Martyr Museum and Orphanage Soccer

I haven't yet posted an update on my daily life this summer, so here's a brief summary of the past few days.

Monday - I woke up Monday and had to move out of the JDC house where I've been staying into a hotel because the house was being fumigated for suspected bedbugs. I don't think we had any, but I wasn't the one getting bit so I can't say for sure. After breakfast, I went to the "Red Terror" Martyr Museum near Meskel Square. This new museum commemorates the 2 million people killed during the regime of the communist Derg (1974-1991) and the 500,000 killed between 1977-1978. The museum has many photos and some interesting points, but is unfortunately a little light on details and doesn't give enough background information. However, it's still relatively new (1 year), so I'll give it a break. My pseudo-tour guide was a nice middle-aged man who had actually been imprisoned for 8 years by the Derg, and he had shared a cell with one of the prisoners highlighted who had actually been shot by a militia associated with the government but survived. I spent an hour in the library above the museum reading one prisoner's journal from his time in jail. After the museum I walked around the corner to Meskel Square, the largest public gathering space in town. I found a ledge and perched for an hour or so while I finished Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I met up with some friends from Mt. Sinai (and Columbia) for a delicious middle-eastern dinner and then hit up the late-night showing of Harry Potter in 3D.

Tuesday - The morning was spent doing wound care in the outpatient department at The Mission with a new friend, Laura, who's a former ER nurse and is living here since her husband works for the embassy. Typical morning of wrapping crazy ulcers and draining TB sinuses. For lunch, Laura introduced me to an amazing restaurant down the street from my guest house that makes amazing salads, juicy burgers, and all other sorts of yummy treats that are hard to come by here. We ended up sitting for 3 hrs, reveling in the food's deliciousness and the relaxed atmosphere. In the afternoon I joined my Sinai friends while they conducted a dental health screening, survey, and education at a small orphanage in town. I did a few surveys but was quickly pulled into a game of soccer with the boys at the orphanage. Two hours later, I finally had to tap out of the game, but I'm pretty sure my team won (obviously). I then tried to walk back to my hotel and got lost in a relatively dark area of town. I finally realized my mistake and hopped in a cab. Turned out I was only 5 minutes from my destination but had agreed to pay 50 birrh ($3 dollars) and quickly had to rebargain down to 40 ($2.50). You always have to bargain before you get in a cab here; perhaps that's why my driver had a ridiculous grin on his face for the five minute ride. I joined Mesfin and DJ for a few games of pool, where I won for the first time! and a delicious philly cheesesteak. When we split around 10:30, I stopped by the 24 hr massage place near my hotel and got a lovely swedish massage for about $7. Yeah, life here is rough.

Wednesday - I didn't have any plans for today so I stopped by Rick's in the morning, moved back into the JDC house, and have been sitting in an internet cafe. A rain/hail storm just passed by, unsuccessfully trying to pound the tin roof into submission. More than 10 herds of sheep and goats have been driven past the door by their 10 year-old (or younger!) shepherds on their way to the slaughterhouse. A blind man walked past blowing out a beautiful tune on his flute. And the sun is out again, come to dry out the mud and puddles before tomorrow's showers.

Tomorrow I am going to Black Lion, the main teaching hospital, to hopefully shadow a pediatrician. At least I will get to attend morning rounds and establish a connection with this doctor I've emailed with throughout the past year. I'm curious to see what they let me do/observe and I'll update more soon.