Arba Minch Photos Part 2 - Nechisar park

Arba Minch Photos - part 1 Dorze Vilage

 The view

 Traditional Dorze House

 Spinning Cotton

 Making Enset bread

 Weaving

 Pottery Lesson

 Important Game of Marbles

Dorze Lodge

cream teas Croc and Catholic Priests

Cream teas, crocs and catholic priests

Calum has just left after his two week trip to Ethiopia, which is means two things; firstly I have lots of exciting holiday type stuff to write about and secondly I’m on the home leg with only 6-7 weeks left in Ethiopia.

We spent the first few days of Calum’s trip here in Haramaya, catching up with friends and enjoying life on campus. I was also able to take the equipment Calum had bought down to distribute to the hospital. I have had 3 Life boxes, which are oxygen saturation monitors designed for resource poor settings donated by Little Lives, an Edinburgh based children’s charity run by one of my colleagues at Sick Kids. They help the help to detect hypoxia earlier than clinical signs can and are especially useful for patients undergoing anaesthetic. Initially I wanted all three from the paediatric ward but after discussion with the medical director we decided to put one in the OR, one in “intensive care/ recovery” and one in paediatrics. I made them promise to reassess how much use they are getting and redistributed if they are not being used, although whether that will happen is anyone’s guess. Calum had also brought 24 child/neonatal ambu bags with masks courtesy of Dr Morrice (also back in Edinburgh) and which will go into the labour ward paediatric ward and also to some other hospital and health centers so that the staff should have no excuse not to put into practise all the brilliant resuscitation skills we’ve taught them. They are desperately needed – only the week before I found another apnoeic, bradycardic baby on the neonatal unit. I asked the nurse to get the ambu bag, but she couldn’t find the usual one so appeared with another old thing but said she didn’t think it worked. I decided to give it a go but when I squeezed the bag the baby almost got a mouthful of cockroaches instead of a lungful of air. Needless to say we abandoned that particular ambu bag pretty quick.

Our original plan had been to stay in Haramaya for a full week, but then we were invited to the British Embassy to a garden party to celebrate the jubilee. Since we had been planning to fly to Addis anyway on the Saturday we decided to bring the flights forward to Thursday and go to the party that afternoon. It wasn’t so much the patriotic need to flag wave the attracted me, more the pull of pimms, proper wine and pastries. However there was to be no cream tea for me as we were bumped off the flight at the last minute in favour (we think) of the US ambassador who’d been at Haramaya the day before to open a radio station. Gutted is not the word. Still we ended up with some extra time in Addis and filled it very nicely by swimming at the Sheraton in their lovely heated outdoor pool, and spending the night watching Ethio jazz at the Taitu hotel which was fab.

From Addis we flew to Arba Minch which is in the South of the country. It’s totally different to any other part of Ethiopia, set in the heart of the Rift Valley with two great lakes which almost meet, separated only by the “Bridge of God” a narrow, but mountainous piece of land which forms the Nechisar national park. On the other side of Arba Minch from the lakes there are mountains covered in lush vegetation including enset and banana plants and mango trees. Its very green and tropicl feeling in comparison to other parts of the country which generally are looking much more barren at this time of year.

In Arba Minch we stayed with Father Paddy at the Catholic Mission. It was recommended to us by other volunteers but I have to admit to being a little apprehensive about it as my previous impression of the Catholic church has been one of a slightly intimidating, stuffy, out-of-touch institution. Would they mind that Calum and are were not yet married? Absolutely not! Father Paddy and Father Dennis are so hospitable and great company. They (and the fridge full of beer) really make you feel at home, and I think between them they could definitely convert the masses. Apart from the great accommodation and food they also generously provided us with use of the mission’s 4X4 to visit Dorze Village up in the mountains and Nechisar park, where we saw the biggest crocs ever! (Photos to follow). They also took us to visit Arba Minch Prison where they do a lot of development work, improving the inmates accommodation, and health care services, and providing workshops and equipment to allow them to learn a new skill and keep occupied while in prison. They were visiting the prison that day with a group of Irish Musicians on a fund raising visit, and the plan was to put on a concert. After a couple of tunes though, it was felt the locals didn’t really get the Irish music and maybe some irish ceilidh dancing would help, except they only had 3 people and needed 4. Next thing I know I’m being dragged up to do my first ever Irish ceilidh dancing in a Ethiopian prision cheered on by 2000 inmates. Thankfully they totally “got” the dancing and were very enthusiastic in their applause! It was a brilliant experience.

Thats all for now. More photos later.

Thoughts turn to Home

Oops - its been a while. Another period of dodgy internet access I'm afraid. the joys on living in Africa!! Wrote this post last week......

Last week I travelled to Addis Ababa for the VSO leaver’s conference. This is a one day work shop held to inform anyone whose placement ends in the next 6 months about the procedures and paperwork necessary before you leave. There’s quite a lot to do but it all seems fairly straightforward and I still have at least two full months to get everything finished off.

The workshop also gives you a chance to reflect on the highs and lows of volunteering and what you have achieved in your placement. It was interesting to hear everybody’s stories, good and bad. It seems that although most people have had many challenges and frustrations along the way, no one has regretted making the decision to volunteer with VSO. For me it has been a brilliant year and I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to do it. It has been incredibly tough at times, especially at the start when I really missed Calum and had no permanent accommodation which made getting settled so difficult. However I know that if I hadn’t come to Ethiopia I would have always wondered what it would have been like and wished I’d been able to find out. I have also learnt a huge amount. Not just about paediatrics in Africa (which is  an entirely different job to paediatrics in the UK in every way imaginable) but also about things that have never been part of my job before, like writing project proposals, preparing and managing budgets, running training courses, and implementing changes and new protocols. I have had a huge amount of teaching experience and have discovered that I actually quite like it and maybe medical education is something I’d like to explore more when I get home. So on the whole a year well spent. There is still sooooo much to do here though, and I will never be able to change all the things I would like. The good news is that there may be someone following in my footsteps so hopefully a new volunteer will help keep up the momentum.

After the leaver’s conference Susan and I headed West of Addis to the town of Ambo. We had a brilliant night out on the town and then went to visit Wenchi crater with a whole gang of VSO vols. Wenchi crater is an extinct volcano with a fresh water lake, and it’s absolutely beautiful. We walked the 1 ½ hours down to the crater lake then took a boat to the island in the middle on which there is a monastery. Afterwards we rode horses back up to to summit where our minibus was. It was so lovely to get our in the country side and there was hardly any hassle so it was a really relaxing way to spend the day. Photos to follow......