November is a good time of year to visit Debre Markos in the Amhara region, north of Addis Ababa. Warm sunny days traveling on a 2 lane ribbon of relatively good highway through farmland and into the Grand Canyonesque Blue Nile River Gorge. The road winds down for several kilometers with many switchbacks before coming to the bottom of the gorge. Our Toyota Land Cruiser shows the outside temperature in the cabin and I noted the temp at the top was 18° C and by the time we got to the bottom of the gorge it was 28° C. A huge new span bridge awaited us. Constructed by the Japanese government for Ethiopia, it replaced an old Italian-made bridge that was obviously making its last stand. The last time we traveled this way only one vehicle could cross at a time.
Four of us traveled to Debre Markos; Mekonnen Dessalegne, our program manager, Solomon Teferi, our assistant program manager, Krista Allen, an MCC’er and myself. Our objective was to visit our partner Migibare Senaye Children and Family Support Organization (MSCFSO) in Debre Markos. Over a year ago we visited this place to look at a watershed that had been devastated by erosion. This organization was asking for assistance to restore the watershed and stop the erosion. We agreed to provide funding. Now, over a year later we were back in Debre Markos to see the progress made.
After arriving at midday, we checked into the local hotel. It is basically the one and only hotel of decent quality in DM, where one sees other ‘ferenjis’ (foreigners), like us. There is a restaurant inside where we had lunch. After lunch, we went out to visit the field, which was north of town.
There were 4 parts to our Tuesday afternoon visit:
Enerata School compound – we visited the compound where school director, Mr. Aznaka, greeted us. We saw two types of trees planted for income generation. One type is an indigenous tree, Kosso in Amharic, that is good for the environment, although slow growing. The other is eucalyptus trees. The school has 6 hectares that they have planted 2 different seasons of eucalyptus trees. The school uses this land to raise funding for such necessary things as books, supplies and any upkeep of the grounds. Previously they grew crops on the land but saw the tree nursery as a larger fundraiser. This will help the community. The farmers have previously been asked to contribute monies for the school operation but with the tree nursery, the community expects to be freed from this obligation. Of course they need to wait 5 seasons before the trees are ready but they expect a large payout. The tree seedlings looked closely planted together in one nursery and I asked about the standard. There was some discussion in Amharic but finally someone acknowledged that the close planting may have been because children were used as volunteers to plant. Even though the instructions were to plant the seedlings 50 cm apart many are less than 25 cm apart (even 50 cm seemed to close together to me). I also asked about if there was any discussion regarding the environmental impact of eucalyptus trees on the soil and in general. It seems that economic trumped environmental concerns. We also visited a small nursery of 6 apple tree seedlings where the school is hoping to harvest apples in a couple of years and to model the mini orchard for the farmers in the area. The saplings were leafless but they assured me that the budding would be happening in the next month.
Dejel watershed-Melit micro-catchment – This was the main reason we came, to view the catchment. There was certainly a change from the last time we visited. This time the land was mostly used to grow crops; wheat, an oats variety, a type of pea plant called Gibto in Amharic, flax, teff. There are now soil bunds, check dams and planting of grasses to hold the soil in the badly eroded areas. The result of the work is that the soil has stabilized and farmers have been been able to grow their crops. One farmer, where the erosion was the worst, agreed not to farm there but to fence it off and let it lay fallow. Significant siltation has occurred as a result. He was paid to build check dams and plant grasses to prevent further erosion. Other farmers we met as we walked through the catchment were equally enthusiastic about the changes. It was a good time to visit, when the grain was still in the field and obviously successful. We were told that the local officials were so impressed with this project that they have used it as a model for other eroded areas in the region.
Tree nursery – We walked from our vehicle to the tree nursery on the far end of the catchment, about 3 kilometers. The nursery was about 1.6 hectares in size and located near the local stream that runs out of the catchment. The workers can use the stream to water the seedlings. The nursery was successful last year, not only supplying the farmers and the project objectives but also the local officials as they asked for tree seedlings. Because MSCFSO lacks a truck to transport seedlings from the nursery, the local officials and the project managers reached an agreement; the officials agreed to provide trucks and the project managers agreed to provide them seedlings. This ended up working well.
