March 08, 2003
story from ethiopia

my stepfather has been sending us stories about his life in ethiopia, he said it'd be okay to share.

this is the most recent.

Bargains Ethiopian Style

Dianne [my, brooke, mother] is coming in two weeks. When she left three months ago, we planned take a long drive in the countryside with the Land Cruiser. The last long drive we took in Ethiopia was almost a disaster. My Land Cruiser uses petro, not diesel. Diesel is available every few hundred kilometers in most of Ethiopia because buses and trucks use diesel and travel everywhere. However, petro is not always available within a tankful's drive. Last trip, we ran out of petro in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, we were able to find gas on the black market, but it was touch and go. I'll tell the story of that trip eventually. Because we almost ran out last time, and now we intend to take a longer trip, I decided that we needed to acquire a rack for the top of the car for petro. A good car rack can carry four 25 liter gerry cans. The car gets 4 to 5 kilometers to the liter, so we would have 400 - 500 kilometers on top of the car. That is enough to get to next petro station from anywhere in Ethiopia.

Daniel and I went to Merkoto to get a rack. Merkoto is the central market place in Addis Ababa. It is the largest open-air market in Africa so, it is probably the largest in the world. Where else do open-air markets exist? [brooke note: i saw the merkoto featured in a travel show, they had it #2 or #3 on a list of the 5 best open-air markets in the world.]

Merkoto is not a simply a set of stalls and all of Merkoto is not open-air. It occupies an area of approximately one square mile. There are streets that run through it, trucks that carry goods around, single room stores line both sides of the streets. Then there are lanes, too small for motorized vehicles. Donkeys and people burdened with large cartons full of goods, gunny sacks loaded with produce, plastic products tied together and piled yards high above the carrier travel the roads and lanes that are crowded with people shopping.

Driving through Merkoto takes an expert. The streets are solid people moving like a river with a slow current. The car passes among them; they move apart just enough for the car to fit, then move back, behind the car. If you want to park, there are folks who guard the spaces along the street. If one is free, they wave you over. For a birr (10 cent), you park as long as you want and they guard your car. The Merkoto seems to be a living animal with one purpose - to take your money. Yet, when you walk around, there is an energy that makes you feel fully alive. You are perfectly safe in Merkoto - the purpose is commerce and crime hurts commerce. The shopkeepers and stall sellers do not allow any crime. And the place is very organized. Shops of like nature are gathered together. There are areas with shops that only sell shoes, plastic containers, suitcases, auto parts, souvenirs, gold, stationary products, building products, whatever you can imagine. You cannot go there and find anything without a guide. Daniel worked there when he was younger so he knows the place very well. Daniel always knows everything.

Daniel assumed that the racks were available because the army carries these and sells their useless vehicles. Therefore, someone at Merkoto must salvage and sell them. We drove there and asked. Only one guy said he had one, but he wanted 450 birr (8.5 birr to the dollar; about $50). Daniel thought fifty dollars was outrageous. In addition, he didn't like the style of the rack. He thought that we could do better.

Time passed and Di was coming in a month. I pushed Danny for some action. We went on a Sunday and met a guy that Danny knows. The guy didn't speak English, but seemed competent. He seemed to be in his twenties. He is a metal worker - he has a torch and he cuts metal into shapes.

We describe what we want and he thinks he can do it for 200 birr. We have found a bargain. We get in the car and drive around Addis looking for the kind of rack that we want. In front of a travel agency that takes folks around in Land Cruisers, we see a Land Cruiser with a rack on top just like the one that we want. We stop and the driver is there. He lets us crawl all over the Land Cruiser taking measures. The guy is ready to go.

The next weekend, we go back to Merkoto to buy the cans. Petro cans in Addis are not metal; they are vegetable oil plastic containers that get washed and the used as petro cans. Plastic is better than metal - lighter, strong enough, tops seal tight, they don't dent. We drive to the plastic container area and purchase 4 25-liter containers for $20 total cost. The Merkoto sellers buy the containers from restaurants in town and clean them. This is their value-added.

We drive to the metal guy to get the rack installed. He says it is ready. The rack must go on today because Danny and I must go to Awassa (400 kilometers away) the next day in my car for two weeks work. We drive up and down some winding back streets in Addis - as soon as you leave the wide paved boulevards in Addis, you enter the residential areas.

