July 4, 2007 - Ethiopia

This morning, we took just a short drive from Aksum to Adua, arriving at the regional (wereda) REST headquarters at “hour 3” (according to the Ethiopian clock, which spans from 1 to 12 as soon as daylight begins and from 1 to 12 for the hours without sunlight). At the village (kebelle) level, REST simply works through the existing village governing societies, and then plays a larger coordinating role at the wereda level, where it has one non-voting seat on the regional decision-making council. Beneath the wereda level, REST has initiated watershed councils that are made up of all the kebelles within a watershed. Watershed councils cross town and political borders and make much more sense environmentally speaking. The kebelles in each watershed now coordinate with each other to submit their list of priorities (indicating whether they want irrigation systems or water delivery systems and what types of technology they prefer) to the wereda council, the wereda council makes a priority list of the order in which each kebelle should receive water systems. REST looks at the wereda priority list, compares it to the donations they have received (usually from Oxfam America, USAID, or A Glimmer of Hope), and begins matching donations to each kebelle. Before implementing a project, REST goes back to each kebelle to ask if their number one priority was correctly represented on the wereda priority list. About five percent of the time, their needs are actually a bit different, so REST tells the wereda to update the priority list.

Today, we had the chance to speak with one of the wereda-level REST coordinators named Hiwod. We only chatted very briefly because he was very excited to show us an actual watershed that REST is working with. On the way, we stopped by DECSI (Debit Credit and Savings Institutiiion), a spin-off microfinance organization that originated as a REST project. It is now the beginning of the rainy season, which meant that the line of farmers seeking loans for new seedlings stretched out onto the street. Haile, the bank manager, currently has 5,000 clients with only a 3 percent default rate and he offers one of the lowest interest rates I have ever seen at a microfinance institution: 12 percent! or even 9 percent for the poorest of the poor (which is government subsidized). We also had a chance to stop by the shop of one woman who has used DECSI loans to expand her once tiny shop to a booming store with much larger inventory and greater variety of goods. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there at the time, but her son didn’t mind chatting with us and we quickly got a sense of her entrepreneurial spirit.

But let’s get back to REST. REST is currently operating in 4 out of the 46 watersheds in Tigray. After driving 45 minutes across roads that simply don’t exist once the rainy season settles in, we arrived at one of those four watersheds.

Starting at the top of the watershed and making our way downwards, we saw how REST implements a holistic approach to watershed recovery. In the watershed we visited, the community’s main concern was the river bed that ran through the center of their community. The once-shallow river that meandered through their valley is now a gully of rushing water that divides the community in half during the rainy season. As their population has grown over the years, the villagers began cutting down more and more trees in order to make room for farmland. The inevitable consequence is soil erosion and lower water retention in the hills. REST began in the upper region of the watershed, replanting indigenous species. Within the water channel itself, they took both an engineering and a biological approach. At 10-meter intervals, the villagers installed Gabian baskets and all along the river bed, they planted elephant grass (in order to curb erosion). Just three weeks ago, the villagers even began building a ford across the river in order to connect the main village and the primary school during the rainy season.

As REST analyzes the problems of a particular watershed, there is never just one solution. In addition to Gabian baskets and elephant grass, they look at installing mini and micro dams, bore wells (for drinking water), river diversions, hand dug ground water wells, catch basins, fruit tree nurseries (to introduce higher value crops to the villagers), and ponds. REST has gained so much traction among the people that within weeks, dozens of farmers are replicating the hand dug wells themselves (which REST also has to watch out for…that the kebelles are properly managing their scarce water resource)!

As far as Alex and I are concerned, Wednesdays and Fridays are the best days of the week for food in Ethiopia. These are fasting days and no one eats any meat or animal products on these days. We enjoyed a lunch of some Enjera and spaghetti (the one Western food you can find anywhere thanks to the brief Italian invasion) and then headed towards Hawzien.

Tonight, we are staying at the Gheralta Lodge. It was recently built by an Ethiopian-born Italian gentleman whose wife says that the lodge is an “old man’s project.” Having spent the first seventeen years of his life in Ethiopia, it is clear that Ethiopia has a special place in his heart… enough so that he lived in a tent for six months as he directed the construction of the lodge! As a native Ethiopian, he was very particular that the buildings be constructed using some of the traditional Ethiopian styles: the ancient art of Tigrayan masonry is combined with modern glass windows and European furniture.

After traveling throughout Ethiopia, he chose this very strategic location, near Hawzien. The rolling land butts up against the base of a mountain that juts into the sky like a skyscraper city above the desert plains below. The mountain is home to three ancient Christian churches that attract both pilgrims and adventurers alike. The most beautiful church is the most inaccessible (so if you’re planning to go, be sure to bring your climbing gear!).

We were excited to learn that the business is run by young Tigrinians who are trained in cooking and lodge management. They can even learn English during their time off with the on-site English teacher. A very innovative and beautiful lodge and we are sad to have to move on so early tomorrow morning (we’ll just have to come back!) :-)