Ethiopia- Part III

One big part of my experience in Ethiopia, working alongside Gwen (who is a RN), exposed me to the very sad health issues many people face. We saw numerous patients with  Tuberculosis, malaria, and more. In Moga, Gwen even had to treat a little baby for TB. We didn't have a lot of AIDS patients, but Gwen knows of some. One day in Tulegit we went to see a 30-year-old man who is dying of tuberculosis. It was so sad. He pretty much lies in his hut all day, but has to creep out sometimes to use the bathroom. He claims to have had diarrhea for years. He was very swollen from the chest down and is unable to walk. They want to take him to Mizan for more treatments, but are afraid that he will die along the way.

I don't have a lot of expertise in the medical area, but was able to assist Gwen by taking notes. I also tried to be an empathetic presence for the patients, but I'm not really sure how effective that was since I don't speak their language. (however, we all smile in the same language! Corny but true)

Probably my favorite experience of the whole trip was the river baptism. Dr. Haile (pronounced highly) is a vet by profession, but in the last couple of years has spent most of his time as an evangelist. His family lives in Addis Ababa, but he lives in Tulegit and travels to nearby villages and witnesses to native people.

Our last Saturday in the bush, we traveled to nearby Maja and witnessed the baptism of 62 individuals whom Dr. Haile has worked with. It was SO COOL. We left Tulegit, in the Nissan Patrol (which seats 4 comfortably, 9 uncomfortably on bucket seats) which had probably at least 12 people in it. There was also a trailer attached which had about 25 people on it. The baptism is a big deal, everyone wants to come and join the party!

Once we arrived all of the natives were singing, dancing, drumming on water jugs, and waving huge feather-like plants. It really was a party! We all walked down to the river where the festive singing and dancing continued while John and his assistant baptized the 62 newborn Christians by dunking them each in the river.

The next day we went to church in Tulegit. My favorite part of the service was listening to the children's choir. Some of them can really sing! I also got to hold Kite's baby which was fun. He didn't even pee on me!

Aaron gave the message and Matthios translated for him.

Another highlight from the trip was our last day in  Tulegit- cattle day! Since my dad operates a feedlot (for those of you who don't know) we happen to have A LOT of cattle vaccines. Usually at the feedlot vaccinating cattle is a fairly straightforward process since you can line them up in a confined area and load them into the squeeze chute one at a time, and it only takes a few seconds before you're ready for the next one. Not the case in Tulegit. It would take three or four guys to hold onto a critter while Dad, Aaron or Dr. Haile would quickly but carefully approach to give the injection.

It was so chaotic. haha. I thought it was funny and entertaining for about 30 minutes and then started to get a little stressed that someone was going to get hurt so I had to leave. You're probably wondering why we even bothered. Well, it's difficult to explain except to say that cattle are a BIG deal to the Suri. It's a sign of wealth and power and the boys there take such pride in their herds. Oftentimes cattle constitute a bride price as well. And of course, cattle can provide people with things like food and hides. But Suri people just really like the animal itself, from my understanding.

And this is when I decided to leave. Although I do laugh a little at this picture.

The next day we had to leave to get back to Addis Ababa and then go home Friday night/Saturday. The journey back to the capitol was interesting.... we reached a place in the road where two Isuzu trucks were stuck so we couldn't pass. We took a side road (through a coffee plantation) but couldn't get through there either because some guys came out waving AK-47s saying we were trespassing and they were going to shoot out our tires if we didn't stop. Man, they were PISSED. So we got "detained" for about 90 minutes before they let us go (after a little bribe money). The situation sounds like it was really terrifying, and I think normally I would have been freaking out a little bit, but I was pretty calm. Mostly because it was totally out of my control. I couldn't communicate with the coffee men, but John and Dr. Haile talked with them (more like yelled) so all I could do was sit in the car and pray.

The next day, still on the way back to Addis, some friendly baboons approached our vehicle on the road. John threw some bread out to them, but one clever baboon noticed that John still had some bread in his hand, so he jumped in the window and was probably 2/3 in the car until John was able to shove him out. It was hilarious. Unfortunately, it all happened too quickly to get a picture.

People were selling roasted corn along the road! It was kind of dry and charred, but it was fun to try!

Well, that concludes the highlights from our trip! I could go on and on, but that would take forever and I don't want to post everything on the internet.

One more post to come about Ethiopia and how it related to my Chicago experience! Thanks for reading!