heather it hadn't entirely hit me that I was back. The culture shock began when we got out to the road. To see a big, wide, pothole-free road was really wierd. Plus there were traffic signals and signs, something that I hadn't seen in a while. The strangest moment was walking into Applebee's to grab some lunch (a salad and a much-missed Mountain Dew :). As I walked in the door I just said "holy crap!" (drawing a strange look from the host seating us). It was just super odd to be because this was the most white people I had seen in a month, there were no black people in the entire place. I have spent the last month being a part of a very small racial minority, so to be a part of the overwhelming racial majority was a very strange feeling. This is something that is going to take some getting used to again.
As I reflect on my journey, it was a pretty wild adventure. To make the friends that I got to make and to work with the manuscripts that I did, I feel very fortunate. I already miss the dear friends that I made in Nairobi and Addis Ababa and hope that I am able to return and see them sooner than later. If you want to know more about my travels, let me know and I will fill in the gaps that I missed in the blog. Thank you for taking this journey with me, I hope that you enjoyed reading about it. Until next time.
~Jeremy

Back in Nairobi and Preparing for the Journey Home

Well, my African journey is winding down to a close. Since I wrote you last we kicked butt on getting manuscripts digitized. When I was brought to Addis the hope was the digitize 60 manuscripts... 100 at best. When we completed processing images we had taken over 17,000 pictures and digitized 169 manuscripts. This is a great success. The Institute of Ethiopian Studies is very pleased and is amazed that so many manuscripts could be shot in less than a week. It has been an exhausting trip. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. But the pay-off is knowing that some of the most precious manuscripts are now protected in case of something like a building burning down (which is more likely than you care to think in Ethiopia. While we were there the IES's photographer, Massai, had a power strip catch on fire after a power surge during one of the day's 7 power outages).
Also very cool is the possibility to come back within the next year. I know this sounds like a glutton for punishment thing, but the friends I have made here I want to see again and the need is very great for people willing to help. This would be with the Patriarchate Library and Museum (think the Pope of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church). They have a collection of 400 of the oldest, most beautiful manuscripts in the world. They also have access to 35,000 more manuscripts in the Addis area. This is the true mother-lode!! So yesterday the library called Steve and asked him to come give a demonstration, so we booked it down there and digitized a beautiful 16th century manuscript about the Ethiopian saints. It was a great time of relationship building and we have an open invitation to come back. This would be a very different experience from my current one. The Patriarchate compound is beautiful, I would get to hang out with monks, and I bet they don't turn off the Abuna's (the Pope) power or water. I am excited for the opportunity and am amazed at the open doors from this tough trip.
All that being said, I am back in Nairobi. I was only here a week, but this feels like home. Patrick and his family are amazing and so kind and hospitable. I spent most of the evening relaxing and playing with blocks and trucks with 4 year old Baracka. It was a wonderful way to calm down after a crazy 3 weeks. Tomorrow we will spend the day in Nairobi and then we fly out at 9:50 pm to Amsterdam and then direct from Amsterdam to Portland. It is going to be a long journey, but I am ready to be home. The work has been satisfying, but it is time to go home and rest and find a place to live in Canada. Thank you for taking this journey with me. I will try to keep updating this blog about what I am doing in life, so check in now and then. Thanks, until next time.
~Jeremy
P.S. The safari posts with pictures will come upon my return to the states and to broadband internet :)

"IF ONE MORE GUY TRIES TO SELL ME A 3 WEEK OLD NEWSWEEK I AM GOING TO..." (or "my mental breakdown and recovery")

I would love to tell you that I have always maintained my cool this trip. That I treated everyone I met with love. That I exuded peace at each moment. That would be a load of crap.

Yesterday was a BAD day. I woke up pretty sick to my stomach so I didn't eat breakfast. I didn't get a chance for lunch. Now you all know that I don't miss many meals, plus I am still dealing with culture shock, so I was in a pretty bad way. Finally I got done with work and caught a minibus to the cafe near my apartment. They were out of the first two things I ordered and I got stuck eating a cheese burger covered in mayo because they were out of lettuce and tomato and apparently decided to replace those things net weight with mayo. Exhausted and ticked off I headed for the apartment while Steve went to the internet cafe. About a 1/2 km down the road I realize Steve has the only key... SO after walking back and getting the key I went up the 5 flights of stairs, opened up the door, and discovered that the power and water were off... again... for the 4th time in 5 days. I nearly went ballistic. Sometimes everything adds up. None of that was major, but I just couldn't process it all at once.

