Ethiopia July 2008: Eyes and hearts open

He came to the clinic because his friend told him that there was a medical team from the US at the place that he goes as a sponsored child of MoM. Elyas is 14 years old and more mature than many his age. He presented with a severe body rash, scalp sores and general malaise. He shared that his parents had died of HIV 2 years ago and the he was being cared for by his grandmother. He told us that he was taking a lot of medicines for he thought was TB and bad pneumonia. His story is one that may stay with you for awhile.

He had gone to a local health clinic a year ago because of some sores on his leg that would not heal and when he told the doctor that his parents had died of AIDS they sent him for some "tests" and soon after started him on "a lot of medicines". His grandmother told him he had a bad form of TB and pneumonia and that he would have to take medicines for a long time and if anyone asked that is what he had. He was walking down the street one day when he saw some beggars holding vials of medicines in their hands and slips of paper that said what they had and that they were dying and need money. Elyas recognized the vials as the same ones he had, and went to one beggar and read his paper: "I have AIDS and am dying." Elyas finally knew what he had. He found out from a beggar. He told his grandmother who told him again that he still had to tell people that he had a bad form of TB and pneumonia or people wouldn't want to be near him and that he would wind up a beggar like the others.

He wouldn't tell us in the beginning, but after we spent some time with him, he told us his story. You have to wonder how a 14 year old boy deals with this every minute and every day of his life. He has few friends, he is physically ill, and his skin is almost difficult to look at if your not open to things not normal. He found trust in us and we are taking care of him. I put him in our advanced care follow up program and he will be cared for everyday by our MoM staff here in Addis.

We have our eyes open here, looking, seeing and remembering. Elyas opened our hearts and made us realize what type of world is just outside our own comfortable and familiar neighborhoods. He doesn't have to worry anymore about being shunned or dehumanized because of his disease. We'll help him undestand this. He learned from a beggar that he has AIDS. He learned from us that he is loved no matter what.

In all things give thanks,
David

Ethiopia July 2008: The first few days

And so it began. The full team arrived, and within eight hours after having a few hours of sleep, the team began to get ready for a week's worth of clinics. Most of the medications arrived all of which needed to be packaged and labeled. And this was all being completed just as the clinic was starting. The first day began with everyone getting used to their areas of responsibility and assignments as the patients came in. Everyone became more comfortable with what they needed to do by the end of the first day. We saw 408 patients and the dental team saw 72 patients. On second day we had a wall of massive patients in the clinic area with rain falling outside and controlled chaos on the inside. By the end of the second day we had seen 512 patients and the dental team had seen 88 patients. For the first time on our medical mission trips we had a dental team led by Dr. John, who is with World Dental in Ethiopia. He had with him for local dentists who practiced with him and will be traveling with us as we go up north. In addition, we had lab technicians, nurses, and 10 local physicians, who joined us at various times with specialties ranging from general pediatrics to internal medicine, nephrology, cardiology, and ophthalmology. We started our Rapid Nutritional Assessment program as well, and have generated valuable information regarding the nutritional status of the children using WHO standards. We are now able to recognize those children who are mildly, moderately, and severely malnourished. Pharmacy has been expertly run, and is also staffed with an Ethiopian pharmacist and Ethiopia pharmacy student. It is always an incredible experience to work side by side with the local healthcare team as we care for the forgotten children together. We leave tomorrow for remote areas half of the team traveling by plane to Bahir Dar and the other half of the team traveling by bus to Zeway, where both teams will spend the day doing clinic's, spending the night, and then doing clinics the following day before returning to Addis. All in all, the first two days have been rewarding, gifted, and blessed.
In all things give thanks,
David

Ethiopia Medical Mission

I am in Chicago awaiting my flight to Frankfurt then on to Addis Ababa, where we will be having our first medical mission in Ethiopia. It was just 6 months ago when I did an assessment trip there, and on Wednesday, we will begin a 7-8 day run of clinics in Addis, Zeway and Bahir Dar. We will be splitting the team up in order to go to 2 different locations outside of Addis. Remote is remote...

Troy, Colleen, Kelly, Placida, Dawn, Donna, Shauna, Jessica, Michelle and I make up the US team. We will be joined by 3 dentists, 1 nurse, 1 pharmacist, 8 physicians and 6 support people from Ethiopia. This will be an incredible "team"! There has been a lot of ground work done by Getachew and his team for weeks now, and he has done a tremendous job! Peter, my old friend who has been with me on many tirps is there now putting the finishing touches on eveything. I am not travelinbg with the team due to being on call, etc, and will get to Ethiopia a day early to have meetings with a food supplement organization, and to give an orientation to the Ethiopian team.

We are expecting to have a unique experience. There is alot of siginificant and severe malnutrition there and malaria seems to be prominent. What else we'll see and do, has yet to be realized. It will come and it will happen. Be with us...

In all things give thanks,
David