Life here marches on... as does the road construction in Korah... These little goats caught my eye here against the pink restaurant..

It was a bit of a gray rainy day for house calls but it was a good day.. last visit for N. all the complications from her C-section- are all cleared up now finally 1 month later

Gate to her home....

Beside the hospital is a little café where we go for coffee.. nothing like fresh roasted beans!

Been growing basil and mint in my garden to flavor my water... sometimes getting enough fluid is abit of a challenge

Went to a colleagues home for a baby visit... what I didn't realize was that there is a traditional food that you need to eat on baby visits.... okay I now have a new worst food ever... its kinda like cold congealed porridge hollowed into a volcano that has melted butter and spices in it!!  I have never been so glad for my driver to call and say we had to leave early....

This was a rainy morning at the SOS childrens village for mobile clinics.  Right after this photo my umbrella mysteriously broke while being babysat by these boys... no hard feelings but I am needing to go umbrella shopping in my near future as rainy season has started with a vengeance

This little guy was full of smiles

Last week Nicole and I were riding a bus home and like usually it was packed like sardines. A women got on a stop and started talking to us. Turns out she is a nurse educator at one of the other hospitals.  It was a great connection and she is so lovely.  She invited me to come to church with her on the Sunday and since Nicole was gone for the weekend I added her church service to my Sunday Morning.  It was an experience.. It was an English service at a little chapel.. I was the only person for about the first 1/2 hour and then it filled up a bit more.. like maybe 10 more people.  It was very encouraging and enthusiastic.  So glad to be open to these encounters and meeting new people- Had a great visit at her hospital as well, later that week.

Expanded my baking horizons last week with some Chocolate Zuccini cake.. thankfully the power went off just after it came out -)

Was privileged this past week to organize and lead a mass antibiotic campaign in Korah.  Trachoma is an endemic condition there- it is chlamydia of the eye spread by flies.  Due to the large amounts of garbage, open sewage ect in the area there are large amounts of flies and the incidence of trachoma is high. Trachoma causes the eyelashes to grow inward and scratch the cornea leading to blindness. While ultimately improved sanitation and good hygiene is the best deterrent to the spread of the disease once a year treatment of Azithromycin is also part of the World Health Organizations recommendations for controlling the spread of the disease.  Based on the weights that a previous team had completed on the beneficiaries of the program we were able in advance work out all the dosing for more than 250 people.  Then one morning we went to the breakfast program and dosed all the kids, went to the elders home and the day care and did the same. In under 2 hours we were able to treat 191 people. 

Ah bus travel..(Left) here Nicole sits backwards on the divide between the driver and the rest of the bus.. I was perched precariously in the steps down toward the door... (right)- small pit stop to replace the tire

I am realizing that its good this isn't a true Muslim country because curly hair and headscarfs are not always the best of friends

Saturday Mornings in the Korah Youth Complex.. These girls schooled me at memory...

My little friends and I made popcorn for the kids... we gave up on the charcoal stove and used the hotplate and did small batches.. pretty sure I would starve cooking on charcoal...

Even though I am holding the Egyptian Flag I apparently don't look Egyptian.. got asked by a waitress to leave a table this week as it was reserved for the Egyptian Party

Views from my desk.. resumes, formaldehyde and a tea mug I have not dared look in in about 1 month...

Misty views from my room... don't let people fool you.. Africa is hot Ethiopia is not !!  Living in a concrete home in 10degrees is a little chilly!!!

 

 

This past week I finally delved into the Ethiopian Postal system... a post office opened up right across from our office so I sent a trial run of 5 cards.... if they get there let me know. There was a bit of confusion.. Where is Canada? Is it in the US?  It will cost 9 birr to send... but it is hard to make the stamps add up to 9... I said I could afford the extra 1 Birr($ 0.06)it was okay if I had to pay 10 birr($0.66) If these reach their final destination  I would love to post more so if you send me your address by email (mel_w@mail.com) a post card may be headed your way

 Nicole and I spend a few hours each day last week sorting the donation room.  At some point over 1/2 container worth of supplies had been offloaded into a room ( the other half is still in the container)... no organization.. you could not see the floor.  We opened up each box (each would have very random offerings) and sorted according to surgical specialty(ortho, gyne, urology ect) and other categories such as active physio, homecare and rehab.  It was a bit of an eye opener to 1st world giving.  From working in a hospital I am pretty familiar to the boxes labeled "for a 3rd world country", - you put stuff that is expired, things you don't need ect in it.  But the reality is that most of that stuff is no more useful here then at home..  Meds expire for a reason, past a certain time you can not ethically use them as their efficacy is impacted, boxes of IV tubing do no good without the matching IV cannulas which they fit into, bair hugger blankets do no good without the accompanying machine.  Also a large portion of the donations I think were from a rehab shop going out of business... thank you for the crutches and wheelchairs and ankle braces but I think we would be been okay without the ice crampons for canes, the 3000 pairs of compression stockings, and the SAD lights.   A lot of these donations are not anything that I have not wanted to give at some point as well and I think really drove home the point for me of point of care donation screening, researching local needs, and the need to try find local sourcing for items.

 We also discovered a great bin of kids stuff... this will get donated to the kids souk at Hope for Korah where they earn points by doing completing tutoring ect and then can spend their points on things in the souk.  I have yet to figure out what we will do with the Cotton Candy Machine and bouncy castle that were also in the bin......

 Nicole and I taking a break from the paperwork and sorting to cut plastic aprons(for the OR, housecleaners, morgue) out of the king sized plastic mattress covers that we found.

