Day 35 & 36: Fresh, Warm Air

Hello!

Get ready for picture overload.

But, before we get to the pictures, what do you think of when you think of Africa? For me, what I saw this weekend is Africa. Warm, beautiful, and amazing fresh air that I literally just want to bottle up and take with me.

This is an ant hill.

Camels!!

The Awash River, beautiful isn't it!

Find the baboon!

Now find the crocs!

Willy Wonka's Chocolate River

Sorry that some of the pictures are out of order but, I hope you enjoyed getting to see the beautiful scenery that I did! The air was seriously so nice and the sun was warm! The people in the smaller towns and villages waved and shouted as we went by. I wish that we could spend all our time out in these villages getting to know these people and their farming systems. Someday, I'll come back to really see it up close. 

Hope you enjoyed! Until tomorrow! 

Day 34: Friday

Hi friends!

This morning, I woke up to very heavy rain and thunder at 6 am. I actually really enjoyed it, I even talked to a few of my friends who were still up and then I went back to bed for another hour. When I did finally get up and get ready, I met Hannah at 9 and we went to the genetics building. I started organizing my final research paper with pictures and lining up the pages. We also got this weekend planned out. We are leaving tomorrow morning to go to Nazaret and see the flocks of camels and goats and also the national park park that is out there. We will stay overnight at one of the hotels and then come home the following day. It should be fun to experience another part of Ethiopia.

For lunch I had the baked spaghetti and vegetables. Afterwards, Hannah and I ran to the super market so she could get some envelopes. We left with chocolate and envelopes. I was craving some solid chocolate for awhile now, so I decided to get some. We went to the housing office, requested a hot plate and some cookware. This way we can make a good breakfast on the days we get to sleep in.

For the rest of the day, I plan to work on some more of my paper and then go to the gym later this evening and then pack for this weekends trip. Today's been nice to relax and not have to go anywhere. I look forward to the coming weeks!

Day 33: Milk & Markets

G'day everyone!

Today, we had a great morning in Debre Zeit. First off, we started at the Ada'a Dairy Cooperative. The first milk processing plant in Ethiopia. Now, there are several cooperatives modeled after this one, all around the country. With over 400 members of the co-op, 65% are female smallholder dairy farms. I think that is so awesome.

There are 15 milk collection sites around the area. All the milk is tested for acidity, added water, and fat content. If the milk has any acidity or has more than 10% of water they cannot use that milk. They can directly to the collection site with that problem and direct it back to the farmer with the problem as well. 

They poor the milk containers into this filter which separates any physical impurities. For example a piece of straw. There is also another filter towards the bottom that rids of smaller impurities. 

After the milk is filtered, it goes through pipes connected to these 'chillers'. The milk is kept cold so that bacteria does not grow. 

After the milk goes to the pasteurizer and afterwards it gets homogenized. In this this tank, they keep the milk cool for a day or two then it gets sent to the packaging area in the next room.  And yes, they do package their milk in bags!

This is butter. Some of the milk gets sent to the butter churner and get thus butter! Except, this is no ordinary butter. This is beauty product butter! The locals here love it for hair shine and even for facial use. But, you can still use this butter for cooking if you'd like. They let us try a bit and it tastes just like butter! 

This is the yogurt packaging machine. Once the milk is packaged into either 500 mL or 250 mL, they then let it settle in the incubator with the culture to create the yogurt! 

Believe it or not, the right is cottage cheese! It is a very popular and important product here. Not everyone has refrigerator and because it's dry it has a longer shelf life. The locals also love it in general!

This is the manager of the processing plant. She gave us the full tour of the place. You could tell that she had pride for her job as well as the products. This cooperative is extremely important these dairy farmers and she is very glad to be apart of it to help support those farmers. There should honestly be more cooperatives like this one for other agricultural products that are there to support the farmers. 