None of the residential streets are paved and none run straight. All are surrounded by high stone fences with metal gates. The stone fences are topped with broken glass embedded in the top layer of concrete. In addition, 90% of the compounds have vicious dogs roaming around. You don't just walk into these places. Each has a full-time guard (24 hours a day) who checks anyone trying to enter.

Everybody lives in a fenced compound - rich and poor. Only the poorest, who have no house and live on the street, do not live inside a compound. All businesses and government offices are inside compounds also. The streets, and especially the narrow dirt roads in the residential areas, are surrounded on two sides by these stone walls, about 10 feet high, built on the end of the street. All traffic, pedestrian as well as donkey and cars, are forced to share the same narrow lane between the walls. Walking is a dangerous business.

The metal guy works out of a compound. Most compounds are a set of residences occupied by folks who rent rooms. They can be large or crowded, neat or dirty. The metal guy's compound is occupied by his extended family and it is large but dirty. We pull in. He is not finished. The basic rack is welded together but must be placed on the car's rack.

His plan is to use a torch to cut holes in the car's rack and bolt his petro rack onto it. I am sitting there, watching the guy climb on top of the car with an acetylene torch, thinking something is wrong. But I can't think what.

He is very careful. He lays a sheet of metal on the car top to protect it. We disconnect the battery. Still, something is bothering me, but I do nothing. Daniel is nervous also. He questions the guy and checks everything. The metal guy is totally confident.

An acetylene torch requires electrical power. The guy's torch is connected to power by wire strung from a light pole about 500 feet away. The wire consists of multiple acetylene torch pieces twisted together and laying on the ground. It work, but where is the workplace safety organization? Maybe later.

He starts to torch a hole; sparks fly; there is a low, dull, sickening sound of something breaking. The guy stops and there is a moment of silence. Then we all realize that a hot piece of metal from the cutting has struck the rear window - the big one with the wires running through it for defrosting. The metal was so hot that, when it struck the window, it heated the wires in the window, they expanded, and the entire window cracked. It is safety glass, so the break is that kind where the window holds in its place, but is shattered. In this case, it is shattered everywhere - you can't see through it.

Now we all know why you never see anybody climb on top of a car and start up an acetylene torch. I feel both foolish and sick. It is 4:00 pm on Saturday; I am scheduled to go to the South at 1:00 pm on Sunday in this car. What to do? The metal guy feels guilty - he had no idea. He also is scared - he has no money. Danny is extremely upset; he feels responsible because he arranged this guy and got me to go along. But he has no money either.

I ask Danny what to do. He redesigns the rack so that they will create u-bolts to fix the petro rack to the car rack. He thought that was best from the start, but the metal guy was confident. No longer.

Danny and I get in the car and drive to where else - Merkoto. We get to the auto glass area (there is a big one). After asking so questions, we discover that there is one store that might have the proper glass, but the owner (only owners operate shops - there is no trust) is having tea. We wait until 4:45, when he returns.

He does have one of the proper glass in stock (there is a god and god is good). He says it costs 2600 birr - he could have said 5000. But Danny argues. He tells the guy that he is a driver, he broke it, he will lose his job if he can't get it fixed before the car owner finds out, I am helping him by loaning him the money, we only have 1800 birr.

The guy remembers seeing Danny at the Hilton. Danny, before he got married, joined the Hilton health club. He would go each morning and swim. Apparently, this guy also goes. Danny didn't remember him, but this tie is enough. They have a connection and guy lowers the price to 1800 birr. This is the nature of the Ethiopian barter system. Fereng just don't have a chance.

The guy closes his shop and we go to his warehouse to get the glass. The shop is loaded with auto glass, but his additional stock is in this ancient shelter - off dirt roads behind Merkoto. The building is wooden sticks supporting corrugated metal sides and roof. The floor is dirt. The place is the size of half a football field and filled with auto glass in crates.

The owner walks directly to the proper glass. He has one left. It was imported from Finland - made for my make and model. It's the right one.

We carry it back to the shop and two of his guys put it in - yes, their workshop is the street. In ten minutes, it is installed and we are on our way. It is 5:30 pm.

It has been over two weeks and we still don't have a petro rack installed, but we were able to find, purchase and install a window glass for the rear of the car in 1 and a half hours. Welcome to Ethiopia - the Land of Surprises, good and bad. In total, instead of 450 birr, the petro rack has cost 2000 birr so far.

