We are helping here, are we?

Little huts forming small villages, dusty roads, impressive views and waving children illustrate the first impression of Ethiopia and we like it. Along with the enormous amounts of hospitality promised us by the Lonely Planet, this makes us believe that we are entering the best country so far. See, because no western country succeeded in colonizing Ethiopia, it maintained its own culture. A very proud, but generous culture, that is. This all seemed great, until we got out of the car to buy some food and immediately found the car swarmed with people shouting ‘You!’, ‘Birr!’, ‘Give me!’ and other phrases that made clear they wanted us to give them the entire interior of the car, including the bike that we have hanging on the back of it. Well, that’s not generous and certainly no proud behavior and it kicked the first dent in our faith in the Ethiopian culture.

The swarming and shouting went on for about a week and slowly we got used to it, until a depressing milestone when we wanted to camp somewhere and within ten minutes we were facing about sixty locals that came closer step by step, just gazing and glaring while the night settled in. The situation became quite intimidating, which made us decide to drive away. A good plan, but we didn’t count on the flat tire and the hard way we find out that changing tires while locals throw rocks from the dark doesn’t make a clean escape. Eventually we got away, but later we found out that the dark had made a great cover for the locals to steal half of our property from the back of our van. Heavily disappointed we decided that this country was just plain bad and that we had to leave it as soon as possible, regardless of the fact that we only had seen about ten percent of Ethiopia.

Before going to Kenya, we had a long trip ahead through depressing Ethiopia, and thus, not to burn out before we made it to the next border, we decided that it would be a good idea to replenish some energy in the Simien Mountains for a couple of days. Four beautiful days we hiked there,overwhelmed by astonishing views after breathtaking climbs, deprived of the ‘great Ethiopian hospitality’ and shouting people, accompanied by the Dutchman Jan, who is actually even taller then Henk, and the Italian Luca who could tell lyric stories about Italian cuisine and remembered almost every match that his favorite soccer team had played. Our dog Noflik was being taken care of by Dave, a great American guy who was stationed in the desolate town there by Peace Corps, a pretty inspiring program from America to let young people do some volunteering around the world.

After this refreshing and actually quite cheap leave from civilization, we headed down south towards Addis Ababa and were surprised by the enormous amounts of NGO’s that seem to have a department in every little settlement. Schooling, water supply, women relief, HIV awareness and all other subjects that you can possibly link to Africa have a project in Ethiopia. So, there is western influence here after all, and it leaves the people here acting totally dependent, we find out. This is the reason for the begging and Ethiopians being the laziest people we’ve encountered so far. The only thing the men do, is sitting on the junction chewing chad and wondering what NGO is going to help them today. They don’t care to think for themselves because they don’t have to, behaving passive and stupidly watching older women, actually working, carrying heavy loads of water from the river to their house.

Addis Ababa is relief; an easy going city with working people, minding their own business and friendly helping us out, free of charge. When the night falls over the city, the streets turn in to the domains of weird people telling even weirder stories and the endless number of girls selling their body to afford their study. A few days later we leave this pleasant town, having arranged everything we needed for crossing the border with Kenya.

Our stay extended for some volunteering

When stopping somewhere to fuel up on water,
> we accidentally meet with John Connely, Director of Food for the Hungry Ethiopia, who directs us back a few kilometers to the town Zeway, where we can check out the FH district office. Of course, being a supportive NGO ourselves, we don’t let this chance go by. But what was intended to be a visit of a couple of hours, was easily transformed in a two month stay. We parked at their compound and helped them set up a database, revised generators, reviewed some project proposals and were introduced to the city by Kristen and Miranda. The first a Food for the Hungry employee that made our stay in the begging and rock trowing town a lot more bearable with her great cakes, the second another Peace Corps volunteer, walking the streets with an attitude like our own when she chases away begging kids. Next to this, Henk earned some free gasoline by working in the only western restaurant around, owned by Edward and Jasmine, making the best burgers in Etrhiopia.

Although we work hard to achieve our goals here in Zeway, we truly start to question our presence here. After a promising start, we encounter the results of twenty years of communism that’s started in the eighties and robbed people here from every form of initiative, afraid that they are offending somebody higher in the pecking order. Decisions stack up to piles of unfinished projects and plans, and not only is there a lack of initiative but also of knowledge and ambition. The local technical school, for example, is already happily awaiting the next shipment of machinery from Europe, while the present machinery is still good as new because nobody cares to even install these expensive machines properly due to no electricity being present in the classroom.

In our Western eyes, help here is really needed; people don’t have a lot, the economical crisis struck here twice as hard as in Europe and their houses nearly fall apart. But still they are happy, no frown is seen in the streets. The men are happy doing nothing and when people have a roof and just enough enjera to stay alive, they are satisfied with their easy living. This is where our Western mindset fails; we try to create a country like the ones we know from our ‘civilized and advanced’ world, but truly, Ethiopians are quite happy with their country as it is, they don’t desperately need tarmac or internet and don’t work harder for any of these Western goals. Actually, by doing nothing, a family can choose from various organizations for free food, so why would they? Will it be Compassion, Foster Parents or Food for the Hungry? After living a few years with all those weird, world improving white guys around, we are beginning to be part of their new culture and gratitude is an illusion from a past long gone. If denied help, clothes, money or food, the people are highly insulted. Ethiopia expects help and starts to behave like it. We should stop acting like saints to give ourselves a better feeling; we might think its a mess here, but do locals feel the same way?

All the NGO’s and other helping organizations have great intentions and, on short term, appear to do great work. On the long run however, we think that we harm the country more than we help it. We’re just another white guy, leaving the population dependable. The biggest help we can give them is to leave, to let them keep and maintain their own culture, every now and then visited by tourists that are astounded by the contrast in culture.

Our projects and visa have reached their end and so has our stay in Ethiopia. After a few easy and some harder goodbyes, we ride to Kenya, where we are determined to help organizations again and  hope that the local culture is not corrupted by to much aid.

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Tags: addis ababa, Ethiopia, food for the hungry, ngo, simien