Addis Ababa and the Red Jackal
We have finally arrived at our final destination after a night's stay in Addis Ababa. After having my flight out of Milwaukee cancelled (wonderful Wisconsin weather!), the remainder of our travels were smooth. We made all our connections, our flights were more or less on time, and customs was a breeze. We met our driver at the Addis airport – the Red Jackal taxi service. They took us to a mission guest house where we had a hot shower, a good night's rest, and a warm breakfast this morning. We then went grocery shopping before a 6 hour drive through the Great Rift Valley to Soddo.
The landscape here is beautiful…at least once you get out of the choking diesel exhaust of the capital. Even though it's the dry season, there is plenty of green, even at the tops of the mountains. We were on roads as high as 10,000 feet which afforded some nice views of the valley. My ears did more popping on the drive than they did on the flights. We are at 7,400 feet elevation here.
The hospital compound itself is beautiful and quite well maintained. Its supplies are meager by Western standards, but as far as mission hospitals, it seems have to developed quite rapidly (it only opened in 2004). We got a brief tour from Ruth (a GP from the Netherlands), met some of the surgical nurses, and confirmed that there were no urgent issues before heading back to our quarters. We are staying in a house on the grounds which belongs to a "construction missionary" who is currently on leave.
We were informed that we are currently the only general surgeons, obstetricians, or orthopedists around at present. It's a good thing they told me this, because I had no idea I was an obstetrician OR and orthopedist! Even the Ethiopian surgeons will be away until Tuesday at the earliest and all the residents left this morning. We were given a list of 18 patients that Dr. Gray (General surgeon who left this morning) had typed up. It includes everything from burn patients in need of skin grafting to a 3 week old with fevers and a ventriculoperitoneal shunt (so now I'm a plastic surgeon and a neonatal neurosurgeon too!).
Well, it's off to bed soon. I think I'm over the jet lag, but we'll see in the morning when I actually have to function. I'm just praying no one feels like giving birth tonight. I'll be much more ready to play catch come morning. I'll work on attaching photos later, but our internet connectivity is very poor - uber slow dial-up or bust. I'll just be happy if I can get this e-mail sent.
-Matt
Praying...
ReplyDelete