Water Crisis

The night club hotel accommodations seemed decent from the beginning. There was a shower, a toilet, and a sink. Not too shabby. However, shortly after arriving we discovered that the toilet did not flush, and no water came out of the faucets. In broken, Amharic-English, we were told by the owner that the water would come in 2 or 3 days. So to hold us until then, they would bring us buckets of water… or at least this is what we understood from the conversation. Unfortunately, some of the message was lost in translation. We later learned that the owner really meant the town water was consistently shut off and is only switched on every few days. Although the bathrooms had the physical appearance of modern plumbing, the water lines were missing. We were used to bucket baths from living in Nasir, and manually flushing the toilet wasn’t too difficult, so no big deal.

The problem came when they hauled in our buckets of water. It was water straight from the river. At first you think, river water isn’t so bad to bathe with. But, this wasn’t just any river water. It was muddy and smelly river water. And after seeing what happens in the river you definitely don’t want to use it.

On the walk to the market, we had to cross a bridge over the river that flows through town. The view from this bridge was kind of like looking through a national geographic (and a health & hygiene nightmare). Upstream, livestock were drinking/cooling off/bathing in the water, then next came the town carwash that was in the river, and finally many men completely exposed bathing. Among all this, there were people with jerycans gathering water. Yikes!

Luckily, we were able to negotiate with the hotel owner to bring us water from a nearby well. 

After about a week and a half, we moved into some mudhuts on a church compound. Never before would I have ever imagined that I would be grateful to move from a hotel to a mudhut…but I was.

Our stay at the “night club” was very eye opening. The hotel owners’ family lived and worked there. Living alongside these Ethiopians, we were able to get a glimpse of life here. Even at 12 or 13, the children of the family were expected to work at the restaurant/bar. The water crisis was another eye opening experience. I have always seen a need for clean water and I am so happy that Every Village drills wells. However, until this experience, I was not able to relate to the gigantic need for clean water and hygiene training. 

River and bridge in town
 (at a slow time...usually the river is full of people and animals)

The Night Club

A little over 3 weeks ago, the Pierce family, Laura, and I moved to a town in western Ethiopia. The town is very near the border of South Sudan and close to Nasir, so there are many Nuer here. We will be here for a few months, as we hope for Nasir to become safe enough for us to go back in. Currently, our main aim at being here is to continue learning the Nuer language and more about the culture.

Before all seven of us packed up our things in Kampala to come to Ethiopia, Jared and Kerry (our Field Director who lives in Kampala), took an assessment trip to find housing for us. The best option they landed on was for us to live in a hotel.

Upon arrival to the small airport, the one rickety public transportation van going to town was full. There we sat, three kids, four adults, and seven pieces of luggage, outside the airport waiting and trying to figure out how to travel the 17km to town. We had come in on the only flight of the day, so there wouldn’t be another public transport van that day. After waiting a bit, a man who worked at the airport began to talk to Jared. He had a truck and offered to give us a ride into town. We took him up on the ride. The seven of us, our luggage, the driver and his friend piled into the truck. It was a squished, bumpy and sweaty ride to town.

When we reached town, we discovered that due to new refugee camps in the area, there were many NGOs in town so accommodations were limited. All of the hotels Jared and Kerry had previously scoped out were full. The men with the truck dropped Keisha, Laura, me and the kids off at a hotel/restaurant and set off with Jared to find us a hotel. After searching for a time, they found a few rooms. The place was rather run down, but it was somewhere to stay for the night. Luckily, later that day, Jared was able to hop on a Bajaj (a 3 wheeled small buggy similar to a motorized rickshaw which serves at public transportation) and found a little nicer place down the road. This place was larger and in slightly better condition (imagine a very shady motel in the states). They only had one room available that day, but said that others would open later in the week. It was decided that Keisha, Brooke, Laura and I would stay at the new place for the night, while Jared and the boys stayed at the first hotel.

Bajaj

That afternoon, the kids discovered some puppies behind hotel #1. The mother dog was very protective from the start, but the puppies were just too cute for the kids to leave alone. As we were preparing to go to dinner, suddenly there was a lot of commotion. The mother dog had bitten one of the kids! Luckily, the dog wasn’t rabid and just protecting her young. (We did monitor the dog for about a week following the bite—there were no problems, all is well now).

By the time we returned from dinner it was already dark. As we road down the road lined with tea shops, we could hear loud music coming from somewhere nearby. I panicked for a minute as I feared the music was coming from our hotel. Soon we passed a joint with loud music and flashing lights. What a relief. I thought I was safe because it was far enough from our place that we wouldn’t be bothered. Boy was I wrong. As we pulled into the gate of our hotel we were greeted by booming music and Christmas lights that blinked along with the beat. We were living in a night club! 

The party continued until sometime between 12-2am (with the same about 8 songs playing over and over—including some Britney Spears and Justin Bieber). Sleep that night was rather difficult, as 4 of us were crammed in a small, hot and stuffy room… not to mention the party that was going on outside our door. 

The next morning we learned that Jared and the boys had a similar experience at their hotel. From what I have observed, many hotels in town turn into night clubs every night. Luckily, our stay at the “night club” only lasted a week and a half.