Fortunately sitting in the dark gave me some time to calm down and I am doing much better today :) Incredibly we have digitized 106 manuscripts since Monday (for those not familiar with how fast this process normally goes, don't feel bad I wouldn't if it wasn't my job, that is an incredible rate!) I am shooting about 13 manuscripts a day, my previous daily record was 12. It has been very cool to see the project come together. I have also made a few friends and have been teaching two of the guys to photograph manuscripts. It has been awesome to see their progress. Massai even wants to race me each day, which is a lot of fun and I am not ashamed to admit that he has given me a run for my money the last two days. We work for two more days and then fly to Nairobi, spend time with our friends there, and then fly home the 9th-10th. It has been a great adventure and I will keep you posted on the last bit of it. Keep me in your thoughts if you think of it, Steve and I are both pretty worn out and feeling kind of sick. Thanks, until next time.

~Jeremy

So I Thought I Was Compassionate for the Homeless...

Well, after having spent nearly a week in Addis, I can now say that I have seen more of the city than the hospital and my apartment. The parts of the city that I have been seeing are the streets of Addis (which I will talk about shortly and refers to the title of the post) and the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University. The Institute is a pretty cool place that I haven't even begun to explore yet. The entire building is former Emperor Haile Sallasse's palace which he donated to be converted to a university. It is a pretty cool, very large compound. The building housing the Institute is the former home of the Emperor and has a museum devoted to HIM (proper rasta spelling ;) as well as an art gallery of icons and Ethiopian culture. As far as manuscripts getting digitized, I am finally up to speed. Yesterday was spent photographing several gigantic books about the lives of the Ethiopian Saints (24" x 18", these things were huge). Today I photographed 9 manuscripts and I am exhausted. I am finally over my cold, but my energy level is still lower than normal. However, the Institute's normal photographer can shoot one manuscript a day, so it was pretty fun to let them know that we can get a lot done for them very quickly. All in all, everything is going well work-wise.

As I alluded to earlier, getting through the streets of Addis can be an overwhelming experience. As soon as leaving the apartment building, I typically quickly find myself surrounded by beggars. I have prided myself as being a good, conscientious Portlander who cares about the homeless, but this is an entirely new ball game. Here I am awoken by a beggar that sits below my window and is loud enough that I hear her clearly 5 stories up. As I fall asleep at night, I can hear beggars singing and talking on the street below. This is a constant part of life in Addis. It is overwhelming. You can't help everybody because there are a hundred people asking for money on every block, each looking very much in need. I can't believe the number of people missing limbs, blind and being led by friends, or with limbs so twisted that they no longer function. I find myself unable to process such need and often find myself wandering into apathy. If I saw a starving child in Newberg, I would know who to call to get the kid some help. Here I am surrounded by kids under 10 that live on the streets and beg for a living and there is nothing that I can do. It is unlike an experience of human need that I have ever had and I am unsure what to do with it. This post is a part of my processing and I thank you for reading it. Overall, this has been quite the experience and I am just trying to take it in and deal with it later. Hope that you are all well.

~Jeremy

Um, I am in Ethiopia and Other Stories.

