Here is our March 11th…..

We spent the morning starting out at the clinic in Asossa.  There were many, many more people waiting to be seen and we were working hard to get them all in for the doctors and eyeglasses.  A really neat thing happened in the middle of it all though…this little guy showed up!  He is a little boy featured in the Doctor’s Giving Back promo video from 2009 and one of John & Jana’s patients from last year.  Their faces lit up at the sight of him & his family.  And he was equally as happy.  (This is something else I have a video of to show you!!!)

And this next photo is just to tease Kristin!  These glasses, as I was told by a native Ethiopian, are “old lady” glasses.  No body seemed to want to take them?!?!?!?

There will be a few photos to follow this story:  A little girl (11-13 yrs I think) came in with her mother.  Her leg was large & swollen around the bottom by her foot.  She had gotten a small cut on the heel of her foot that went unattended & became infected.  The infection was spreading up her foot causing pain & swelling.  Jana explained to her mother about the medications she would need to take over the next few days & then Tiffany cleaned her wounds while Kristin distracted her from any pain.

(I also have a sweet, touching video of Tiffany & Kristin working so diligently with this young girl)

And now, after lunch, we had our first village trip!  I didn’t really know what to expect from a village trip.  I rode directly behind our driver, Sentayu, and a helper, Nati.  I asked Nati how long until the village & he told me about 40 kilometers and that it would be “an uncomfortable ride.”  HAHA!  What he meant by that is that at a certain point the road through Asossa ends and becomes simply a dirt path.  We quickly learned that when other cars passed us along the road we needed to shut our windows or we would literally eat their dust.

Here is what we saw at the first village….

This was the one piece of medical “equipment” that we found where we were.  It was a pretty ancient scale.  These are our two helpers, Nati & Tola, taking people’s weight.

This next series of photos of this little girl may be a little hard to take.  I know that the first time I saw her I about lost it.  I wanted to just stop, go in the van, and cry.  I believe the condition she has is called Hydrocephalus.  You can correct me if I’m wrong.  One of the hardest things I learned was that she is the same age as my daughter – 5 years old!  These kind of things just grab your heart strings & make you want to leave your cushy life in America & help all of the people here in Asossa.

Sigh….and if your are squeamish, don’t look at the following sore…

Here is the one, dear, sweet, poor nurse we found in this village.  She has the necessary skills, but no supplies!

After we began treating some patients (and by “we” I mean the doctors…not myself), we lined up the children to hand out shoes.  This is the line before it got out of hand…

This next little guy was too adorable.  His father spoke very good English & was apparently a soldier.  He named his son Japan.

Here is some of the shoe distribution…

And while the majority of the kids were distracted with getting new shoes, Jana & Philippa & I handed out these knit bears to children on the village road.  They were so excited…grinning from ear to ear!  We almost started our own little mini riot with these things!

And finally, as we were ready to leave, the leader of the village stood up & thanked us for our efforts & supplies.  We left him with a soccer ball for the children.

As we left this village, we were taken to their water supply.  It was down a type of valley through some long grassy stuff.  The problem was, that on the way to the water supply, we passed many animals feeding &, subsequently, pooping.  When it then rains, the water runs through the animal feces & into the water supply.  This is a main reason why so many of these people are sick – their water is not clean!  Something so simple to us, but something so deadly to them!

March 10th was our official start day in Asossa – I think!  Between the jet lag, the time changes, and the culture differences, I’m getting my days mixed up.

Well, here is our looooooong March 10th….

We began with breakfast in the Upper Room, lovingly prepared by Anne from the Touching Africa Team.  I wasn’t a fan of oatmeal, so I quickly learned  the word for bread (daboe…I believe), and asked one of our dear helpers, Nati, to get me some bread at basically every meal.  I had a peanut butter sandwich for every meal that had milk or that I thought my stomach couldn’t handle.

After breakfast, and a potty break at the Bamboo, we headed off to our first clinic in the sanctuary of a local church.  Here we are having some prayer time before we opened the doors to the public.

This was the outside of the church where we held the clinic.  It has the tin roof, windows on both sides, a few fluorescent lights inside, and many benches for seating.  But that’s about it.  No carpet, no majestic sound system, no artwork, no glass in the windows, no heat or A/C.  People who came to this church came because they WANTED to, not because of what the church building itself had to offer.  It was beautiful to behold.

This is Elise.  The is the 13-year-old daughter of one of the team members who came along this year.  Here she is donning her “doctor” gear.  These were the typical things most of us wore throughout the day:  scrubs, gloves, and the occasional mask.

This table was one of three for reading glasses.  Here, Jessica is helping a woman choose frames in the reading strength she needed.

