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.
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| Ethiopian coffee ceremony at the cultural evening |
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| 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!
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| Results of the cookery class - injera at the front of the picture |
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| 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.
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| My new bedroom |
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| The lounge |
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| Helen sits at our rather grand dining table |
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| The kitchen |
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| The bathroom |
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| The tap on the right is the one that works! |
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| View from the front balcony... |
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| ...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.
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