The between classes school mob

The Physio (PT) students visit a prosthetics engineer, and teach PT's about emergency care

"This stuff will burn your eye out!"

Students and faculty disperse this morning, with much to be done. We all get a tour of the hospital. It's not bad; I've definitely seen worse in my travels (at least they only put one patient in a bed here.) Gosh is it clean; the smell of bleach is ubiquitous. Not very may inpatients, but quite the lineup for the outpatient visits with the physician, joined by our NP and PT students. And the diagnoses! We hear the most prevalent diagnosis is goiter. This landlocked country has neither salt water nor iodized salt, so an alarming number of people look like they swallowed a tennis ball. Amoebic dysentery, gout, you name it -- if we've not seen it before, they have it. Pretty much everyone has tuberculosis. I've been a handwashing fool. Matt teaches a chemistry class to 20 seniors. The teacher looks momentarily startled when he realizes Matt has made some hydrochloric acid for a demonstration for the students. "This stuff will burn your eyes out!" he admonishes the rambunctious students. The students compete to answer questions, with gusto if not accuracy. Mid-afternoon, Jeremy and I visit the community schools that Regis helped Project Mercy build for students who can't get into the private school. We start to leave just as students move between classes, and they mob us -- a couple hundred of them all try to shake my hand. I know how a politician must feel. Tomorrow, we go on home visits into the straw huts called tukels. I sense that will be another completely novel experience. Stay tuned.

It's very quiet. And very dark.

The drive to Project Mercy is indeed beautiful. City turns to countryside that turns into mountains. Not purple mountains majesty, but rather the gentle, green covered kind that remind me of the Ozarks. Well, except for the acacia and eucalyptus trees, wild donkeys, and lack of human presence. The luggage is piled onto the top of the ancient yellow bus, and we stop halfway to cover with a tarp as the rain moves in. The road turns from asphalt to mud and volcanic rock, and soon we are at the compound that is Project Mercy. A school, hospital, cafeteria, gardens, and housing -- it looks like a big summer camp. After a short tour, we head to our housing. Concrete floors, sparse rooms, toilets that we're only to flush when we really need to, and water for two hours a day. Apparently, the electricity is on the same schedule. Just as I finish drying my hair, the power goes off, and stays that way until morning. I don't believe there is much as quiet and dark as rural Africa when the juice is off. Just as well; I sleep the restless sleep of someone on anti-malarials. We work tomorrow; stay tuned.

"Take that, Aetna!"

Dr. Rick Hodes joined us tonight for dinner. A smallish guy that looks like Woody Allen, he came to Ethiopia twenty years ago for a year's foreign service and never left. A resourceful man, he found creative ways to finance the surgical treatment of kids with heart deformities, tuberculosis of the spine, and goiters the size of cantaloupes. He sends patients to other parts of Africa, India, and anywhere else that he finds surgeons skilled in treating the kinds of diagnoses that are rarities for us. The students get a chance to see conditions that they will hopefully never see again, and to see a truly gifted physician in action. He finds bargains for the most needy -- heart valve replacement for $2400 in India, spinal surgery for $1200 in South Africa. He adopted two twins with massive spine deformities in order to get them on his health insurance. "Take that, Aetna," he said, with a jab in the air. He ended up with five kids as a result. All are healed and successfully being educated in the U.S. One wants to become a pharmacist. I tugged on his sleeve on that one. "We have one great pharmacy school, " I told him. He promises to check us out. Tomorrow we are up and out to Project Mercy, which will take most of the day. I hear it's a beautiful drive; stay tuned.

"Have you looked around here?"

In country, and grateful that the periodic gentle rains have kept it cool and comfortable. We landed briefly in Khartoum. Looking out the window as our altitude lowered, I swear the countryside looked like Kansas without the glitz. And then there was the Nile, of course, winding across the fields of green and gold. Into Ethiopia; landing at night is the great urban equalizer. They all look like the emerald city when you land amidst the light. Morning takes us to the Mother Child Rehabilitation Center, where our students have been serving for the past week. Juta, the founder and chief, is a fierce German woman who clearly has a fire in the belly for these lost women and children. They serve homeless women with children, victims of violence, rape and abuse, and the children no one wants or cares for. Many of the babies are rescued from mothers ready to kill or sell them, particularly when they are the result of rape. Juta takes them all in, educates them, provides them with shelter, protects them from abusers, and gives them the therapy they need. We watch three interpretive dances from the dance therapy class -- these were some talented young people, their dances were moving and hopeful. It was followed by circus therapy -- yes, you have that right. Tumbling, jumping, scaring us all that they would fall off the mattresses that served as their mats. We toured the compound, where women are taught to sew, children are schooled, illnesses are treated, and souls are soothed. Our students' work was evident everywhere -- charts on the wall helping the kids understand how to stay well, and showing their parents what normal development should be. Once again, I am struck by the resilience of children and the generosity of strangers. Yuta had us to her home for lunch, an elaborate and gracious affair complete with china, four courses of wonderful food, and great conversation. I asked her what inspired her to do this work. "Have you looked around here?" she responded simply. Will meet with Dr. Rick Hodes tonight, and since the only internet I have is here in the hotel, may post before we leave for Project Mercy tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Stay tuned! New adventure underway

I'm ready to hit the road again. Headed to Ethiopia to spend time with our students and faculty at the Mother/Baby clinic in Addis Ababa and Project Mercy in Yetebon. As usual, Gus is forlorn. I swear he knows what luggage is for. He'd love to go with me, as you can see. Embarking on a very long flight, hoping I avoid the pediatric ward, which has been the running theme throughout my travels. I've heard so many things from students, staff, and faculty about this lovely country. I hear it gets its hooks in you and makes you want to return again and again, that it is a beautiful place with gracious people, and that there is much work to do. I'm ready -- to remind myself how lucky I am, to realize how petty my problems are, to remember why we are here and do what we do. Just a note of warning -- I understand I may likely have wifi only a couple of times during the trip. If you join the blog -- on the main page -- it will send you a note when I get a post up. Plus, it makes me look popular, and that's what's really important here. Stay tuned.