After visiting the milk processing plant, we went to the market in Debre Zeit. This was our final market survey that we had to do. In total, we have now visited 5 markets! Today, we were just asking for the prices of white teff, but soon it turned into a whole crowd of locals trying to look at our notebooks (which they couldn't read anyway) and listening to our translator and the salesman. The lady selling straw didn't want to tell us the price of her straw. But, the translator was able to convince to just tell us how much she was selling it for and nothing else. With this government, many people are very worried about tax collectors and the government in general. The government is corrupt and often takes the money through taxes for themselves and not for the people. They do provide subsidies but, it's often for things for one certain sector of people. For example, there is subsidies on the vaccines created at the National Veterinary Institute. Which in theory may be good for the farmers, but everyone else that are not farmers, it's not logical. That's why the tax is very high here and on everything. Most meals (outside of Zebu) have a 15% tax and then extra surcharges. 

I'm really thankful for our drivers and translators who have helped us. So far, we have worked with people from the genebank and forage dept., people from the LIVES project, and of course people from the genetics projects. We've also made friends with the guys that work in the housing office and at the Zebu Club. Tomorrow, our field visit to the Rift Valley was moved to July 31st. So we have a free-day tomorrow. Then this weekend, we will go to Nazaret (Pronounced Nazuhreet). I'm not sure what we will be doing for sure but something about seeing the animals there. We are also told that we will spend the night there. All the details are not fully worked out yet. Dr. Tadelle is super busy so he is still trying to put it all together. 

We shall see what the future holds! Just have to go with the flow because  it's "no problem, no problem." 

Have a great day!

Day 32: 7 Farms

Hellooo!

Today was such a great day! I went in thinking that we would only have time to visit 5 farms and we ended the day visiting 7! We are getting so close to the 22 farms! I only have 9 more to visit which can easily be done in two days.

Below are the pictures from today. I would talk about each individual farm but I can't remember everything about each one! Also, we stopped at The Pyramid Hotel for lunch. Hannah and I shared a meat pizza (chicken and beef). The view is always beautiful.

All in all, today was really fun and I got some really good data. Tomorrow, we are going to Debre Zeit again. This time we will visit a milk processing plant and a market on market day. It'll be interesting to see the plant as well as the market. 

As I near the end of my project, I've started to realize that I just need to go with the flow of things. Not everything goes according to plan but, that's okay. I also have learned to be more open to opportunity and again, the flow. I trust in God that he is doing amazing things in my life and I should be open to receive those blessings. It's crazy to think that there are only 3 weeks left. But, I will never forget my time here. 

God bless! 

Day 31: Got Milk?

Hello friends!

Today was a nice day to sleep in just a little, like 7:30 am. To get my bananas eaten up that I had gotten from Tigist, I had one of those and some apple juice. Afterwards, Hannah and I went to meet Dr. Jean so she could look at the data we had collected so-far and see where the gaps are. She called it our halfway check-in. I'm glad she's able to help us understand what we have done so far and challenge us with even more questions.

Right before we left for lunch, Dr. Jean told us that we would be going to do another market survey as well as visit a milk processing plant in a town north of Addis. She helped us prepare some questions and then we all went to lunch. I love being apart of the forages people, all 8 of us sat at a table together to have lunch. I had the lasagna and potatoes. After lunch, Hannah and I went to change into our rubber boots in case it was muddy and then we headed out with our driver and translator. We drove all the way up to town way up in the mountains (over 9,000 ft elevation) and arrived in Sululta (the genetics building is named after this town). It wasn't market day so we went to grain shops and a processing mill to do our market survey. To end out our time there, we stopped at Elemtu Dairy Processing Plant. It was really really cool to see. They were not working unfortunately but we still got to see the equipment. I sat down with one of the workers and asked some questions. He told me that they buy milk from over 10,000 farmers. That is a lot of milk! On our way out, our translator actually bought us some yoghurt! Before we left for Sululta, Dr. Jean said how much she loved their yoghurt so we made sure to get her a couple cups.

The drive out there was so beautiful! I honestly love going way up into the mountains. The weather is cool and the scenery is gorgeous!

Now, tell me that isn't beautiful. Tomorrow we go back to Debre Zeit for even more farm visits and surveys. I'm hoping to get most of the visits done before the last full week we are here. This weekend, Dr. Tadelle said that we were going to eastern Ethiopia for the weekend to see the animals out there. That should be really fun! Time is really going by fast! 3.5 weeks left!

