ethiopiadave

Ned and I went to the Jimma Museum on the weekend, my companion didn’t feel well. The Americans said that if you have zero expectations, you would be pleased with museum. I had my student ID and got in for Birr 3 instead of the usual Birr 25 for foreigners. They advertised photos for Birr 5, but the guy said “no” for some reason? The guy/curator said there wasn’t an English tour, which we were cool with. Two Jimma University students were there and we all went in together. The curator gave the students a tour and we sort of tagged along and conversed using broken English and acting out our perceived uses for some questionable objects. Like the Americans said, if you have zero expectations, it’s a pretty good museum. The first room had a ... read more

For our survey we are measuring child nutrition and weight, so we want to record if the child has been sick or is sick. Question 32 is “Does this child currently have diarrhea?” While we were recording a mother’s weight and height, her year-and-a-half old son squatted down and let out some 32 through his pants and on the floor. I record the data from the survey to electronic form, and when I got to question #32 I couldn’t help but laugh. Yes, that poor kid definitely has diarrhea currently.... read more

Shortly after sending out the photos and emails, the Americans from the NGO called and said that there is actually a group of foreigners who happen to be working in Addis for the next week and a half on facial abnormalities. They saw the pics and agreed to see her. She would be leaving soon. Alright, sweet…wait a second, we were told to keep her papers for her because we were supposed to take her back to Jimma Hospital on Monday. Crap. I called the saint the next morning and he said she should have her papers and x-rays, even if they are poor quality and will be taken again. So I called the Sisters to make sure she was still there. She was still there but she might be leaving after lunch or she would ... read more

Thursday night was very busy for the hotels in Jimma. I later found out that the head of this region, Oromiya, came through with his entourage. We ran into some serious Czech travelers that we met before. They have been to over 50 countries and go to really remote regions. Anyways, I saw the girl/wife first and asked how it was going. They had just finished 13 hours of bus travel. It was raining heavily and the roads were barely passable. She said every hotel was packed, or over charging. Syf had a room which was “shit” in her opinion and they wanted some outrageous sum for it. Central was full, and Coffee land wanted Birr 300. So I said, “ok, come with me, I know the owner…kind of.” We went up to Coffee Land and ... read more

The Americans at the NGO have talked about the Sisters of Charity in Jimma a lot. They send some of their patients to the sisters for care. A future post will explain the circumstances, but the Americans have a very serious patient that they sent to Jimma and they asked us to act as a liaison between the sisters, patient and a surgeon (the Saint from my previous post) who has agreed to see the patient. They were planning on sending the patient on a bus to Jimma with a note and money saying, “take me to the Sisters of Mercy.” Since I have not been to the Sister’s facility nor met them, I decided to go and visit. This way I will have some prior experience with them before the patient arrives. The facility was ... read more

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, ... read more