The Little I've learned So Far

As I have written in other posts, I am continually amazed at how strong and supportive communities appear to be here.  Just last night Daniel told me about a young child that was brought in after being bitten by a baboon. I haven’t seen any baboons around our area so I asked where they came from.  Turns out they were from Angola, nothing less then a twelve hour walk.  So what means is that about twenty or so friends and family members made a stretcher and took turns carrying this kid up and down windey roads, barefoot, without water, Powerbars, Gatoraid, or really anything that you or I would bring on even a leisurely hike.  Just to give you a sense of how difficult this must have been, when we went to this area for outreach there were points where I wasn’t sure our “super-duper can get over anything tank” Landcruiser would make it. 

So why I am telling you all this? 
Unfortunately I found out recently that someone in my family was diagnosed with a pretty rare tumor.  At first they thought it was in the lung which would require opening up the chest to remove it but after a second opinoin it was actually found to be on the pericardium. A tumor on the pericardium is extremely rare, so much so that they have no idea what the chances are of it being benign or malignant. On the flip side, it means that the surgery no longer involves opening the chest (which is pretty invasive and difficult) but can be done thropscopically, which allows for a much easier recovery.  

Obviously being a zillion miles, time zones and without good cell or internet connection makes this a pretty difficult situation. I can’t be at the doctor’s appointments or able to give good moral support.  At the most recent appointment with a highly respected surgen he said that because the surgery no longer requires opening the chest it wasn’t necessary for family to come in from overseas.  No, this would be routine, in and out in a day or two with a recovery time of up to two weeks. And as it goes in the US, If she needs some help afterwards making food, getting to a follow-up appointment, filling a prescription.....well, hiring someone is always a possibility. 

Perhaps being here for four months has had a stronger impact on me then I first thought because his response seems just absurd to me.  At our clinic when we transport patients to bigger hospital we have to fight with families because they all want to come with.  I’ve seen patient’s families wait patiently for days and weeks by their loved one’s bed with little more to do then stare at the walls (no wifi, tvs or magazines in these parts).  When a patient needs to go to a bigger hospital we make sure they have enough money to pay the hospital fee and get transportation home, which can be no less then a year’s income.  I’ve seen people tell us there is no way they can come up with that amount of money, and somehow their community is able to come together to sell a cow or collect from one another the necessary amount.  

Everyone said that coming here would be a great learning experience and I can’t help but feel like I am being given the ultimate test right now.  Yes, I can listen to this doctor and tell myself that its not worth coming home.  The money, the time, the inconvenience--- all add up to being there not worth it I suppose for him.  If I go home, it will mostly likely mean we can’t go on the trip to Tanzania we were hoping to, my work plan will have to be adjusted and people at the clinic will all have to pitch in to fill in for my absence.  Are these the types of things the doctor was thinking about when we said returning was not necessary? Maybe its more that he only thinks of the physical surgery and nothing else.... not the emotional side that comes with being sick.  I feel confident that the surgery will be fine, but what about everything else?  Don’t people need their family to help them through the scared feelings, the worry, the anxiety?

I can’t help but think about the different things here that might seem so absurd to people back home; from having chickens living in your house to the necessity of collecting firewood in order to cook dinner. And yet I think what this doctor is suggesting would be equally shocking to my friends and colleagues here.  Not being with your loved one in a time of need like this and paying someone else to help them....I just don’t think people would even be able to fathum this as being a possibility.   When someone is sick, everyone pitches in. 

While being here had taught me a lot about public health, malnutrition, driving a stick shift, etc. I think the biggest lesson I have learned is that you should do anything and everything for your family and friends...that you should treat people the way you want to be treated.  If it was me I would  want everyone to drop what they were doing, put off vacations, reschedule meetings and be by my side. So contrary to what this doc said, I will be coming home to be with my mom while she watches tv and runs errands(anything really to keep her mind off of this) leading up to the big day, be waiting in the hospital while the surgery is taking place, have her favorite meal ready for her when she wakes up and make sure she has all she needs when she goes home.  It’s funny that we often think as the developing world as being “behind” and yet in a situation like this they seem to make us look like we have it all backwards.   

Africa Is Not A Country

When I first thought about coming to Ethiopia I expected a dry, brown, sad place where life was difficult and hard and anything but enjoyable.  I would venture to guess that when most people think about Africa there is little positive that comes to mind.  From movies, magazines, newspaper articles and books, I have found there is little positive said about this large and diverse continent (which is often lumped into one place, “Africa”, and rarely its individual countries).  Daniel is in the middle of one of these books, where the only things discussed are how terrible everything is here-- the corruption, the poverty, how NGO’s have destroyed people’s work ethic, the spread of HIV, etc. 

I can’t help but think back to an assignment I was given in graduate school to do a community needs assessment of the Delray neighborhood in Detroit.  My professor wisely told us that we were to look at the area’s strengths--not to focus only on the problems.  As those of you who are familiar with Detroit know, it would have been very easy--and most likely what we would have done. Only focus on the bad....the run down houses, the boarded up buildings, the liquor stores and miss what positive things were very much there but easily overlooked when going in with a negative mindset, the houses with beautiful gardens, the churches, an active community center, etc.  

