My last weekend

Returned to the hospital Saturday morning.  The residents at the hospital were outstanding in arranging for an “emergency” redo of the Dawit’s trigeminal surgery (this is the radiologist from out of town).  It was difficult the first time, and the same this time around.  However, I talked to him later in the day and his problem is now cured with numbness in his face just where we want it (it will gradually recede over the next 6 weeks).

I met Corey at the best spot in Addis for buying “souvenirs”.  Two blocks of shacks with all kinds of shirts, religious symbols, jewelry, replica antiques, etc. where we both did some shopping.  Then walked uphill a mile or more to the Piazza.  Sounds like Rome, but no resemblance whatsoever.  We had lunch and I changed into my Timket outfit. 

Getting ready for Timket

We were told there would be a big pre-Timket event at St. George Cathedral, but turns out our information was off by a day.

Sadly, Corey is leaving tonight to return to Brown Medical School where she is in the department of pulmonary medicine.  Rest for the afternoon and then I treated her to dinner at La Mandoline, a lovely French restaurant a 10 minute walk from our hotel.

My home for the past 2 weeks

Road is under construction

, so it was a little dicey in the dark, but we made it out and back uneventfully.

On Sunday, Alexa (has a 3 month gig with the BBC here) and Nuhamin came to my hotel and I walked with them, once again, to La Mandoline.  Alexa had a meeting with her boss who had flown in from London, and Nuhamin and i had lunch.  At one point I went over to meet Alexa’s people from the BBC.  We chatted for quite a while.  They were very interested in my work with the neurosurgery program at the Black Lion Hospital, and want to consider returning next year when I am here to do a documentary of my work.  That would be exciting.

Spent the afternoon walking miles around town and buying some more gifts.  Had dinner at one of the Chinese restaurants nearby.  Within close walking distance of my hotel are Sudanese, Chinese, Korean, Yemeni, French, Canadian, “traditional” restaurants and a great pizza place.  Mama’s kitchen and others are a little further.

Will go to the massive Timket parade tomorrow, and then a big wedding tomorrow night.  My flight is at 3 a.m. after the wedding so this is probably my last post for this year. 

Friday, Jan 16: Shabbat and much more

I dreaded the day.  Colleagues were still at the retreat so there was no hospital work today.  Cory, a pulmonologist from Brown staying at my hotel was a regular breakfast companion, but left at the regular time for the hospital.  I lingered trying to invent activities to take up the time of day.  No hot water (and the room is always about 50 deg in the morning), so I bundled up, skipped my morning shower and caught up on internet and paper work.  Finally decided that I would return to the Ethnological Museum that I had not visited for 8 years.

Some students outside Ethnological Museum

This is on the main campus of the Addis Ababa University, the largest in the country.  It is the former estate/palace of Haile Selassie and previously his emperor father, Ras Mekonnen.  It is quite lovely (for Ethiopia).  The museum while clearly up to third world standards (!), has exhibits that are well annotated in Amharic and English and tell some fascinating stories.  For example, there is an exhibit of Muslim artifacts from the town of Harar.  I visited there a few years ago, an historically all Muslim town.  The story accompanying it described the myriad uses of baskets in the daily life, and of the jewelry abundantly worn by the women.  In the mid 19th century Jewish goldsmiths from Yemen came to ply their craft, knowing of the desires of the Muslim women for their jewelry and knowing the primitive nature of it.

The day only got more interesting.  I had a call from the doctor who I had operated on Wednesday for trigeminal neuralgia.  He was concerned that he had the desired numbness of the face, but was not numb in his “trigger” area.  We decided that he would be driven to where I was at the university  and I would talk with him and examine him.  I was not completely pleased with the result, and after many phone calls to the O.R., the sole resident at the hospital, etc we arranged that I would declare an emergency on Saturday and repeat the procedure.  It remains to be seen if we can pull it off.

After meeting with him and his family, having tea, and talking for quite a while, they directed me to the largest and loveliest cathedral in Addis, St. George. 

St. George Cathedral

It is quite a wonderful setting and fascinating to see the remarkable devotion of the people to the structure.

Devotion

  Makes one think of the Western Wall in Jerusalem as a metaphor to try to understand what I witnessed.

Incredible traffic jam as I sat in a hot, crowded minibus for what should have been a 15 minute ride back to my hotel, that extended to nearly an hour.

Fortunately hot water had been fixed when I returned.  Barely had time for a shower and then Cory and I walked 1 1/2 miles to meet Alexa and then walk back another mile to Rick’s house. 

Alexa and Cory

Alexa was a childhood friend of my sister-in-law,  Sharon Kaufman in San Francisco.  She lives in Berlin, is a free lance journalist, and arrived in Addis 3 days ago.     She has a 3 month gig with the BBC to be executive editor of a series of radio programs that they want to produce in Addis around the subject of maternal health, a serious issue in this country.

Shabbat at Rick’s house

Some of the kids at Rick's house

was again an extraordinary treat.  Alexa and Cory were thrilled to be there with the kids and Rick.  Also there was Adam, a general surgery resident from UCSF who is trying to bring some semblance of sanity to the completely disorganized E.R. at the Black Lion Hospital.  Also Robel, who Lynn and I met here last year.  Born in Ethiopia, but living in the U.S. for many years and now a graduate student at the school of International Studies at Columbia in New York.

There are many frightening barriers to safely walking at night here (not the people, but the sidewalks and streets), but Cory and I and my trusted flashlight ended an exhilarating day.

Thursday, Jan 15: our retreat

The neurosurgeons requested that I accompany them on a two day retreat out of town, in Nazaret, 50 miles, but a 2 hour ride from here.  Said I should be at the hospital to get on the bus at 6:30 am.  I guess I should have been suspicious when they told one of the residents to pick me up at my hotel at 6:30.  I had on 3 layers but was still very chilly/cold standing outside at the hospital with no bus in site.  Slowly residents began to appear, and by 7:15 a bus pulled up; 40 year old very long Mercedes bus that could barely get up the hill to the hospital but was going to take us to Nazaret.  Finally, thankfully we were out of the cold on the unheated bus and on our way at 7:45.  That’s about right for “Ethiopian time”.  This was a retreat for the entire department of surgery, but only the neurosurgery residents, not any of the others.

Nazaret is in the Rift Valley, one of the most potentially violent earthquake zones in the world.  Within an hour it was quite hot.  There was air conditioning in the seminar room, unfortunately emanating a bone chilling cold that thankfully went off after 2 or 3 hours.  I was prepared to be totally bored, and was through some of the formal presentations. However, the panel discussion at the end, which lasted quite a while, was surprisingly constructive and thoughtful, and meaningful comments and recommendations that I did not think was within their capability.  Not because they do not have the intelligence, they are very smart; however, their discussions with each other at the hospital tend to be bland, safe, polite .... and meaningless.  This was different.

I was finally given an agenda for the retreat and shuddered to learn that the entire second day was general surgery, which for me would be quite a bore.  Thankfully, one of my resident friends was driving back at the end of the day and I was able to return with him. 

We had very good and plentiful food for lunch and at breaks, so I just went to a pizza place up the street for a late dinner.