Merry Ethiopian Christmas! Yesterday was Melkam Gena, or Christmas. We were fortunate enough to have an extra day off for this. Menachem,Sam and I went to the big church in town, to check out the midnight mass. The church itself was breath taking, but that compounded with everyone dressed in white, people sleeping in church, chanting in Giza, the old language similar to Hebrew, and even jumping up and down was unlike any other church experience I've had. We were invited over to a friends house to eat the following day, the same one who was kind enough to take us to church with him. Menachem and I stayed up until 3am because he wanted to slaughter a chicken for the feast. Unfortunately this wasn't allowed because Menachem hadn't fasted 40 days prior! Still, I woke up at 9am the next day to watch a specifically Christian butcher slaughter the sheep our friend had bought the day before. It was kind of gross and sad, but I feel like it was a good thing for me to see. The women traditionally cook everything, using basically every part of the animals. A special bread, dufo dabo, instead of enjera is made, which was a nice change, and a home made brew called Tela was plentiful. (I like the honey wine Tej a little bit better in all honesty.) We spent much of, yesterday, Monday hanging out, eating, and for us Faringes trying to dance like an Ethiopian, much to the amusement of our Abyssinian friends.
I've also been saying that I'd tell you about what it is that I do here, and now that I've been working for a couple of weeks I have somewhat of a better idea of how to explain it.
I've already told you that I live with the two yearlong JSC fellows working in Addis. There's two more who live in Gondar, in the north. We, Sam, Menachem, and I, live in a two story house, which is situated in a kind of compound. On the ground floor there's a big living room and a bathroom. Out in the front, is a sort of yard, until you get to the outer door/gate. This is where Toby our dog lives. In the back, there's a separate mini house for the kitchen. Up the stairs is another bathroom and 3 bedrooms. It's a great place with a bunch of great places to eat around, and is relatively close to a main road so that walking isn't entirely out of the question, although I wouldn't do so by myself late at night. We have a sort of driver, or constant reliable cab driver who we are close to, so that is a convienient way to get around of course too. Despite the cars being about 30 or so years old, they work well enough!
Job wise, I've basically been helping Menachem and Sam with what they do, but since there's a lot, I've had plenty going on myself. On Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays, Dr. Rick, the internist/doctor we work for here, who is affiliated with the JDC, the organization I am volunteering for, holds clinic. There's two hospitals in which they are held. A room is rented out in one on Mondays and Fridays, and another room in the other on Saturdays. On average when the doctor is in town there's been so far about 35 patients, about 10 of whom are new. They have various ailments, mostly either spine or cardiac related since this is what Dr. Rick specializes in helping. I help out in the clinic organizing papers and scans, writting notes for later, or helping to conduct breathing tests for new spine patients. Since Amharic is not written with latin letters of course, our files are digital. Dr. Rick, or sometimes Menachem, take pictures of everything... Faces, scans, documents, etc., and this sort of constitutes the patients file. It makes sense given the language problems, although it is of course a lot different from what we are used to in the states.
Tuesdays-Thursdays are spent sort of running errands. We catch up on digitalizing scans or documents, I've run to the postoffice to help Sam with the letters we are sending donors, or we pick up passports, visas, or other scans and documents for patients about to travel abroad to get surgery. Although there are some facilities here to do that, Dr. Rick refers and organizes groups of our spine patients go to Acra, Ghana to see a spine specialist for surgery, and the cardiac patients are sent to India. Some other procedures we sometimes refer to foreign doctors in Addis.
Although the system we use here is a lot different from most hospitals or doctors offices, the care and attention is makeshift but not all that different in quality. It's really quite amazing how much we can do, and how well it is done.
So while it may seem scattered and all over the place, (and believe me sometimes it feels like that for me) I really feel as though I'm helping out, and little by little the doctors and volunteers make great headway and progress. As the Amharic saying goes, "Little by little, an egg will learn to walk." More and more new patients come in, all because of word of mouth. That must mean Dr. Rick and the team are certainly doing something right! Check out his website here: www.rickhodes.org
I hope this summary sort of gave you the gist of what it is that I'm doing. The days are certainly long, but good thing the coffee here is amazing, and coffee ceremonies, consisting of three small cups of freshly roasted, pounded, and cooked coffee beans, are more or less an every day occurance!
Yet while I get used to this schedule, the JDC alternative break service trip from University of Maryland is coming to town in a few days. The next week or so will mostly be devoted to spending time with them here, as well as accompanying them to Gondar which I am super excited about!! More to come after that no doubt!
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