Farenji Returns to Habesha Land

This place has changed.

It's fascinating coming back to a country you haven't been to in a long time. You start remembering things you had forgotten. Buildings, smells, words, and views all start looking familiar again. It really is striking how much I'd forgotten in only three years.

Even more striking though, is what's new. Last time I was in Ethiopia, I stayed with a family whose only running water came out of a shared spigot in a shared makeshift compound, fenced in with corrugated metal. The bare cement walls formed only a room or two for the multiple people living there, and to bathe you needed to go catch a minibus to a public shower. Most of what I saw in Addis was like this.

But now there are five, six, or seven story buildings springing up like weeds. There's even a proper skyscraper or two built for the African Union headquarters. A foreign development company is building a municipal railway that should be completed in two years time. And that same family I stayed with is probably now in one of the public housing apartment units, about ten stories high. I won't know for sure because my host's couchsurfing profile has been removed, but it seems likely.

A great deal of this development has come from Chinese companies who import their workers, and a good amount of resentment is brewing. Partially it's because of the fact that all the jobs created are going to imported Chinese laborers instead of Ethiopians, and partially because the stuff they build... well, most of it isn't very good. It'll look great on day one, but roads for example keep falling apart or don't have enough drainage to prevent serious flooding in the rains. Generally speaking if something is falling apart or doesn't work around here, people who live here shrug and say derisively that it's probably Chinese.

I'm living next door to my 8th and 10th grade humanities teacher, Jeff, in an apartment on the campus of Hope University College. ILAE, the high school I'm interning with, shares space on campus for its offices and classrooms. It's not large, but the architecture is interesting. The school is brand new, the first class of freshman start this fall, so all of the rooms are pretty spartan. I've got a few donated world maps on their way which will help, and with any luck there will be some art classes to produce stuff as well.

It's not easy being a country with no major ports. Apparently only Djibouti has a port that does the country any good, and they capitalize on the monopoly-- things take forever to ship and don't come cheap. For example, unplanned power outages are big problem here. The college supposedly has had a generator ordered and on its way for months. Nobody knows where it is in Djibouti. But it's probably there somewhere. All the other possible port countries are either unstable, have poor relations with Ethiopia, or just don't have good roads to the country.

The result is scarcity and high prices. It was explained to me that most people here are living at more or less a subsistence level, while a wealthy elite tries to pretend the live in the west. They'll rent fancy houses with barbed wire fences, eat at western restaurants and frequent western-style nightclubs and bars.  Speaking of those restaurants, places serving pizza are surprisingly common (from what I see, local menu consensus seems to hold that a Margherita pizza has tomato sauce, mozzarella and oregano).

A local taxi driver took Jeff and I hiking up the side of a large hill for a view of the city. When we hit the summit (or as our guide, Shemeles, said when "mountain is finished"), I asked to see the other side, facing away from the city. Shemeles didn't recommend it, saying there was nothing to see. I insisted, and we walked  the twenty or so yards to the other side. We saw a wide expanse of farms and small villages. Shemeles told us that was the kind of place he had grown up.

"There? Darkness. No electricity, no education, no running water. Nothing. Only God." He said. Then he explained that people living out there in the "darkness" lived 80 or 90 years, while on the other side of the mountain, in the city, they might only reach their forties or fifties. As he put it, it was because out in the countryside, it was "clean."

As someone who is going to school this year to work in development, it's certainly food for thought. I'll expect a lot of this to evolve as my trip continues, and especially when I start teaching. Classes start tomorrow morning.

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Here's an interesting one: want a different view on Ethiopia and the work of ILAE? Check out Jeff's blog, Blairabouts. He's been here for two months now, and you can get an interesting perspective on life out here and the work of the school. Check it out!
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Check out this entry's Photos.

Almost out the door.

I always feel like I'm forgetting something when I leave. Closest thing I have to travel anxiety.

Bag on the right is my usual back pack. The bag on the left is 40lbs of goodies for the school and kids that I'm working with. Most of it is books, but also there are some school supplies, a soccer and air pump, and a few other assorted things they requested like cleaning rags.

I bus to DC this afternoon, then fly directly to Addis Ababa the next morning.

Time to get out of here.

Hitting the Road Again!

Ladies and gentlemen, it has been far, far too long. I'm getting out of this country. Out of this continent in fact. It's only going to be about three weeks this time, but I will be leaving June 25 to go to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for an internship with the International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia. And as always, you'll be able to read all about my travels, right here.