Day 30: Just a beef kid in dairy world

Hello everyone!

So far, today has been great! Mikhel, our driver, came to pick us up at 7:30 to go to Debre Zeit. We arrived at the research center there and Hannah got started into her chicken weighing. I was the assistant who wrote down the weights while she actually weighed the birds. After that, we headed out to meet Mohammed.

Mohammed had a meeting in the morning, so it ended being about an hour and fifteen minutes later when he was ready to go. It sucked waiting, but I did get a new high score on my game! When Mohammed finally came out, we went to Tilahun Kopessa. This was a small farm but dairy was their main business so they had 15 dairy cows. The whole family was apart of the business and while I was asking questions, everyone stood around us. It was kind of funny to see that they were so interested in what I was doing though they could not understand me. When we went out to see the cows, there was one that they claimed was of the Jersey breed. Mohammed and I both chuckled because it looked very much like a Holstein. Also, my photographer - Hannah - had some fun while I asked questions.

  (The so called Jersey)

The next two farms we visited were right next to each other. They both had 19 head of cattle. I was not able to get pictures of these cows because they were worried about biosecurity. Even though I am not the one that is communicating directly with these farmers, I love to talk about their management practices and see how those practices really reflect on their milk production. There is a lot that goes in not only beef cattle but dairy cattle as well. As one that has grown up entirely with beef it's interesting to compare the two, especially because it is in a developing country. I am actually looking forward to writing my 15-22 page research paper for the World Food Prize. It'll be neat to put my own work in to words. 

For the rest of the day, I will enter data into my table and afterwards I will go to the gym. I am looking forward to relaxing the rest of the day!

Day 29: Friends

Hi everyone!

Today was such a nice day! The weather was perfect, around 72-75 degrees all day. This morning, Hannah and I went to church with Tigist and her daughter who's 16. It was a different pastor this morning because the last one had already made his trip back to Texas, where he was originally from. The sermon was about fully admitting your sins and coming to christ. It was a very nice service, like always.

Afterwards, Tigist took us all out to coffee and some breakfast. I had a cappuccino and cinnamon roll. It was really good. Tigist also insisted on getting us some bananas (about 13) and apple juice to help keep us healthy. She's such a great person and really is like a mother.

We returned just in time to change clothes and head over to the Zebu to meet Dr. Jean's husband. He's a retired tennis player and a just recently retired coach from the Zebu club. He met us, the South African student working on her masters, and a colleague of Dr. Jeans' that works at CIMMYT in Mexico but he has worked all over the world (including ILRI). He travelled over to their home about 15 minutes from ILRI. It was a big and beautiful home, gated of course. It was similar to a modern American home in my opinion. We sat out on the terrace, chatting and waiting for their Ethiopian-American friends to arrive. When they did arrive, we eventually went up to the second floor where the living room, kitchen, and dining area was. Dr. Jean had made lasagna, salad, and coleslaw. It was really good (I was happy that it wasn't injera)! We chatted some more over lunch and Samson, the Ethiopian that lives in LA, began to tell us how awesome he thought it was that Hannah and I were there on internship. He said he was proud of us and wanted his daughters to be like us when they got older. It made me feel really good that someone, especially coming from Ethiopia himself, saw the importance of this internship. Samson and his wife had another engagement so they took off but, Ky (CIMMYT), Kealeboga (Master Student), Hannah and I stayed for about another hour or two and continued talking. The conversation ranged from tennis, college, travels they have taken, jobs, and other colleagues. I enjoy just listening to them talk though I may not know what they are talking about. I am very glad the Dr. Jean invited us all to have lunch with them at their home. 

Her husband, Birhanu, dropped us off at the Zebu and we all headed back to our hostels. Birhanu went to the Zebu to watch the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. The rest of the day, Hannah and I will probably take a nap and get some dinner later. Tomorrow, we are going back to Debre Zeit to get chicken data and visit more farmers. 

Until next time!