Poverty

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February 1, 2011

Running Towards Sustainability

Posted by kriosconsulting under Children, Chris Treter, Coffee, Community, Culture, Family, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia, Schools, Values | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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POST BY CHRIS TRETER

Tuesday February 1, 2011

One realization from meeting thousands of people while running across Ethiopia and spending time in coffee growing communities that supply Higher Grounds with our Ethiopian Yrgacheffe Light Roast and Ethiopian Unwashed Sidamo Medium Roast, is that the coffee industry should learn a lesson from “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”.

Abraham Maslow, the founder of Humanistic Psychology, has been immortalized through his creation of “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Outlined in “A Theory of Human Motivation,” published in 1943, the work has affected many fields, including education. In the Hierarchy of Needs, Maslow explains that first level needs must be attained before a human can satisfy higher level needs. Basic needs (survival) must be met before Safety Needs (comfort) and Psychological Needs (well-being). If all three can be met, a human can then work to find self-actualization and Peak Experiences.

In modern-day Ethiopia, despite the country’s coffee exports accounting for nearly 60 percent of the national GDP, many coffee farmers and their families live in dire poverty. Education, health care, and access to water are all very limited. In the Yirgacheffe region, where some of the world’s most unique and sought-after coffees originate, little more than half the region’s children complete primary school. The adult literacy rate is 36 percent. Life expectancy is 53 years. Unfortunately for coffee farmers (and most rural peoples) in Ethiopia, the most basic of human needs are not met. These needs reflect human’s needs of water, food, shelter, and clothing.

As a buyer visiting coffee growing communities in Ethiopia many times, one thing that has been quite evident is that fair trade pricing alone is not nearly enough to bring growers out of poverty. However, it should at the very least be the baseline price for any ethical coffee buyer. And, in a high priced coffee market, price alone will not resolve issues of poverty. For most coffee growers, their basic needs of survival are not met. Buyers who attempt to talk about quality of coffee without simultaneously speaking of quality of life are simply not in touch of the reality on the ground and contribute to the development of an unjust coffee trading system.

Children in a village near Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia

When one travels through coffee growing communities, the lack of basic needs is quite clear to see. Children smile and wave to you without shoes in a region where podoconiosis, a debilitating foot disease that is caused by walking barefoot, affects nearly 1 million Ethiopians. Their stomachs are large due to malnourishment as their diet is heavy in the false banana (a starch) with limited access to protein. Over 90% of the children never attend high school. Many of those in school study in classrooms with over 100 students, in buildings that have no access to water, and without any food to eat throughout the day.

Alimazi Bedhaso, a 14 year old girl from a growing community that supplies coffee to over a dozen brands in the U.S. and Europe approached me while touring a new high school built with fair trade premiums which she will attend next year. When asked about her education thus far she quickly responded, “For girls it is very difficult. If we do not attend school we are forced into arranged marriage at a very young age. If we are in school there are not enough teachers or supplies and we have no time to study. We must walk for hours to return home where we must fetch water and wood, feed the animals, and cook.”

When asking a group of growers representing 6 different coffee cooperatives, what their largest challenges are as an organization, one is quick to realize that their needs are much different than that of an organization in the United States or Europe. While a U.S. company might talk about a need for an improved accounting system, better trained employees, or access to capital, an Ethiopian co-op will quickly state that water, roads, schools, electricity and health centers are the primary needs. Thoughts of better organizational efficiencies are not even a thought when an organization is still grappling with the survival of its membership.

Women sorting "green" coffee beans at a cooperative.

The largest issue for any farmer I have spoken to in Ethiopia is access to water. As one told me, “Water is life, we spend much of the day looking for water. In fact, women sometimes give birth next to the well while they wait for their turn to get water for their family.”  This need for water is evident when anyone walks through a community with an empty water bottle. Children quickly approach you for even just a container to carry water.

Solutions to these problems are not found in foreign minds. As the manager of Homa Cooperative, the co-op that grows some of our Yirgacheffe coffee states, “You cannot provide our solutions, only we can. Our general assembly determines our priorities. Your role is to buy more fair trade coffee and provide us with a premium.” Fair trade is the best alternative in the global coffee system. But, it is not nearly enough.

Higher Grounds believes that while we continue to push for a higher price to growers we must also bring together our community of coffee drinkers to support these communities in Ethiopia struggling to meet their most basic needs. For that reason, On the Ground was formed, a non-profit that works to provide funding for access to water, health care, and education around the world. The first major campaign of On the Ground, the Run Across Ethiopia, was an overwhelming success – raising enough money to fund the construction of three schools. Thanks to many of you reading this, together we are quickly making a difference in the lives of thousands of children in the coffee growing regions of Ethiopia. Such a campaign has never been realized with an audacious amount of support from nearly a thousand individuals throughout the U.S.

