12/29: a varied day

They want me to go to surgery, but cases are very routine and I am not interested. One of consultants is to meet with medical students to discuss head trauma. I invite myself to join him and suggest a "dog and pony show". He does not seem to understand the idiom, but I go with him. He starts out, but very didactically and I cannot resist kindly offering to add some comments. Of douse I end up engaging the class and they would not let me go for two hours. I was exceedingly impressed with their fund of knowledge and willingness to engage in Socratic dialogue. There were three obviously Muslim women, 10-12 other women and perhaps 15 men. They were totally attentive and taking profuse notes.



After class I go to my apartment to see if Wubi, my housekeeper found all of my laundry from the past week. It was already washed and hung to dry, bed made, and she was making my lunch. She asks that I pay her 100 birr ($6) each friday. She leaves me a note in perfect English accounting for the money she spent at the market and asks me to leave a note each day whether I want Ethiopian or European food.

I return to surgery. There is an emergency and they want me to scrub with the first year resident. However I wait around for nearly three hours and they still have not begun, so I enlist one of the senior residents to help.

After a brief nap I decide to take minibus to one of the hotels where they have wifi. Spend some time catching up and then another minibus to one of the six Tuesdays in addis (2 complexes of 3 each). For $2.15 (plus .40 for popcorn) I see The Tourist.

Return to a wonderful Swiss restaurant near my apartment for dinner and a relaxing evening with a book.