Long Live The Sar

The people here are nice. very nice. one of the best things about the mission is the area surrounding it. As Abebe told me, Piazza and Bole are the only parts of Addis that are like a city, the rest is like a village. My hotel is in Piazza and on my short walk (200 yds) from the hotel to the taxi stop, I pass at least 10 different bars and countless people. But when I get off the taxi and start walking towards the Mission, it feels more like a village. There is Tza'ai, the girl who works at my internet cafe where I go every day for part of my 3 hour lunch. There is Daniel, the guy who works at the "pool hall" (1 table) and he gives me a big hug every time i pass by (~6x/day). He has also made it his mission to teach me amharic, so every day he tries to teach me a new phrase of general conversation. So far, I know the first 2 lines of any basic conversation (hello and how are you? - i'm a slow learner). And then there is the lady at the restaurant who told me

As usual, this saturday morning was extremely busy. Even with Rick gone (in LA for 10 days), there was more than enough dressing to be done by the 3 teams working - Dr. Solomon (an orthopedic surgeon I was told), the GW students, and Jim, 2 other volunteers from Lyston (a 23 yo kindergarten teacher from raleigh and a 17 year old girl from morehead city), and the other nurses normally staffing the dressing room. The GW students invited me to scrub up with them (i.e. putting on gloves) and when I told them I only knew what we had been doing the past week they said I knew more than them. When I saw the teacher and the 17 yo helping dress wounds, I realized that I will probably turn out to be much more effective than even I had hoped possible. It was a welcome discovery that maybe I do know what I'm doing, at least in a the setting of the dressing room/opd @ the mother theresa mission.

I've been referring a lot to "the mission" but realize that I haven't given an idea of what it's like. The Mother Theresa Mission is located down the street from Sidist Kilo. Keep in mind that there are only about 10 streets in the whole city with names so it is difficult to give good directions. The Street Both sides of the street are lined with storefronts selling laminating-copying-faxing services, camera film, fruit, convenience store items, and restaurants (and that just what I can see out the window of this internet cafe/office supplies store). Parked blue Toyota Taxis (think 1980 style sedan) line both sides of the street waiting for passengers and dumptrucks (sometimes filled w/people sitting on the rim), buses, SUV's, personal sedans, and donkeys/cows/goats share the road. The sidewalks consists of uneven bits of broken concrete, jagged rocks, and dirt. There is a gate with the words "Mother Theresa Mission" and inside a little dr

My first day of work is now done and over.  Starting @ 9 AM this morning, I was working in the outpatient clinic @ the mission.  So what exactly did this entail?  Well today was a little different than normal (or so I'm told) because there were ~15 nurses in training working at the mission for the last day of their 4 day rotation.  The examining/dressing room is about 10' X 10' with cabinets full of supplies lining the walls and 4 nursing students + me + 2 patients at all times...it was cozy.  I saw lots of gory stuff...the kind of stuff that scares you when you open up a medical textbook.  If anyone wants the details, let me know and I'll embellish but for now we'll leave it at that.  For "lunch," I had a macchiato with one of the full-time nursing students @ the mission, Abebe.  Quick Abebe bio: one of 11 kids, grew up in southern ethiopia, 27 yo, not married, first year nursing student (of 4 years), wants to be surgeon eventually, incredibly nice guy. 

To answer the questions of my grandparents: I am still communicating mostly in english and sign language but studying amharic every night (the 50 useful phrases or so I'll need) so hopefully I'll at least be able to say some things.  I think the city is safer than it feels to me right now.  I am always walking around on high-alert, watching out for pickpockets and the like, but so far so good.  I have not been taking many photos yet because I have heard that if you take a lot of photos in the street people think you're CIA, but I think once I feel more comfortable here it won't be a problem.  I believe Rick has legally adopted 5-8 of the boys and the others stay with him either temporarily or permanently but they still have other family. Today I went to the mission around 10:00-10:30 with Bogut where I met up with Rick and gw students doing some rounds, but it was a very very very quiet day at the mission.  When Rick left around 11:30, I introduced myself to Sister Brid

I forgot to put this in the last post, but I also got to experience one of Ethiopia's "different" (to be polite) traditions...last night bogut invited me to eat injera with him and Rick's night guard.  So we went outside and the way you eat the injera is, essentially it's a big thin bitter pancake (think in between crepe and pancake) with vegetables cooked in oil and spices heaped on top, so you tear off a piece with your right hand and then you dab it in the veggies in the middle, pick some up, and try to get it all into your mouth without spilling...sounds easy enough.  It gets a little more complicated though when your ethiopian host insists on feeding you.  so sure enough, last night the night guard didn't think i was eating enough and so he proceeded to feed me two fistfuls of injera and veggies.  I felt like my ethiopian culture education had formally begun. 

i am finally settled in the taitu hotel and have so much to tell from the day.  this morning rick went out to meet his boss from jdc i believe and so it was very quiet around the house and too nice outside to stay indoors.  with one of rick's boys, bogut, i walked around the neighborhood for about 5 hours.  We started off just walking, then when he said he used to live in the area i asked him to show me where he had lived and so we started walking in that direction.  we stopped for a lunch of injera and tibs (pieces of lamb cooked with onions and peppers) and then we continued to one of his friend's houses.  these friends are also friends with rick i believe and they invited bogut and i into their one room hut (think a square room made entirely of cinder blocks that is may 10' x 10'.   After sitting and talking for a bit, they invited us to have a traditional ethiopian coffee ceremony.  they start with green coffee beans, and then on a tiny bowl with glowing embers they

I have had an amazing 2 days here in addis.  rick and his boys are extremely nice and i've been spending all of my free time hanging out with them.  there was a huge shabbat dinner here last night w/ thirty to forty people including 12 2nd year med students from GW; they'll be here for the next 3 weeks and spending 2 days/week at mother theresa's.  went to the clinic 2x yesterday for 30 minutes to check up on Rick's 2 most interesting cases - 1 16 yo boy w/MALT lymphoma and another boy ~13 yo w/Burketts lymphoma.  will sleep at rick's again tonight and probably go to hotel tomorrow.  had a great dinner tonight with friends of my aunt and uncle's who work here in Addis. It's been great so far and I"m very excited for the next few weeks!  saw some AMAZING cases today including retina blastoma, mitral regurgitation, and many cases of tb of the spine and congenital scoliosis.  as rick said, it's a pretty amazing learning curve and I"m learning tons