Values

If you haven’t yet read Memory of Snow and of Dust by Breyten Breytenbach and you have any interest in Ethiopia, I strongly encourage you to. The literary structure is similar to Don Quixote in that characters introduce themselves into the novel, and the format shifts between dialogue, plays, poems, and prose, however the subject matter is quite different!

It is difficult to step outside oneself to see how others view you. This novel helps do just that and this is an important skill for an occupational therapist, particularly if you are working with people from a culture not your own. It has important things to say about the value system of Ethiopia from a native and about the Western value system from the perspective of non-Westerners (Ethiopian and South African).

The author states:

Could it not be argued that subsistence economies, when assumed consciously, allow for a dignity based on self-sufficiency, that there can be a transformation of basic realities-with earth materials and native intelligence- without the utopist folly of top heavy and foreign relying superstructures? Could there not be the valorization of non-Western traditions and types of    learning allied to the most modern techniques the north has to offer? Surely they put up examples of modesty, integrity, sincerity? They have shown a suppleness of adaptation to harsh of environmental conditions, they are resilient, they have developed survival methods and yet maintain a thrust toward metamorphosis. (p. 122) 

I shot the photos below on a 30 km poorly maintained dirt road near Bahir Dar, Ethiopia on the way to Blue Nile Falls. There are several communities and a lot of farmland along. To me, these photos illustrate the the harsh environmental conditions, resiliency, and survival methods Breytenbach speaks of. For this alone, the people in these images and their compatriots, deserve all the respect I can fathom.

 Boy with his herd

Man walking on dirt road

 Woman resting under a tree