Well, I am leaving for Ethiopia on Monday, July 28th! We leave on United Airlines at 8am to Washington, DC. Then we fly direct from DC at 8:30pm ET on Ethiopian Airlines and arrive in Addis Ababa at 7pm on Tuesday, July 29th. For the return, we leave Addis Ababa at 10pm on August 7th, traveling through Washington again and return back into Phoenix on August 8th at 8pm. I have been told that we will have wireless access so I plan to post pictures and comments to this blog as often as possible. I will also be checking email and skype voicemail (310-929-7311) so feel free to post comments, send emails or leave voice messages! My iphone may even work but that voicemail will be hard to check.
I know that many of you are worried about me and want to keep in touch and monitor my progress. My hotel information is:
Global Hotel
P.O. Box 255465 Code 1000
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Telephone: +251-1-4664766/4169388
Fax: +251-1-4673422
Email: globalhotel@ethionet.et
Dr. Beyda will also be carrying world phones and his information is:
1. Dr. Beyda’s World Wide Cellular: 602-228-8983
2. Dr. Beyda’s UK world phone: 011 44 7872 856304 (direct dial from the US)
3. Email: dbeyda@mindspring.com (email will be checked periodically.)
I just saw an email to one of our team members from a friend who just returned (with Doctors Without Borders). He said that Addis Ababa was pretty amazing and that the people were very nice. We are traveling as a group at all times so I am sure I will be safe. I have been told that one day we will even be meeting with the President of Ethiopia. We plan to run a clinic each day (with the exception of Sunday) and are traveling north for one of those days. I will keep you posted on our progress! I look forward to adding to this blog and hearing from all of you!
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M,
ReplyDeleteGood Luck on this very exciting trip and yes we are worried, but I'm sure this will be a rewarding and safe experiance.
Love Dad
Your itinerary sounds extremely busy. We look forward to hearing about your adventures in Africa
ReplyDeleteLove, Ellen
I love you. Can you post photos? I like seeing your face.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike,
ReplyDeleteIt's 5 AM DST here. Drop us a note or blog so we can be part of your experience. All is well here, how are you.
Love You, Dad
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear all is well. David was making plans to sell off your shoe collection. I told him it was premature but he does not listen (you know). In all seriousness, be safe while doing good deeds. Even Lois is pulling for you to save lives.
Safe travels,
Scott
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteMichael, Daniel, and I went to see Ringo and his All Star band last night. It was a lot of fun. Michael said it was one of the best concerts he attended. Thank you.
Please continue to take care of yourself and try to avoid the usual hazards (e.g., civil war, border wars, genocide, and famine).
Scott
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHey Everyone!
ReplyDeleteSorry it took me so long to write! As you could guess, the internet has been pretty unreliable here. But I am safe and sound and Africa is pretty amazing. Here is the story so far…
Monday was a long travel day. First we flew to DC and had a 5 hour layover. Then we got on Ethiopian Airlines and settled in for our 15 hour flight. The flight is so long that we had to make a fuel stop in Rome. But, we weren’t allowed off the plane for an hour! The airline was pretty basic but it really didn’t matter because all I wanted to do was sleep! We finally arrived in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa at 8pm and then had to get our visas, get through customs (with drugs and needles!) and then get a ride to the hotel. We had a quick dinner bite and then hit the sack. Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep since I had been sleeping off and on for the last 24 hours.
But, we had to be up at 6am for our first clinic in a suburb of Addis Ababa. Since I was the team pharmacist and had yet to set my eyes on the drugs, I was anxious to get started. It took us about 2 hours to get the pharmacy set up, organized and drugs labeled then we were off and running. We say over 400 patients on our first day. The kids were absolutely adorable and thankful for all our help. There is so much need here that it is hard to put in words. The conditions in the city are beyond our comprehension. But the people are so nice and appreciative and helpful. I have been working with a local pharmacist to help with some of the translation and she is wonderful. Amharic is the local language and is a derivitive of Italian and some strange African language.
Today we had another clinic in the same spot and we saw over 500 (yes, 500) patients, some very sick and some very curious. Tomorrow we are headed north to a city called Bahir Dar so I will have more stories soon. (My internet is giving me trouble so I need to call this one quits.)
I am safe and doing well so don’t worry. I miss you all and promise to write again soon.
Love, Michelle
Hello again!
ReplyDeleteWe just returned from Bahir Dar in northern Ethiopia. It was an exhausting trip. We left yesterday morning on a small plan. There was only 5 of us (the other five went on a road trip to a small village south). As to be expected in Ethiopia, our plane left late so we didn’t even have time to set up and sort our drugs before the clinic opened. The conditions in this northern town were so bad and the children were so sick it was heartbreaking. Let’s start with yesterday… we saw about 130 patients (since we only had ½ the team and were running for only ½ day this was a lot). The majority of them were extremely malnourished. We set up at about 12:30 and ran clinic until about 5pm. Then we left for our hotel which was on Lake Tana. It was a beautiful setting but we were so tired, we only had dinner and then headed for bed.
We opened clinic again today at 8am. When we arrive at our location, there was a line of people waiting at the gate. It was the poorest of the poor and many had been waiting all night for us to arrive. Dr. Beyda explained that these were people from the Tana Tribe and that they had traveled far to see us (many of them with no shoes). Their personal hygiene was so extremely poor and the malnutrition was even worse than yesterday. There were so many adults that we ended up having one doctor see adults and the other two focus on the kids. Dr. Beyda was the adult physician. His last patient of the day was a 90 year old man who asked him for medication to help him die. There were so many times during the day that I wanted to cry but we all held it together well. We intended to only see 100 kids today but we couldn’t turn our backs on these people. We ended up seeing about 130 again during our ½ day clinic.
After we closed shop, we took an excursion to the Nile Falls which are at the mouth of the Blue Nile River. It was an tough drive through rough terrain. All the while, we were passing through small villages with masses and masses of sheep-herders and farmers all living in the most dismal conditions. Since today is Saturday, it was market day for these people so we were constantly having to slow down to allow goats and donkey wagons and masses were always in the road (I am not sure they have seen a truck in days). We parked at a spot near the river and then hiked up about 45 minutes to the falls. It was breath-taking. A very interesting end to an emotionally exhausting day. We flew back to Addis and grabbed a quick bite to eat.
I promise to write more tomorrow.
Love, Michelle