Amy's Blog

Due to some unforeseen events, we were not able to blog throughout our stay in Ethiopia. So, the following entry is a compilation of some of my journal writings that will hopefully capture my experience in Africa:

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Yesterday we drove out to the rural village (Senkele) where we will be working in order to survey the site. We drove about 2 hours out of Addis and through many dirt roads and hills and pollution. If the weather stays dry we will be able to work there, but if it rains, it will not be possible to drive through the muddy terrain. So hopefully that won't happen. The weather here has been very nice and cooperative thus far. When we got to the school, it was all very sad. The school had 4 classrooms made out of dung, mud, and hay. The benches were very rudimentary and falling apart. There was no electricity. They did have a well with a pump for water, but the children are not allowed to wash their hands in it, it's only for drinking. And of course, the outhouse was merely holes in the floor. It will be an interesting week. There are about 200 children from grades 1 through 4 who we will be examining. It's funny, when we walked around the school, children and adults came and followed us and just stared. We are "forenji" or foreigners and many have never seen an asian, hispanic, or caucasian person. It was quite an experience: children were hanging all over the window sills just to peer into the classroom we were standing in!

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Working in Senkele has been an amazing experience. I saw lots of scabies, tinea, lice, and trachoma. Furthermore, there were many cases of suspected TB. The children watched us with wide-eyes and followed our every move! I found that the boys are very confident and will walk right up to you but the girls are extremely shy and reserved.

So yesterday, we were supposed to go to Senkele, but because it rained all throughout the night, we couldn’t make it through the dirt (now turned into mud) road that leads to it. I was really bummed because we were supposed to educate the village on what diseases we saw and what they can do to alleviate the problems and now, I’m not sure when we will be able to go back. It would be really unfortunate for us to have gone in and treat what we could but not be able to teach them prevention, because odds are they will get what they had again in a few short weeks.

Last night, we went to Dr. Rick Hodes’ house for Shabbat. There were about 20 Ethiopian children living there with him. I had never been to a Shabbat before coming to Ethiopia but what we did was we all got together in a circle wearing our funny hats and we sang some Shabbat songs. Afterwards, we played all night with the children and it was a fun, relaxed atmosphere. Dr. Hodes invited us to the hospital where he works, Mother Theresa Mission House, to do rounds with him this morning, but we declined because of a scheduling conflict. Hopefully, we’ll get the chance to do it sometime next week, though. He had previously taken us to the Mother Theresa House for a tour, which was amazing. When you first walk up to the Mission House, it’s this nondescript, unmarked blue gate, but once you enter, there are hundreds upon hundreds of destitute patients, each with some severe illness. We saw the cutest little toddlers running around with these huge distended bellies due to a variety of pathologies. We saw all sorts of spine cases, AIDS cases, cancer patients, etc… We saw some things that I’m sure we would never see in the US. It was all very eye-opening and emotional. Ironically, the mood inside the House was rather light-hearted. People were playing chess, singing, laughing, and playing outdoors. Dr. Hodes equates the patients’ stay at the House as a vacation in Florida! They get to hang out all day and just relax. J We were informed though that while none of the patients have to pay, the nuns have the hard job of sending the patients on their way once they are healthy.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

So Monday morning we drove about a 1 ½ hrs out of the city to a small town called Debrezeyit. The town is beautiful. There are mountains, lakes, beautiful greenery and of course, the Ethiopian people and children are all so sweet and accommodating. Even though there is a clear language barrier, they went out of their way to tell us how much they appreciated us. It’s all really touching. So over the course of the last 4 days, we set up our stations again. This time, I got to do the eye station and the dermatology station. At the eye station I was flipping all the children eyelids up and looking for evidence of trachoma which is basically spread by poor sanitary conditions and flies. It’s a bit traumatic to have your eye lid flipped by a stranger, but most of the students did a great job and didn’t cry or anything like that. This one kid, though, couldn’t control himself. So I was sitting at my station waiting for my next patient and Trisha brings forward this little boy, maybe 5 or 6 years old. The boy was not even looking at me but was staring at another girl who was in the process of having her eyelid flipped. He was staring in horror at what we were doing to his friend and when he finally turned around and saw me, the poor kid started shaking involuntarily! I’ll never forget his face, Trisha had to help me while I flipped his eyelids and another woman had to hold his head for me to even get a peak under his eyelids. As soon as I was done, though, he was smiling and laughing – even before his tears were dry!

As for the derm station...where do I begin? I found dermatology to be quite challenging. Bumps can be anything from infectious scabies to flea bites to plain ol’ scars and it’s very hard to tell when the only reference book we had had only pictures of white people. In the end, I did get a lot better at determining scabies, tinea, and lice.

Friday, June 6 2008

So today is an exciting day. Right now it is about 6:30am, and we are leaving to go back to Debrezeyit at 730am. We are going to be talking to all the parents about the statistics with regard to what diseases we saw and then we will hopefully educate them on how to prevent it! I’m excited to do this because I think this is the most important part of our job in each city and we weren’t able to do it in Senkele because of the rains.

Saturday, June 7 2008

The parents’ meeting was a success! We had a packed auditorium and we explained to the parents what we found in terms of disease statistics and then we educated them on what they could do to improve the health of their children. I was so excited to see how many parents came to our meeting. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the parents in Debrezeyit were just as worried and cared just as much for their children as my own parents. The only difference is that the parents in Debrezeit don’t have the opportunity or the finances to do what my parents were able to do for me.

Tuesday Jun 10, 2008

So yesterday we went to two hospitals. In the morning we went to the My Yung Sung Korean Hospital which was surprisingly very well-equipped and nice. Then we went to the Fistula Hospital, which was in a word: amazing. The hospital was started back in the 70’s by The Hamlins. They have created this sanctuary for women with fistulas. I learned that fistulas are caused by small pelvises due to malnutrition or young age at childbirth and then when these small women give birth for extended periods of time with no medical help, the pressure of the baby causes bladder fistulas or rectal fistulas. The result is that they become incontinent and leak urine and feces. I literally saw about a dozen women waiting to get triaged and they were like a leaky faucet. I could see their urine dripping as we walked by. These poor women have to travel great distances to get to the fistula hospital and what I love about the Fistula Hospital is that no one is turned away. 98% of the women have successful surgeries and are given a brand new dress and allowed to go back to their village, thus regaining their village’s respect. The depressing cases are the 2% who undergo surgery but will never recover. The Fistula Hospital takes these women in and trains them to be nurses’ aides or they teach the women how to do certain trade and crafts. They also teach the women how to read and write and the minimum time a woman spends there is 3 weeks. In return, a lot of them also come back to help those who are going through the same ordeal. The whole process is very full circle.

Coming home from my trip to Ethiopia people ask me what it was like and honestly, I don't even know where to begin. I saw so many different things, I marveled at how friendly all the Ethiopians were. I was horrified at the state of things in both the rural communities and the city of Addis Ababa. And I was touched by many people's stories. This trip has definitely been one I will never forget and it was one which opened my eyes to a lot of the injustices that occur. It's one thing to read about it all in a book and it's another to see it first hand. I am fully aware that I live a sheltered life and that there are those with almost nothing. This trip has really inspired me to do more.