While all our activity to date has been an overwhelming success, it is just the first of many steps needed to bring real lasting change to our coffee growing partners. Through your continued support of Higher Grounds and On the Ground, we will walk down that path toward sustainability and be sure to bring you along the way while you enjoy an amazing cup of coffee. With each sip, you can be sure we are busy running toward a better world for all players in the coffee industry.http://www.highergroundstrading.com/

Chris Treter is President/CEO of Higher Grounds Trading Company in Traverse City, Michigan and founder of On The Ground.

www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 28, 2011

What Age Do Your Parents Force You To Marry?

Posted by kriosconsulting under Amalia Fernand, Art, Children, Coffee, Community, Culture, Environment, Family, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia, Schools | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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POST FROM AMALIA FERNAND

Friday January 28, 2011

The desperation in the eyes of a child as he holds out his hand to beg reflects upon all of us.  Ripped and dirty clothing lay tattered across his shoulders, bare feet stand amidst rocks and burrs, flies gather at the corners of his eyes and below his nostrils where snot and sleep have accumulated, but there is no water to clean it off.

A Young Child on an Ethiopian Roadway

“You, you, you!” he cries, pointing at my sunglasses, belt, water bottle.  “One birr!” (1/16th of a dollar) he yells while pushing his hand close to my face.  And I never give him anything more than a smile and a “Salam” (a greeting meaning peace) because if I did, it would cause mobs and misunderstandings and serve merely to perpetuate the situation .  We are giving in a bigger way, but for people whose lives are based on moment-to-moment survival, that is hard to understand.

Extreme poverty is defined by the World Bank as those living on $1.25 or less a day. 21% of this world, or about 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty.  When coming from the perspective of a country that holds 80% of the world’s wealth, we rarely stop to think about how lucky we truly are.  Even the poorest person in the United States is better off than the average Ethiopian.  There are no welfare or unemployment programs, it is every man, child and woman for themselves. Since 1990 Ethiopia’s population has risen to 80 million from 52 million and the per capita annual income is $180, one of the lowest in the world.  Rates of deforestation in coffee growing areas are estimated at 25,000 acres per year.

In Ethiopia, the birthplace of wild coffee, farmers get as little as $110 off an entire crop.  Well-paid workers at coffee plantations receive 66 cents per day, the average is 55 cents per day, which is not enough to provide a decent standard of living for a family, even in Ethiopia.  Starbucks sells Ethiopia Sidamo whole bean coffee for $10.45 a pound, yet maybe a penny or two of that goes to the actual farmer.  Brochures state that Starbucks protects topical forests and enhances the lives of farmers by building schools and clinics.  In some places in Latin America, Starbucks does do these things, but not in Africa.  Starbucks opens an average of 25 new stores a week in the United States alone, where we have 5% of the world’s people, that drink 20% of the world’s coffee.  We have a responsibility to make sure that the farmers that grow our coffee are not starving.  You can not look into the desperate eyes of those begging children and ever be the same again.  For more information about Starbucks and coffee growing in Ethiopia, please read the article:  ”Starbucks calls its coffee worker-friendly, but in Ethiopia, a day’s pay is a dollar” by Tom Knudson in the Sacramento Bee at:

http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-email/story/383817.html

Chris Treter with Tadesse Meskela from OCFCU

After Chris Treter of Higher Grounds in Traverse City had spent years visiting poor coffee growing regions around the world, he came up with the concept of “Beyond fair trade” and started the non-profit On The Ground that works to improve standards of living in coffee growing regions.  He works directly with the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union that has about 100,000 Ethiopian farmers as members, receiving fair trade prices for their coffee.  But, yet, is it really fair?  They receive pennies and the middlemen get rich.  There is so much more that needs to be done and so much more help to give.  As the Run Across Ethiopia finished it’s final day, joined by coffee buyers from around the world, we arrived in a village in the coffee growing region of Yergacheffe.  We were once again greeted by thousands of smiling faces and an outpouring of generosity, love and thanks.  Each runner was given a gift of traditional clothing and dressed for the crowd.  The people spoke of what the money from the Run would do for them and what they still needed.

This is only the beginning, a jumpstart into the aid that is needed in Southern Ethiopia.  Do we build 3 schools, or 2 schools complete with bathrooms and furniture?  Which will help more?  Can we continue to get donations and do it all?  Will this work ever really be done?  Can we give the people the tools and the responsibility they need to improve their own quality of life?  That is the goal: involve the community, provide hope, structure, stability, and education.  Without education, the problem is systemic, a wheel of poverty and suffering, rolling through the generations, never understanding that there can be a different way.  There is nothing we can do that is more important than to educate that begging child, to teach him how he can make a better life for himself, without relying on hand-outs.  Soon, we will have a community of educated children, working to improve their own quality of living.  Why the Run? You might ask, what could possibly be the point?  Raising $175,000 to build 2 schools in a matter of months with few corporate sponsors is an incredibly difficult task.  Involve 10 separate runners, working towards the smaller goal of $15,000 each and suddenly it becomes possible.  To excite and involve the community, both in the States and in Ethiopia, to involve the media, raise awareness, give people hope, bring understanding to the world, and bring a team of people that have seen that desperation first hand and whom will never forget.

