Project Gaia: From Gettysburg to Ethiopia

Dear Family and Friends,

Less than twenty-four hours before we are due to leave (we have had a great stay up until now with Lisa Portmess and Harry in Gettysburg), neither Megan nor I are packed. We are, however, extremely excited to be interning with the Gaia Association in Ethiopia for the next two months. The Gaia Association works with Project Gaia Inc., a US non-profit, to promote clean cooking stoves and fuel; by doing so, they are able to increase air quality, prevent chronic respiratory diseases, and halt environmental degradation, to name a few things. One thing that attracted us to Project Gaia is how intricately so many issues tie together: health, gender, the environment, economics, and culture. So, Project Gaia and Gettysburg College have made it possible for us to undertake this fascinating internship and learn more about both energy and health and the people, landscape, and culture of Ethiopia. We recently learned that ping pong is quite popular in Ethiopia, so we will even be able to continue our ping pong conquests (or at least Megan will).

We hope to use this blog as a forum for our experiences and a place to share the many challenges and wonders we encounter. So, if you are interested in our injera eating, trips to refugee camps, biofuel, excellent coffee, and the many other things to come, keep reading over the next two months we hope to update the blog as much as possible!

Thanks again to everyone for making this trip possible.
Visit Project Gaia on the web to see more about the organization. A new version will be coming in July 2009!

projectgaia.com