Ethiopian Christmas, January 7

Today is Ethiopian Christmas, which I have been dreading as most shops are closed, no hospital work, etc; turned out to be best day so far.

Let’s start with yesterday, Xmas eve. There are goats and sheep all over the streets.  Gifts are not a part of this holiday.  Family is.  It is traditional for the family to all get together.  They buy a goat or sheep.  The father slaughters it as everyone watches.  He prepares it and then the mother cooks it.  At Rick’s house, the boys will buy a goat, take it to the house he rents for the older boys (his house is kosher), slaughter it, and the cook will prepare it.

I wandered the town yesterday.  Rick called and wanted me to come hiking in the Entoto Hills with he and his son, Adisu, but I was too tired by late afternoon.  Took a nap and then two minibus’ to the Edna Mall where there is a theater that shows current run American movies (for $2.75 + .40 for popcorn).  Saw Life of Pi; remarkable photography and direction.  Forgot to take my flashlight, so it was a little dicey walking a mile to a new restaurant afterwards.  

Speaking of food, I went for the second time to Mama’s Kitchen, and discovered that next door is a place that sells Italian gelato in 10 flavors; it was really good and I did not get sick (as I did after trying ice cream in Harrar last year).

Late last night when I returned to the hospital campus and my “guest house” there was typical Ethiopian church choir music in the distance.  A recognizable chant with a lot of drumming and middle eastern whoops and hollars.  I walked over to find what must be a typical Xmas eve celebration.  Women bearing candles, perilously close in the packed crowd.  Typical Christian holiday dress, dancing, chanting, huge drums .. quite a scene.

St Yared: Akeza's Hospital

This a.m. shortly after awakening my phone rang the first of many times.  It was Akeza.  He is the Ethiopian doctor who coincidentally went to K.U. med school, though I did not know him when he was in Kansas City.  Trained at Albert Einstein and is an excellent physician.  He owns a small hospital here which is quite nice and where I see patients and occasionally operate.  He had a patient with spine injury, paralyzed, and one of my neurosurgeon friends who he called wanted him transferred to the Black Lion.  I said I would come to the hospital to see the patient.  My orthopedic friend, Guetahou picked me up and we went to see this sad case.  A lovely man with a very nice family.  Was driving his car when a goat started across the road.  He swerved to avoid the goat, the car rolled several times, he had no seat belt and is now paralyzed.  I put him in skeletal tongs to reduce the fracture, and will talk to the family about where we go from here.

Rick and I

Talked to Rick and we decided to go hiking this afternoon in the Entoto hills, with Rick and one of his sons.  Rick’s car sputtered up the mountain with ultimately steam coming from the engine, which was badly overheated.  We arrived near the top and ultimately hiked five miles through magnificent eucalyptus forest to an overlook with a village below and mountains in the distance.

Dinner with neurosurgeons/nurses

In the meantime I had a call from my neurosurgical friend, Zenebe, who invited me to a chinese dinner with “six neurosurgeons”.  There are only five in the entire country so I was not sure what lay ahead.  To make a long story short there are four neurosurgeons and a nurse visiting from Florida, and another American neurosurgeon and a North Korean (who I met last year) from one of the private hospitals here.  The North Korean is a superb surgeon and is anxious to learn my technique for balloon compression of the trigeminal nerve for tic douloureux.

A potentially boring day ended up with non-stop and varied activity.  I failed to mention that the surprise on arriving home from the hike, covered in dust, and with 1/2 hour before my driver was arriving for dinner.  No running water!  This has been almost a daily occurrence.  My apartment as about 15, two liter bottles of water under the kitchen sink.  All bottles have been opened but are filled to the brim.  This was a puzzle but now I know what they are for.  They are the only source of water, when there is no running water as has been the case for at least the past 5 hours.

Let’s hope there is water for a shower in the morning.  Good night.