I write this in the sun on the lawn of the Ghion hotel. I am surrounded by palm trees, and a wedding party! There is a lot of dancing, drum beating and high heels. The hotel grounds are amazing, flower beds full of succulents, jacaranda trees (full of purple flowers) and the odd fountain, that only seems to be turned on when the wedding party is near it.
I came to have a sit in the cafe, and ended up sharing my table with a very interesting professor of software from Austria. She had created some sort of health app for illiterate women helping them get help surrounding childbirth. She told me all about Ethiopian weddings. Apparently they will all go to church, then make their way to the ghion hotel for photos, traditional dances and a snack. It is too expensive to eat at, so they will go elsewhere for the main wedding meal, but all the wedding photos will be at the hotel in the gardens. I realised I had seen the wedding party on my way to the hotel – a limousine came past me honking away with the bride and groom standing up through the sunroof waving. There were 4 professional cars after them!
Yesterday I went to central Addis for the first time – the piazza which is quite touristy. I had a tea in the famous coffee shop tomoko (Italian originally I think) which is some sort of institution, though they have no chairs so it’s a sort of leanfin against the bar kind of affair. I also went to the ethnological museum- reportedly Africa’s finest. It was pretty good, though the power went out so I had to see some of it by iPhone torch. It goes through the life of an Ethiopian chronologically talking about milestones in life and how they are celebrated/carried out, with emphasis on some of the more rural tribal areas.
Work is going well. I feel I am understanding how the hospital works a little better now, though I am finding Amharic very difficult to learn! I have attended some ward rounds, seeing dermatology patients who have been admitted – often for leprosy or cutaneous leishmaniasis. The pathology here is vastly different from the UK and much more advanced as patients often delay going to hospital for a variety of reasons – lack of funds, use of traditional healers, incorrect diagnoses from other places.
I am also starting to see how the leprosy patients are treated – they are seen in the ulcer clinic, some get reconstructive surgery on their hands and sadly amputations too. Lots of the leprosy patients are extremely poor, struggling with agricultural work and hand/foot disabilities or begging. Some are doing better though, and have less or no disability.
I have also spent sometime in the occupational health department, where patients are rehabilitated through exercise to enable them to eat, turn keys etc and gain strength in their hands. THey are also taught how to avoid injury to their insensitive hand and feet – the main cause of disability in leprosy. It’s very well done, they have a board of different things to practice on – different styles of key and taps etc. I saw one lady get discharged from the clinic – she was told to go home and practice in her life normally. There were a lot of smiles and kissing of hands.
I visited some of the other areas of the hospital and also a social organisation that helps with the social organisation of leprosy. I went into the neonatal intensive care unit, which was kept at a very hot temperature for all the little babies. It was lovely! Our clinic is in the shade so I get quite chilly in the mornings. Nights here are chilly: 7-12 degrees and obviously there’s no heating (partly as it’s not needed – it’s 25 degrees in the day time). The babies were extremely cute, with a pair of tiny twins who looked very underweight. Most babies there were premature of low weight apparently. One very sad case was a baby with a lot of health problems and no mother – she had died. I think the baby may die too.
I have been introduced to the hospital service buss it takes staff to and from work every day for free!! It’s so good, though I have yet to successfully catch it in the morning.
One of the doctors took me to a very fancy Italian supermarket. It looked like Waitrose had been polished for the queen! In Ethiopia they are very keen on how their produce is displayed so even on stalls which are no more than a rug on the floor, all the tomatoes etc will be placed in rows and pyramids. The supermarket was no exception – every label was exactly facing the front. It makes the whole thing look slightly fake when we are used to jars turned any which way! Anyway, I treated myself to some cheese and olives and salad.
Anna’s adventures 