McLain poses a question to her Ethiopian counterparts

In a cultural exchange of questions between children from two northern Michigan schools, (the Pathfinder School and the Children’s House) and children from the village, the dichotomy of our two worlds became shockingly evident.  The Ethiopian children watched the American children on a computer screen, then they asked their own questions.  Young girls asked things like: “What age do your parents force you to marry?”  and “What age do you have to quit school to take care of your family?”  while young boys asked about what crops U.S. children care for, what jobs they have to do after school, and how far they have to walk to get water.  This touching video should be able to be viewed in the documentary that Traverse City filmmakers, James and Jamaica Weston are creating about the entire RAE experience, hopefully to be released in May.  James and Jamaica have only a few days left on their kickstarter for the documentary.  Buy an advance DVD today and help them to create this much needed film! http://kck.st/eu9TUc

My last few days in Ethiopia provided me with an experience that helped me to feel closer to the people.  After days of being so sick that food or water was impossible to keep down, my body was going into dehydration and starvation mode, my vision was swirling and flashing colors, and in this state, I entered the emergency room of a hospital in Addis Ababa.  Scared of the prospect of an African hospital, but more scared of whatever parasite was lurking inside of me, I laid on the thin hospital bed to gaze through blurred vision at the simplicity around me.  Accustomed to the long waits of bustling ER’s in the States, I was surprised to be greeted quickly and immediately assessed to need an IV and glucose.  I asked them to open the packages of the needles in front of me and with tears streaming down my face, I gripped my interpreter and friend Betty’s hand.  The nurse put the IV in and then stood at the end of my bed to stare at me and pick his nose while the Doctor told me that he suspected either Malaria or Typhoid.  The nurse donned gloves and drew blood for testing.  Waiting for those test results felt like the scariest half hour of my life.   Negative, the Dr. said, and I cried in relief.  More tests revealed that I had “an amoeba,” or amoebic dysentery.  Little amoeba’s were waging war in my intestine, eating away at the wall and expelling anything else that entered as my stomach reeled in pain.

After some anti-nausea and anti-stomach cramping meds through my IV the Dr. thought about keeping me overnight but decided I could go as he wrote me a prescription for 3 days of medication to get rid of the amoeba.  The hospital bill totaled about $35, nothing compared to what we would expect in the U.S., but months worth of income for an Ethiopian.  I was lucky, I could receive care, but what about those who can’t?  What about the millions of people whom do not even live close to a clinic, much less a hospital?  Amoeba’s are common for Ethiopians.  For a brief time, I felt their suffering, I saw the world through their eyes.  I was sad and afraid and helpless.  Imagine a lifetime of feeling like that and please remember that no matter how little extra you think you have, it can mean the world of difference to an Ethiopian.

You can still donate to the Run Across Ethiopia cause at the On The Ground website http://onthegroundglobal.org/On_The_Ground/DONATE.html

This is an ongoing project, our work is not done, and we need your support now more than ever.

Follow Amalia’s travels on her own blog here,

The Traveling Educator at http://site.natureexplorersinternational.com/

 

www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 23, 2011

Question One Thing in Particular: Happiness

Posted by kriosconsulting under Children, Community, Culture, Jamaica Weston Lynne, James Weston Lynne, Language, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia, Schools, Values | Tags: , , , , , , |
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POST BY JAMAICA LYNNE WESTON

Sunday January 23, 2011

Sitting at our favorite eatery, ironicly named Chicago, the smell of Addis fills my nose as the traditional music constantly sings in the background. I’ll miss the flavor of the buna (coffee) and especially the appreciation of the time it takes for it to arrive at our table; I suppose I’ll miss the laid back time schedule then as well.

It’s funny how quickly it is for a human to adapt to a completely new sourrounding, but how hard it is to leave. Although we have been there from the 6 am PB&J’s to the 11 pm St. George sessions, I don’t feel like I have completley experienced everything that we’ve seen, I’ve only reacted to it. Through the lens it is easy to capture, but not easy to fully be in every moment.

Injera Colorful Staple of Ethiopia

This makes the journey home hard as I treasure the moments I did spend immersed in experience and experience only.  The connections I had with people and the friends I made along the way provided those opportunities to take, in gulps, the culture I had been witnessing.  Now all that remains are the remnants of Western shock in which I didn’t really find myself missing; well, occasionally it http://www.runacrossethiopia.org missed when I forgot to bring toilet paper with me.  I suppose I feel overwhelmed with the fact that I have a closet full of clothes or a home with more than 1 room, but more than anything, what I think I’ll take with me is not at all what I expected.  Sure I am more appreciative about the opportunities and freedom back home, which I assumed would be the overall moral of my trip, yet what I really learned in the womb of Mother Africa was myself.  To go somewhere foreign and learn to survive in a different way shook my core and made me question one thing in particular: happiness.  What is it that makes one happy?  I saw many children in the most impoverished situations with the brightest spirits and biggest smiles that I have never seen.  So you could say I was shaken by my own core and am now on a new trip, to find the key to the city center of my own happiness.

www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 19, 2011

What sounded impossible (crazy? unattainable?) is now done.

