Day 40: Good Vibes & Sunshine

Hellooo!

This morning after breakfast our guide had called Mikhel to tell him that he something he had to attend to in the morning so, Mikhel took us to see the Haile Selassie Church here in Debre Berhan. It looked quite similar to the church in Entonto (Sululta). After the original fourteenth century church had been destroyed by Muslims in war, Haile Selassie had this church built in its place by an architect from Greece. Shortly after the church was built the architect had passed away and was buried on the church grounds. There were several people kneeling around the church windows and doors praying. We also got to visit another tortoise who was roaming the grounds! I love tortoise and it's cool to see them in different places.

After visiting the church we went to meet our guide at his residence. He took us to a small farm that had about 30 chickens. Hannah completed her survey for the farmer and in the meantime one of the daughters who was probably about 6 came and greeted me. She shook my hand and both said 'Selam' (meaning peace). I was sitting on the doorstep of their home and she came and sat down next to me. I decided to take my phone out and we both played with the snapchat filters. She then asked me if I had any games. I don't really have any fun games on my phone just time-fillers really. But, she played one of the my games where you have to connect numbers to get a bigger number. Though she didn't now what she was doing she was still having fun. When it was time for us to go, she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. It was so sweet and both her parents were glad that we visited their farm and met their children. 

Our next place to visit was model and training farm for the Debre Berhan community. This farm had Holstein Freisian dairy cows where they would first have classes to train the people on proper care, handling, feeding, health, etc. and eventually the cows would be distributed throughout the community. I asked about how successful the training actually was but unfortunately they were unable to give me a straight answer on how they were performing after the training. The picture below is of their calf pen. 

Before lunchtime, we visited one last farm. A lady owned two dairy cows and 3 laying hens. One of the cows was a low exotic percentage and one was a higher percentage of exotic. I began to ask her about her management practices, feeding, and even what she did with the calves. One of the things that shocked me the most was the weaning period. If the calf was a heifer she was keeping the mother and calf together for 6 months and if the calf were a bull she kept the mother and calf together for 4 months. In America, that is almost unheard of especially in the dairy industry. I began to explain to our guide (for him to translate to her) that she should start decreasing her weaning times from 2 to even 1 month should they need to stay with the mother. The farmer said that she kept them together for so long so they could grow strong. But, I also explained that the calves need to be started on feed sooner for its strength and growth. By doing this, she would be able to get more milk for either market or home consumption. After it was translated she agreed and said thank you. I hope this is another small change that can be beneficial to the farmer in the long run. 

Mikhel, Hannah, and I were not very hungry so we decided to have something to drink and a small pastry at a cafe. They didn't have an cappuccinos (Hannah's and my favorite) so we had Mirinda (similar to Fanta) and I had a donut-type pastry and Hannah had a white cake. It was really good and probably one of the sweeter things that I have had since I've been here. Once we finished up, we headed back to the hotel to get wifi and wait to meet our guide after his lunch with family. 

We visited one last farm for our time here, it was another poultry farmer. He had one breed that he was conducting research on for the Debre Zeit research farm as well as another breed for his personal use and consumption. 

Overall, today was a really good day. It's so interesting to compare the different farms to one another. I also really enjoy just giving little tips that can go a long way for these farmers. Tomorrow, we will go a little further north of Debre Berhan and see some of the views here. After that, we will travel back to Addis. I was a little disheartened when we first arrived here Tuesday but now, I am very happy that we came. I really enjoyed my time here and I really like spending time with our driver, Mikhel. He is very intelligent as much as he is interested in what we are learning. I'm glad that we are able to travel with him and learn more from him.