Goodbye Addis Ababa, Hello Haramaya University

It's been a busy week!  The last few days of our in-country training in Addis Ababa were good fun, and included a pub quiz and a cultural evening (great band and very talented dancers), as well as more language tuition and information about our various placements.

Ethiopian coffee ceremony at the cultural evening

Ethiopian traditional dancers

We had a health sector workshop last Thursday which was led by current volunteers and included a session from an Addis-based Neonatologist about developing neonatal care in Ethiopia.  The statistics surrounding maternal and newborn health here are striking – a woman has a 1 in 67 lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy and childbirth, and 40% of child deaths occur in the first month of life.  Two current VSO volunteers told us about their incredible work in developing a neonatal unit in the south of the country – they started with an empty room and are hoping to open the unit in a couple of weeks.  We also heard from a representative from the Ministry of Health who acknowledged that working in the health sector can be very frustrating.  Supplies of drugs and equipment are often available but in a warehouse rather than in the hospital where you need them. 


After our language tuition last Saturday morning (getting to grips with conjugating regular and irregular verbs...) we went into Addis to shop for equipment for our new accommodation.  As our flat is well equipped, I took the advice of a current volunteer and bought some dried milk and custard powder - apparently good comfort food and difficult to get hold of outside Addis.  Each volunteer received a box of supplies from VSO which includes an electric stove, kerosene stove, water filter, blankets and mosquito net.  There was a demonstration of how to cook on a kerosene stove which included a tasting session afterwards.  A typical Ethiopian meal includes injera (a type of flat ‘bread’ with a crumpet-like texture) that is served with vegetables and various stews.  Lentils and chickpeas are popular, and beef seems to be the most commonly found meat.  After the shopping, some of us went to a German Beer Garden, certainly a hangout for expats and wealthy Ethiopians but it was great to eat some European food!

 

Results of the cookery class - injera at the front of the picture

Demonstration of how to put together a water filter

I left Addis Ababa early on Tuesday morning.  I flew to Dire Dawa with Susie, a lovely volunteer midwife who has been working at Haramaya University for 12 months.  We were collected from the airport and drove for about an hour to Haramaya University main campus where all five of the VSO volunteers live.  We shared the road with other vehicles, pedestrians, goats, cattle and camels!  The scenery was beautiful and the sense of space was great after a couple of weeks in Addis.  The main university campus is very green and well equipped with a couple of small shops, a staff lounge, swimming pool, a bank and a post office (hoping to open a postbox on Monday...).  Helen and I are sharing a large three bedroom apartment which is really quite plush in many ways – fridge/freezer, internet access and a better television than mine in the UK (some would say not difficult!).  In other ways it is very basic – we have one tap that works and gives us water for about two hours each day.  I am perfecting the art of washing using a bucket and a jug!  Everyone has been very friendly and we are really lucky to have three current volunteers to show us the ropes.  They have introduced us to some of their Ethiopian friends and they have met several other expatriates at the university during their time here. 


My new bedroom

 

 

 

The lounge

 

Helen sits at our rather grand dining table

 

The kitchen

 

The bathroom

The tap on the right is the one that works!

View from the front balcony...

...and from the balcony at the back

I visited the health campus and hospital in Harar with Susie yesterday.  There is a bus that leaves the main campus at 7am each morning and returns from Harar at around 5.45pm.  The journey takes about 45 minutes.  The lecture rooms and clinical skills areas are located on the health campus where I will share an office with Susie.  The hospital is about a 10 minute walk from there.  Unfortunately I was unable to meet any of the doctors yesterday as today is Meskel (Ethiopian Orthodox Christian festival – ‘the finding of the true cross’) so many people weren’t around.  Susie did give me a brief tour of the hospital and the paediatric department.  Things are very basic and there is no running water.  There was just one baby on the neonatal unit but I am sure that Jo, the previous volunteer paediatrician, would be really pleased to see that he was having regular observations.  There were only nurses and medical students on the ward but hopefully I’ll meet the doctors tomorrow and have a more formal introduction to the department.  I plan to spend the first couple of weeks meeting people and getting to know how things work.  I think a good approach will be to view every challenge as an opportunity!

   

Two of the other VSO volunteers (who we met at our in-country training) are visiting this weekend.  I hope to meet everyone in Harar tomorrow evening and watch the local ritual of men feeding hyenas.  We plan to visit the old walled city on Saturday, apparently fascinating with 368 alleyways within one square kilometre. 
 
I will be in touch again soon with more news and photographs.

Tena yistillign!

It is now a week since I arrived in Addis Ababa for ‘in-country training’ before beginning my placement in the east of Ethiopia.  The 35 new VSO volunteers come from seven countries (UK, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, the Philippines, Kenya and Uganda) and will mainly be working in education, health and engineering environments.  Our in-country training is being co-ordinated by three current volunteers, one of whom has been in Ethiopia for five years which is surely a good sign!  We have had daily language tuition as well as sessions on the cultural, political, economic and developmental context in Ethiopia.  There has been plenty of advice about the practicalities of life as a volunteer and the trainers have worked really hard to set us up with mobile phones and internet access.