While I am sure that all the bad things people write about and highlight in movies about Africa are true for some people, it is for sure not the case for everyone.  Where we are in Chiri, I am often times jealous of the life that people have here.  Children grow up in green, lush mountains able to run around and play without worries, families are unbelievably close, people will go to great lengths to help others (even if it means carrying a neighbor who is in labor on a stretcher up mountain roads for up to eight hours in order to get to a doctor), because no one has a car people walk everywhere giving them ample opportunity to spend time with friends and family, there isn’t the constant advertising of products and things that can make you feel like you never have enough...the list could go on but I think you get my point.  Of course there are a lot of hardships that come with living in a developing country like Ethiopia-- the chances of dying from a treatable illness is huge, people don’t have a ton of opportunities for a meaningful career, most people can’t turn on the tap to get water or have a stove to cook.

While I realize no situation is black and white and that neither place is better then the other, I can say without a doubt in my mind that Ethiopia is an engaging country with beautiful, happy and generous people which turns any assumptions about what “Africa” is on it’s head.  I just wish there were more journalists and filmmakers that saw the other side that exists here.  I wish there were articles about the families who sit by their loved ones beds and bring them food for days on end while at the clinic, or the parents who carry their children for hours, and even days in some cases, when they are malnourished.  I wish there were movies about the many families who are surviving just fine working their fields and don’t rely on food aid.  I wish there were NY Times articles about people who work hard, go to college and work in places like our clinic helping their community.  I wish there were films that conveyed how green and mountainous and lush this country is.  I wish the news told the story of the men and women who are entrepreneurs who are growing towns like Chiri.  

What I really wish is that you could see all this for yourself....I don't think that this blog can give justice to all that I have seen and felt in just the short time I have been here.  I do wonder though why this is the case....is there something we get out of labeling places like Ethiopia as poor and in need of saving?  Why don't we hear more about all that is positive here? 

(If you are wondering where the title to this blog comes from, a classmate in social work school wore a button with “AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY” which really amused me)

What Makes a Day Great?

Today was a typical day for me here at Lalmba.  I set out early to go on outreach to the village of Angela, a newer site for us, which was a two hour drive from Chiri.  Turnout was good and we gave over 200 hundred vaccines.  We were there most of the day and returned to the health center around 3pm.  I was sitting in my office when Faith told me that one of my favorite malnutrition patients, a little girl named Mizrat, had returned with her father for her follow-up appointment.  As I have mentioned in other posts, I spend a lot of time in the malnutrition room playing with the kids and interacting with the parents.  They are here from one to two weeks, depending on how bad their case is, so it gives me a god opportunity to get to know them.  There was something really special about Mizrat and instantly I just adored her.  When she first came to Lalmba she could barely walk, I should mention she is two and a half, and was in such bad shape that she basically couldn’t do anything but sit in her bed all day. Slowly but surely her health improved was and she became more active, walking all around the clinic with me (my version of physical therapy I guess) and began to actually interact with the world around her.  When her time here ended I sadly said goodbye to her father and her, hoping they would return for follow-up so that I could see them again.  Patients can live very far away, theirs is a six-hour walk, so it’s not a sure thing that they return. 

I was glad to hear that they came back for their appointment but was a bit said to have missed them.  Faith said they waited a bit but must have left.  Bummer…..I was wondering how she was doing and if she would remember me, but I would have to be satisfied with just reading her follow-up paper work. 

As I was imputing data from today’s outreach one of the clinic guards came into my office to say that my friend was here.  I looked and up and wouldn’t you know—it was Mizrat!!  Her father said that he really wanted to see me so they spent the afternoon in town (not sure what they could have done since there isn’t much to do here).  Literally in a matter in seconds my day went from fine, to amazing.  I really can’t tell you how happy it made me to see them and to be able to give her a hug and see them for a bit. I must have had the biggest smile on my face and I think I yelped with delight when I saw it was them.   There happened to be another patient and her father here for malnutrition follow-up, so the four of us chatted for a bit. Something new I am starting here is to give patients who return for follow-up seeds to plant vegetables in their gardens.  People here mainly grow and eat cocho and teff, plants that don’t provide enough protein or calories which causes malnutrition.  While patients are here we counsel them on different foods, show them our demonstration garden and have them attend a cooking class all in hopes of teaching them about the different foods that can be grown here--carrots, beets, spinach, etc. (Unlike in the US where people often know how to prevent diseases, here surprisingly people have no idea that their diet can cause malnutrition.) I gave the fathers some seeds and tried to pick their brains on how to make the program better.  While they didn’t have any criticisms of the program Mizrat’s father did have a lot to say about why it was good.

            

             Before coming people in his town said he was crazy to bring Mizrat to Chiri as it was obvious she was going to die.  No one thought she would make it and the journey would be for nothing.  He came anyway and sure enough she was not only alive but doing better.  When he returned home everyone was so happy and excited to see that she was in fact alive and well.  He went on to describe how he learned here how to change their eating to make sure this doesn’t happen again and about other health issues that can cause illnesses such as poor sanitation, cleanliness, etc. Clearly, the health center had done a lot for Mizrat and he was tremendously grateful as he came with only 35 birr (about $3) and Lalmba paid for all of her treatment and his food while they were here. He thanked us and promised to be back for his last check-up in a few weeks.

