Meki

Needless to say, the last blog wasn't sent. Meki is getting electricity only every other day and I report that is not a certainty. Today is an electricity day, but the power has been off most of the morning. Without electricity, water is also sporadic since the necessary pumps are electric. But that is mainly and inconvenience which has not hampered the enjoyment of our stay here in Meki.

We are lodging in the pastoral center across the street from the school. We are taking our meals with the Brothers who are located on the adjacent side of the school, so it is a short walk across the school compound and the soccer field.

There are four Brothers here: Brother Betre, the headmaster and Brother Getachew in the school; Brother Cassi, works at the farm; and Brother Taye, who is 4^th year scholastic visiting here for a month.

Unlike the other schools we have visited, Meki Catholic is in a smaller town, perhaps 60,000 people. The area is very, very poor. There are 1517 students in grades KG-12. Until recently it was the only secondary school in town. The government opened their secondary school this year. There is a great need as over 1600 students applied for the 50 open spaces last year. The school is double stream, meaning there are two classrooms for each grade, with the exception of 9^th grade, for which there are three. There are 25 classrooms (that is 60 students per room). The school population is comprised of 790 boys and 727 girls. The ratio between boys and girls is decreasing.

Students in grades 1-6 pay only 25 birr per month ($25.00 per year); 7-8, 30 birr per month; 9-10, 35 birr per month; and 11-12, 45 birr per month. This tuition covers only 15% of the real cost of the education.

There are many issues revolving around the female students. Many girls are being forced to marry after grade 9. There is no real motivation to educate a female student. Marriage brings money to her family in the form of a dowry. Even the girls who do continue their education face many difficulties. The girls, after attending school, are required to do much of the work around the house, such tasks as gathering wood and water. They also must work late into the night. The exhaustion showed on the faces of many of the girls in the classroom. The school is meeting these problems by both advocating for the girls and building a hostel where they can live if the situation forces the removal from the family.

Ali: Remember back to your thirteenth birthday. As young women, we were excited to enter into our teen years; young women, no longer children. Now imagine, instead of a birthday cake, a party, and your first PG-13 movie, you wake up to the reality that today is your wedding day. You are to be married to a man you've never met, who is more than twice your age, and who already has two other wives. It's the price you have to pay to feed your family. Your husband has already paid your family two cows and a goat for your hand. Your sin is that you were born poor in a rural farming community with traditions that are outdated, and that you are born a female. Females are promised or "sold" into marriage from as early as age one through adolescence. This is the reality that we discovered one afternoon while interviewing four young women at Meki Catholic School. While each of their stories had similarities, they were each as heart wrenching as the previous. Each girl had been promised into marriage, and each had rejected their forced destiny, left with no chance but to run away from their circumstance. One girl moved to Addis to live with relatives so that she could receive and education, only to be forced to do manual labor, leaving little time for her studies. This reality was no improvement from her first. Another girl moved in with relatives, was abused, and became deaf in one ear after being beaten in the head with a shoe. One girl was forced to be married in the fourth grade despite her objections. She ran away numerous times, and was caught and beaten each time until finally breaking the will of her husband. The final girl experienced the death of her parents, who left twelve children behind. She moved in with one of her brothers, but was treated no better than a maid. In each story, escaping the initial marriage was not the end of the struggle. Each girl faced poverty, sexual abuse, forced prostitution, and all sorts of inhumane treatment because of their gender. These are not the end to their stories. To highlight all their struggles would take too many pages, and too many tears. Their stories do not end with despair. Each girl found hope in Meki Catholic School. Through Brother Betre's care and the twinning schools finances, these girls were able to find the support they needed in Meki Catholic School. Support for women generally falls into three categories. Full support covers tuition, a place to stay, and a small stipend for necessities. Partial support includes tuition, book fees, and other various expenses, while minimal support which covers tuition of young women who live in stable, yet poor, homes. These four girls spoke of hope because of the opportunities that were given at Meki, in fact, one girl is top of her class. Each spoke of their future goals of helping women who cannot help themselves. Brother Betre is not able to help all the young women that come to him with similar stories. He has about forty girls on a waiting list to be helped and countless other young women to have yet to come forward. Because the need is so great, Brother Betre is opening a women's hostel that can serve sixty young women. The project with cost approximately 600,000 USD, which may seem like a lot of money. When one girl was asked what Meki has done for her, she said "It gave me life". Which begs the question, what is the price tag for hope, for life?

Monday we broke into groups and observed classes. In the 6^th and 7^th grades, many of the questions concerned why we were here, the global economic situation and American politics, especially Obama. In the mid-morning we were introduced to all of the teachers and had tea and biscuits.

Playing before a packed arena, we lost yet another basketball game. This one was at least close. We have been swarmed by kids ever since we arrived.

After dinner, Brother Betre showed a powerpoint on the school, which I hope you all will have a chance to see.

On Tuesday morning, we visited Meki Farm. The farm is an initiative to not only teach modern farming techniques to the local populous, but to insure the future survival of the school. The farm is about a 20 minute drive from the school.

