Baboons

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We left the health center for Jimma. One of the Americans was driving to Jimma to pick up meds, so everything worked out pretty well for us. When we driving up he mentioned he was kind of disappointed we hadn’t seen more monkeys, but we said that was ok, we have seen monkeys in Jimma. He said baboons are frequently seen on a stretch of road between Jimma and Bonga and hopefully we would see some. Sure enough, there were several baboons on the side of the road! Just chillin'. They evidently can attack humans but he hasn’t seen any cases.

Later, during dinner, he gets a phone call from the health center. A kid had been attacked by a baboon. His stomach was cut open. They know a very dedicated Ethiopian doctor that they called, who could hopefully replace the kid’s organs, sew him up, and pump him full of antibiotics to help fight off infections. We just heard that he died, he was 2 years old. There is only so much one can do, and many times people bring their children in too late, as was the case for the one month old I mentioned earlier. Two more measles cases appeared as well, not good. Vaccines from the government, obtained through WHO are currently not available.

One final note on monkeys and baboons, they are pests and destroy crops as well as injure people. The community is not allowed to kill them, but they do anyways and the police turn their backs to it. They form a long human line and chase the monkeys out to where a guy is waiting with a machete to kill them. Sounds cruel I know. But if monkeys were stealing my crops or trying to eat my kids, there would be some serious monkey huntin’.

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