             There are moments when I wonder if the work I am doing here really matters.  I can’t help but question if the communities I go to on outreach would be any different if I (or any other ex-pat) wasn’t here….and if there is any real change from the work we are doing.  But then there are times like this afternoon when the sight of Mizrat and her father just made my day.  Knowing that they stayed to see me makes me think that the little itty bity part I play here might just matter after all. 

             

Being Poor Sucks

As the day was ending at the clinic I noticed Daniel and Richard, the other ex-pat doctor, walking into an office with their last patient.  Seeing as I had just finished up with my work I thought I would sit in.  The young man looked pretty healthy but as it turns out he had TB.  This is a pretty common illness here, one which is treated with two months of daily medications given at the clinic followed by six months of medication taken at home.  The key to treating TB effectively is that the patient cannot miss a dose of their medication and if he or she does the infection can become drug resistant which is really bad-- therefore we initially require patients to stay in town and come to the clinic each morning to take their meds.  If you have read Tracy Kidder’s book about Paul Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains (which I highly recommend) this probably rings a bell. 

Anyway, the patient was about 17 years old and from a village very far away.  When it was explained to him that he had TB and what the treatment protocol involved, he got a very sad look on his face.  While you might guess this was due to the new information about having TB, the truth was that he was more stressed about how much it would cost for him to be able to stay in town to be treated.  He explained to us that last year his family and he had been moved from another area of the country and resettled to our zone because of the limited amount of  land where he is from.  We sat there listening to him as he told the story of his family’s finances, they used to have more money but now are quite poor, and how he now only has 50 birr to his name (about $4).  He quickly calculated how much it would cost him to rent a room for the two months and to buy food, less then $15 a month, and immediately his head sunk.  This was too large an amount, impossible for him to come up with.  Could he go home and borrow money from family and friends we asked?  He did not seem too optimistic about this.  Could he start treatment today he wondered?     He clearly understood the danger of TB and wanted to start medication as soon as possible. 

Normally we require a 75 birr deposit, but all he had was 30 birr.  Lalmba does have a special fund for people who truly cannot afford their treatment, but I had a feeling he might not qualify.  This may sound crazy but since he had shoes and new(ish) pants and a shirt I had a feeling the committee that decides these cases wouldn’t believe him.  Now whether he can come up with the money or if the committee will find him needy enough to pay for both his treatment and living costs, I don’t know.  I don’t think Lalmba would ever let a person go without being treated, especially for something as serious as TB, but the situation still pains me just to think about it.  If that were me or probably any one of you reading this blog this would never be our reality.  TB is almost nonexistent in the US in the general public largely due to our higher standards of living and better health care, when we need to get from point A to point B it usually doesn’t involve walking for hours or days, most teenagers wouldn’t have to travel and be on their own when seeking health care in a different city, and most obvious--- if we were facing a potentially deadly illness that would cost less than $50 to treat, it would not cause us an unbelievable amount of stress. 

Daniel and the other doc, Richard, sent him home to collect his stuff and bring back as much money as he can come up with.  TIme will tell what the outcome will be for him as he said he could be back by Thursday (it’s about a day’s walk from Chiri to his town).   

Everyday we see patients like this and the same thoughts run through my head.  Whether it’s a child who is so severely malnourished they look as if they just left a concentration camp, or a woman who was burned after having an epileptic seizure and fell into the fire they use for cooking, it all just seems so unfair.  So much of the illness and injury we see is completely avoidable it really makes you wonder if life is playing a mean joke on so many billions of people whose reality is like this patient.

Man's Search for Meaning

I am not sure if this post will make any sense, but I have a few different thoughts running through my head that I wanted to try and share with you....so bare with me on this one.

Last year one of my favorite graduate school professors (Sallie Foley for all of my U of M people out there) recommended to our Grief and Mourning class that we read Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning.  Frankl was both a Holocaust survivor and a well respected psychiatrist. In his book he argues that "life is potentially meaningful under any conditions, even those that are most miserable" and that "people have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning." Frankl credits his surviving the Holocaust to the fact that he was in the middle of writing a book when placed in a concentration camp. His strong desire to survive in order to finish and publish it kept him going in even when he was the sickest.  Even in the bleakest of human situations, he was able to find meaning and it was this meaning that made life bearable. 

While I am in no way comparing my life here to living through the Holocaust, it's quite the opposite really-- our life here is pretty amazing....this morning I ate breakfast with Daniel while watching the monkeys play, I spent the day training community leaders from four villages in public health programing, and I sit here on my porch drinking a beer, listening to the birds and looking at  beautiful sunset over the mountains.  Yet, I feel like I am beginning to understand what Frankl writes about in his book.  Yesterday I drove to a meeting in and on the way saw a patient who was beginning his journey home, nothing less then a four hour walk mind you, even though he is missing a foot and on crutches.  He happened to be going to the same village I was and so I was able to give him a lift.  It actually made my day to be able to give him a ride as I knew the walk would have been long, hot and brutal. 

