Culture Shock - Readjusting to life in America

It's been four days since I returned home. I apologize for not posting sooner, but I'm just now getting over the jetlag and I've been at a loss for source-material. Frankly, I've been nearly catatonic from Ethiopia-withdrawl and I've had a few other things on my plate (something about a job and "doing my part to help around the house... blah, blah, blah").

The trip home added up to around 48 hours of total travel time from when we pulled away from the hospital until pulling into my frigid driveway in the arctic tundra. During this time, I slept a net three hours and drank a total of 8 cups of coffee (I'm sure these two facts are entirely unrelated). We managed to do some souvenir shopping in Addis Ababa and I spent an equal amount on chocolate in duty-free shops on three continents (nothing like paying a 50% markup to avoid 5 or 6% in taxes).

The girls were very cute and clingy when they greeted me in the airport. It was great to see tham once again. We went out for dinner in Milwaukee, and I was reminded of what dinner with cooped-up toddlers is like (I had fewer bruises from two weeks of soccer on a dirt field). We got home late on Saturday evening and I unpacked souvenirs for the girls and gave Wendy my very dirty laundry. Here is a picture of her carting them to the local laundromat.

I returned to work on Monday with a renewed perspective on how nice things are at home. I was asking questions about all the equipment in the OR (is this stuff new? Are you sure? Everything is so clean and shiny!). I also was reminded about the most prevalent features of the American medical system... acronyms and the paperwork that accompanies them (JCAHO, HIPAA, etc). It sure was nice, though, to be back with my partners, my office staff, and the nurses and scrubs that I am used to working with. You folks are wonderful and are way too kind to me.

I have been in somewhat of a state of withdrawl since coming back from Soddo (I'm sure zero-degree windchills have nothing to do with this). 95% surgery and 5% paperwork is somehow preferable to 10% surgery and 90% paperwork. I miss a lot of things about Africa (see previous post). I have coped by spending lots of time with my family, looking through my pictures again and again, and by attempting to reproduce the authentic Ethiopian coffee experience (I will post a tutorial once I have mastered the technique... for now, I'm just trying to get the smoke and carbon monoxide out of the house). Here are some photos of our helper Yeta brewing us a pot in Soddo.

Thank you to all who supported me on my journey and who feigned interest and followed my blog. It was fun to write and was hopefully entertaining to read (I would say enlightening, but that would be giving myself way too much credit). Hopefully, there will be more trips and more stories to come in the future, but nothing has been set in stone quite yet. I'll keep y'all posted.

-Matt