Day 4

Another bright and early day!  I wish I slept better, I actually fell asleep very fast until a pesky mosquito decided to buzz near my ear and keep me up half the night. The “I’m just going to stay under the covers didn’t work long.” But on the positive side it was really cool to hear the hyenas outside howling at early hours of the morning. From a distance.....a very far distance

We got breakfast provided by the place we are staying at. I am not typically a breakfast eater (where’s the closest Dunkin’ Donuts around here?) but I do wat something because the days can be hectic and food may not always be around. 

The ride to the hospital is always an interesting one as you explore the city and landscape of Mekelle. The place is bustling early in the morning which makes me think they operate on a sun up to down down schedule. We were told no one  goes out after 8pm as things get a little dangerous if you’re wandering alone. I mean I know I wouldn’t stand out. Haha (don’t read this part parents). Two members of our group went to the airport for a lost bag one night after 8pm and it was one heck of a trip. They were stopped by a group of army like men with machine guns who came into their bus at a checkpoint to search the bus. It’s very common. And being robbed is also very common. If you take a random taxi anywhere be prepared to be mugged unless you know the person is reputable. The physician who is leading the trip working here has been mugged and uses only a few certain people who drive the taxis when he has to go home. Scary. 

The buildings in the area if you look at he construction fascinate me. They use bamboo scaffolding (which loots like pick up sticks holding the infrastructure together). Most of the buildings are very old and made of cement. The smell is what really I cannot even begin to explain, especially at the hospital. It can be pungent at times but I cannot describe what exactly it is. Best to be naive and not know. But on top of it all what is really amazing is how crisp the air is and how clear the sky is at night. It’s pretty much the lion king, and all I need is Mufasa to tell me “all this will be yours one day.” I went there I know. 

I learned a little bit more about the Ethiopian time capsule I am in. So their calendar is 13 months long each with 30 days except the 13th month which has 5 days. Since Ethiopia is close to the equator their sunrise is consistently around 6 o’clock, maybe being off by a few minutes. So Sunrise is 0 o’clock for them, and they run on a military-like 24 hour clock system. So 5pm is 1400 for us. It’s confusing. 

It’s interesting also how when you travel to Ethiopia things like wifi and internet and cellular service are extremely difficult to find. On the plane it was one of the few countries in the world where wifi and cellular on the plane doesn’t work even flying over. It’s because of their government not wanting  any investments with large corporations like verizon, AT&T etc. Eventually they will need to catch up because it really does set them back. Especially from a business standpoint. 

We got to the hospital and rounded on all of our postoperative patients who looked amazing. The cleft kids did amazing and all could go home. We started off the day again with a bunch of cleft lip and palate cases. I love them. The palate cases I am getting more comfortable with and really enjoy doing. I assisted on a bilateral cleft lip on a 10 month old with my attending and it came out amazing. I haven’t seen any lips in residency thus far so this was a treat. After the clefts were completed we went onto the adults. They included a lady who had been hit with a stick 4 years ago causing foreign body to be in the nasal cavity for >4 years causing eye ectopian, epiphora, and nasal scarring. We did a DCR with Z-plasty advancement to correct here underlying problems. 

The last patient was a very complicated rhinoplasty. The gentleman had gotten in an altercation with the police and was beaten causing a potential septal hematoma due to the fact he had  a large saddle nose deformity which was repaired using ear cartilage and bone graft. Another amazing success story and he is beyond happy! The patients in Wthiopia speak a wide variety of languages. They have 2 primary languages and English is considered a medical language so every medical staff member has to be fluent. Makes it easy on us. What is interesting though is how many other languages there are across the country of Ethiopia (I think it’s like over 80) and how they get by without translators at time. 

It was an overall fun and amazing surgical day. We were exhausted by the time we got back around 9:30/10 and went straight for dinner, our last one at the hotel. We are all getting tired of the same food everyday so tomorrow we plan on heading out (maybe even past 8), but escorted of course and in a massive group that cannot be reckoned with.