In the end, the meeting I was going to didn't happen as not enough people showed up. Even though I had spent all morning getting there and hiked half an hour in and out of to the meeting place, I still felt the day was a success because of giving the man a ride.  That made me think about Frankl's book and his argument about our ability to be happy in life, no matter what our circumstances.  It really is all in the way you look at things.  One might think that there is no way a CTA bus driver could be happy with his job or find meaning in driving in traffic all day, stopping every block to let passengers on and off, having to give directions to tourists all day long on how to get to Michigan Ave. or the zoo, but now I see how it is all in their point of view.  Without the driver people wouldn't be able to get to work,  to a necessary doctor's appointment, to see the friend they are visiting in town... yup, his job can in fact provide endless amounts of meaning.  And when we see the meaning in life, this makes us content.  It doesn't matter what kind of car we might drive or the vacations we can afford to go on, its these little things. 

Everyday here I am given these opportunities and I feel so blessed that this is the case.  Whether it's playing with a patient in the malnutrition room and getting them to smile or holding someone's hand while Daniel stitches up their arm, these moments provide me with what Frankl describes in his book as opportunities to find meaning in life.  Something I struggle with in my own life is being appreciate of what I have and living in the moment.  I hope that throughout this year I am able to curb my negativity and find the meaning in each day, to which Frankl suggests allows us to be happy and fulfilled.   Hmmm......here's to trying.

Generosity

When I go on outreach to the different villages we work in I am reminded of how rough the toughrain is  here.  I am just blown away when I think about people  the fact that often times patients are carried here on handmade stretchers by anywhere from 40-75 community members.  I think I have mentioned this before, but when someone is really sick and can't walk, they are carried here overland-- in many cases taking up to several hours to a day-- by friends and family as there are no cars or busses and ambulances are unheard of.  Yesterday on the way to the village of Goize we came to walk with a women and her son.  We all began chatting and it turned out she was also going to Goize to visit with her mother.  I asked how far it was from her own village to Goize and she replied three hours. Yup, this woman and her ten year old son were walking six hours in one day just to see her mom for the afternoon.  Can you imagine?  If we had to walk hours up and down mountain sides, would families still exist in America?  Our family times holiday meals around when parking on Lake Shore Drive opens up...walking three hours each way--- I have a feeling there would be a few empty chairs at Thanksgiving if this was the case back home.  Obviously, its a different world here and people's lives don't operate in the same way but it stops to make me think about how much more I can do to be a better sister, daughter, wife and friend. 

On the way we got to a super muddy area and as usual I lost my balance on a rock and my leg sunk deep into the mud.  There was a little stream up ahead where my co-worker Alias convinced me to take off my shoe and wash off my foot.  The woman were were walking with immediately jumped into the creek and began scrubbing my foot and cleaning my pants, shoe and sock.  Even her son helped out.  Now really, can you picture this happening back home?  People don't even stop to help when they see someone fumbling with a map, can you imagine cleaning a stranger's feet?  Also worth mentioning is that her son offered to carry my bag and when I said no he took the backpack filled with a cooler and immunizations from another staff member and carried it for at least two hours. 

Fast forward a few hours....we are in Goize and in the middle of doing vaccines when I notice a woman whose child looks really small.  Since I am not trained to give vaccines I use the time on outreach to check children for malnutrition.  This woman had three kids with her, ten months, two and six years-old and after looking a little closer it was apparent that both younger ones were severely malnourished.  The women herself wasn't in great shape either, she had one of the biggest tumors I've seen so far growing off her neck (possibly a goiter).  We convinced her to come back with us to the health center where we have a malnutrition program and could treat her kids.  While I won't go into it now, hers were just two of the MANY children I saw with severe malnutrition in Goize, something pretty alarming to me.  Honestly, we could have brought back eight more families if we had the room in the car. (You might be asking yourself how I can tell if someone has malnutrition since I am not a doctor or nurse....luckily there is a very easy to use measurement strip for upper arm circumference that I have begun taking to all outreach sites.)

As we began the trek back to the car a random woman invited us all into her home for some coffee, which again made me stop and think.  Have I ever invited a complete stranger into my home?  Sure I am always happy to have friends and family over for shabbat dinner or to hang out, but a complete stranger off the street?....can't say I have.  As we continued  back people stopped to ask the mother why she was with us.  After she explained they were all tremendously concerned and threw their arms in the air to show their sympathy and giving words of encouragement.  At one point it began to rain and we ducked into a hut that is used for selling tela (a fomented barley drink).  Again, the women asked what was going on and immediately hugged the woman, grabbed their chest and poured her a big drink.  In a place where people have so little, giving things away for free can't be easy. You could just tell that these women so cared and felt for the mother, even though I don't know that they had ever met before.  As a co-worker explained to me a while back, people here really feel for one another......this was more then evident on this hot, rainy afternoon. 