Posted by kriosconsulting under Children, Community, Culture, Hans Voss, Language, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia, Running, Schools, Values | Tags: , , , , , , |
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POST FROM HANS VOSS – (And it’s about time!)

Wednesday January 19th, 2011

I write the message below from me to you, my friends and networks, and anyone who is interested in one guy’s view of this outrageous expedition for cause.

Dan and Hans

Dan Zemper works on Hans' injured leg

Today, after ten days of running, we arrived in Yirgacheffe, our penultimate destination on the Run Across Ethiopia. There is a real sense of accomplishment shared by the 16 runners (ten Americans and six Ethiopians). We’ve come a long way together and have overcome some real challenges. It’s a momentous point in this rugged journey. Other than a short 10K run tomorrow, we are basically done. After more than a year of visioning, planning, fundraising, training, and then actually nailing the 10 days of running, we are are here, we’ve done it. Yes, there’s jubilation and celebration, but for me at least, this is a chance to reflect on what we’ve experienced and the lessons to be learned.

First, running 240 miles in 10 days, no matter how outrageous it may seem, is totally doable. I am no big time athlete. Most of us on this team are just regular folks. We just brought a little extra vision and a commitment to pushing our bodies beyond conventional limits.

The Team on the road to Yirgacheffe

For me this expedition has been especially wonderful because my wife Maureen and two daughters, Aiden and Lucy, were able to join the RAE team on day six of the run. They’ve shared the same experiences connecting with the wonderful Ethiopian people, had the same chances to witness the magical African landscape, and they’ve even logged considerable day to day miles running with the team. This afternoon, after we arrived in Yirgacheffe, my daughters gave me big hugs and sincere congratulations. What I told them was that this run – in fact this whole effort to raise funds to build schools and support children in Ethiopia — is an example that anything is possible. What sounded impossible (crazy? unattainable?) is now done. We did it; one step at a time, one day at a time, with our eyes on the destination and our focus in the moment. I told my kids that this is just one small example that if you put your mind to something, no matter how daunting, you can do it. And I sincerely believe it to be true. It’s a notion that I’ve tried to incorporate in my life for some time now, but I have to say that this is one of the more powerful testaments to that principle I have ever been a part of.

The biggest lessons though have come from the Ethiopian people. They are so warm, kind, and genuine. Glowing smiles. Pure joy. So many Ethiopians have cheered us on. There’s nothing better than when we run by a small hut in the countryside, those inside notice our presence, and then bolt out with arms waving, eyes wide open, and love in their hearts.

Yesterday, we visited the community where construction has begun on one of the schools the RAE donors have made possible. It was as powerful a human experience as I have ever had: the gratitude of about a few thousand people flowing endlessly toward us. 10 runners, a number of crucial role players, and over 700 donors have made a huge impact for thousands of people in this community — and all they wanted to say was thank you.

As I watched their faces, I was struck with how we are much more alike than we are different. Just like us, they  work hard, do what they  can for their children, contribute to their community. It does not matter how much we own or how much money we make, what ties us together – what makes us human – is something much more important than that. Frankly, I am not sure exactly what that is, but I know it has something to do with our how we reach out to each other with love, no matter how different our cultures may be. That love binds us together. That love is something I believe in.

Voss Equip LogoVoss Equipment is one of the financial sponsors of this run. Voss Equipment is a forklift company that my grandfather, an immigrant from Holland started in the 1930′s, just after the depression.  My father dedicated his career to this business and my brother is now the CEO. I raise it because in some respects this business embodies my family story. It just so happened that I was born into a family that was just one generation removed from Holland. My grandfather and father worked hard to build a business that created real economic opportunity for me. They carved out their piece of the American Dream. Now, here I am in Ethiopia. Voss Equipment is proudly printed on the back of the the official RAE shirts, the same shirts worn by six Ethiopian runners whose family history could not be more different than mine. The same six runners with whom, I’ve struggled with, sweated with, and celebrated with. The same six runners who have shown nothing but kindness and support from day one. It’s the same lesson: no matter how far apart we may seem  – and how different our backgrounds are — we are connected as brothers and sisters on this planet. You just have to see it.

The Run Across Ethiopia is an outrageous success. To all the wonderful people who made this happen, I want to say “thank you” and I want you to know that your involvement is making a real difference in the lives of thousands of people.