This is a view directly outside the front doors of the church.  These people are waiting to get into the clinic to be seen.  They sat here after they had gotten through the large gate at the front of the church.  We heard stories of people at the gate who had slept overnight and others who had walked as many as four days to be seen by the doctors.

Some more reading glasses magic by Michael Elliot….

And these people are ones who’ve gotten into the church and are now waiting to be seen by the triage team.  As I mentioned earlier, before people saw the doctors, we took a medical history on them along with vitals.

This is Alice.  She and Marie, were team members dedicated solely to prayer.  They would seat people after they’d seen the doctor and simply pray for them.  It was a sweet sight to behold.

And now, after morning and afternoon clinic, we move on to the BIG church.  This is the church where Pastor Califa preaches.  It just oozes over with people.  I tried my best in the next photo to show you how many people come to this place.  The lighting is very challenging, but in this photo, after you can’t see any more heads in the far back and it’s just light…well, that’s more people sitting outside the church in even more rows of benches.  It was just amazing to behold.

This little girl is one of many who were following me around during each and every church service.  Apparently it’s not a common thing to have an American girl with a large camera walking around during church.  I tried my best not to cause a stir, but some of these little darlings were too cute to resist snapping a photo of!

I had to shoot at 6400 ISO here, but it was the only way (I knew of) to capture all that I wanted to see.  This is Betty, the Ethiopian singer I mentioned earlier, leading worship.  I have some great video of this too that my husband is working on for me.  Can’t wait to share it!

And lastly, I’ll leave you with Elise.  This is during another late night pill sorting session.   She just couldn’t last the whole time & fell asleep on the hockey bags!

And now for March 9th….

We had just landed in Asossa, a place, when mentioned on our plane ride over from America, native Ethiopians asked, “Why would you want to go there?  It’s hot!”  I wasn’t allowed to take any photographs of this airplane.  But for you airplane enthusiasts it was a Fokker 50 – aka REALLY STINKIN’ SMALL!  Normally I would snap a few photos & apologize later, but the large guns that the “airport” guards were carrying deterred my ambitions.  And I call it an “airport” in quotations because it was just recently paved…as in the runway was just recently paved.  I sure am a lucky girl to come the year that the runway was paved!

So after a whirlwind at the “airport” in Asossa, the loss of half our team’s bags, hugs & hellos between all the team members who went last year and the friends they had missed from Asossa, we loaded into three vans and rode off to our Bamboo Paradaise!  (Yes, I know I’m spelling this wrong, but wait til you see the hotel sign)

Here is another new friend, Sharon, enjoying some relaxation under the mango trees at the Bamboo.  This is where we typically sat to get our “coca” or Coke.  And they have REAL Coke in Ethiopia…the kind that comes in a glass bottle and has to be opened with a bottle opener, or your teeth if you’re really tough.

Here’s a renewed friendship that I was talking about!  This is Kristin & Mary.  Kristin is a Colorado girl with the Touching Africa team and in this photo she’s reuniting with Mary, the daughter of one of our contacts in Asossa.  It was so sweet to witness everyone reconnecting with friends they’d made last year!

This is the view directly outside of my hotel room.  Those trenches are for the rainy season, so things don’t get flooded.  They are precisely why flashlights are recommended at night!

Here we are trying to finish the longest recorded game in Phase 10 history!  It seriously isn’t over yet.  Mainly because all of the participants are now in Texas, California, and Maryland.  Maybe we can finish it in 2011?  What do y’all say?

Here is our hotel guard.  And I completely forgot to ask him his name, but he was there faithfully every day, all day, guarding us and our belongings.  At first, I have to admit,  I thought he was a little harsh with the children on the street who kept coming to the gate to see us.  But after I saw how they reacted when given things, I knew he was wise in handling them.  It’s very difficult to explain unless you see it for yourself.  There are a lot of homeless children begging on the street.  And when they see us, Americans, they come around in droves to see if we will give them something.  However, if you don’t have something to give to each and every one of them, and then to give to all the others that get wind of what’s going on and later show up, you will cause a mini riot.  Imaging having nothing.  Imagine having to beg & scrounge for all that you do have.  Imagine not knowing where your next meal is coming, or even when it is coming.  Imagine, then, your reaction at being given something by someone whose language you don’t understand.  Would you take it nicely and gently and wait in line to possibly be given something?  NO!  You’d fight for it, and probably fight for two of the things, just to know you’d be eating two meals or could get a meal for yourself and your friend.  It’s a tough life.  And these children are precisely the ones that John & Jana & Solomon are trying to get land and resources for.

Okay…enough on that rant…

On to our lovely hotel sign….

And this is how we ended the night…sorting more pills!