My overall experience

Overall, this whole internship has changed my life. I am at a lack of words to describe how much of an impact my time at ILRI has had on my life. It has taught me to be an independent person, as well as hardworking. Every single task I performed was extremely tedious and required patience. Not one job was completed in the period of just one day. Each and every task contained multiple steps, and each step took a long time to prepare and carry out. Dr. Jean was talking to me one day about the importance of science and how much work it requires and I’ll never forget what she said:

“Science is a lot of intricate work. You have to be very meticulous when doing anything. If you don’t have the patience or dedication to carry out all the tasks required, then don’t come into the science field. There’s a lot to it and it’s the basis for everything; if you don’t put forth all of the effort, your end product won’t be accurate, and that data isn’t reliable. Don’t make that mistake. Work hard, complete all the steps thoroughly, and do everything yourself; don’t tell others to do it for you. You’ll get the best results if you do things yourself with some help.”

There are so many things I learned here; I learned not just science, but about myself and the culture and nature of another country and its people. Having the two different Canavalia sp. grow in Zwai and Soddo, I was able to travel to both field sites in order to visit them and observe the growing environments of both plants. The field sites are very different from each other when it comes to irrigation, soil types, how and where plants are planted, and so much more. On another occasion of traveling, I interviewed nine seed producers that are growing forages through the FeedSeed program. On the questionnaire I created, my questions ranged from their highest education level to their seed yield to how they got into seed production. Hearing each of their stories was truly inspiring. All of their stories were so different, and yet, I could find a connection to all of them. For most of the seed producers, seed production was their way of making it through. They had no choice. It was all they could do, but on average, they only grew crops on less than 8 acres of land. This was how they were trying to make their way through life.  I couldn't believe this. These interviews with the seeds producers really helped to open my eyes to the way of life here, and for that, I could never thank them enough for sharing their stories with me.

I was so amazed by how welcoming and friendly everyone is on the ILRI campus and everywhere else I went. During my first week here, I was running as usual when a woman passes by me (also running) and asked me if I wanted to run with her. I couldn't turn her down because that would be rude and she seemed to really want a running partner. Even though I had already run 3 laps on my own and was about to be finished, I agreed to run with her. I ended up running/power-walking another 5 or so laps! I was so dead by the end, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Why? Because I was meeting people and the two of us talked about so many things. She was as interested in me as I was about her and the culture here. She let me ask her any question I wanted about her and her personal life. I couldn't believe how open she was to me. A stranger. (Correction: a forengi.) 

On another occasion, my first Saturday I went to the Zebu to hang out for a bit while the women could clean my room and a man, named Befandu, walked up to me and asked if he could sit down. He's very well known here. He comes to the Zebu almost every day, Dr. Jean knows him, and he works at the World Bank. We started talking for a little while, then asks me if I would like a macchiato. Again, I don't want to be rude by turning it down (and I absolutely love them), so I said yes. We talked in there for a couple of hours, and again. He was totally open to me as well. He let me ask him any question about himself as well.

It truly amazes me. During our field visits a few weeks ago, we traveled through and to many towns and cities. In most of those areas, the people were so excited to see white people. They loved Millie and me because we were teenage white girls, and they also loved Lei because they all could tell she was Chinese. As soon as they saw us, they would all get the biggest grins on their faces, wave as big as they could, and of course shout "forengi!!!" They were all amazed by us.

Funny/cute story: Tigist took Millie and I shopping again yesterday because Millie had a few more things on her list of what she wanted to get. On our way to one of the places, I look out my window and see this early teen (not really sure of the age, but younger than me by 5 or so years I'm assuming) skipping/dancing down the sidewalk singing a song to himself. I see this and immediately start laughing and grinning so big. He catches a glimpse of me doing this, and starts skipping/dancing towards the car! He stops right by my window. Smiles the hugest smile I've ever seen. His whole face was lit up! And he blows me a kiss! Then he skipped/danced off and kept looking back at me to see my reaction! It was the funniest, yet sweetest thing I've ever experienced! :)

I never thought I would enjoy lab work, but after this internship I learned that it really is interesting. All my life I would rather be outside than inside. That still is the case, but in a slightly different way. I knew that in order to be in the fields, there had to be some work done in the lab as well. During this internship, I was able to do both. It was great because before this, I just knew the field work. Now I know both sides. There's a lot of work done in the lab before any seed or plant gets sent to the field! I never knew so many tests had to be done before a certain species was able to be planted in the fields! I was able to see every step done, from germinating seeds all the way to seeing plants grow in the field. 

In the beginning of the internship, I helped plant germinated seeds that would later be planted in the fields. This is one of the first steps.

The planted germinated seedlings

A week before that I helped measure out the plots that various forages would be planted in. The measurements had to all be correct so that the spacing for the plants were all the same and so the plants were the correct distance from each other to prevent cross-pollinating or contamination. 

