Ethiopia: STORY

TITLE: STORY

Another quick note that I meant to send Thursday… just a story from one of our clinics in Addis:

A 14 year old boy came in to the clinic and saw Dawn, one of our pediatricians from Phoenix. Working through an interpreter, he told her that he wanted to be seen for his “rare form of TB”. Dawn did a h&p on him and the story was just not making sense. She pulled in Dr. Beyda and they questioned him further and found out that both of his parents had passed away and that he was living with his grandmother. His grandmother told him that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of tuberculosis and that he needed to be on medications for the rest of his life. One day we walked by a beggar in the street and the beggar had his medicines on display with a note that said something like “Please help me – I have AIDS”. The boy looked at the medicines and realized that they were the same medications that he was on. His grandmother had not told him the truth. When he asked her, she told him that he did have AIDS but that he would have to continue to tell people that he had TB or else he would be ostracized. It was an unbelievably sad and shocking story. Although the Care Centers that Dr. Beyda works with using only enroll younger children, Dr. Beyda immediately got him enrolled in the program so that he can continue to get counseling, food, clothing, and education.

Ethiopia: WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY

Title – WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY

Hey Everyone!

Sorry 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

Ethiopia: Saturday 8-2-08 / Return from Bahir Dar

Hello again!
We 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