To return to our website click this link, www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 19, 2011

A Smile Is Universal

Posted by kriosconsulting under Amalia Fernand, Art, Chris Treter, Coffee, Culture, Dancing, Environment, Language, Music, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia, Seth & May
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POST BY AMALIA FERNAND

Wednesday January 19th, 2011

People love to smile.  People love to laugh.  People love to dance.  People love to love and to be loved.  I have never felt more loved than I have in the last few days of traveling across rural southern Ethiopia.  A smile and a wave can mean so much, to those that have so little.  How excited they are, just to know that we care about them, just to have a momentary reprieve from the tasks of everyday survival.  Many have never seen a person with a different skin tone, and how glad I am that their first impression is that of friendliness and compassion.  We can both stare at each other in intense curiosity, but when we add a smile, the whole dynamic changes.  There is nothing like a true and genuine smile to let you know that love is involved.

Today, we were greeted by thousands of people from the community of  Hase Gola to thank us for raising money to build them a much needed school.  As we walked off the bus, the smiling faces surrounded us and lined the streets, clapping, singing, laughing, and beaming with an excitement that is so difficult to describe in words.  We walked through the crowds as policemen kept those singing, smiling people back and settled ourselves in the middle of a circle of thousands of expectant eyes.  Speeches commenced as the crowd sat to listen to thank you’s, prayers answered, dreams realized, goals yet to achieve, and accomplishments in progress.  Children watched from the tree branches as hundreds upon hundreds of faces clapped, cheered, and emulated gratefulness.  Behind us sat the ongoing construction of a school that these runners had worked so hard to help build.  The school will educate 480 children in two shifts each day, affecting a total of 8,700 people in the community when all of the people in their families are included.

We toured the current school house, tiny rooms with cracked floors and little furniture, it was hard to imagine that these rooms accommodate 90 children at a time.  The children that can’t fit have to walk a half an hour to another crowded school.  That is, if their family can afford a notebook and lunches, and if they want an education, and the possibility of secondary school remains dim.  There are no bathrooms, no running water, no electricity and tiny windows,  It is hot, dark, and crowded, yet math problems cover the chalkboards and children fight for the opportunity to become educated and the chance to improve their quality of life.   The people in this community are in dire need of education, health care, and drinking water (there is a 3 hour walk to the nearest water fresh enough to drink).  And what do they do for a living?  They grow our coffee, our fair trade, organic coffee that we pay top price for.  Yet, no matter how much we pay, such a small percentage goes to the grower and his family.  If you would like more information about the issues of the coffee growing region of Southern Ethiopia and what is being done about it, please watch the film Black Gold, available on netflix:  http://www.blackgoldmovie.com

The central figure of that film, Tedese Meskala came to the village with us and his Coffee co-operative is responsible for 1/6 of the funds needed for the school.  The other 1/6 is provided by the community itself and 2/3 by the run.  It is important to form alliances in international development, Chris Treter, founder of On The Ground, explained, because we need the community itself to feel invested and we need the coffee co-operative to continue the investment.   Tedese encouraged the people to join a coffee co-op if they had not already, because they deserve to be payed a fair price for their coffee.

How ephemeral it had felt the day before, almost as if we were a traveling carnival, offering only a temporary window, a glimpse of a better life, and causing a lot of confusion and questions.  Seth and May had played at the runners water and food stops as we blew bubbles and 9 year old Stella Young did cartwheels and the villagers gathered to dance, smile, and stare.  How much different it felt today to feel the appreciation of people that understand why we are here, that our sole purpose is to help and that so many have worked so hard to do just that.  A beautiful African choir had been serenading us throughout our visit to the community and when Seth and May began to play “My Family,”  they appeared as back up to lift their voices to the magnitude of the crowd that pushed in from all around,

We returned to the hotel in the city of Dilla along bumpy dirt roads as children ran along side us, waving and smiling, only to encounter another celebration  It is Epiphany day in Ethiopia, the day that Jesus Christ was baptized, and a giant crowd gathered in the streets outside our hotel to watch a traditional parade.  We joined a traditional dance with sticks on the way to our restaurant as the smiles continued to trail behind us…

Please remember to follow more details of the run on the live streaming page and if you are interested in learning more about my favorite musicians, Seth Bernard and May Erlewine, please visit: www.sethandmay.com

I have started my own website!   www.natureexplorersinternational.com/

To return to the Run Across Ethiopia website, please click this link. www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 18, 2011

I’ve Taken You for a Loop

Posted by kriosconsulting under Coffee, Culture, Jacob Wheeler, Music, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia, Running, Schools
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POST BY JACOB WHEELER

Tuesday January 18th, 2011

For the past nine days, my blogging has focused on running — that is, the 10 harriers running nearly 250 miles across southern Ethiopia. I’ve catalogued their aches and pains, daily mileage and terrain, and how the runners have interacted and boosted each other through this painstaking endeavor. In other words, I’ve been a sports reporter.

But I’ve got news for you. I’ve taken you for a loop. The running was never the true story here.

