It’s been a long day, or rather long day and night and day, with an 11 hour time change from the west coast. The flight from the states to London is about 10 hours, then 4 hours of hanging out, then another 8 hours to Addis ( here they say only “Addis”, sort of like “Frisco” for San Francisco). We were disappointed that the Boeing 787’s were grounded, that would have been our airplane. But we made ourselves comfortable in an older 767 model that even still had ugly, stinky ashtrays in the console.
Our big worry was customs. We had heard from 2 American doctors who had recently been here in Addis, that often the only way to get medical supplies cleared was by a little cash passed under the table, and this, only after much wrangling and phone calls to the hospital people who would then call friends in the government. Our last option was to just leave everything and let the hospital figure out how to retrieve it, though this concerned us greatly for fear it would be rifled through or stolen. And we had lots of supplies to worry about (about $80,000 worth!)... boxes of cranial reconstruction tools and materials, bone wax, and gigli saws (yes, as in “giggle” but nothing to laugh at. A gigli saw is a braided wire about 16” long, with hard metal “teeth”. It has a loop at each end to which handles can be attached. When passed under the cranium via burr holes, it needs only some muscle plus see-saw action to make a clean and quick cut). Gigli saws are dinosaurs in American hospitals, but precious and essential in countries that lack funding for any ultra-modern equipment. Our game plan was to declare nothing and just head through the gates, as we had done successfully last year in Kenya. However, Ethiopia is unique in that after baggage is claimed, it is put through a scanner, and that’s when the “Secrets of the Suitcase” are revealed. I saw 2 large scanner ahead of us 2 large scanners, one with a man staring at the screen in deep concentration, the other with a young woman with… what? A BOOK? Was she really HOLDING A BOOK IN HER LAP, and engrossed in a novel she had positioned below the monitor desk??? We quickly loaded our baggage to her conveyor belt, and it spilled off on the other end as she seemed to turn the page. We loaded up our trolleys and headed out the large doors. Time for high-5’s!!!
We were met at the airport by one of the neurosurgery residents (they have a moderately new and certainly ambitious program, with 20 residents) and then delivered to our apartment, certainly basic but manageable. Wubi, a lovely young Ethiopian lady will attend to us for all our needs for the next 2 weeks, as well as wash our clothes and cook any meals we may wish. All this for about $1.15 a day!
Our next stop was to meet Dr. Mersha, head of the neurosurgery department and a delightful young doctor who manages his life via cell-phone. Since he was about to start surgery at the Black Lion Hospital, he invited us to make rounds with 6 of the residents currently on his service. The residents were sharp and well-learned, they knew the correct answer to almost every question David posed to them, and they explained some very challenging cases. The heartbreak is that most of these patients had already spent a long time in the hospital, but due to lack of equipment, such as pedicle screws to stabilize vertebrae, they must lay flat in bed for perhaps several months, waiting to fuse “naturally”.
We had eaten little on the plane, trying instead to sleep on the overnight flight, so we asked about a cafeteria. It seems there isn’t any, just a small pastry shop. Patient’s families bring all the food, beverages, linen, clothing, and whatever else is needed for comfort. Mersha invited us to join him and a dozen fellow physicians to the doctor’s lounge where the secretary, Elaine whips up a daily lunch for the surgical staff (each department feeds its own). Today she offered an international spaghetti dish (which we immediately declined) and we were overjoyed to share a platter of the Ethiopian Grand-slam Special: a blanket of injera bread, covered with portions of beans, hummus, salad, lentils, slaw, spinach and “wot”, a hot and deliciously spicey side dish. This is a daily banquet of food and friendship. In typical Ethiopian style, no silverware was offered. The soft and billowy injera is used in a scoop manner by the right hand, to bring morsel to mouth.
Wouldn’t that be one less worry for American hospitals…if they didn’t have to serve food???!!!
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| View from our apartment. Black Lion entrance is on other side of Dumpster |
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| Our very basic shower. one towel provided, no soap, no TP, shower is only source of hot water, and that's when water is avbl. Since our arrival we havealready lost all water and electricity for 4-6 hours 3 times. |
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| Daily lunch at the doctors lounge, much spirited discussion in Amharic, less English spoken than we had expected. Surgical secretary, Elaine, cooks daily and with great finesse! |
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| We were invited to Elaines small apartment where she makes anjera every evening for the surgical staff and brings it to the office. An anjera grill is about 30" across and a thin yeast batter is poured on. It is covered, cooks quickly and is served with various side accompaniments, all delicious! (electrical connections tend to be dicey) |
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| Our bedroom, and suitcases with supplies. |
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| Our little kitchen. Wubi, our room servant, offers to cook but this area is not so clean, refrigerator works but needs frequent unplugging so as not to freeze everything. We use the hot kettle for boiling water for AM coffee.There are many Ethiopian restaurants near by, average cost of meal is $3. |