As we continued with the walk the woman began to struggle with her two kids, one tied to her front and the other to her back.  My co-worker Sebsibe took matters into his own hands and carried the baby back himself.  Just to set the stage for you, this was no simple walk in the woods.   We were walking basically straight up and down a mountain in the middle of a hot and humid day after going all day without anything to eat and little to drink (the Ethiopians aren't big on drinking water unless it's with a meal).  We made it to the car and eventually back to Lalmba.  As I pulled up I mentioned to the guard that we had a patient in the back of the truck.  He followed me in and halped carry one of the kids to the clinic. 

I am not sure if these stories will do justice for what I experienced today or be able to convey how telling each instance was to me.  I feel like I have so much to learn from the people I meet here.  I hope that one day I can do for others what I have seen others do so selflessly.  I hope that I can feel for others the way people here do.  After thinking about this I realize just how much I have a lot to learn about life and generosity....and luckily for me I have a seemingly endless supply of teachers all around

PS- for those of you who are follow the weekly Torah portion you will share in my amazement at the similarities with my experiences on Friday and what you read this Shabbat about Avraham's generosity towards strangers......beshert, coincidence.....???

Over the past 24 hour I have experienced several moments of immense generosity, directed both at myself and to complete strangers.  In a place where people have so little I am always amazed at the things people do for each other. 

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Some of My Favorite Photos...So Far

Humble Pie

Not surprisingly, there have been many times that I have found myself feeling quite humbled here in Ethiopia.  Life is so different then back home, and in many instances these differences really make me stop and think.  Recently, this has happened several times and I thought I would share them here.  Two have to do with one of our RCAR (Reaching Children At Risk) students, Adnafu, and the other with a security guard, Demeke.

                                              (Adnafu is all the way to the left)

RCAR is a program that aims to help kids who come from very poor families be able to succeed in school….helping with school fees, food, extra tutoring, scholarships, etc.  It’s not a huge program (maybe 20 kids) as Lalmba is a pretty small NGO with an even smaller budget.  This has allowed me to get to know several of the students in my short time here. Adnafu is one of these kids, and I cannot say enough about what a great guy he is.  Adnafu is 18 years old and attends a technical school in Bonga for plumbing.  He has been at our health clinic working all summer with the maintenance guys, always willing to do whatever needs done, always happy with a big smile on his face, and always eager to learn.  He is usually the first person to say hello in the mornings, he is happy to help translate (his English is pretty good) for me and lend a hand whenever I need him. 

A few weeks ago Ethiopians celebrated the holiday of Meskel, commemorating the finding of Jesus' cross.  Everyone gathers wood and makes a huge bonfire at their church.  This is a really big deal here, up there with Easter and Christmas and everyone in town did something for it (we closed the clinic, which they don't even do for Christmas). Anyway, the following day at work I saw Adnafu and asked him how the holiday was and which church celebration he attended.  To my surprise he replied that he didn't go anywhere.  I thought that it was something that everyone did, so I asked why not.   I assumed that maybe he was sick or was visiting family perhaps in another town.  Nope, not even close.  Turns out, he had washed his clothes over the weekend and they hadn't dried yet.  He couldn't go because he didn't have anything to wear.  People here have very little, maybe two or three outfits makes up an entire wardrobe, so when people do laundry, it can easily be their entire wardrobe.  Several things struck me as I thought about what he had just said.  First, I felt bad that he missed such a fun and joyful celebration.  It's not like there is something big like that everyday here, so I am sure it was a real bummer for him.  Second, I realized just how much I take for granted all that I have-- esp. clothes wise.  As Daniel, or anyone else that has seen how large my dirty laundry pile can get, knows-- I have a ton of clothes.  So much so in fact, that even here I have more clothes then I know what to do with and haven't even unpacked all of them yet.

When I think about "not having anything to wear" in my life it generally means that I want a new dress for a wedding or new pair of jeans to go out with....not that I don't literally have anything to wear, but that I want something new to wear.  I can only imagine what Adnafu or anyone else I know here would think if they saw my closet back home.  I'm not saying that I am planning on throwing away all my possessions or trying to guilt you into only having two outfits.,--but it does make you think....

Today I was given the task of driving to Bonga to do errands.  We had to drop off blood to get CD4 counts on a few HIV patients, buy a new faucet for the kitchen sink, go to the bank......etc. As Andrew, the Project Director, went through the list he mentioned that I would be taking Adnafu as well. School started this week and he is moving there for the year (even though Bonga is 45 minutes away in a car, its a very far distance to commute each day).  I went to his house to pick him up and load up all his stuff.  Needless to say, it wasn't much.  One big plastic bag, a small backpack, an old tape player and a basket to keep bread in (at least that’s what I think its for).  We drove I asked how he was feeling about going back to Bonga.  We had spoken previously about how he prefers Chiri as Bonga is a big city and all his friends are here. This time there was a difference in his outlook as he replied, "Oh yes, very excited!"  When I asked him what caused the change of heart and he explained, "I am very excited to start learning again and be in school."  People here take education very seriously, and Adnafu is no exception.  For him, going to school is a really big deal and not something taken for granted or just expected. When we made it to Bonga we found the place he would be living, a small room probably no bigger then eight feet by ten feet with nothing but a bed on the floor.  We unpacked his stuff and it was time to say goodbye.  I honestly felt like a mother dropping off her child at college for the first time and almost cried.  The other staff member I was with just shook his hand and was ready to be off on begin our morning's errands.  I gave him a hug and reminded him to study a lot (which I am sure he will do way more of then I ever did), not to drink beer (not that he would have the money to do that even if he wanted to) and to take care of himself (which I am sure he will do as he is one of the most capable kids I know). 

