Pax Vobiscum

The year 2012 brought Tod Underhill and me three opportunities to travel to Ethiopia to train beekeepers. The USAID-funded projects were conducted by Little Rock, Arkansas based Winrock International. I want to recognize and thank those who shared in my experience and helped make my training sessions meaningful. Thank you, Winrock International staff who made arrangements for my travel: Johnnie Frueauff (USA), Daniel Kocha, Gemechis Jaleta, Kassahoun (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Bonface Kaberia (Nairobi, Kenya), and Winrock International volunteers, Damon Szymanski, and Jennifer Bowman (USA) who provided friendship and assisted in communications. I give my special thanks to my Ethiopian hosts, Wubishet Adugna, managing director of Apinec AgroIndustry, and Guta Abdi, founder and managing director of Education For Development Association, for their hospitality, generosity, and friendship. While making sure that their people received the training that they requested, my hosts showed me their beautiful country and shared with me their food, and traditions. Among those who helped me in my planning for training in Ethiopia: Pam Gregory (Wales, UK), Kushal Chandak (India), Nita (Bangkok, Thailand), Hafeez Anwar (Pakistan), and Wondimu Teferi and Lemma Tamiru (Ethiopia)

I fondly remember those I encountered during the dry season in southwestern Ethiopia:, Abraham Tesfaye, Wondimagegn Tadesse, Tsegaiye Haile, Fasika Habtemariam, Johannes Bekele, Atrise Abebe, Ademe Abebe, Tigist Wildemichael, Abeba Rausha, Johannes Abebe, Gezahgn Tadesse, Hemlem Tesfaye, Eyob Assefa, Silishe Katama, Misaurets, Achi, Aklil Cnewn, Hadella, and Michael. During the rainy season in western Ethiopia I had the pleasure of meeting: Jotte Hailu, Tucho Enkossa, Gedefa, Mengistu, Gobena, Debisa, Buze, Melaku, Teshome, Tolera, Gurmesa, Lemma Goya, Mekonnen Egziabher, Tewelde, and an additional 50 seasoned beekeepers. These are but a few of those who I encountered in my travels. They were friendly toward me and interested in helping Ethiopia’s people. I had the opportunity to observe in Ethiopia Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Evangelical Protestant Christians, and naturalistic believers living harmoniously and setting an example of tolerance. The Underhills who operate Peace Bee Farm offer: Peace be with you.

--Richard

Traditional Thanksgiving

Winrock International, www.winrock.org, sends volunteers to developing countries around the world on USAID-funded food security projects. Africa is a fond memory now. I reflect on my assignment teaching beekeeping trainers in Ethiopia’s Oromia region. I travelled with Guta Abdi, the founder and managing director of Education For Development Association. Guta’s name means “full of hope” in Oromifa language. With Guta, I observed the beautiful, volcano-strewn land, resourceful farmers, and Oromia’s rich customs. My training sessions in the mountain-top village of Shambu began and ended with prayers by traditional belief elders. These people, numbering five million believers, deeply respect the land and attribute all existence to a single deity without praying to any prophet. They gather annually around six volcanic lakes for thanksgiving. Guta Abdi is shown at the thanksgiving in the center of today’s photo wearing a gray sweater and open collar. When he took me to the site, I knew I was in one of the earth’s special places.

Travelling through Oromia, I saw children proudly wearing banana leaf hats. The children of each village fold their banana leaf hats in a distinct regional design. Along mountain ridges, I saw “fachas,” tall poles with tin roofs covering a cape buffalo’s tail. The facha is a sign proclaiming that a man accomplished a feat such as killing a lion or leopard with a spear. In earlier times, a facha was placed to proclaim the killing of one’s tribesman has been revenged by killing nine of the opposing tribesmen. Fortunately, this is a past practice. I especially enjoyed sharing Ethiopian food with my host. A typical day started with eggs and red peppers, enjira, Ethiopia’s flat bread made from fermented teff grass seed, bread, and tea. Coffee and bread was served at morning and afternoon breaks. Lunch included enjira, potatoes, and a “wot,” or stew, of sheep. Supper included enjira, cabbage wot, roasted sheep with carrots, “tej” honey mead, Ethiopian beer, and “areke,” locally-made vodka. Thank you, Winrock and EFDA.

--Richard

This Will Not Be Kicked

Explaining that the natural home of the honey bee is a hollow tree, I relate that all beekeeping efforts should provide a bee hive similar to a hollow tree cavity. Each of the Ethiopian beekeeping trainers in my Shambu class sits quietly with pen and tablet listening to Tucho translate my beekeeping lessons from English to Oromifa. They take notes and write questions for me. As soon as Tucho reads their questions, I realize that my students are knowledgeable; they are paying close attention to me; and they are interested in exploring new techniques in beekeeping. They ask specific questions about ways to manipulate modern bee hives. The students see the usefulness of moving frames of brood to produce new queens, strengthen weak colonies, make colony divisions, and select for better genetics. They ask about working bees in the daytime. Their traditional practice of nighttime honey harvesting gives the beekeepers few opportunities to observe the bees’ brood nest. Having only used smoke to drive bees from the hive, they want to know how smoke works to calm bees. The students question the causes of migratory swarming and hive absconding, both frequent problems for Ethiopian beekeepers. Several follow-up questions come from my suggestion that increasing bee hive ventilation and requeening can lessen the incidence of chalkbrood, a common fungal infection of honey bees in this semi-tropical land.

