Ethiopian moments...
A blog we wrote on 7/2/2010 but were unable to post while we were in Jinka... ENJOY!
5 weeks have passed since we arrived in Ethiopia. It’s amazing how fast time has passed! Now our time at MCM is over and we are on our way to Jinka hospital. At the moment we are in Arba Minch where we lived the last 5 years before we left Ethiopia almost 12 years ago. So many things have changed here, but it is nice to be back and see our old house and the surrounding area. The biggest change in Arba minch is the roads, the many new tall buildings and hotels/lodges. The town has grown substantially since last we were here.
Looking back on the last few weeks there are many things that come to mind so we thought we’d give you some short glimpses of what we’ve experienced...
Complete chaos
The traffic in Addis Abeba is anything but organized... We would describe it as complete chaos. There are police officers on every street corner, sometimes two at the same cross-road directing the traffic each in their direction but NOT synchronised so everything ends up in a knot! Driving in lanes is just not done... what is a lane anyway??? The main thing is to watch the front of your car and use the horn constantly.
It’s quite an experience to travel with public transportation, especially the Heiger busses. We were going with one of Ethiopian friends to visit across town so we took 2 mini-bus taxis and then a Higer bus. The higer bus was already packed with people when we got on so we had to stand in the isle with a bunch of other people. We were literally like sardines in a box, that’s how packed the bus was. We thought the bus could impossibly take any more passengers because the ticket man could barely close the bus door. But boy were we wrong! At the next stop not only one but FIVE more people got on, and by now the ticket man was hanging out the window of the bus door. I (Katrin) made a remark in Amharic saying they’d probably let people on until the bus exploded... Everyone around us started laughing. What an experience. In Ethiopia there is ALWAYS room for one more.
Hospitality
Ethiopians are very warm and hospitable people. Greetings are a very important, so whenever we arrived at the hospital all the staff we passed would greet us and shake our hands or even give us a warm hug. What a nice way to start the work-day.
Making history
During our short stay at the hospital several ground breaking steps were taken at MCM. Some complex surgeries were done for the first time in Ethiopia and I (Katrin) got to assist in one of them. It was a vascular surgery where we removed a huge aortal thrombosis and large atherosclerotic plaques in a patient who would otherwise have lost his right leg.
During our last week at MCM they also installed a CT machine. This is going to make a huge difference for all the trauma patients that come to the hospital. Until now they’ve had to send them to radiologic centers in town for CT-scans. The number of trauma patients, mostly after motor vehicle crashes, is very high. There would be 1-3 patients coming in almost every day with severe fractures and some with head injuries.
Vast differences
Each day at MCM we saw cases of diseases that we had only read about. Another interesting aspect of medicine here is that people often come to the hospital very late, so we see a very different side of the same diseases/conditions that we have at home. Children with hydrocephalus come in with very enlarged heads and problems with their sight and motor control, whereas in Iceland that is diagnosed and treated with a shunt very early on through routine check-ups. People with meningiomas come in with loss of sight and other severe symptoms because of the size of the tumor. Such tumors are hard to opreate on because they tend to bleed a lot during operation. Diabetes is also a problem here in Ethiopia but it is very poorly controlled. Many patients have had diabetic foot ulcers for weeks or even months but don’t come to the hospital before they are severely infected or the foot is turning black from lack of blood. The only thing that can be done for those patients is to amputate the leg. I (Katrin) assisted in a few amputations and we saw quite many during our stay at the hospital.
Enjoying life
That is something most Ethiopians know how to do. Living in the “here and now”, enjoying the moment and finding joy in the little things seems to be innate. As we passed by some homes while walking through Arba Minch town today we looked through the gate of one of the small compounds. We heard music from the house and outside there were people singing while this very old respectable man, wearing a worn out navy hat, was dancing. His face beaming with joy, smiling from ear to ear. If that’s not enjoying life, I don’t know what is! Ah, that’s Ethiopia!