Two thoughts are running through my head at this point. One is about just how different my college drop off to his.  LIke most of my peers, I can remember getting new sheets (only t-shirt sheets would due for me) at Bed Bath & Beyond and stocking up everything from school supplies to the essential shower caddy at Target.  My dad flew out with me and made sure I was all set-up and prepared for this new sage in life.  He bought me a brand new bike, we ate at nice restaurants, and made sure I had all my books ready for the first day of class.  In all fairness, this isn't Adnafu's first year--- yet I can't imagine it was much different, and for sure it was no where close to what I experienced going away to school. Second, I was really taken aback by how earnest and excited he was to begin learning again.  Going away to school isn't about frat parties, drinking or football games. Nope, not even close...for Adnafu it is all about making a better life for himself. When U of M begins each year all of Ann Arbor has to brace itself for the loud, annoying and entitled kids to take over, blackberries and their parent's credit card in tow.  Yes, living across the street from two fraternities does make me a little biased....but yet again the differences are striking. 

(Demeke with his new notebooks for school)

My last humbling moment of the day happened when I returned to Chiri.  When you take out a car you have to wait to be let in by the security guard.  Today it was Demike.  As always I asked how he was doing, how was his family.  He is also a super nice man (There actually isn't anyone on staff that I have found to be anything less then warm, welcoming and nice) who constantly practices his English with me and reminds me a bit of my own Dad-- mostly because he also has 5 daughters and one son.  I remember once a few weeks back he looked really pensive.  When asked what was wrong he replied that he "had a lot to think about."  I didn't press any further but a few days later we were back talking and he explained that he had to figure out what to do about sending a daughter to school in Bonga.  Like others here, continuing after high school is very expensive unless you qualify for a government scholarship. He explained that it would cost him a lot of money for housing, books, food and tuition.  You could tell that this was really hard for him and that he wanted more then anything to be able to afford to do it.  Okay, fast forward to today.....after our usual greetings he told me that he had been to school this morning. Now Demike must be in his fifties and I couldn't imagine what type of school he was talking about.  He explained that today was his first day and that he had worked out his schedule so that he can go in the mornings and work in the afternoons at the clinic.  He was very excited and had a huge smile on his face as he told me how important learning is.  When I went back to the office I mentioned this to Andrew who explained that Demeke was going back to school to finish tenth grade.  They don't have GED programs here, so Demeke was in a regular high school with kids more then half his age.  Andrew continued to tell me that this was actually pretty common and another one of the security staff members had finished high school just last year too.  There have been others who went back to school and were then able to move up in the organization which was likely Demeke's thinking.  I sat at my desk and thought about this for a while.  How incredible it was to me that this grown man was going back to school, sitting in classes with teenagers, all before heading to work for the day.  I am sure that the culture here is much different from home, making this not so out of the norm, but still.  I took going to college, and even graduate school for that matter, for granted.  I wasn't doing it to better my life or to in the hopes that I would be able to give a better life to my kids, it was just something assumed I would do.  Sure I enjoyed classes and the work, but did I give it my all?  Did I appreciate each professor and every assignment given to me the way Demeke probably would...no way.  Would I have done it if it meant working full time and sticking out from the other students? I hate to admit it, but probably not.  I only wish I had the drive and motivation that Demeke has, and I hope that in the future when I am taking all the experiences and opportunities I have in my own life for granted that I remember Demeke and Adnafu.

  

A Good Day

After several posts highlighting the difficulties of life I thought it would be nice to write about today...nothing less then an amazing day here in Ethiopia.  I am finally coming out of my homesick rut and feeling in the grove of things, both at work and in life in general.  Today I had the opportunity to attend one of the women's groups meeting in the village of Sheda.  Four of our outreach sites were selected last year to be part of a new project for the public health department.  Each choose two male and two female community representatives to be trained as health leaders. These leaders come together once a month to learn about a topic (TB, sanitation, women's health, malnutrition, etc.) and then run a separate meeting in their hometown for the men and women about that topic.

            When I looked at my planner this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that today was Sheda's female meeting.  I got permission to bring Sebsibie, the clinic translator, with me (the one real bummer about being here is having to use a translator if I really want to know what's going on) and at 11:30am we were off to Sheda. After a great drive-- no stalling, no muddy roads, interesting conversation about life both here and at home with Sebsibie--we arrived in Sheda.  We walked to the health post and there waiting were about 60 women and my field counterpart, Andarge.  Taking up almost every inch of wall sat women of all ages and their children

After the teaching concluded I was asked to introduce myself to the group.  I did so, mostly explaining how excited I was to be there and working with them, esp. as I know that women like them are the key to creating change in any community.  I was able to ask them a few questions I had been wondering about; are the meetings helpful?  What are the biggest health problems in their community? What more can we do to serve them? What ways can we work to combat malnutrition? I also had the chance to talk with them about two ideas I had been playing around with.  One, to come to their village once a month (currently its on a random rotation) on the same day to do both vaccination and to begin growth monitoring for babies up to two years old. Second, to provide training on permaculture techniques (Andarge had recently been trained and I hope to do so in December) so that they can grow and eat a more diverse diet in order to avoid malnutrition. 