Putting in the posts to mark each plot

Measuring out the distances for the
plots
(sorry it's sideways)

I was able to watch some planting being done using a tractor on the big plot on the bottom field in Addis. I also got to assist Solomon with planting in the back plots behind the Genebank.

Now I get to see the plants start growing and they look great! I was able to both assist and watch with just about every step!

Bottom field in Addis

Back plots behind Genebank

Also, being able to produce seeds from my hand pollination on the Canavalia sp. that's located in Zwai was amazing. I've never felt so good in my entire life. I've never said this before, but I really am proud of myself. Honestly, when Dr. Jean first told us about our projects, I never thought I would be able to get any of them to produce seeds or flowers. That was only in my dreams; I never even imagined that I would be able to do it. I did all of the tests and observations I was supposed to do in order to figure out the problem, but I never fathomed I would actually solve it! Never did I imagine myself accomplishing so much. Everyone who's talked to me about it has told me how huge of an accomplishment this is. It's been growing in Zwai for 10 years now, and never has it seeded. On top of that, Dr. Jean has had numerous people do research, study, and try hand pollinating it just to try to produce seeds, but nothing ever worked. I was finally able to do it! It's such an overwhelming feeling to know that I have actually helped out the ILRI Forage Diversity Genebank in my 2 months of being here. It's an amazing feeling, and it has made me realize there's a lot I'm capable of, and never underestimate myself. I really hope that the Genebank and Tekla (the main person who will hand pollinate it from now on at Zwai) will be successful in producing more seed pods!

Millie and I did our seminar on Friday afternoon at 3. That day is a total blur. We went over it with Dr. Jean in the morning, she suggested us to add a few things in, and by the time that was all finished, it was already lunch time! Lunch lasted a while because it started pouring rain outside, so no one wanted to walk out in that. We didn't get back to the office until after 1:30, and Millie and I were to head to the Seminar Room at 2:15 to hook everything up and make sure everything works. Because people here function off "Ethiopian time," we didn't start our seminar until roughly 3:10 or so. We finished within about a half an hour, then questions, and then we were done! Everyone said it was great! No one knew how much work we actually did and were amazed by everything we did during our time here! It was so great! They all said they loved our presentation as well! We kept it full of information, but lively and interesting! It was super! :) 

After everyone left, Millie and I decided it would be a good time to hand out our gifts to everyone. We told Dr. Jean we had to head to our hostels really quick, and she 'yelled' at us saying, "You're not done with work yet!" We all just laughed! We told her we would make it quick and be back in a jiffy! We were wrong. We stopped at Tigist's office first to give her her gift. We stayed there and talked to her for a while, but then told her we had to keep going if we wanted to get to everyone before the work day was over, but would stop by again after work to see her! Our next stop was Teklu's office since it was the closest. He invited us to sit down and talk for a while, so we did for a couple of minutes, but then told him we had to leave. As we were leaving the building, we ran into Asebe! This was great because we were going to give him a gift too! He was confused at first because Teklu had just called him telling him we were in his office and invited him to come over too. Looks like we were heading back to Teklu's office with Asebe! When we got to Teklu's office, Asebe came up with the idea that we should all go to the Zebu for some coffee since that's what we do every time we go out to the fields! Also, Asebe and Teklu picked matching hats for their gifts! How funny is that! Now they can match when they head out to the fields together!

The Dream Team

Well now that my last weekend here is coming to an end, it's all starting to really hit me that I'm about to leave. There is a holiday that's either supposed to be tomorrow or Tuesday, but it hasn't been officially announced yet. It's the end of Ramadan, so we get the day off as a holiday. So that means I only have one real day of work left! 

Tomorrow morning no matter what, Millie and I are meeting with Dr. Jean to print out our lab reports for ILRI. That's one less thing we will have to worry about after tomorrow! I just can't get over how quickly this has gone by. I feel like I just got to ILRI and still have to start working on my project. I can't believe that it's all over now. I have mixed emotions right now. I'm sad to be leaving the ILRI team and staff in the Genebank. They have all been so great to me and extremely supportive and welcoming to me. I will definitely miss the traditional food here. I have grown to love injera, tibbs, wat, firfir, and so much more! Also, just experiencing a totally different culture from what I'm used to has been so great. It's made me realize what I like about the United States, as well as some things I don't care for too much. On the other hand, I am looking forward to seeing all of my family and friends again. I left just 2 days after school ended, so I never really had time to just breathe and process all the changes. Actually, I'm very excited to see them all again. Everyone I know has been so supportive of me during this whole internship. I couldn't thank everyone enough for making this whole internship memorable and truly a life-changing experience.

Tomorrow will be my last blog post about my internship, and it's definitely going to be my favorite one to put together! Just a warning, it's going to be packed full of pictures! :)