And the saga continues.

Posted by brooke at 01.42.11 AM

March 07, 2003
people should learn their facts

i swear.. people really need to do their reading before mentioning the holocaust as a reason for war.

if we hadn't gone to war even more jews would have died during the holocaust.

NOTE TO EVERYONE: roosevelt knew about what was happening before 1940, and he did NOTHING to stop it. he knew about the warsaw ghetto, he knew it all, and he could have stopped it. the allies could have bombed train routes to the camps, this country and all the allies could have opened their doors to allow jewish and non-jewish refugees safety.. but we didn't.. in fact we turned away the st. louis. so, before using the holocaust as a reason for bombing iraq learn the facts. i know them. i know the facts of the holocaust better than most people.

also. as has been said by members of the bush administration, "there will be no safe place in baghdad" on the day we start bombing. if we *really* care about the people of iraq, if we *really* hold their best interests in mind we wouldn't be planning on dropping enough bombs on baghdad on day one that will cause damage worse than the bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki (oh, and this fact was one i learned watching mainstream media).

Posted by brooke at 12.34.33 PM

the magic of aim

just connected with someone i've not connected with in a long time. she caught me just as i was signing off. hopefully we'll keep in closer contact now. so glad, so glad. and hopefully in july when i go home i'll get to see her. so thrilled, so incredibly thrilled.

Posted by brooke at 02.12.12 AM

my grandmothers obituary

i'm sitting here in my grandmother's old nightgown.. its sooooo old and just perfectly comfortable.

i decided to do a search for my grandmother's obituary, which i hadn't read yet. i found it for free at the charleston paper.

ROBERTSHAW, Mary Mary Elizabeth Dede Robertshaw [note from brooke: her name was actually Mary Elizabeth Draper Robertshaw] died February 22, 2003 at a local hospital. Born July 20, 1916 in Newport, Rhode Island, she was the only child of George Henry and Mary Bertha Draper (nee Appleton). She was a nurse and served in the US Navy during WWII. A former resident of Annapolis, MD, she was a small business owner and served as President of Zonta, a women s business association. Mrs. Robertshaw was a member of the DAR and a member of The Church of the Holy Cross, Sullivan's Island. Her husband, Alfred Robertshaw, preceded her in death in January 2000. She is survived by her two sons: Harry Robertshaw, Eggleston, Va., and Tom Robertshaw, Birmingham, Ala.; daughter, Suzanne Robertshaw, Winter Park, Fla.; and eight grandchildren, Silas, Zack, Brooke, Ben, Emma and Dave Robertshaw; and Kerry and Alex Rock. A memorial service will be held 2 p.m., Friday, February 28, at the Church of the Holy Cross, 2520 Middle Street, Sullivan's Island, S.C. 29482. Immediately following, a reception will be held in the parish hall. Memorials may be made to the Church of the Holy Cross. Arrangements by MCALISTER-SMITH FUNERAL HOME, MT. PLEASANT, CHAPEL, 1520 Rifle Range Road. Tributes may be sent via www.mcalister-smith.com.

Posted by brooke at 01.22.35 AM

March 06, 2003
done.

he's on the teeveeeeeeeeee and i can sense the dollar dropping at each word, breath, stupid look. i've exchanged my money. a quick trip to portland and $1100 and i came back with 895 Euros. luckily 2 of my hotel rooms are already paid for, as with my flight to mytilini.

i have no idea why i continue to watch this shit. could it be because i scored high in masochism on the MMPI? yeah, people protest but it doesn't change his mind. people ALL OVER THE FUCKING WORLD protest and he doesn't give a shit.

this is like the guy who stood at our vigil yesterday. he was holding signs for the war, that was fine.. but this fuck had his signs out off the sidewalk to the point where it created a danger for people crossing the street. one woman, carrying a baby on her back at that, almost got hit. we asked the man just to make things more safe, to move, but he wouldn't. he said he didn't care about the woman with the baby almost being hit. i asked if he'd move if his son were almost hit and he said no.

here we've got 2 people who simply don't care. who simply are so stuck in their heads about killing and death, who are so fucking bullheaded that they refuse to acknowledge that they might be wrong. who refuse to listen to reason at all. even reason that doesn't paint them as evil.

this is a democracy. this is what these two men are saying they want to protect. well, they certainly aren't acting like this is a democracy. do it my way or.. well, you'll get hurt. you tell me, does that sound like the principles on which this country was founded?

