This week has been incredibly long, and incredibly busy... hence the lateness of this post... but seeing 12 of our patients, ranging in ages 4 to 32, headed to India for surgery was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
When I was told on Monday afternoon that I needed to send 13 people, one nurse and 12 heart patients to Cochin, India by Sunday morning, my heart started pounding. When I was also told I needed to get 6 spine patients in Ghana back within 2 days.. I was nearly freaking out. How was I going to pull it off? For the heart patients, how was I going to get the visas, get the yellow fever vaccines, blood work, and get the tickets at a good price by the time the weekend rolled around? With a couple all-nighters, a ton of help from the local Ethiopians I work with, and eventually Sam once he returned, we were able to send everyone off right on schedule yesterday.
When I think about the week, I really feel that patience is definitely a virtue to have in Ethiopia. No plan is ever sure, nothing runs on time, and plan B usually wins over plan A. For example, I had the online visa applications done barely in time on Tuesday, but was told I had to redo them and scan a photo of each person this time - something not very easy to do when some people live 3 hours - 1 day away from Addis. I had to redo everything, and came back first thing in the morning... The guys at the Indian Embassy said I could get the passports back by the following day... but when I went there, they said that was a mistake and I had to wait an extra hour to have them print everything out. I wasn't going to leave without those visas, and I think it's safe to say that the people at the Indian Embassy won't be missing my presence once I'm gone after nagging them and asking repeatedly why I actually had to scan each person's photo, when it doesn't say to do so on-line.
Some blood work was incomplete and needed to be redone, and the tickets needed to be paid for by a special check that could only be gotten from the central bank in town, with a special stamp of course, and about an hour long wait. Luckily I made it to the airlines with just under an hour to spare before the ticket reservations would be lost.
Through all this I was nervous not only that I would mess something up, but that something out of my control (which is many things in Ethiopia) would happen to prevent these great individuals from getting the surgery they urgently needed. Patience is all I really needed it seems... Things just sort of happened to work themselves out one way or another.
On Wednesday, welcoming the spine patients back was a beautiful experience, and although I hadn't met any of them yet, I was so excited to see them reunited with their family members after 3-6 months of traction and surgery in Accra, Ghana.
Then, seeing every one leave for India yesterday, especially the four year old who was going alone to India (but kindly taken care of by two other patients) was incredibly moving, and I had to hold back some tears, especially seeing everyone crying as they said goodbye to their family members. It is scary and exciting, and although I won't be here when they come back, and although the experience was super nerve wracking most of the time, I'm so excited to have had this experience of sending this group, and I can't wait to hear about how they do in India and upon their return to Ethiopia.
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