            The women were all very excited about both ideas and seemed to appreciate my being there with them.  Afterwards, we meet quickly with the village chairman who was equally as happy with the meeting and in full support of these two ideas.  Leaving Sheda we brought back two patients who needed to come to the health center....something that always makes me happy (that must sound odd).  Sheda is probably at least a three-hour, mountainous walk from Chiri...so helping someone avoid this always makes me feel good.

            By the time we got back the work day was almost over.  I had just enough time to get all the papers in order for the upcoming drama I am doing with the kids from the orphanage/kid's home.  When the community leaders come for their next training the kids will perform a little skit about a sick child as an example to the different ways to be creative in teaching  about health.  The children from the kid's home are all amazing and I love being able to spend time with them, making this project very appealing to me.  I gave the scripts to one of the kids who will be my "assistant" and ended the workday feeling great. 

             It was sunny and beautiful out so I went straight to the hammock to read. Naomi sent me a terrific package last week with a book that I can't put down....I was in heaven.  After an hour or so I went on a run with Faith, one of the ex-pats.  It was just perfect outside and we had a nice time talking about everything from life here to food, exercise and even farmer's markets.  We got back to find out that one of our guards who has been sick had returned from the hospital in Bonga.  We went to say hello and see how he was doing.  The hospital had a few patients and several visitors (its all one room), and I ended up spending a while in there chatting with the nurses, patients and families.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I love being able to make patients laugh and smile a bit my being silly.  This was a great group...they especially loved when I picked up a two year-old and flipped him upside down.  

            After that I returned to find a delish meal had been prepared by Andrew, couscous and veggies in a peanut sauce-- yum!  I was able to get online in one try and cha for a while with Naomi and my mom on skype, which is always a bonus.  I took a super hot shower and now am in bed, listening to the crickets and bugs make all sorts of noise....I mean really, what more could you want??

The Ethiopian Life Cycle?

It probably sounds funny, but one of the highlights of my day is
visiting patients who are in the malnutrition room.  Unlike American
hospitals which are usually bright and cheerful (esp. pediatric
units), ours is somewhat drab and dark.  The malnutrition patients,
mostly children, are all in one room which consists of gray walls, one
window and four metal frame beds.  There is a small box of toys; some
wooden blocks, a jump rope, a few balls and some pretty tattered
books.  All the reading I have done on malnutrition suggests
encouraging parents to engage their children in play in order to keep
up their cognitive functioning.  The kids who come to us are in pretty
bad shape as they must be diagnosed with severe malnutrition to be
treated in-patient at the clinic.  Not surprisingly, they generally do
not have much energy and are quite lethargic due to their poor health.
I find that most times when I walk into the room the patients are
lying down with family members beside them sitting quietly and just
staring out into space. It’s easy to understand why parents aren't more
proactive about engaging their child, as the kids are pretty out of it
and I don’t think it is in the culture to “play” with kids in general
the way we do.  Plus, I am not sure how good our staff is about to
passing on this information and encouraging it.


Each day I go into the room and try to make the kids and their
families laugh a little (usually at my expense of being the weird
farengee-- white person) to lighten the mood a bit. I teach the kids
to give me a high five, poke their belly to make them laugh, etc.  I
recently started playing with the toys and showing family members how
to use with them.  People have actually started picking up on it and
several times I have walked in and seen them using the blocks or
reading to their kids—which I should point out is really making up
stories since the books are all in English.


Anyway, for the past week there has been a woman at the clinic with
her baby who had both malnutrition and vitamin D deficiency.  The
woman is about as lovely as one can be, constantly holding her child
while also helping others in the hospital.  One day I went in and
found her braiding the hair of a very sick woman who was being treated
for phenomena.  Her ten year old daughter was also with her, helping
out in any way she could (remember here patients have to basically
take care of themselves—preparing their own food, cleaning, etc). For
the past several days I saw the mom cry more and more as her child was
not improving.  The doctor thought maybe he also had TB and began
treatment for that, but he still did not improve.  I kept hoping this
child might prove to be a miracle baby. Not that anyone deserves to
have a child die (of such a preventable disease no less) but there was
just something so unfair about this situation.

This morning I came into the room and found her crying. The nurses
explained that they would be leaving today as the baby was not
improving. Her family would come and they would walk several hours
back to their village to let the baby die at home.  I tried to express
my pain for her and rubbed her shoulder, though I am sure it was no
consolation in a time like this.  As I wrote in a previous post about
death in the developing world, it is just as painful and heartbreaking
here as it is in the west.
 