Farming God’s Way demonstration plots – At the end of the day we went across the road to a small housing settlement where two compounds were. Both of the compounds had a fenced off area that were small plots where the owners were ‘Farming God’s Way’ (FGW). FGW is an agricultural approach developed by a South African Christian that is environmentally friendly and uses Biblical Scriptures to justify his farming techniques. It has been successful in other parts of Africa where it was introduced. Canadian Foodgrains Bank sponsored a workshop in Addis in September for all their partners (of which MCC shares several partners with CFGB).
The garden was covered in a straw blanket and the openings were evenly spaced where the corn was planted. Growing in each opening were 2-4 shoots of corn. The plot was constructed just as was taught in the workshop. Those who initiated the idea were very excited and proud of what the plots looked like. The farmers will be watching this. If it is successful there may be a whole lot of FGW patches all over East Gojam region.
We arrived back at the hotel around dusk and, after freshening up a bit, had supper together in the restaurant. The menu was a combination of Habesha (Ethiopian) cuisine and Ferenji (Western) cuisine. The food was nothing to write home about but it sufficed. Spaghetti and sauce, deep fried flat pieces of fish or chicken, the injera and wat were, naturally, the best of the lot. We were joined for supper by several Meserete Kristos Church gentlemen who had been conducting a workshop that day on conflict resolution for regional government officials. They excitedly told us how the officials embraced their training and how they planned to train subordinates in their locales when they went back home. We were energized just by hearing this. After supper there wasn’t much to do but go up to our rooms to bed. Fortunately the bed sheets were clean, with running water, electricity and a TV that worked. That’s all one really needs, right? Unfortunately the hotel is right next to a truck stop with semis starting up through the night and men shouting at all hours. But for one night it was tolerable.
On Wednesday morning, after breakfast, we visited the following offices:
Local Zonal office – Our MCC team plus Mr. Yehennu and Mr. Miheratu had a short meeting with the official who is the zonal administrator, in charge of the whole zonal area of East Gojam. After a slow beginning the official had warm words for MSCFSO and, by extension, MCC. The watershed project was well received by the local community and the officials well noted its success. He talked about cooperation between the two with the use of vehicles and offering of tree seedlings for government projects. He encouraged MCC to consider funding an even bigger project to the north which would help an area where 4 Woredas come together, a main area of tributaries to the Blue Nile basin. It was an honor for us to be offered this project but by the sound of it, it would be a huge undertaking, a grander scale than we have ever done. It sounded more like a project for the UN or USAID. So we smiled and thanked the official for his kind words and departed.
MSCFSO office – Finally we met together at our partner’s office to have a short time of discussion. We wanted to extend our compliments to the group for their hard work, Mekonnen exhorted the leaders to submit timely reporting but noted that they do a good job overall of that. Yehennu asked to be heard on two subjects; one is timely funding. They feel like the funding part lags behind the reporting that they give. The other is the problem of transportation. MSCFSO purchased a motorcycle as part of the project plan and this has been helpful but there is a serious problem in transporting materials, particularly seedlings from the nursery to various locations. On top of that is the rainy season. A motorcycle can go through the mud but the rider ends up quite muddy. It would make sense to have a truck for the rainy season and to transport materials. Both concerns were duly noted and recorded. We will look into them.
We headed out around 11 a.m. for Addis Ababa. Our thought was that we would stop somewhere along the way to eat since it would be a 4-5 hour drive. But as we drove back for some reason the Landcruiser never stopped along the way, it just kept going . . . and we arrived in Addis around 3:30 p.m. All were happy we arrived, especially Solomon who was feeling ill the previous 24 hours. I was exhausted and I couldn’t figure out why. Yes, I had driven the whole way but that couldn’t be the reason. I soon found out. I became violently ill and was laid out for the next 48 hours. Solomon and Mekonnen fell ill too at the same time. Must have been something we ate, we figured. I remained very grateful that I felt fine while we were there and on the way home. No one likes to be sick far from home.