Betsy: Brother Amilcare gave us the farm tour. It is a wonderful example of combining the natural resources available with modern agricultural and genetic techniques. Right now they have 30 hectars (about 120 acres) of land very near lake Zway. They have dug ditches to contain the lake water and placed a submersible pump there. The pump is then able to transport the water up in elevation about 15 feet and almost a half mile in distance to a retaining pond and to the main pumping station. This allows the farmers the ability to control the amount of water the farm receives and to use drip lines to water only the crops. The concept of drip irrigation is very hard for local farmers to grasp. The success of drip irrigation will convince farmers to water their fields in a far more effective way, especially during the dry seasons.

They have already planted thousands of plants. There are between 500-1000 each orange trees, mango trees and papaya trees. They have a more than a 1000 banana trees planted and have planted small grasses between the trees for the cows to graze. The theory of intercropping not only conserves space and uses vital farm land efficiently, it also keeps down the weeds so the farmers (women) don't have to spend so much time weeding. One interesting result from the intercropping was that the banana trees didn't grow well when alfalfa was planted with them. Now they have only small grazing grasses planted. They also have many standard farm plants: corn, tomatoes, onions, etc. Finally, they have established an amazing vineyard. They have planted more than 20,000 grape vines of seven varieties including merlot. Brother said that once the vineyard is producing at full capacity in several years, they hope to bottle well over 100,000 bottles of wine.

They also are planning to have a large herd of cows that they will use for making yogurt and cheese. The Christian population fasts about 200 days out of the year so they don't use much of their milk. The hope is to exchange cows to the local farmers in return for their milk. Then the Meki farm will make the yogurt and cheese. In addition, they will be selecting specific cows that are hardy and can live off the land and cross breeding them with cows that are high in milk production. Because of the specific genetics, the cross breeding has a high probability of success. This will ensure strong healthy milk producers for the local farmers. Finally, they will only need to maintain one or two bulls to keep the large female population impregnated (all by artificial insemination).

The buildings are well on the way to being completed. They include the main building, class rooms, the dairy, the cheese room, the jam/marmalade room and the winery. We toured the upper level of the winery by walking up a wooden scaffold. It was a challenge to come down it successfully and we are glad to still be here to write the blog.

Alex: In Meki, we met with the LaSallian Youth to experience the culture of the region. To kick off the festivities, a student dressed in traditional clothes started the coffee ceremony. It smelled delicious. While the coffee was being prepared, the students introduced Abraham, who was supposed to do a modern dance for us. As soon as the music came on, he came out dancing his heart off and doing really well; however, the power was out, something that is a reality in Ethiopia that occurs daily, and the dry cell powering the boom box failed. He stood there, all embarrassed, but applause broke out all the same. He killed it. Then, the narrator introduced girls who were going to dance traditional dances. The music started and the girls began, and they were shimmying and popping their bodies to the beat. It was all really cool. Again, however, the music cut off, but instead of stopping, we started clapping out the beat and the dance finished. It was incredibly cool and the girls danced very well. By the time the dances finished, the coffee was ready to be served, and, as the coffee was served, we started to talk to the LaSallian Youth. They were very interested in how we saw the country, and asked many questions, such as our reaction to the culture, climate, impressions of the people, the poverty. They were also interested in our lives, asking if American movies accurately portrayed our culture, our parents' reaction to us going, and what out LaSallian Youth does. Of course we described how the culture is beautiful with its old roots, proud heritage, dance, music, and coffee. The people are the most welcoming and hospitable people, always with a smile on their face, and always proud of what they have, no matter how little it is. We commented on the way the people don't let their lifestyle keep them down, and how beautiful the weather is. The students and teachers were delighted with our answers and beaming at each other with approval. Ethiopia is truly a beautiful place. Then we focused on our lives, describing how the movies do not portray American culture, how some of our parents were apprehensive, some needed some persuasion, and some were all gung-ho about their kids going, and lastly how our LaSallian Youth helps out the community through service and fundraisers. The exchange of culture was very informational and exciting.

Maurice: While we were in Meki, we paired up with students from the school who were in LaSallian youth and the goal was to see how each student lived. In my group we had three from the school so we went to three different homes and a church. The 1^st house we went to was Seble's. I was really surprised by how modernized the home was. The had a living room which had four couches, a TV, a stereo set and a china cabinet with really nice dishes. They prepared the cultural coffee ceremony and we also had popcorn. After we did that, we visited Abreham's house. His home was different from Seble's because she lived in a house made from brick and he lived in a mud/stick house. Another difference was that Seble's home had different rooms from different purposes while Abreham had one room for many different purposes. It surprised me because there was a big difference in homing and how people lived and it was all in the same city. Even though they didn't have much, they were still welcoming and very humble. That's what really surprised me since day one how these people have so little or maybe even so much and they keep up the same positive attitude day in and day out. And to see all of the different homes was really nice and an experience I will never forget.

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