My 8th grade Humanities/Geography teacher is going to be my boss. If you know him, you know that's awesome.

With any luck this will help fulfill an internship requirement with the Masters degree program I'm starting at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs this fall. And I'm going to do it by teaching kids and maybe helping out a little bit with the administration.

And this time, you can get involved in the trip. You see the school needs a few things, so I'm taking donations for the following:

1. School supplies (e.g. pens, pencils, erasers, tape, paper)
2. Sports equipment (e.g. soccer balls, volleyballs)
3. Up-to-date wall maps (National Geographic style)
4. Cleaning rags
5. DVD copy of The Outsiders (We only want one of these!)

I will have an empty suitcase at a reading of ART I'm performing in next Thursday, the 20th (read more about that here). If you can't make that, get in touch with me (jtrekmail (at) gmail (dot) com) and I can arrange another time to meet you for these things.

More details as things progress. It's going to feel very, very good to be back on the road.

Travel Tip: Ignore the Hipsters, Get a Guidebook

It's been a while! I've been talking to some people recently who are going out and traveling the world, and I'm really pleased to see people doing that. However, one of them said something to me that made me realize  many of them are making a basic mistake because they think they're "in the know": They don't want to get guidebooks.

Now I understand the impulse, we all want authentic, unique experiences, and how could we possibly get that from any mass-market paperback carried by so many people. But not getting a guidebook is still a mistake.

I've already talked about what's wrong with setting your main goal to be  *trying no to be tourist*. This is closely related to that in terms of philosophy. Just because the tourists are doing it doesn't mean you shouldn't. Here's why:

Guidebooks will tell you more practical information, more conveniently, efficiently, and quickly than anything else you can find on the internet or pack in your backpack. True, there are other sources of information (local friends are the ideal) but a guidebook is better than nothing. At many points in your trip, if you don't pack a guidebook, nothing is exactly what you're going to have.

It's true, not all of the books' contents are gold. Restaurant and hostel/hotel information is often out of date, and will probably be decidedly on the beaten path by the time you read it. But those aren't the useful part of the guidebooks.

The useful part of the guidebook that you want immediately include the name and location of all transport hubs, local laws you wouldn't otherwise know about, local customs to know that help you be a respectful visitor, a brief (and usually hilariously written) history of the place you're going, a rough idea of how to ask for basic things in the local language, and here's the surprising one: the most common local scams travelers fall for, and how to avoid them.

It's that last one that all of your "cool" friends without guidebooks are going to wish they knew about. The rest, you *could* find with a lot of time, effort, and a stable internet connection. But a book is cheap, portable, easy to access, doesn't rely on electricity, and can tell you all of the information in a fraction of the time you'd spend otherwise. Time you can then spend actually enjoying your travels.

If the idea of getting a guidebook still sticks in you craw, just think of it this way: you have to know the rules before you break them.

Have fun!

Carpooling.com Comes to Help Share Rides in the US!

When I was sitting in Berlin, Germany, trying to figure out how to get to Munich in time to meet my buddy for Oktoberfest, I figured a few things out online.

One: because of the timing, a bus ride was going to cost at least US$200.

Two: again, because of the timing, a train would cost nearly double that.

Three: There's this funny little site I can put through Google translate and get a ride in someone's car for 25 euro.

Granted, the ride (pictured above) was barely up to getting us there, and in fact had to be push-started onto the German autobahn (....yes). But it got us there, cheap for the season.

The site was mitfahrgelegenheit.de, and it has since spawned several sister sites in more than half a dozen languages across Europe (including the queen's English over at carpooling.co.uk). It was one of the first sites I put in my "useful travel links" section at the bottom (which you should check out if you haven't already). But it remained restricted to Europe.

But not for long.

The company is coming to establish itself in America under Carpooling.com. And while it's partially aimed at simply easing commutes and carbon emissions, I think it has the potential to revolutionize budget travel in the United States.

