Salom from Addis Ababa!

from the pen of Katie: 

What a busy week we have had here in the capital of Ethiopia! As you may know, we arrive late on Monday night and were greeted by a tired but happy Negusse! Negusse is our guide and has been extremely helpful to our team during our time in Addis. We spent all of Tuesday running errands (i.e. getting a SIM card, exchanging money, etc.) and getting aquainted with the city (we visited the national museum!).

On Wednesday we visited the Luke Society Clinic which is a clinic established in the Bole City area. It was founded specifically to bring access to health care to the poorer parts of the city. For just 5 burr, anyone in the area can be seen at this very intimate clinic.

On Thursday we shadowed two relatively outstanding physicians at the ALERT hospital. These doctors taught us about Leprosy and a number of other conditions. They PIMPed us on the causes of vasculitis and the criteria for Lupus. Talk about a wake-up call. We wracked our brains as we tried to recall all of our first-year microbiology information! But it was a very nice session. I really do agree with everyone when they say that the problem in Ethiopia isn't so much the quality of doctors, as it is the quantity. All of the physicians we've shadowed are very competent! But there simply aren't enough of them!

On Friday, we visited the Black Lion Hospital which (from what I can tell) is the "University Hospital" for the medical school here. It truly is a very technologically advanced hospital -- and once again, the doctors are very competent. It was nice to hear from the dean of the medical school their plans for increasing the class sizes so that there can be more doctors in Ethiopia. However, he also talked about how currently, the nation needs to find money to sustain that level of health care.

On Saturday, we visited Kingdom Vision International which is an orphanage in Addis Ababa. It was started just two years ago. They are a relatively new NGO. It was really neat to sit down with Eyob and talk about his goals as an NGO for the reunion of children with their families and the impowerment of women in poverty. Nevertheless, Ethiopia has ~5 million orphans primarily caused by AIDS. It makes me a little sad. Our goal at the orphanage was mostly to spend time with the kids. When you live in a home with about 50 other children and only 5-10 adults -- one-on-one attention can get scarce. I think we all had a good time playing soccer and frisbee. I played with a little girl by the name of Mahador which was so lifegiving! She's incredibly bright and sweet. But it broke my heart when one of the caregivers asked me if I could adopt her, as she had no parents. And of course -- I had to explain that as a student, I don't have any means of taking care of another human being.

Sunday was a reflection day -- and our team had some personal time to reflect on our time here and then to meet together to discuss how we are all doing and processing the things we've been seeing. And today, our team spent the day shadowing a US orthopedic surgeon at CURE Hospital.

What a busy week it's been! In addition to all of that, we've found some time to cheer for the US in world cup soccer. We also got some really great time to head to the stadium and cheer for Ghana and Cameroon! The spirit of World Cup soccer in Ethiopia is so alive and it's been fun to get excited!

Tomorrow we head to Aleta Wondo. For the next week we will conduct a women's health survey -- replicating a study that was conducted by our Haiti Team Counterparts in Haiti and on the Haiti/DR border this past winter and spring breaks. Afterwards, God-willingly, we will host medical clinics for the people of Aleta Wondo.

Prayer Requests:

(1) Health -- I've been sick for the past couple days and a number of people on our team have been feeling a little ill. Pray that we would all be well and able to function at 100% capacity.

(2) Safe Travels -- As we travel the 8-ish hour journey to Aleta Wondo -- pray that our vehicles would work well and that we would have a safe and uncomplicated journey.

(3) Medicines -- A number of our medicines are still sitting at the Ethiopian Ministry of Health. It seems that Dr. Usatine has obtained the necessary paperwork. Pray that there would be no further things to offset this necessity and that we would get these medicines soon!

Thank you all for your continued support! We look forward to updating you again!

We are Safe and Happy.

from the pen of Annie:

WE ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!! In Ethiopia. After 38 hours of grueling travel we are finally here. The plane ride was okay - we spent lots of time sleeping. We did not get into Addis Ababa until 7:30 PM, and because of a baggage situation, we did not get out of the airport until 9:30 PM. Although we looked totally lost, we were quickly rescued by our guide, Negusse, who had been waiting for us for 2.5 hours. He helped us get all of our luggage into vans and we were taken to the Holiday Hotel in Ethiopia. Today, we are trying to get some errands done before we start at the hospitals tomorrow. This weekend, we are also going to be able to help out at an orphanage.

Katie had asked us to fill out a predeparture questionnaire before we started our journey here, and one of the questions was "What is your current definition of poverty?" After just one day of looking around the area and even in what is in our hotel rooms, I can tell you what it is like to be pretty well off: Having electricity, having clean water (Hot water is a big plus, which we currently do not have), and having clean clothes. Most of the people here do not have any of these things. Apart of me misses home because I am not use to this, but another part of me is excited about living simply and not taking these basic things for granted.

Our spirits are high and we are all ready to get started though. I hope to update you on more later, but we all wanted to let you know things are okay.

One thing you could really be praying for us for - our baggage!!!! Most of our medicines were taken away at customs to be reviewed by the Minister of Health. It shouldn't be a problem, but we still don't have them in our custody, which makes us a little antsy. We do have all of dental supplies, so if anything, many Ethiopians will still have clean teeth :D

This trip seemed completely surreal to us even a few days before we left, but now that we are here, our entire team is just in awe of this entire journey from beginning to now. It still blows our minds that we are here, and we are so, so thankful. We all want to say "Amaseginalehu" (thank you) for just being here and supporting us.

Ciao! (Bye!)

Ready or not, here we come!

After weeks upon weeks of preparation, countless e-mails, text messages, and phone calls as we worked to coordinate this trip from 4 different cities in Texas (+ Edward who had gone to Rome for a bit) -- we met once again in San Antonio to complete some last minute preparations. After a rather scintillating orientation with the Office of International Services, we all went off to our errands, packlists, inventories, and a sweet goodbye/goodluck party hosted by some dear friends.

Today, after some pre-trip reflection, we dived straight into packing. As I was packing my personal bags the other night, I was slightly intimidated by the piles of team supplies stacked up in my closet. And as my teammates arrived carrying boxes upon boxes of donations, I started to wonder if we would ever get everything to Ethiopia! But a luggage scale, some teamwork and Matt's crazy packing skills can go a long way. By 4PM -- we were sitting in my living room with 18 pieces of luggage packed and ready to go.

After some more last minute errands and some serious blessings from Wayside Chapel, we gathered back at my parent's home for a farewell dinner. What better wraps up a busy week of trip prep than a delicious meal cooked by your mom? Thanks mom and dad for all you've been doing to support our team. Food was delicious!

To say it's been a rough semester would be somewhat of an understatement. Waiting to see if this trip would happen was rough, and pulling everything together in a period of about 6 weeks was not easy. I recall stating that if our project even made it off the ground, it would be nothing short of a miracle. And lo and behold -- I see on every side of me miracle after miracle after miracle. In the past few months I have learned so much about what it means to be a leader and plan a trip, to coordinate people from all different places, to work with peers and superiors. But above all -- I think I've learned a lot about what it means to perservere in the face of adversity.

I'm excited to be leaving tomorrow! I'm sure that our team will have a great time in Ethiopia and that we will learn plenty. And I look forward to the next life lessons that await us as we embark on this portion of the journey. Until next time, au revoir!