Sunday, July 27, 2008

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