Today, Day 10 of the Run Across Ethiopia, after jogging a slight 12 miles through hilly coffee country, we met the true gravity of our purpose here — in the form of thousands of excited rural Ethiopians waiting for hours down a rutted dirt road for our arrival in Hase Gola — the hamlet where the first On the Ground Global school is already being built. Immediately upon disembarking from the bus around 1 p.m. today, our entourage was swarmed by an untold number of joyous local villagers, clapping their hands, singing in gospel choirs, dancing with sugar cain sticks, playing whatever instruments they had on the floor of their meager hut. The welcome was beautiful, intense, and seemed both triumphant and tragic at the same time. Imagine the kinds of crowds that turn out to greet the Beatles, or Obama. Now you have at leas

t an impression of what this felt like. I looked from face to face of our contingent — American and Ethiopian runners/journalists/musicians/interpreters, alike — and couldn’t spot a single dry eye. Many of us have traveled extensively to developing countries before; others have rarely left the Midwest. And no one — no one — had ever experienced anything like this before.

Our new friends numbering in the thousands mobbed us as we found our way to makeshift tables where Tadesse Meskala, head of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, Chris Treter and others gave speeches about the importance of this new school for the community. Its construction is already underway. It will include four classrooms, which can hold 480 students (240, twice a day); it will reach 10 different rural communities, and ultimately change the lives of nearly 9,000 people whose sons, daughters, brothers and sisters will attend school here. Music took over after the speeches. Our interpreter Mamoosh danced like a jackrabbit along with the choir. Seth Bernard held hands and danced up and down with the pastor. Timothy and Connor Young joined Ethiopian youth in climbing a tree to take in the scene.

Our entourage was treated to a delicious meal afterwards in the new school, including a plate of fresh raw meat from this morning’s animal sacrifice. When offered a gift of luxury in an impoverished village, you never turn it down. so runner Matt Desmond, myself, Maureen Voss, Shauna Fite and Timothy Young tried the raw meat with berbere spice. Whether the cuisine will come back to haunt us is unclear. But what is clear is that today’s powerful visit to Hase Gola will remain lodged in the hearts and minds of our Run Across Ethiopia team. It’s clear now that the run, itself, is only a vehicle, a conductor. The school and the community is what the journey is really about.

To return to our website please click this link, www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 18, 2011

A New School and Hope for Hase Gola

Posted by kriosconsulting under Chris Treter, Coffee, Culture, Partners, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia
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POST BY CHRIS TRETER - (Founder of On the Ground and owner of Higher Grounds Trading Company)

Tuesday January 18, 2011

Since the first time I stepped foot into the coffee growing communities of Yrgacheffe, Ethiopia I have been conflicted. I earn a living, in part, from a community of people that cannot send their children to school (as there is no school), where the average life expectancy is only 51 years (as there is no health care), and where life-threatening diseases arise from lack of access to clean drinking water.  I can sit in a nice cafe listening to music, leaning back in a comfortable chair, sipping on a latte, or breve’, or cappuccino, while I know, first hand, that the farmers who produced that coffee spend their days toiling away in fields, eating false banana (known as the famine buster for its ability to stay edible for a long period of time) and only having access to the food which they grow or kill.

Most coffee growers’ lives are bound by poverty, while the product they produce, some of the most sought after coffee in the world, is placed in the hands of the rich – the 20% of the world’s population that controls nearly 80% of the world’s wealth. That is, you and I, those in the United States, or Europe, whose entire population lies within the wealthiest segment of the population.

The Run Across Ethiopia was first conceived to help support the coffee growers of Yrgacheffe, knowing that although Higher Grounds, and many other coffee companies in Cooperative Coffees, pay above fair trade prices, a price will never be enough in a community so stricken by poverty. Fortunately the idea of the Run has taken off and many people in our global community have jumped in to combat poverty. (Editor’s note: Cooperative Coffees is the buying coop that Chris’ company Higher Grounds participates in to buy Fair-trade coffee in a large quantities from around the world, including Ethiopia.)

The Run Across Ethiopia is funding a four classroom block in Hase Gola that will serve 480 students a year coming from 8 feeder schools in 10 villages, thus benefiting a total population of over 8700. This project is in conjunction with the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, the organization with which Higher Grounds has formed a long-term relationship.

Current School in Hase Gola

It will be constructed and furnished to the standard of Oromia Regional Government and handed over immediately after completion to the Government to administer the school. This is extremely important as in Ethiopia, 86.3 percent of the population lives in rural areas such as Hase Gola. They subsist on agriculture which accounts for 55 percent of the GDP and creates 80 percent of employment and 60 percent of exports.

According to international poverty line estimates, 46 percent of the Ethiopian population gets below $1 a day. In such a context, access to health services, modern transportation, clean drinking water, education, & other activities and services are beyond the reach of the majority of the population.

Data Source: UNICEF 2003 (For Reference Only)

The school project in Hase Gola is the first (of many) major successes in the Run Across Ethiopia. And while our runners today received a joyous and overwhelming reception from over 2000 people, it is just the first step toward a community reaching long term sustainability. Thanks to many of you who have contributed to helping the community of Hase Gola begin its walk down the path of sustainability. Your generosity will serve nearly 500 students who will now receive a secondary education!