5 weeks have passed since we arrived in Ethiopia. It’s amazing how fast time has passed! Now our time at MCM is over and we are on our way to Jinka hospital. At the moment we are in Arba Minch where we lived the last 5 years before we left Ethiopia almost 12 years ago. So many things have changed here, but it is nice to be back and see our old house and the surrounding area. The biggest change in Arba minch is the roads, the many new tall buildings and hotels/lodges. The town has grown substantially since last we were here.
Looking back on the last few weeks there are many things that come to mind so we thought we’d give you some short glimpses of what we’ve experienced...
Complete chaos
The traffic in Addis Abeba is anything but organized... We would describe it as complete chaos. There are police officers on every street corner, sometimes two at the same cross-road directing the traffic each in their direction but NOT synchronised so everything ends up in a knot! Driving in lanes is just not done... what is a lane anyway??? The main thing is to watch the front of your car and use the horn constantly.
It’s quite an experience to travel with public transportation, especially the Heiger busses. We were going with one of Ethiopian friends to visit across town so we took 2 mini-bus taxis and then a Higer bus. The higer bus was already packed with people when we got on so we had to stand in the isle with a bunch of other people. We were literally like sardines in a box, that’s how packed the bus was. We thought the bus could impossibly take any more passengers because the ticket man could barely close the bus door. But boy were we wrong! At the next stop not only one but FIVE more people got on, and by now the ticket man was hanging out the window of the bus door. I (Katrin) made a remark in Amharic saying they’d probably let people on until the bus exploded... Everyone around us started laughing. What an experience. In Ethiopia there is ALWAYS room for one more.
Hospitality
Ethiopians are very warm and hospitable people. Greetings are a very important, so whenever we arrived at the hospital all the staff we passed would greet us and shake our hands or even give us a warm hug. What a nice way to start the work-day.
Making history
During our short stay at the hospital several ground breaking steps were taken at MCM. Some complex surgeries were done for the first time in Ethiopia and I (Katrin) got to assist in one of them. It was a vascular surgery where we removed a huge aortal thrombosis and large atherosclerotic plaques in a patient who would otherwise have lost his right leg.
During our last week at MCM they also installed a CT machine. This is going to make a huge difference for all the trauma patients that come to the hospital. Until now they’ve had to send them to radiologic centers in town for CT-scans. The number of trauma patients, mostly after motor vehicle crashes, is very high. There would be 1-3 patients coming in almost every day with severe fractures and some with head injuries.
Vast differences
Each day at MCM we saw cases of diseases that we had only read about. Another interesting aspect of medicine here is that people often come to the hospital very late, so we see a very different side of the same diseases/conditions that we have at home. Children with hydrocephalus come in with very enlarged heads and problems with their sight and motor control, whereas in Iceland that is diagnosed and treated with a shunt very early on through routine check-ups. People with meningiomas come in with loss of sight and other severe symptoms because of the size of the tumor. Such tumors are hard to opreate on because they tend to bleed a lot during operation. Diabetes is also a problem here in Ethiopia but it is very poorly controlled. Many patients have had diabetic foot ulcers for weeks or even months but don’t come to the hospital before they are severely infected or the foot is turning black from lack of blood. The only thing that can be done for those patients is to amputate the leg. I (Katrin) assisted in a few amputations and we saw quite many during our stay at the hospital.
Enjoying life
That is something most Ethiopians know how to do. Living in the “here and now”, enjoying the moment and finding joy in the little things seems to be innate. As we passed by some homes while walking through Arba Minch town today we looked through the gate of one of the small compounds. We heard music from the house and outside there were people singing while this very old respectable man, wearing a worn out navy hat, was dancing. His face beaming with joy, smiling from ear to ear. If that’s not enjoying life, I don’t know what is! Ah, that’s Ethiopia!
That´s all for now, we will post a blog about our time in Jinka later! We will also post some pictures here soon. Till then, have a great time!
posted by Katrín at 3/17/2010 06:42:00 AM
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