Posted by brooke at 05.28.46 PM

March 05, 2003
i don't want too.. but i worry.

it looks like i'm going to head to portland thursday or friday. not cause i want too, but because george bush is forcing me too.

what?

all of this war talk is sending the value of the dollar DOWN. and fast. at least thats what the BBC says. i believe the bbc. i think it was rumsfeld who opened his mouth and fucked it up today-- wednesday. yeah, everytime that man opens his mouth bad things happen.

i can get currency exchanged in portland, at the airport. why didn't i do it when i was just up there? because i didn't think this would happen, oh yeah- and cause i was much more wrapped up in my grandmother's death.

i really can't afford it, but i can't afford not too. i can't afford to worry about how much the dollar will go down once we go to war. this ridiculous killing of the innocents.

yeah, its already fucking up our fucked up economy, and its going to fuck it up even more, except for the defense barrons.

it looks like i've joined the events committee of the justice not war coalition here in eugene. with my illness being as bad as it is right now i need something to do. so, i'm doing that *and* organizing the eugene baring witness action. oh yeah, and i'm still waiting to hear from opn about volunteering to help people learn how to use computers, and i'm going to try to join the mother kali's board when the announcement comes out for new members. busy is better. hopefully i won't get too busy.

i should be excited about this trip, but it just seems to be gettting in the way, and all the costs involved.. well, they just dont' seem to stop. no, i really don't have the cash to spend in driving back to portland. no, i really don't. why? because i've all of a sudden had an unexpected insurance cost, because they've decided to pay my doctor not what she charges anymore, so my cost per visit has pretty much doubled.. oh yeah and have i mentioned that *i* pay for my therapist, not them- because they only cover a certain number of mental health benefits? yeah. i'm not sure why i have insurance anymore.

i tell you, greece better be fucking amazing. the stress i'm going through because of this trip is out of control. yeah, it better be way fucking amazing. or else i'm going to be one pissed off chick.

ps. seen somewhere on the web: bush: the world is not your world.

ps2. i AM going to portland tommorrow. i've just looked on the web, the dollar is going down by the minute. 1058 USD = 900 EURO. when i planned this trip they were pretty much equal. FUCK.

Posted by brooke at 11.31.58 PM

remember when?

i got this from an email list i'm on.

Remember when we were told that Soviet teachers were unable to talk about issues not approved by the government?

Oh..that's right... that was Maine teachers told not to talk about the Anti-war movement last week...

Remember when we were told about people being arrested in the streets and shopping centers for speaking against the government policies?

Oh that's right... that was Albany, New York this week...

Remember when we were told about people in Russia being arrested and held with out charges for months and released without ever seeing a lawyer or ever
given an explanation?

Oh that's right... that's the people held on 'terrorism' charges by the Homeland Security Council

Remember when we were told about it being dangerous to speak against the government policies in some countries?

Oh that's right....

Posted by brooke at 04.10.06 PM

March 04, 2003
salem witch trials

i'm currently watching part 2 of a movie about the salem witch trials on cbs. of course it is all about drama, cursing the witches, its all about ratings.

i've done some reading about the trials. there are various theories about why what happened in salem, mass back then happened. the most plausible to me is ergotism poisioning. from the article by linda caporael:

Ergotism, or long-term ergot poisoning, was once a common condition resulting from eating contaminated rye bred.  In some epidemics it appears that females were more liable to the disease than males (19).  Children and pregnant women are most likely to be affected by the condition, and individual susceptibility varies widely.  It takes 2 years for ergot in powdered form to reach 50 percent deterioration, and the effects are cumulative (18, 20).  There are two types of ergotism--gangrenous and convulsive.  As the name implies, gangrenous ergotism is characterized by dry gangrene of the extremities followed by the falling away of the affected portions of the body.  The condition occurred in epidemic proportions in the Middle Ages and was known by a number of names, including ignis sacer, the holy fire.
        Convulsive ergotism is characterized by a number of symptoms.  These include crawling sensations in the skin, tingling in the fingers, vertigo, tinnitus aurium, headaches, disturbances in sensation, hallucination, painful muscular contractions leading to epileptiform convulsions, vomiting, and diarrhea (16, 18, 21).  The involuntary muscular fibers such as the myocardium and gastric and intestinal muscular coat are stimulated.  There are mental disturbances such as mania, melancholia, psychosis, and delirium.  All of these symptoms are alluded to in the Salem witchcraft records.