If you would like to continute to support this work please visit

http://www.runacrossethiopia.org/

 

January 17, 2011

Rediscovering Lost Values

Posted by kriosconsulting under Bill Palladino, Children, Culture, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia, Values
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POST BY BILL PALLADINO

Monday January 17th, 2011

We begin to wonder if it is due to the fact that we don’t know enough.

Yesterday our team of runners, musicians, journalists, filmmakers and support personnel reached a turning point in the Run Across Ethiopia event.  It was as if the veil was lifted from the reality of the country they had been running through over the past week.  On Sunday, one after the other, posts came in reflecting a very different perspective.  The beauty of the the African continent and the aches and pains associated with running more than a marathon a day gave way to emotional pleas to help make sense of a world appearing more and more alien.

We knew going into this that our team would have a vast set of experiences while covering the 250+ miles from Addis Ababa to Yirgacheffe.  It’s difficult to predict, however, the emotional impact on each individual.  (If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to visit our blog’s home page here.  http://onthegroundtc.org/ The blog posts over the past couple days are truly amazing.)

The main gist of the blogs is the common and repeating reference to poverty and the disparity the team members are feeling.  Seth Bernard in his post even says, “we don’t have enough accurate information about Ethiopia in America.”  Simply asked, is it that we don’t know enough?  That notion is one of the very reasons we at On The Ground are here.  We’re building schools, yes.  But the bigger job we have is in educating the world about the things we are privileged enough to see.

In the United States today we celebrate the life and accomplishments of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.  Among his many great speeches he is most often praised on this day for his ground breaking “I Have A Dream” address.  While I love quoting from that masterpiece, the events in Ethiopia being brought to life by our team draw my eyes to something he penned many years prior.  It is also one that stands out as it was given in Detroit, Michigan.

Dr. King gave this speech 57 years ago in Detroit’s Second Baptist Church.   This is an excerpt.  To see the full text of this and all of Dr. King’s speeches please visit this website.

http://www.mlkonline.net/

This particular text includes the congregation’s response in parenthesis.

February 28 1954

Rediscovering Lost Values

I’m not exactly a stranger in the city of Detroit, for I have been here several times before. And I remember back in about 1944 or 1945, somewhere back in there, that I came to Second Baptist Church for the first time—I think that was the year that the National Baptist Convention met here.

I want you to think with me this morning from the subject: rediscovering lost values.

Rediscovering lost values. There is something wrong with our world, something fundamentally and basically wrong. I don’t think we have to look too far to see that. I’m sure that most of you would agree with me in making that assertion. And when we stop to analyze the cause of our world’s ills, many things come to’mind.

We begin to wonder if it is due to the fact that we don’t know enough. But it can’t be that. Because in terms of accumulated knowledge we know more today than men have known in any period of human history. We have the facts at our disposal. We know more about mathematics, about science, about social science, and philosophy, than we’ve ever known in any period of the world’s history. So it can’t be because we don’t know enough.

And then we wonder if it is due to the fact that our scientific genius lags behind. That is, if we have not made enough progress scientifically. Well then, it can’t be that. For our scientific progress over the past years has been amaz- ing. Man through his scientific genius has been able to warp distance and place time in chains, so that today it’s possible to eat breakfast in New York City and supper in London, England. Back in about 1753 it took a letter three days to go from New York City to Washington, and today you can go from here to China in less time than that. It can’t be because man is stagnant in his scientific progress. Man’s scientific genius has been amazing. I think we have to look much deeper than that if we are to find the real cause of man’s problems and the real cause of the world’s ills today. If we are to really find it I think we will have to look in the hearts and souls of men.

[Congregation:](Lord help him)

The trouble isn’t so much that we don’t know enough, but it’s as if we aren’t good enough. The trouble isn’tso much that our scientificgenius lags behind, but our moral genius lags behind. (Well!) The great problem facing modern man is that, that the means by which we live, (Help him God) have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live. (That’s right) So we find ourselves caught in a messed-up world. (Well)

The problem is with man himself and man’s soul. We haven’t learned how to be just and honest and kind and true and loving. And that is the basis of our problem. The real problem is that through our scientific genius we’ve made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we’ve failed to make ofit a brotherhood. (Lord have mercy) And the great danger facing us today is not so much the atomic bomb that was created by physical science. Not so much that atomic bomb that you can put in an aeroplane and drop on the heads ofhundreds and thousands of people-as dangerous as that is. But the real danger confronting civiliza- tion today is that atomic bomb which lies in the hearts and souls of men, (Lord have mercy)capable of exploding into the vilest of hate and into the most dam- aging selfishness. That’s the atomic bomb that we’ve got to fear today. (Lord help him) Problem is with the men. (Yes, Yes)Within the heart and the souls of men. (Lord)That is the real basis of our problem. (Well)

My friends, all I’m trying to say is that if we are to go forward today, we’ve got to go back and rediscover some mighty precious values that we’ve left behind. (Yes)That’s the only way that we would be able to make of our world a better world, and to make of this world what God wants it to be and the real purpose and meaning of it. The only way we can do it is to go back, (Yes) and rediscover some mighty precious values that we’ve left behind.