Some question commonly held practices and beliefs. When they see pictures of Peace Bee Farm hives painted white with stripes of color, they ask why mine are not painted yellow like modern Ethiopian bee hives. They all laugh in understanding when I ask if they ever saw a hollow tree in the forest painted bright yellow. One asks if my hair is gray from touching it with honey on my hands; I explain that it is merely due to my age. EFDA-trained leather worker, Tolesa, crafted the soccer ball signed by my Ethiopian beekeepers in Amharic and Oromifa. This football will never be kicked.

--Richard

Shambu Area Projects

I see evidence of the influence the Education For Development Association, www.efhda.org.et, makes on the lives of Oromo farmers. Travelling Ethiopia’s western highlands, I see multiple projects in effect. Providing sanitation and clean water for drinking are great challenges, so the EFDA provides well water and fixtures to deliver spring water for drinking and cooking. A solar water disinfection project effectively purifies water in clear plastic soda bottles at almost no cost. Bottles are placed on the roofs of houses, and UV rays from the sun purify the water in six hours. Concrete drinking troughs for cattle and livestock reduce the animals’ pollution of streams as well as helping to keep animals healthy in times of drought. On individual farms and at the EFDA’s resource centers in Shambu and Walisso, farmers gather to learn sustainable agricultural practices, animal husbandry, water conservation, and methods of improving food production. EFDA pioneered in introducing apples to Ethiopia’s highland area to generate additional income for farmers.

This is Ethiopia’s rainy season, and the western highlands appear lush and green. Everywhere I look farmers are plowing the rocky volcanic soil with teams of oxen. A closer look reveals lean oxen with bones showing; the animals simply don’t have enough muscle to safely pull their plows. Tucho shows me horse and donkey harnesses used for plowing when the mighty oxen are not capable of pulling the plows. The green grass is grazed close to the ground. Tucho explains to me that this year’s rains are not sufficient to sustain the grasslands and fill the reservoirs. Fincha Lake remains unseasonably low. Tucho fears the land may not sufficiently support the population’s food requirements Tucho and Gedefa explain EFDA’ efforts to protect the environment, prevent the loss of topsoil, provide drainage systems, and encourage crop rotation. Oromo farmers are working to prevent deforestation, and degradation of the environment. They protect flood areas and forests. My beekeeping project is designed to take advantage of the resources of the forest.

--Richard

Steady, Little Donkey!

Riding with Gemechis Jeleta of Winrock International and driver, Kassahun, on a busy four-lane, divided road through the streets of Addis Ababa to meet my host Guta Abdi of the Education For Development Association, I see a startling sight: donkeys in the air! Yes, a herd of donkeys crossing overhead in a pedestrian crosswalk. I tell Guta about the sight; he laughs, and gives me today’s picture of five people and a donkey sharing a very small dug-out canoe. When a western Ethiopian river was impounded, forming Fincha Lake for hydroelectric power, area farmers lost land and were presented with a transportation problem. The EFDA taught craftsmen to build canoes at Chitu Island to cross the lake. As their boat-building skills improved, the size of their boats increased. With larger boats, the EFDA trained the farmers to fish for tilapia in this western highlands reservoir. The fishermen now face a lifetime of food security. In the next few days, I see first-hand the breadth of EFDA’s work. The boat building and fishing training are just two of EFDA’s job skills training projects designed to upgrade existing skills and introduce new skills. Among those trained are leather workers, blacksmiths, basket weavers, and clay workers who produce “jabena” coffee pots, clay water jugs, and fuel saving stoves. EFDA’s rural livelihood programs work to provide jobs for women. I meet women trained to build low-fuel cook stoves, distribute sacks of cane sugar and dig bicarbonate of soda from volcanic soil for the manufacture of medicine.

Guta states that development should first take place in the minds of the people. The EFDA, which operates in the Oromia and Benish Gumuz regional states, builds schools to increase the quality of life through quality education. Schools encourage children to learn traditional knowledge of their community. EFDA’s health projects include women’s reproductive health, HIV/AIDS programs, and a campaign that abolished female genital mutilation in the Jimma and Horro districts. Oh, I have much more to see.

--Richard

Social Fences

Humans, like honey bees, are social creatures. We live in societies, and we rely upon the behavior of each other for protection and well being. The farmers of Ethiopia’s Bonebunga area recognize the importance of the forest to their environment. Most of the natural forest was removed in years past. Now new plantings of native trees are turning open, highly erodible agricultural fields once again into forests. These growing forests and the few remaining natural forests require protection. Without controls, the forests could be rapidly cleared to provide fire wood, charcoal, and building materials. My Ethiopian host, Guta Abdi, explains to me that the forests in the Bonebunga area are protected by a “social fence,” an imaginary protective fence built in the minds of the people served by the forests. The people recognize the importance of the forests and how vulnerable they are to poaching of trees. Standards of behavior, such as protecting trees, are maintained by “social courts,” committees of citizens who set standards of behavior, make them clearly understood, and enforce adherence.

Guta Abdi explains that he and the staff of the Education For Development Association recognized that there were in their community a number of harmful traditional practices which should be addressed. Among these were the abduction of unwilling marriage partners, rape, and the frequent practice of female genital mutilation. He developed a plan to end female genital mutilation completely in their region. To gain complete acceptance of the plan, he approached every social group and the clergy of each religion, Orthodox Christian, Protestant, Muslim, and traditional believers. He asked them to search their holy writings to find any support for this injuring practice; they found none. He next approached police, government, and community leaders asking for support in eradicating the practice. After gaining total support, the entire community celebrated stopping the practice with over two thousand attending a celebration. Today’s photo shows community leaders in traditional dress for the celebration of girls protected by a social fence.

--Richard