Ethiopia and Malawi 2006

This is a small blog in regards to my trip to Ethiopia and Malawi last summer.  I was on the Coca-cola World Citizenship Program fellowship for 12 weeks working with an NGO--Mercy Corps.  Mercy Corps does fantastic work in a variety of areas.  I worked with the team that provided assistance with Conflict Prevention and Resolution.  We mainly worked in the SNNPR which is the southern region of Ethiopia.  This is an area diverse in culture, practices, and ethnicity.  Some of the conflicts were over religion, natural resources, land and land-use, cattle-rustling, etc.  I spent 12 amazing weeks traveling and learning about these different issues.  12 weeks certainly isn't enough for one to feel productive but it gave me a glimpse of the kind of work Mercy Corps is doing and about the complexity of implementing successful projects and workshops.  It was a challenging experience!

After my twelve weeks, I decided to go home to Malawi to see my village and family.  The travel was bittersweet.  Much has stayed the same but much has changed.  I lost my counterpart to AIDS and I know that with every passing year something like this could happen to others who I was close to.  I miss my family very much and hope that in the future I can return to Malawi--perhaps work on projects in some capacity.  Spending such a long time there, it is difficult to get the experiences out of you mind and why would you want to?  =)

Enough with that.  Enjoy the photos and any questions you have, please don't hesitate to ask.  Take care.  =)