We read (and saw photos) of the hellacious storm that hit our
home in Northampton, where Western New England from New Haven to southern
Vermont got hit with a rapid snow and ice storm, laying from 10” inches to 27”
in the Berkshires. This knocked electricity out for 3 days for our house
sitters, and all of Smith College, Hampshire College, etc. Our email was out
for 3 days.
And then two
days ago, we got the Hawassa version. We woke up to clouds, which is pretty
unusual as the rainy season should have end in October. But by 3 PM the clouds had turn very dark and
the winds picked up. Marty and I went on our balcony and looked east where we
could see grey sleets of rain falling over the large rocks to our east. Our
roof began to rattle and its metal wrapping started to lift and buckle. And
then the rain hit us, massively. We watched as the cattle herders who use the university
fields on tried to find any sort of shelter - under a tree, under an old roof.
The rain came through our upstairs roof and flowed easily down the stairs into
the living room. And through all this, the big black hornbill (who walks around
on his two legs like a Dodo) stood stoically by a bush waiting for the storm to
pass. By 5 PM it was sun was out, albeit glistening on the wet grass and rocks.
We had a busy week at the university. I am
trying to get my students ready for their first quiz, worrying how to construct
questions that were important but understandable given their varying degrees of
speaking English. My colleague and apartment neighbor Walelign (Wally) invited
me to a large meeting of all the faculty in Behavioral Sciences (Anthropology,
Sociology, Psychology) for an internal review of the Masters of Social Anthropology
degree he is proposing. It was a good proposal, well written and comprehensive,
but very ambitious as it called for eleven new courses at the graduate level,
but without any increase in faculty size. Wally argued, probably correctly,
that you can only get the faculty if you have the masters program in place.
This would make us the second program in Ethiopia (after Addis) offering a
masters in Anthro. Various faculty from our department argued that there was no
better place for this then the Southern Nations and Nationalities Region (of
which Hawassa is capital) given all the ethnic diversity in southwestern Ethiopia.
I was impressed by the review discussion, attended by twenty faculty and two
student representatives. They asked probing questions, some quite strategic,
others quite petty (“I see you did not use the correct numerical designations for
the courses listed). Christ, just like home! Wallelign acknowledged the good
points, but stood by his proposal and curriculum. My main comment was they need
a longer period for student research – it is an MA thesis program, but they
only dedicated the second semester of the second year for it. I suggested a
full year for the tehsis, with preparation and reading in the fall followed by
research over winter break and spring semester for the write-up. There are many
thesis topics in our own back yard – gender, HIV, street children, immigration,
coffee cooperatives, etc. The MA is an ambitious project but I think it will
happen. They asked if I would do a graduate seminar in development, which I
readily agreed if the program actually is up and running this spring.
Ironically, I was asked to develop a masters in development anthropology when I
was a Fulbright at Asmara University eight years ago, but it got sidetracked by
Eritrean politics (closing the university) and the rather ill use of my time by
having me teach Introduction to cultural anthropology for several hundred
students. So it is satisfying to work on an actual MA program here.
The day ended fabulously as Adam (the other
American anthropology teacher) and I were invited by our students to watch the
big soccer match between Anthropology department students and Veterinary
Science. This was no nonsense game, with very gifted players (I was told they
were all on their secondary school teams), our guys wearing red and theirs
maroon. Adam and I were given a big round of applause when we joined the other students
in the bleachers (later joined by Emelia, Adam’s wife), and our six female
students formed their own cheering section waving purple shirts that said
anthropology. We lost 2-1, there was almost a fight when the Vet tem didn’t
accept our goal (which bounced off the goal frame), but it ended in cheer and
friendship all around.
The routine is starting to feel good.
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