Road Rules

Despite ridiculously high car prices due to import taxes, Garrett and I broke down and bought a car a couple months back.  We bought a 1992 Suzuki Vitara that had been nicely dressed up by the previous owners in a Mercedes costume.

While it hurt to shell out the money upfront, I think it was a good investment (and as long as they don't drop the import tax we expect to be able to get our money back).  The car has allowed us to take a few trips outside of Addis and now provides me with daily transportation to and from the hospital, which is about a 30-40 minute commute depending on traffic.  It has not been as stressful as we thought it might be.  There is only one group of intersections where traffic regularly gets backed up.

At this intersection, I try to do my best to relax and listen to my podcast or music and not get too irate at the taxis or drivers that are trying to make 5 lanes out of 3 then cutting back in front of me.  Some days I am more successful than others.

In fact, before today, I would have said that there are no traffic rules in Ethiopia.  If you want to creae lanes, turn left from the right lane, drive the wrong way down the street or go around a traffic circle backwards, you are free.  Unfortunately, it seems the one area they really stick to their guns is the new No U-turn signs on Bole Road.  Good news, the fine is only about $7.50.  Bad news, what they lack in terms of monetary penalty they make up for in inconvenience.  Forget online or mail-in payments, payment can only be made at one traffic office in town.  And only after that is paid can I retrieve my confiscated driver's license, which of course will be at a different office.  Although to be fair, I cannot complain too much since after returning home, I just gave money to Tsegaw to sort it all out tomorrow.  And despite the frustration, I have to begrudgingly appreciate that the police followed the law strictly without any of the "wiggle room" that you often encounter in southern Africa.

Krempt Is Upon Us

Krempt is one of my new favorite Amharic words.  It is the local name for the rainy season that lasts from June until August.   I don't think it would be considered an onomatopoeia (although English was never my strongest subject), but the one word for me seems to encompass every description I have heard of the rainy season as cold, damp, muddy and a bit depressing.

That being said, the first few weeks have not been as horrible as the anticipation and descriptions.  While there have been some heavy downpours and rain almost every day, there have also been dry and even sunny times during most days.  If the downpours increase in frequency and length though I can see how things might get miserable quickly.  Below is a picture of the access road/river to the hospital where I work after only a brief heavy rain. We will see how it is holding up by the end of August.

Luckily, it seems our landlord has successfully fixed the indoor water feature we had in front of our fireplace for the last few weeks.  Every day we came home with our fingers crossed that the ceiling tiles had not fallen and converted our living room into an indoor swimming pool.

Now we just need to buy some wood for the fire place and we are ready to wait out our first krempt (at at least until we get to escape in August for our trip home).

A Little Party Never Killed Nobody

Garrett and I have decided we want to try to entertain at our place at least once every couple weeks.  It has been more difficult since I have started working, but so far we have managed to meet this goal.

The last two gatherings included:

1. Barbecue on the Downfall of the Derg Day, the Marxist regime that ended in 1991. We found out the day before that it was a holiday so it was a very last minute decision to have the party.  Garrett insisted that we needed a tent, which I initially thought was a bit extreme, but for $30, including delivery, set up and take down, how could you refuse a circus tent in your yard.   It was the perfect setting for our new Ethiopian tiki torches and my imported World Market lanterns.  Next time we will have to look into hiring the Addis Ababa circus.

2.  A brunch, inspired by Philadelphia Cream Cheese I found at the store, complete with a delicious egg scramble, pancakes, homemade bagels, fruit salad and an assortment of pork products, imported by our Irish friend Peter.  It took us all day to recover from that food coma.

Working 9 to 5 (and Saturday mornings)

I apologize for the long break in posting.  Gary and Sherry recently gave me an incentive to start again, so here goes.   We have a couple of months to catch up on so hopefully there should be a few more posts coming out over the next week or so.

The biggest news since my last post is that I am officially employed!  I am about to complete my first month at Bethel Teaching Hospital.  Unfortunately, I have failed to take any pictures so stay tuned.  Everyone from support staff to nurses to doctors have been really welcoming and while I have been working long hours, it has been great to get back into clinical practice.  I am hopeful that as I get used to the systems here that I will be able to get myself out of the hospital at more reasonable times.  Currently, I am primarily doing adult inpatient medicine.   It has been a great refresher considering I did very little adult medicine while in Swaziland.  In addition to the clinical responsibilties, I have also been named a visiting assistant professor for the medical school.  The first year clinical students started a couple weeks ago and we are just completing a short course in basic history taking and physical exam.  Next week they will start on their hospital rotations.

So far the thing that has made the biggest impression on me in my short tenure is the family support.  It is unlike anything I have experienced in the US or Swaziland.  In the US, you often had one, maybe two, visitors at a time and the visits were short.  In Swaziland, there would be a caretaker, often a female member of the family, who was there 24 hours.  In Ethiopia, every patient is surrounded by family from morning until night, including young and old, men and women.  It is not unusual to have to ask 5-6 people to leave the room so you can even get close to the patient.  Even when the patients have been hospitalized for weeks or months, there is not a day where they do not have multiple people at their bedside.  It is quite a testimony to the importance the culture places on family.