Friday was a half day so I got to leave at lunchtime! One of the doctors told me about a shopping mall that had a swimming pool in it, with a lovely cafe next to it that I could sit and read next to in the sun. She also mentioned that there was a supermarket down the road.

Both of these things were extremely exciting, as I had been under the impression that the only food in Addis Ababa consisted largely of onions, tomatoes, cabbage and some sort of massive leaf! Needless to say a supermarket with a wide selection of food was great – I stocked up on stuff I couldn’t get locally, but did not buy any cheese – it was astronomical! Prices are weird here – 4p for a short bus journey up to £33 per kilo of Edam cheese! To put into context, a senior nurse’s monthly wage after tax is about £75. After I had had fun in the supermarket I made a beeline for the swimming pool. It was lovely, though the chicken salad was absolutely terrible! The pool was open air surrounded by mall and fancy flats. Clearly how the other half live! It was full of well heeled Ethiopians and a smattering of expats. There are apparently a few Chinese expats here, I found out as 3 people have said I look Chinese!! The blue eyes, freckles and mousy brown hair really give the game away!

One afternoon in the hospital, one of the nurses, decided that we should make some coffee. I don’t like coffee, and told her this, but I said as we were in the land of coffee I would try some, but I may not like it. Much to my surprise she pulled out a tub of fresh coffee beans, a small pan with holes in it for ventilation, and a one ringed electric hob that she put under the table in the staff room. She then proceeded to roast the coffee beans on the floor – there was smoke and bits of burnt coffee skins everywhere! However, as in the NHS we are not allowed toasters for fear of setting the fire alarms off, I was quite jealous of the freedom! I’m not jealous of the toilets though. Bottoms are wiped on prescriptions…

After the coffee had been sufficiently roasted and amazingly we had not set the place alight, she whipped out a coffee grinder and turned it into rather chunky coffee. Then she wandered off and came back with a bunch of leaves, breaking one off and putting it in my tiny, freshly brewed, heavily sugared coffee. I made the mistake of trying the coffee (not too bad considering I don’t like coffee) before asking where the plant came from. I was told it makes the coffee taste nice (possibly true) and that she had just picked it from a ditch. Yum.

One of the other nurses came into join us for a hot drink – his favourite was tea and coffee mixed together!!! It’s called ‘spris’. Then I was fed injera directly into my mouth whether I liked it or not! Unfortunately I was not really expecting this so a lot of injera went all over the floor, mixing in with bits of roadside plant and coffee skins.

I started at the hospital on Wednesday after getting a Ride taxi (Ethiopia’s answer to Uber) to work. I arrived in the car park with no idea where to go, as all the signs were in Amharic, which has a different alphabet. After asking a bunch of people where to go, I finally found the clinic. The hospital was a lot bigger than I was expecting, with big gaggles of doctors in white coats but very casual clothing milling around. The clinic is a large room with 3 consultation desks and a bed half behind a screen in the corner. The patients get seen in the room at the same time, confidentiality is clearing less of a priority here!

I sat in with one of the physiotherapists first, who is responsible for testing patients’ nerve sensations and motor skills. Leprosy damages skin and nerves causing contractions, dry skin, nerve pain and the inability to feel pain or heat, which results in injury. It is easily treated with a course of antibiotics, after which the person is no longer contagious. However, the immune system can’t react against the dead bacteria for years after, causing flair ups of nerve pain and loss of sensation. The clinic treats patients with antibiotics as well as managed their nerve reactions, which are considered a medical emergency in some instances. This is because if they are not managed quickly, the patient can develop paralysis or blindness.

I am writing this blog in short bursts as I do not seem to be able to save anything on my phone… more later!

Monday and Tuesday were spent pottering around the local area, trying not to get lost and sampling local injera. I went on a processions with a girl from my accommodation- she is Ethiopian but has lived in Holland since she was 15 so had a good understanding of Europe and Africa. Everyone wears white for Timkat processions, but I just wore normal clothes and a pink scarf. Apparently everyone in the crowd was telling my friend to buy me a white scarf as mine was wrong! We processed along for a good while and stopped in a bar for a non alcoholic coffee flavoured malt beer – nicer than it sounds! Eventually pottered back and I got some more injera for dinner. My accommodation is up a dust track so I don’t want to get back after dark, however, this results in me having a curfew of 6.30pm! Not ideal really!

I am staying in an Airbnb. Accommodation across Addis seemed to vary enormously, with price and quality not appearing to match up at all, as far as I could tell from the UK.

Therefore, I felt lucky when I hit upon a cheap but nice looking private bed and bathroom with a shared kitchen and courtyard in a little apartment block.

When I arrived I discovered that whilst it was not as swish as the photo (which is what I expected after 7 years of renting in London), it really wasn’t bad and the courtyard was lovely, with lots of flowers and plants around the edge. The kitchen left a lot to be desired, both in cleanliness and quantity and quality of utensils! The kettle is terrifying – a metal on the hob type with the handle split in two across the middle, and no oven gloves! Two tiny pieces of mucky rag are all that saves you from blistered fingers! However, some of the ladies in the accommodation have taken pity on me due to my fear of the kettle, and have assisted me with the stressful bit of pouring my tea.

There were a couple of skirmishes in the courtyard at the end of last week. The first night I heard a man yelling that someone had to ‘get out, get out of my room NOW!’ and was informed the next day by my gossip source (an Ethiopian refugee who lived in Boston) that the man in room 9 had a prostitute over and then had a tremendous argument with her about the price. She only left when he threatened to ‘chop her into little pieces’. Then the next day I heard a lot of roaring. It sounded like there was a lion loose! My gossip source told me that it was the prostitute hiring man roaring in his bedroom. God knows why! He did it all day. I heard on the apartment grapevine he ‘does weights’ but I do not think this is a very good excuse!

The final straw (largely for the apartment staff who get lumbered with the problems) was when he same roaring, prostitute hiring man came back in a taxi, drunk at 8am and somehow managed to escalate a row about a taxi fare into hitting the guard with a stick! It was all very tense. Everyone was coming out of their rooms to see what was going on. I peeled out of my bedroom window. Thankfully, the roaring man apologised and left the apartment block for good. I think he probably got kicked out. I’m very glad that all the weirdness was from one man, otherwise I would have moved out by now!

The only interest in the last few days Re: accommodation is that ‘you do have hot water in your shower madam, you just have to run it very slowly’. Hmmm. It’s not even my idea of hot water when it’s run at a dribble!

I am spending 2 months in a hospital in Addis Ababa learning about leprosy and helping to improve the hospital’s self care teaching provision for patients.

Leprosy is an infectious disease of the nerves and the skin. It is one of the oldest diseases that we know about. It is contagious, but not nearly as contagious as people think.

Transmission is probably due to nasal droplets but requires very long periods of close contact to be transmitted. People have been known to catch leprosy from a minimum of 2 years after exposure to a maximum of 30 years after exposure. Also, 95% of people have an immune system such that they are unable to contract leprosy. Furthermore, leprosy is a curable disease, and if caught early the patient will make a full recovery with no nerve damage. Sadly this happens less often than it should.

Leprosy is treated with 3 antibiotics for a year, but a couple of days after the first dose the person is no longer contagious. Sadly the stigma is so great that many people fear diagnosis, unintentionally making the situation worse for themselves and others.