Gimbie Reports

I spent last week in Addis presenting at a national HIV/AIDS conference and meeting with government officials. Priscila, a GP from Argentina, arrived on Sabbath morning and Fletcher’s sister Emily arrived on Sunday evening, so I decided to stay in Addis until Sabbath morning, pick up Priscila, and head to AWASH Park until Sunday night, and drive to Gimbie on Monday. Tom and Denillo of ADRA Norway came with Petra, Priscila, and I to AWASH.

The road out of Addis to AWASH was under construction and I had to forge a detour through the slums to get back on track. We had hardly regained the main road when the rear wheel of a large truck in front of us came loose and started rolling down the road. The road had a significant grade so the wheel picked up speed as it traveled through several food and craft stands. It smashed into an electric pole, knocking down wires and causing a shower of sparks. People literally dived out of the way as the wheel headed back onto the road, hopping curbs and cars before finally coming to rest on the sidewalk.

A huge sugar cane plantation was recently started on the border of AWASH, driving the Afar nomads and their thousands of cattle into the park to find grazing. The tropical oasis we visited in December has become a cattle clogged dust bowl. We had scarcely reached the hot springs and started swimming when a massive dust storm, complete with thunder and lighting, reduced visibility to a few feet. We tried to stay in the water to avoid the dust, but Tom stayed a little too long and fainted.

Oddly enough, the lions have been driven into the park by the sugar cane plantation as well and their nearby roars were clearly audible through the thin walls of Petra’s cheap tent. Next morning we tracked them for several miles but eventually lost the trail in tall grass.

The return to Gimbie was comfortable enough until we reached Nekempte, were Karessa (druggist) joined our seven member group with pile of medicine. Much of Nekempte is under construction and I had to do some serious off roading just to reach the pharmacy wholesaler. Once we were fully loaded there were three people in the front seat, five in the back seat, and the behind the backseat was packed to the roof with meds. On top of the roof we had all the baggage, more meds, and three new mattresses for the hospital.

The five foot stack on the roof did nothing to help our fuel mileage, which was a pity because Ethiopia is having a fuel shortage at the moment and I had been unable to find fuel on the way to Nekempte. By the time we rolled into Gimbie both tanks were well below empty.

The power just went out and we are running the generator with what fuel we have left. We’d siphon from the ambulance, but it is at Mugi clinic. I hope they find enough fuel to get back for the weekend. Mark will soon have our new 10,000 liter fuel tank installed so we should be able to dodge this problem in the future.

Maternity World Wide’s Safe Birth Fund has caused a dramatic increase in the number of births at GAH, saving countless lives. We have so many beds in the female ward that there is hardly room to walk through.

Our surgeon (Ethiopian) must leave soon to honor commitments with the government. I am scrambling desperately trying to find someone to fill in once he leaves. The director of our nursing school has similar problems. And both our Ethiopian GPs will leave in three weeks. Not to mention the issues with the nurses. The only way to survive here is to live one day at a time. As Girma likes to say “everything is miraculous, there is nothing common for those who work for God.”

Ah good, the power came back. Now if it will just stay on until we can get some fuel…

Paul

I’m sitting in a large conference room on the 7th floor of the Damu hotel in Addis. I planned to be in Gimbie right now meeting with the staff but I received a last minute request to present at a national HIV/AIDS conference and now I’m sitting with Dr. Wondwasson and Tsegaynesh craning my neck to see the introductory powerpoint.

Vast amounts of USD come to Ethiopia through the PEPFARS program, much of which is spent on trucks, builds, and trainings rather than patients. Not that I’m complaining about getting an all expense paid trip to Addis, but the net impact of the program on Gimbie Adventist Hospital is hard to get excited about.

The program provides free drugs and training and hospitals are required to provide free staff and free treatment space. Treatment is free. There is no doubt that the program is very good for the patients and I am happy about that. It is a shame that a byproduct is that mission hospitals are financially drained. Just a few moments ago the CEO of Aria hospital told the group that Aria may close soon due to the pressure.

International financial meltdown may have hurt Wall Street’s pride, but here in Ethiopia it cuts into flesh and bone. This is a bad year for the people of Gimbie town. They survive on money from coffee sales and this year there was no coffee. Rains during harvest damages most of the other cash crops. The hospital did not have enough money to raise salaries this year and I intended to freeze them despite the 60% inflation, but some of the staff were literally going hungry and I felt that it was immoral to stand idly by.

The road from Gimbie to Addis is better than it was, but it is still rough. Yesterday I drove in carefully because the welds on the land cruiser’s body are breaking and the whole vehicle is now flexible enough that I am afraid the windows will break. I wish we had the money to fix the welds. I also wish we had another vehicle so that we could give the land cruiser a break for long enough to complete repairs.

We stopped in Bako for lunch and were surprised to meet a group of MDs from Norway, one of whom is the head of Anesthesia at the new CURE hospital in Addis. Hopefully by the time I finish this note she will be in Gimbie teaching our staff to use the Glostavant anesthesia machine that no one in Ethiopia seems to know how to operate.

I was up until 2:00 a.m. last night preparing for this conference and we still didn’t finish. Wondwasson and Tsegaynesh are working on it some more while they listen to the introduction. I should probably work with them or I will be caught flat footed in our presentation.

Paul