Time Warp

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Salem. Welcome to present day Ethiopia, the date is October 19, 2002. Ethiopians do not operate on daylight savings time nor do they adjust to leap years, so it's behind the Gregorian calendar by 7.5 years.

We've spent an entire day here in Addis now and I find the place rather comfortable. We are currently staying at Panorama Hotel in Bole City, away from the center of Addis, which has been a blessing for the many conveniences. The people do not stare much and go about their lives as if we ourselves were Ethiopian. They are so friendly.

The first day of clinic (which happens to be a 10 minute walk from our hotel) consisted of a tour of the place and a breakdown of patients that we will be seeing in the next few months. As of now, we plan on administering ~120 Denvers or so to the population at WWO-AFH Clinic. It's amazing the amount of support we've received from the staff upon arrival. Even more amazing is the quality of care the patients receive at the clinic. You wouldn't know we were in a third-world country..as the clinic is equipped with laboratory tools for testing, medication, and various levels of counseling. (Three to be exact.) What kind of world would this be if these high standards of healthcare existed across the board for all, both in developed and developing countries? Imagine that.

I haven't experienced the culture shock yet, though I'm sure that's to come once we explore the Saturday market - apparently the largest in all of Africa. We met another MPH student from Emory here working for the Carter Foundation surveying sanitary conditions of latrines. Nothing unusual to report about the food yet, but tomorrow we'll explore the unknown. It's pathetic to say, but I had spaghetti today. It was delicious.

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