You see, budget travel in the US is a problem. Major bus lines either make far too many stops to be practical or are restricted to the eastern seaboard (not to mention the seriously sketchy reputation of a certain canine-named carrier). The trains are comfy but expensive and run at laughable speeds and frequencies compared to their counterparts in Europe, developed Asia, Australia, India... pretty much anywhere else with trains. Plane rides are long and expensive, we don't have EasyJet, Ryan Air, Air Asia, or Tiger Airways out here. Even tickets on our discount airlines like Southwest and Jetblue can cost ten times as much as the airlines listed above. And unlike the rest of the world (Europe aside) there's no reward to booking at the last minute on any transportation method. It just gets more and more expensive, requiring passengers to book their tickets more than a month in advance.

Besides-- gas prices be damned-- the real way, culturally, to travel across America, is by car. There is nothing in the world quite like a good, old-fashioned American road trip.

Voila: Carpooling.com. Pay a driver who's going your way a negotiated amount, meet, ride. And this could be as easy as inviting or RSVPing to a party on Facebook. It's the 21st century answer to hitchhiking.

I'm going to be very excited to watch how this site develops and launches here in the USA.

CouchSurfing Show Coming to TV?

I need to check my couchsurfing messages more often. This was sent to me about a week ago and I only just saw it now:

Hey Joel-

How's it going? My name is ------- and I came across your profile as an experienced New York host while searching around for something specific (which I'll get to in a minute). I'm a New Yorker, born and raised, and have lived in New York (state and/or city) for most of my life. About a year and a half ago I was living in Barcelona for 6 months and came across this phenomenon called 'CouchSurfing'. I signed up, and hosted a couple different people in my time there, as well as met a handful of others.

Anyhow, why am I reaching out to you? I pitched the idea of CouchSurfing as a TV show to a production company in LA, and they love the concept. We signed a contract and are now moving forward with the project. So, our first order of business is casting. We need to find a few hosts that will be the 'stars' of our show. The vision is to have a few different people (or groups of people) welcome strangers from around the world into their homes. New week, new episode, new surfers. The hosts, and their homes, remain the constant for the audience to develop a relationship with. You get the point, I'm sure.

As you're a frequent participant in the CouchSurfing community, I thought that maybe you would be interested in applying, or maybe you know someone you think would be an ideal candidate (ie. 'character'). In any event, if there is any way you can help, I'd greatly appreciate it. You can email me at ----------- if you are interested or would like to discuss further.

Needless to say, I shot off a quick "yes, please!" But even if I don't get to be part of this project, I will certainly be keeping track of it.

EDIT (6/5/12): Just got word back, he wants me to send in a 3 minute video audition. He says "DO NOT be shy.  Show your personality.  We want to get to know you." Time to start planning some shots!

Wherever the Wind May

Somehow or other I've got myself a stretch of a few months, starting around June, when I'll have no responsibilities in New York City except to keep my rent paid. Last year I was in a relationship and a couple shows. I don't have those things right now. I could probably get them, but I'm starting to seriously consider other options.

So, what will I do? A few things have sprung to mind:

1) Latin America, I met a few people working in NGOs to help distribute safe drinking water to communities in Central America especially. I'd need to do some research on current safety conditions, but I like the idea of a summer helping poor communities improve their health and free up time they would have spent getting water to help themselves or their communities in other ways. Of the international options, this really has the advantage of cost and distance.

2) Mediation, For probably about the same amount as I'd spend on the trip above, I could enroll in a professional mediation training program.  Mediation seems like a good way to put my skills to use, and if someday I could use them in an international context... professional peacemaker? I kind of like the sound of that. That said, competition is fierce, and people know so little about mediation that I'd need to do some heavy, heavy marketing. Training could happen just about any major city in America. Speaking of which...

3) Epic American Road Trip, Even if I've been around the world, there's a huge swath of America I've never seen. I doubt I'd do this alone, because of the money for fuel, car, etc. It would probably be the most expensive of the options I've got here so far. Also the least resume building. But the most likely to really show me something new.

4) Hollywood Bound, So I've done the starving actor thing in NYC. I'm told there are ten times as many jobs and a hundred times the competition in LA. I've gotten paid to do my thing here onstage and into microphones. What if I spent a couple months seeing what can happen for me in front of a camera? I'd be swapping apartments, and probably figuring out a way into a car of some kind for the short term. No idea how that would work. But it's a possibility.

5) Capital Work, Internships and temp positions in DC? Weather may be absolute hell over the summer, but I've met a couple people who seem to doing things. If nothing else, it's a real resume credit to be used someday, and I can really get the lay of the land when it comes to the "industry."

That's just the first few that have occurred to me. More ideas coming, and I'll certainly be open to suggestions