To return to our website please click this link, www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 16, 2011

Ethiopia, the Water Tower of Africa

Posted by kriosconsulting under Art, Culture, Environment, Music, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia, Seth & May
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POST BY SETH BERNARD & MAY ERLEWINE

Sunday January 16th, 2011

Sending love from Yirgalem! Wish you were here man. Here are three short brain droppings for you to use as you wish — you can stagger them or use them all at once. Thanks for everything you do – I’ve had a hard time with internet access, every time May hands the computer over to me, the internet craps out. I’m on Treter’s rig now. Hopefully I’ll have more words for you soon. The songs are flowing!! 8 so far, and lots of scraps to piece together when we get home. No shortage of inspiration, just a lot to take in. Awesome. Hope you are well. Yours, Seth

This adventure has been a Visionquest. We brought with us the intention to look deeply into ourselves and our world and to return home with music that honors the cultures of both Ethiopia and America. So far, everything has exceeded our expectations. It’s almost as if we are in a life-changing time capsule and every moment, every smile exchanged, is magnified. Challenging indeed to translate the experience, but music is, after all, the universal language of the heart.

We don’t have enough accurate information about Ethiopia in America. Hopefully our expedition will help with this in some small way with this. There is too much fear and pity and not enough respect and amazement toward Ethiopia in our collective American mind. We have so much to learn. I find myself in awe of an ancient culture that has remained largely intact. This is the birthplace of mankind and the only nation in Africa that has never been colonized by imperial European powers. People have been kind and gracious without exception. I feel safer in Addis Ababa than I do in American cities of comparable size, and although I am a country boy (thank God), I have spent many moons in many a metropolis.

For centuries, Christians and Muslims, dark-skinned and light-skinned folks have lived in peace, shared the same morning coffee ceremonies and celebrated their shared communities here in Ethiopia. When I have asked my new friends what their secret is and what Americans can learn from their culture of diversity and tolerance, they say that it has always been this way. They say that kindness is more important than anything. It’s at the heart of being human. They day that it’s obvious, isn’t it? Cruelty and intolerance go against the teachings of all the religions and we’re all neighbors. Ethiopia is another heartland and we have been welcomed as brothers and sisters here.  It’s going to be hard to leave, but we have a wealth of songs and stories to bring back to our people in the American heartland.”

Here we are in Yirgalem at a beautiful place out in the wilderness. Ethiopia feels more like home every day and our time here is going by so quickly. I am already anticipating feeling torn when we begin our travels home.

Ethiopia is the water tower of East Africa and we live in the Great Lakes. Ethiopian music in the Tezeta style strikes a chord in our hearts because the music feels like water flowing. Yesterday, we wrote a song together in that style called “Mother Tree of Life”. We usually write alone, but this experience has opened the door for sharing the channeling of music, which is a great gift to us in our partnership.

We have been processing so many feelings and transformations. I feel hesitant to even begin to describe what my mind and heart are going through, as it is all so new. So know we are stewing and brewing and soaking it all up and will report back in stories and songs!

Tomorrow we will ride along in the runners bus and play songs for the runners annd the community members during their breaks on the road. We are excited to be back with the full team. Everyone seems to be holding up quite well considering the incredible distance they have run. Chris Treter told me he’s up to 198 miles!

-Seth & May

To go back to our website, click this link www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 16, 2011

Monkeys, Hyenas, and Indoor Plumbing!

Posted by kriosconsulting under Anne Stanton, Children, Culture, Language, Poverty, Run Across Ethiopia | Tags: , , , |
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POST BY ANNE STANTON

Sunday January 16th, 2011

Sunday in Ethiopia! We have moved on from the motel with the non-flushing toilets, ants, cockroaches, leering men, and local prostitutes to a beautiful resort where there are monkeys, hyenas, and indoor plumbing that works (all the time). The runs have shortened to about 15 miles, and the crowds have gotten way bigger. We have no way of communicating since the translaters don’t speak the language here.

But I have finally learned how to interact. You don’t give them anything, even water empty water bottles, because it causes fights among the kids, but you touch your heart and point to them and smile and say “you!” (Which is their very favorite word). Or you say shalom, or you lead them into a fun chant, “Ethiopia!! Yeah!!). They love to shake hands.

Today, Jeffrey, the South Carolina runner, led a big group of kids in his cool down stretches.

I’ll post pics when I get back. I rode on top of the van and took pictures and watched the runners (who spread out today, much to their own dismay). I also rode in the van in my running shorts, and this guy looking in was absolutely staring at my legs, which I then covered. Tomorrow I bring a skirt. We are in a lush area of rolling hills, palm trees, and coffee beans and rising in altitude. I’ve taken the last couple of days to interview the Ethiopian runners, who are like race horses who have to run like there’s a rope tied around their legs. Very good sports about it, though. Well, gotta go.

Love to you all.

Anne

To return to our website please click this link, www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

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