Hey Everybody-
Sorry for the prolonged absence. First I was on safari for three days and when I returned from safari I had an email from Steve saying to hop a plane and meet him in Ethiopia the next day. So here I am. However, upon arrival I didn't feel real well, but figured that I would be fine. I was photographing manuscripts for about an hour the next day and then was just wiped out and had to go home. We repeated this same drill for a few more days until on Friday I went to the hospital and they figured out that I had an upper resperatory infection. So I have been dosing up on antibiotics and have been feeling a lot better other than getting cabin fever from being in the apartment for nearly a week. (Although if you want to feel like the biggest jerk ever, be a white person at an Ethiopian hospital. You are surrounded by people with awful looking diseases and in tons of pain and you are just walked to the front of the line and seen by the best doctors. It is very humbling and definately eye-opening).
As far as my living arrangements in Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia), they are interesting. The power and water go out every other day or so, but typically come back on in the late evening. We are on the fifth floor, so I am getting my fair share of exercise, and the busy street below is always hoping. The street culture in Addis is always going. There are constantly crowds of people on the streets. Many are beggars, which has been tough for me. I am seeing some of the most wretched lives around me, but there are too many to help all of them. It is pretty overwhelming and leaves me not wanting to be out too much at all.
As far as what I am doing, I am photographing manuscripts for the Institute of Ethiopian Studies. This is about the second most important collection in the world. These are the oldest, rarest, and most beautiful manuscripts I have seen. The paintings in them are incredible. The goal is to get the collection on the road to digitized (they have about 1800 codices!!). If we can get 100 shot it will be a good week :). Well, that is about all for now. Keep me in your thoughts if you remember as I am trying to kick this cold so that I can be at full speed. I hope that you are all well.
~Jeremy
P.S. Safari was incredible and I will put up a safari post when I get somewhere that has bandwidth to post pictures, because why read a safari blog with no photos? no fun at all. Plus I am pretty sure all of Addis shares one 28k modem... internet is a little slow. :)

A Bit of Disappointment or Refined Expectations

Well as many of you know I had dreams of hundreds of manuscripts to shoot once I arrived in Nairobi. My hopes were that dealers would be lining up to have us look through our manuscripts. These dreams were egged on during my first day here when the two dealers from the Masai market brought 5 manuscripts for us to shoot. Well yesterday we went to another Masai market on the other end of town (more on that later) and the first vendor I spoke to said "oh yes, I have Ethiopian manuscripts" and went into the back room to get them. Lo and behold he did have 4 manuscripts with him... however they looked vaguely familiar. They were the SAME STINKIN' MANUSCRIPTS!!! As it seems the Masai markets have one main supplier of manuscripts (Charles, the dealer we met the first day) and they just pass around the codices until they get sold... So this has really changed our approach. The days of stacks of manuscripts that we had been told about are apparently gone, the manuscripts have gotten too rare.
Now comes a necessary change of approach. When I return on Monday from safari I am going to start contacting curio shops and book dealers (if such a thing exist here, I'm not sure) and try and locate more manuscripts. I will also be going to speak with the Ethiopian Orthodox Churches here in Nairobi to see if they have any manuscripts and if they might be interested. Hopefully this work will turn up a few more manuscripts. If it doesn't, then we know the answer to the Nairobi pilot project question: what is the state of the market in Nairobi? And that answer will be that it has dried up. As you can imagine it was a bit of a disappointing day, but offered some clarity to the project.
Back to the market experience. First we rented a car and had one of the guys my age from the church drive us. The problems began with it being a manual... imagine driving through Seattle in a manual (hard enough) but with speed bumps the size of a baby blue whale and potholes deeper than a bathtub. We were on backroads, so there were no lane dividers... everyone was just driving wherever. Now some of you who have traveled may be thinking that I just am not used to traffic outside the states. Keep in mind that I have been in a bus flipping a U-turn on a freeway in Ukraine, ridden cross country in Romania, and travelled on the wrong side of the road in both Australia and New Zealand... this was scary than any of that! We actually got high centered on one of the before mentioned speed bumps and had to get out and push it off. All the while a huge truck was honking and trying to pass us on a one lane road. I got done and felt like I needed a whole box of Nicorette gum just to calm me down. While at the market we were the target of every barker in the place. There is no wandering around and looking, you (and by you I mean big white American that sticks out badly in a crowd) are being hollered at, hand shook, back slapped, asked where you are from. They would even say sejambo to you as you walked by. This is the equivalent of "Hello to you too" as if implying that you had started the conversation and needed to start and pay exorbitant prices. It was an exhausting experience. I don't mean to complain in this blog, sorry if it sounds that way, I just wanted to share what yesterday held. I know, I know... "shut up Jeremy, you are in freaking Africa!" ;)
All that being said I am heading on safari in an hour. It should be amazing and there will be pictures to follow. Take care and I will write again when I can.
~Jeremy

Jeremy, Jackie, and Simon