G11 – Every 6 months, a new group of about 70 volunteers gets shipped out to Ethiopia. Since the program restarted here in 2007, there have been 10 such groups before my own. Therefore, I am a G11.
PCV – Peace Corps Volunteer
PST – The first 2.5 months a volunteer spends in their country is as a trainee learning about their particular work focus, how to survive, and language. For us, that was mostly in Butajira, a 60,000-person town 4 hours south of the capital, Addis Ababa.
IST – The week-long training we received after 3 months at site to discuss and work around common challenges.
PELLE – Our specific program: Promoting English Language Learning in Ethiopia. G11 is the first to get back to direct teaching since PC-Ethiopia reopened. We also are limited to either 9th or 11th currently, but that will change.
Hossana – My site for work. A small city of about 150,000, it’s in the SNNPR or southern region of the country and is the capital of the Hadiyya zone.
Hawassa – The capital of the SNNPR, and the best city in the country in my humble opinion.
Addis Ababa – “New Flower” in Amharic. The capital of Ethiopia, located roughly in the center of the country.
Hadiyya/Hadiyyisa – The ethnicity/language of the county-sized area I live in.
SNNPR – The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Republic. Similar in function to an American state, it is unique from the other regions in that within the SNNPR are dozens of factional ethnic groups with their own zones.
The Derg – Meaning “council” in Amharic, they were the group that, in 1974, deposed Haile Selassie, executed him, and ran the country as a communist state until the early 90’s.
Izzoh – Alternatively, “izzosh” when said to a female. This means “be strong” or “keep going” and is used to show encouragement or support in Amharic.
Amharic – The national language of Ethiopia. There are over 80 recognized languages in the country, but the government, the news, etc. functions in this for the most part.
Fidel – The alphabet for Amharic. Composed of a few dozen primary letters, the addition of vowels to the preceding sound make for a complete alphabet of several hundred characters.
EPRDF – The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front is the political party and government formed out of the revolutionary groups that restored democracy in the 90’s.
Teaching English, Saving World, etc. 