 

Highlight of this past week was a visit from a good friend.  Marissa has been working along side the Nile in rebel held territory in South Sudan for the past few months. On her way home she had to fly through Addis and so added a few days to her layover.  As she has been living in the desert for the past months I thought a trip out of the city to the lush countryside would be a good treat. Having worked Mon-Friday for the past two months (that's hard for a shift work girl!!) I took Friday off and we headed to Debra Ziet.  We minibused the 1 hour back road trip there and then took a Bajaj (TukTuk) the last 8kms.  

 

 We stayed the Lakeview Lodge on Lake Babagoya-

 

 

This is a great place... we were the only guests (benefit of sneaking in a trip before rainy season).  This great hut on stilts was our room.. The first floor has chairs and a table and then you climb another ladder to the bedroom.  in the bottom right you will see one of the resident tortoises

 

They had kayaks there and Marisa and I popped our bags in our room and headed out right away.  While we were out the wind came up. the clouds turned a little black and thunder sounded in the distance.  We paddled through the white caps and made it back to shore just as the clouds opened up.  We jumped in the lake and had one of the best swims of my life.  the drops of rain were so huge and coming down so hard they bounced on the surface creating a mist that hovered about 6 inches from the water.

 

 The rain didn't last to long and we caught a minibus into town.  Once we got there tho the rain started up.. we ducked into a tent set up on the side of the road and enjoyed a cup of coffee with some locals before heading out to check out the local market.  Well Debra Ziet is not an uncommon day trip from Addis we were the only white people we saw all day.. as we walked through the market you could hear the chatter going ahead of us about the "forengys" that were in the market

 Certain parts were an absolute mud hole.  Marissa and I garnered more attention then usual as we slipped and slided through the vegetable section lots of gasps and laughter each time we almost fell

 Morning breakfast with a view

 Nicole came down from Addis saturday morning to join us and we did another gander through the market.  Saturday is Market Day so in addition to the regular market which as more permanent stalls on Saturdays people from all the surrounding countryside come and set up tarps with their wares to sell.  Each street has a theme.. grains, veges, goats ect

 We climbed a hill to the church to get a view over the city

 Swimming and more kayaking filled our relaxing afternoon..    I must say in Canada I have never had someone jump out of a boat to swim to my kayak for the sole purpose of talking to me and then attempting to get in my kayak with me.... Back home I look out  more for rogue seals that might come to close lol

 

 Sunday morning we joined the vegetables, goat and random people for the minibus ride back to Addis and Marissa continued on her journey home.  I feel like that between her work and mine our visits for the future will continue to be stolen days in countries far away from the ER where we met.  

 

Monday I went with one of the doctors to the SOS children village here in Addis. It is an orphanage with a family focus. Rather then a large home with many children. There is 20 "homes" on the compound each with 10 children, a house mom and aunt.  This was the children are raised more in a family structure. We are going to partner with them to provide annual health checkups, weekly clinics and health education for the house moms.  In their kindergarten there is a play house corner.. I though this doll doing a coffee ceremony was super cute.

 .  Was challenged by this quote a friend of mine had posted to be focused on my own purpose and pray to be used by God in the place where he has placed me. To be excited for the work He is doing through others and not compare and be discouraged by lack of progress.

"We wouldn't be distracted by comparison if we were captivated by purpose, Purpose is given and we choose to receive it by "living in a manner worthy of the calling we heave received" Purpose is that thing that lights you up, lights God up and gives light to the world.  (Audrey Roloff)

Post lunch coffee... I am not an incense person but there is something about the coffee incense that is so wonderful

Thanks everyone for your prayers and texts this past week!! We finally got not only our work permits approved but also our residency cards.. Three trips to various government offices this week but they are in our hands and good for a year!!!!

I also figure if my day job pans out I could get a job writing government forms.. they seem to not mind some creative spelling... creative spelling is my specialty!! Also the picture on the left was taken in one of the rooms where you wait in line (each trip requires three separate rooms with their own lines... how our paperwork doesn't get lost, eaten by mice or burned in an electrical fire is beyond me!!

This week we had the privilege of having a Cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic come out for a few days. He saw about 25 patients including some of the Hope for Korah participants.  This little guy is so cute and close to my heart. He is 6 years old, has downs syndrome and is the happiest, huggy little boy I know here.  As with most downs kids they have heart defects and pulmonary hypertension. He went to Kenya two years ago but unfortunately he was deemed inoperable.  Dr Michel was able to do an echo tho and adjust his meds, with medical management his prognosis sadly is only about three years. . 

Besides a Cardiologist we had a Vascular Surgeon come for three days. In those three days we did 20 life saving AV fistula formation surgeries.  There is no vascular surgeon in the country so those here who need renal dialysis have central lines which are a huge infection risk as well as limited in the length that they can be used.  It was a such a struggle emotionally as the 20 who got their surgeries were so incredibly grateful and hopeful for their future but those who were turned away were so heartbroken. It was so hard saying no, you can not have surgery, as the reality is that they those who did not get the surgery may not be alive by the time we can get another vascular surgeon to come. 

 

Nicole and I tried out Cactus Pears this week... they were good.. lots of seeds tho

Road construction in Korah is coming along.... not fast enough though I think.. rainy season is soon to be upon us and I dread the days of slogging through mud(just call it mud and don't think about what else is in it).  I know I posted about the Hope for Korah Leadership retreat a  few weeks ago but Eve the founder just posted about it to in her blog.. here is the link.. check it out for that and more info about HFK (click the home button on the left)

The video will not load unfortunately but this Sunday Nicole and I had a little to much trust in the blue sky and had been lulled in to complacency by the last two weeks of sunshine.  After church we were caught in crazy rain!! We got soaked waiting for a mini bus, thankfully were in the bus during the hail and then trudged through the rivers coming down the road as we transferred bus... I think the umbrella shall be my most faithful companion in the next few months