The Ethiopian Red Cross Training Institute, location of the 'in-country training'

Back to school for Amharic lessons

Last Friday we had our first trip into the city.  This took the form a scavenger hunt with small teams each being given a list of tasks to perform.  Our first task was to take a ‘line taxi’ (overcrowded public minibus, similar to a Kenyan matatu) to a nearby shopping centre.  All went well until we asked for the bill – I thought I’d grasped numbers in Amharic but none of us had a clue what was being said!  Other tasks included buying half a kilo of bananas, buying a newspaper (surprisingly difficult – ended up asking in a bank and being given a paper from July 2011...) and making a call from a public telephone box (not to be recommended...).  A huge thunderstorm and power cut gave us a realistic introduction to life in Ethiopia.  There have been several short power cuts since and internet access is certainly intermittent.  Afterwards we all met in a bar near the VSO Programme Office where I enjoyed my first Ethiopian gin and tonic (about 30p and very drinkable!).  We then spent the evening at an Ethiopian restaurant and cultural show which was very touristy but fun. 





A very wet Addis Ababa



Making our first gin and tonics...



...and enjoying them

We were invited to a reception at the British Embassy on Tuesday evening which was very enjoyable.  The Embassy sits in beautiful grounds that contrast starkly with the fumes and chaos  outside.  We were made to feel very welcome and valued by the Ambassador, and it was great to meet representatives from other organisations such as the British Council.  The red wine and canapés were also much appreciated!

Dressed up for the reception at the British Embassy

 

Yesterday was my best day so far.  We were able to arrange a visit to the Black Lion Hospital (the largest teaching/referral hospital in Ethiopia) through Phillip, an American Neonatal Nurse Practitioner who is also staying here at the Ethiopian Red Cross Training Institute.  He is in Ethiopia for four weeks and working as part of a longstanding relationship between the Vermont-Oxford network (an international network of neonatal units which seeks to improve neonatal care across the globe) and the Black Lion Hospital.  Although the neonatal unit was crowded and cockroach-infested, it was really inspiring to see how much Phillip and his team have achieved through being consistent and by thinking laterally.   We were introduced to a very dynamic and capable paediatrician who is keen for us to visit the Black Lion again and happy to be a source of advice.  Afterwards I learnt that I will definitely living on the Haramaya University campus with Helen, another new volunteer who will be working on Continuous Professional Development for teachers.

Electric stoves heat the Neonatal Unit - important not to trip over them!



The mother of a premature baby keeps him warm in the 'Kangaroo Mother Care' room

Construction of the new Radiology Department at the Black Lion Hospital

Today we have a health sector workshop which will introduce the structure of healthcare in Ethiopia and give us the opportunity to meet current health volunteers.  One of the doctors from my hospital will come to Addis tomorrow so I can meet him together with VSO Programme Office staff - I was pleased to hear that the staff at the hospital are expecting me and are looking forward to my arrival next week! 

Less than a week to go...

It is now just under a week until I’ll board a flight to Addis Ababa and begin my 12 month placement as a volunteer paediatrician with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in Harar, Ethiopia.  My journey with VSO began about a year ago with an online application to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)/VSO fellowship scheme, a programme that enables UK paediatric trainees to share their skills and improve outcomes for some of the worlds' most vulnerable children.  A selection day followed and I have since attended residential pre-departure training, as well as a more specific global child health course.  Contact with recent volunteers has been invaluable in helping me to prepare for what lies ahead.  I feel inspired by the incredible people that I have met on my journey so far and look forward to meeting many more in Ethiopia.

It has been strange not to be part of the annual rotation to new paediatric posts within the Severn Deanery but I am very much looking forward to spending a year in a completely different setting.  It is hard to imagine what life will be like (and therefore what is most useful to pack!) but I hope that I will soon adapt to my new surroundings.  I will initially spend ten days completing ‘in-country training’ at the VSO Office in Addis Ababa.  Most importantly this will give me the opportunity to get to know the other new volunteers and help us to understand the culture (and language...) of the Ethiopian people.  After this orientation I understand that I will fly to Dire Dawa in the east of the country and complete the rest of the journey to Harar by road.  I hope that I will be sharing accommodation with the other new VSO volunteer, Helen, and that the three current VSO volunteers will help us settle in to a very different lifestyle.  I am sure that my first visit to the hospital will be quite overwhelming but hope that I will be able to work with local colleagues to identify how my skills will be best utilised.

Thank you all for your support and good wishes over the past month or so.   I will be in touch again soon from Ethiopia and look forward to sharing my adventures with you.