Minutes later I was informed that a different malnutrition patient
(this time an adult with severe protein deficiency) had delivered a
baby night before.  In the middle of the night in the malnutrition
room she delivered a baby boy by herself.  By this point she had been
moved to the OB room and mother and baby seemed to be doing well.  The
woman had responded well to treatment and was in the final stage of
being able to eat a high calorie supplement, plumpy nut, on her own.
Now that she had her baby and her signs were good, she would also be
discharged today.  We brought in a blanket and onesie for the baby and
said congratulations to her husband and mother who were there.
     
So in one day, a baby was born and yet another was going hone to die.
I am sure a better writer could come up with a clever ending to this
post, with some deep meaning to why this all happened today….but I
don’t think I am that person.  I guess to me it just shows the
randomness and unfairness that life is for so many people. Who knows
what is in store for either family or what lies ahead of them…but as I
have seen in my short time here, such is the life in the developing
country.

My Commute

I woke up Wednesday morning ready to start my day, looking forward to going Gundra Shala on Outreach. We had to cancel going to this site the previous week due to a lack of vaccines so I was eager to begin the day.   This was the first time going to Gundra Shala for me and I had no idea what was in store for me.  As with other outreach sites, we would drive until the road ended and then hike in.  So far all the sites have been about a 30-45 minute hike, but nothing too tough and overall pretty enjoyable.  We are located in a beautiful part of the country, so walking in these areas is quite a treat.    

As we were about to leave Lalmba I noticed that I hadn't filled up my water bottle. I didn't want to make the other folks wait so I decided to skip it this time. This would soon prove to be a bad mistake.  Just as we got in the car someone pointed out that this was a far site and that we wouldn't back back until 4 pm.  I realized I would probably be hungry by the end of the day as I didn't bring a lunch but figured that if the rest of the staff go without food then I should too.  Oh, what was I thinking??

The car ride was about thirty minutes to a different town where our hike would begin.  As someone who enjoys walking I didn't think too much about a two hour walk to get to the health post where the vaccines would be given. Little did I know that this was no light hike.  It would prove to be some of the hardest, most grueling hours of my life. Unlike in the US where roads are paved and trails maintained, Ethiopia hasn't been so lucky with their infrastructure.  I would say a good half of the road was covered in mud up to your ankles, which made you walk either very carefully from rock to rock or on the edge of the road hanging on to to tree branches to keep yourself steady.   The path was constantly going up and down to the point that it made the highest midwestern hill seem like a joke.  I have heard about heartbreak hill in the Boston Marathon (I think that's where it is anyway) and can I tell you...this hike was made up of at least five heartbreak hills.  We would get to the top of one hill only to walk down to find another steep climb ahead of us.  We also had the fun of  crossing several rivers with nothing more then a few logs to use as a bridge  Two such crossing weren't bad, but at one I thought for sure I was going to fall in and make a fool of myself.  Luckily for me, Ethiopians are extremely helpful and giving people.  Several people helped me across and miraculously I made it over in one piece.  We did eventually make it to the health post to give the vaccinations, but after 2 hours we had to turn around and do this all over again.  Something to keep in mind here is that I didn't have a single drop of water or a morsel of food to eat the entire time.  Unlike in other parts of the developing world where bodegas and little stores are pretty common even the poorest areas, this is not the case here.  I had no options to buy a drink and asking for water at a random house would be chancing getting sick as they don't treat their water. In my head I really did contemplate just drinking the water and taking the chance of being miserably (aka, explosive diarrhea) sick in the not too distant future.  For those of you who knew me in high school, you may remember the amoebas and giardea indecent during Amigos...which is probably why  opted to just  suck it up and go without drinking.  Even though I love to joke that it was a great diet, I think I'd rather not experience that again.

Okay, enough of that detour...  Best of all, about midway back to the car it began to POUR!! The rain here is pretty brutal and this was no exception. Luckily I had planned for this and had my super duper gortex rain jacket.  Ironically, I was so hot and thirsty that I didn't use it as the rain felt so good and I was finally able to cool off.  At this point I felt like I finally had a little insight into life in Ethiopian life.  You walk far to get anywhere and it rains a lot, so you just have to push through it.   Once the rain began I was relieved to stop sweating and felt some relief from the heat.  On the brighter side for the whole experience, I only fell twice throughout the day, and neither time was into the river!
  

When we finally returned to Chiri Health Center my legs ached like no other. In all honesty I have never been so tired in my life, it made all the half marathons and triathlons I have done seem like a walk in the park.  There were times during the hike in and out that I found myself day dreaming about drinking a Gatorade or coke, and what price I would be willing to pay for one.  Honestly, on the way there the going price was $20 and the way back topped off at $50-- which says a lot to those that know how cheap I am.  Whats more-- I was hiking with nothing other then myself.  People do this all the time to get to market, carrying everything from chickens to huge ceramic injera plates to logs of wood.  It is official, I am a wimp!  To think that I used to dread taking the bus in the morning or having to walk home from the train after work.  Looking back, that commute was a cinch! As I write this I can only laugh at myself and what a woos I was.  People walk like this every day to get to school, market, the health clinc...and often carrying heavy bags.  It really is like that old story about "having to walk five miles, barefoot to get to school...."  I can tell you one thing, I definitely learned from this experience and will never leave without water, no matter where I go!