----------

It is one thing to suggest convulsive ergot poisoning as an initiating factor in the witchcraft episode, and quite another to generate convincing evidence that it is more that a mere possibility.  A jigsaw of details pertinent to growing conditions, the timing of events in Salem, and symptomology must fit together to create a reasonable case.  From these details, a picture emerges of a community stricken with an unrecognized physiological disorder affecting their minds as well as their bodies.
        1) Growing conditions.  The common grass along the Atlantic Coast from Virginia to Newfoundland was and is wild rye, a host plant for ergot.  Early colonists were dissatisfied with it as forage for their cattle and reported that it often made the cattle ill with unknown diseases (22).  Presumably, then, ergot grew in the New World before the Puritans arrived.  The potential source for infection was already present, regardless of the possibility that it was imported with the English rye.
        Rye was the most reliable of the Old World grains (22) and by the 1640's ot was a well-established New England crop.  Spring sowing was the rule; the bitter winters made fall sowing less successful.  Seed time for the rye was April and the harvesting took place in August (23).  However, the grain was stored in barns and often waited months before being threshed when the weather turned cold.  The timing of Salem events fits this cycle.  Threshing probably occurred shortly before Thanksgiving, the only holiday the Puritans observed.  The children's symptoms appeared in December 1691.  Late the next fall, 1692, the witchcraft crisis ended abruptly and there is no further mention of the girls or anyone else in Salem being afflicted (4, 9).

the article goes on to talk about the geography salem and how there were more affected in one part of salem than the other. it is all quite interesting.

i personally am not that thrilled with this movie. witchcraft and witches are still misunderstood in this country, in fact bush himself does not recognize the practice of wicca or paganism as real religions. people who identify as witches still have to hide in this country under which "freedom of religion" was one of the tenants that we were founded. it is all very disturbing.

i, myself, do not identify as a witch, but that is not because of the stigma that it holds.

witchcraft is not evil, it is not about satan, it is about mother earth and her energies. everything related to witchcraft is far more positive than anything related to islam, judiasm, and christianity. you do not see the witches killing each other and taking violent actions against each other. the most famous witch of our time is probably starhawk, who is a writer and an activist for humanity.

this movie, it is atrocious.

Posted by brooke at 10.07.27 PM

blatherings

yeah, i know mr. rogers died over the weekend. i've not mentioned it, i lost someone a bit more important to me.

i've essientally been asleep since i got home on saturday night / sunday morning. i should be excited, i leave for greece in less than 3 weeks. three weeks from right now i'm going to be on a plane to athens, after spending 10.5 hours in london. i'm frustrated because my plan to get in shape hasn't happened. my plan not to be depressed hasn't happened either.

luckily my trip east gave me a big eye-opener about how much stuff i can take with me. my bags were way heavy, i'll be cutting things down to the bare essientals.

anyhow, thats it for this post. i really don't have much of anything to say these days.

ps. have i mentioned the best thing i've downloaded EVER? its netnews wire, for the mac. it pulls in rss feeds from sites. it comes with sites already subscribed, and then a whole list of sites you can subscribe too. *also* if you know of an rss feed that isn't in the list you can just type in the url of it and it adds it. for a news junkie like me it is the most perfect application ever.

Posted by brooke at 01.34.59 PM

March 02, 2003
home.

i'm home. got home last night. i've been asleep all day. got some possibly really incredibly bad news last night in my mailbox. possibly devastating news. oh yeah, and my grandmother just died.

in other news, our picture came out.. baring witness in yachats, oregon. i'm the shortest body in the middle of the first s. with all that has happened over the past week and the possibly devastating news, my peace work just doesn't seem as important anymore.

and further news. i got copies of the daughters of the american revolution lineage papers while i was home. i am related to benedict arnold (NOT the traitor), the first colonial governor of rhode island. pretty facinating stuff.

Posted by brooke at 09.17.20 PM